| GREATEST COMEBACK IN HISTORY?
For pictures of this event, please check out Mark Napolitano's videos on the homepage
There were 442 entries for a total prize pool of $209,224. 36 were paid.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
1 Luis Velador Lake Elsinor CA 39,000
2 Sirous Baghchehsaraie Los Angeles CA 51,500
3 Dustin Sitar Las Vegas NV 38,500
4 Andy Karon Duluth MN 22,000
5 Mark Dickstein New York NY 36,500
6 Hilbert Shirey Winterhaven FL 71,000
7 Gary Jones London, England 49,500
8 Billy Woodrum Lexington KY 38,500
9 Max Stern Las Vegas NV 95,500
39:16 remained in the 1,500/3,000 level.
When Gary Jones caught a runner runner wheel to crack Sirous Baghchehsaraie's flopped set of 10's, Sirous had five chips left. That made the chip count 437,000 for Gary Jones to 5,000 for Sirous or approximately 85-1. In my long tournament experience, no one had EVER come back from such an overwhelming deficit heads up.
Someone has now. For obvious reasons, he's become so famous; he only needs one name, Sirous.
This was a long night. It began innocently enough with the most common result of a split game duel, a 'chop.'A new GERERATION 20 member with a great name, 23-year-old Dustin Sitar had the high end with two Aces. Hilbert Shirey had A 2 and the low. In the 183 hands dealt tonight, there would be a lot of chopped pots.
Because it's often so hard to get anyone out in a split game, 9th place lasted until hand 21. Andy Karon just got here with 20k and fought to stay, but to no avail. Karon got chopped all-in for his last 3,500 by Billy Woodrum with a flush for high and Luis Velador with the nut low. Andy was double counterfeited on the flop with his A 2 3 7 when 2 3 came. What are you going to do?
Oddly, it was the two choppers that went at it heads up on hand 37. Billy Woodrum was all-in for his case 7k with A 5 6 6. Luis Velador, in the big blind, had only a three chip call with K J 7 5. The board came Q 10 3 9 A for a Velador straight. Woodrum went straight to the rail in 8th.
Then it was Velador, who already has a second place finish in this year's WPO, who left in 7th. What a tough beat! Luis had to pick up A A at the wrong time. The flop came 2 2 2. Of course, Hilbert Shirey made sure that Luis was all-in before dropping the deuce ball on him. Hilbert had flopped quads.
With the $10,397 for 6th place, young gun Dustin Sitar makes my GENERATION 20 leaderboard for week two of the 2005 season. (See the end of this report) Dustin fought like crazy to stay around, but he was up against some of the most successful tournament Omaha hi-lo players in poker. All-in for 2k on a low wrap, the board came high. Gary Jones looks like a young gun but he is 32. Gary's J 10 made a full house.
There was only one hand that Mark Dickstein could win, all-in. Usually that strategy doesn't work too long, and it didn't for Mark in 5th. But Dickstein did manage to get all the way to hand 78 before being forced to leave. Mark raised all-in again. This time with A 4 6 7. Gary Jones did the dirty work with a call and A 3 9 K and hearts. With a flush and a better low on a board of 8 7 6 9 5, Mark's courageous day was over.
When you look at the 36 names in the money in today's event, not a lot of big name players jump out at you. Except at the top of the list. In a testament to the skill required in an Omaha hi-lo tournament, all the last four players are some of the most successful in the business.
Four handed, these gentlemen respected and liked each other. Sirous had a chip lead with about 140k, the extra value of which he gladly gave up to make an even split deal. The other three had almost exactly 100k a piece. Each player got $30,000 and they played for the remaining $8,928 and the bracelet.
Normally when a money deal is struck, play speeds up. Not tonight. These guys are so tough; they'd want to win at marbles. Besides, they will be seeing each other again at another table soon enough.
Someone had to leave first. Hilbert Shirey got the assignment. After drifting slowly down to the bottom of the food chain, on hand 91 Hilbert reraised all-in for 24k with A K 10 5 on the flop. Gary Jones called with A 4 5 6. The board came K 7 3 8 9. Jones had the low and the 9 gave him the high, a straight, to scoop out Shirey in 4th.
The English pro in Gary Jones, the Costa Rican retired Pediatrician in Dr. Max Stern and the Iranian-born new U. S. citizen Sirous, battled it out. They asked Sirous Baghchehsaraie to change his name to become a citizen. "This is the name of my father,"Sirous told them. The name remains.
The good Doctor was next to fall by the wayside. Gary Jones was on fire at this point and he had most of the chips. Hand 107 was Max Stern's crusher. Jones caught runner runner again for the nut straight with K 10. Doc went all in with top pair, top kicker with the A Q of hearts and the nut flush draw on the flop. Nothing serious. But Sirous (pronounced Cyrus by Americans) had A A and it held up when the doctor bricked out.
Heads up, Gary Jones had about a 3-1 chip lead. He destroyed Sirous on every hand in a cakewalk to the title, until there were only five chips left on the hand I described at the top of the article. Gary Jones had 437 chips left. Gary Jones personifies sportsmanship. He took an enormous amount of ribbing from everyone, and through it all kept the smile on his handsome young face.
The worst part of all this for me was that I lost $100 to Nolan Dalla when I bet that Gary couldn't lose with a then 8-1 chip lead. Gary Jones will get over this collapse. I, on the other hand, will have to hear from Nolan about this bet for the rest of my life. Ironically, I lost more money with this bet than Gary Jones. Because they'd already split the $8,928 and were playing for the bracelet.
85-1 chip lead heads up. This was probably the greatest comeback in poker history. We will never see the like, again.
Official results:
1st Sirous Baghchehsaraie $64,467
2nd Gary Jones $33,270
3rd Max Stern $16,635
4th Hilbert Shirey $14,556
5th Mark Dickstein $12,476
6th Dustin Sitar $10,397
7th Luis Velador $8,318
8th Billy Woodrum $6,238
9th Andy Karon $4,287
10-12th $2,572
Song Webb, Dallas TX
John Kiersky, Memphis TN
Matt Allen, Chillicothe OH
13-15th $2,144
Tom Reynolds, Hurst, TX
Richard Bahr, Shawano WI
Hugh Barlow, Glencarbon IL
16-18th $1,715
Costa Mavroudis, Winnipeg, Canada
Joe Meyers, Tonkawa OK
Earl Key, Indianapolis IN
19-27th $1,286
David Velke, Catharpin VA
Maxwell Southern, Harrogate TN
Stan Goldstein, Cypress CA
Larry Dingler, Sycamore IL
Steve Shelley, Brighton, England
Philip Kranz, Westmont IL
John Buzbee, Riverview FL
Eddie Fishman, New York NY
Bill Alexander, Palm Springs FL
28-36th $857
John Jacoby, Cheyenne WY
Michael Lutes, Bloomington IN
Raymond Davis, Los Angeles CA
Fred Koubi, Van Nuys CA
Dan Heimiller, St Charles MO
T Bill Melms, Fort Worth TX
J C Chapman, Kansas City MO
Herb Tapscatt, Decatur AL
Brad Saterfiel, Monroe LA
If you are aware of any misspelling, please let me know.
Raul Paez is my GENERATION 20 Young Gun of the Week Nenad Medic made more money for a 5th place finish in the Bahamas tournament, but I felt that Raul's victory was more important.
GENERATION 20 LEADERBOARD, Week 2
Nenad Medic $122,500
Raul Paez $99,000
Greg Debora $91,700
Jeremy Tinsley $44,000
Kevin Kelly $41,000
Mike Lutz $28,000
Scott Fischman $22,393
Allen Cunningham $17,500
David Williams $17,300
Dustin Sitar $10,397
If you have any candidates for the GENERATION 20 leaderboard, please email them to me.
I am sorry that something I wrote made Pat Heneghan and his family angry. That was not my intention. The offending comment has been edited out of the archived report at my request.
Mike Paulle | 
