Poker Tournament Results

The 6th Jack Binion World Poker Open / WPT Event Season 3

Johnny Landreth

Tournament Report

CURE FOR INSOMNIA FOUND! For pictures of this event, please check out Mark Napolitano's videos on the homepage. There were 677 entries for a total prize pool of $630,818. 63 were paid. FINAL TABLE Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count 1 Larry Butler Colorado Springs C) 148,000 2 Charlie Dawson Lexington KY 67,500 3 Tracey Phan Las Angeles CA 206,500 4 Steve Hohn Overland Park KS 32,000 5 Gio Rocca Toronto, Canada 29,000 6 Lee Grove Superior NE 37,500 7 Vince Byrd, Dayton TN 58,000 8 Johnny Landreth, Lanett AL 366,000 9 Karl Limbert Margate, UK 73,000 47:02 remained in the 3,000/6,000 level with 500 antes. One of Tom McEvoy's sayings about No Limit Hold'em is that it's hours of tedium punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Well this table had the tedium down pat, but they forget the terror. The 'action' here would have made an insomniac topple over sound asleep. It didn't help that most of the money was off the table early. The proceedings began interestingly enough with two exits on the first eight hands. Giovanni Rocca understandably thought that the King Queen of Clubs was worth his last 15,500 in chips in late position. On the button, right behind Rocca, Lee Grove thought that Gio should go all-in as well. Lee had pocket Kings. That didn't take long. One down. Five hands later, Steve Hohn pushed in all 29k with the A J of Hearts and found Charlie Dawson with pocket Queens in the big blind. We got a smidgen of terror when a second heart came on the turn, but Hohn was up a creek without a paddle in 8th when no Ace or heart rivered. Some of the weak sisters were gone. Everyone else had enough chips to hang around for awhile, so they did. Englishman bookmaker Karl Limbert gave us a thrill on hand 13 when Karl raised the chip leader Johnny Landreth going all-in with 43,500. But the excitement died down immediately when Karl turned over his pocket Aces. There were a few more uncalled all-ins until hand 21 when Vince Byrd's death leap was called by Limbert with pocket 9's. Vince tried to sneak 29lk past the English tout, but Vince's A Q offsuit was punted off the table in 7t when no overcards to the nines appeared. Great! We can go watch football. It's going to be an early night, right? Wrong. Karl Limbert's love of big pairs finally got him into trouble. The bookmaker was the odds on favorite with his pocket Jacks and about 44k against only an A Q offsuit held by Johnny Landreth. This time Landreth, who came into today with a substantial chip lead, caught one of his overcards twice. Two Queens arrived to make doubly sure the chalk was wiped from the blackboard in the 6th. Now those weak sisters increased to four and we'd only played 27 hands. It was time for the only real sister at the table to make a last stand. On hand 44, fiery Tracey Phan gave us a speech, upon departing, about how she tried her hardest. Moving. Tracey started second in chips and was coached into fifth place by Chris Grigorian on the sidelines. Seriously, Tracey took a really tough beat on hand 38. She had Lee Grove all-in and dominated with her A Q offsuit in the small blind against his K Q off in the big. Without a King on board to make the suckout easy, Grove caught J 10 on the flop and 9 on the river for a Queen high straight to double him up and cripple Phan. She read Lee right with her call of his all-in raise, but she got really unlucky. Tracey Phan will make lots of final tables in the future. She can play. She might learn to be careful about what she asks for, however. "I beg you to call," the firebrand Tracey Phan said from the button to Lee Grove in the small blind. OK, Lee did call Tracey's 52k all-in with his pocket Queens. Tracey's button A J offsuit needed an Ace which never came. For a second, I thought Tracey might give us the Patty Gallagher wave goodbye, but she's too much of a lady. Sure, as soon as the woman leaves the guys split up the money. All of those Phan chips gave Lee Grove the power to broker a deal with himself in it. The chip leader Landreth saved $100,000. The other three gentlemen--Grove, Butler and Dawson took $80,000 each. With only $20,589 left to play for, one might think all the guys would want to go watch football. Not so. This is where the tedium part kicked in. No one wanted to leave such good company. With his rowdy Kentucky fanbase cheering his every move, Charlie Dawson went on a rush. But it still took 34 hands to get Larry Butler out in 4th. The all-ins were seldom called by this brave crew, and when they were called the shortest stack always won. Until hand 78. Evidently as bored as the audience, Larry Butler raised all-in over the top of Johnny Landreth's 40k button bet for 180k with A 2 offsuit. This is how Landreth probably got all those chips in the first place. Landreth called with his pocket Jacks. The ice was broken. Two hands later, the deal architect Lee Grove sent in his case 61k with the K 9 of Clubs. This time Lee didn't have Tracey Phan to pick on. Charlie Dawson sent another one up the creek with his A 9 offsuit. Heads up, Dawson had a 3-2 chip lead on Landreth. And it looked for a time that Charlie was going to seal the deal. He took 12k of the 20 left and they played for the bracelet and WPT entry. Then on his way to the podium to pick up his paperwork, Charlie Dawson fell into the creek. Dawson had Landreth down to about 100k a couple of times and couldn't put Johnny away. That inability would cost Charlie the bracelet and the $10k entry. Johnny Landreth is not a talker, which is interesting because he used to own a car dealership before he retired. This is only his second poker tournament ever. He plays home games for decent stakes, but when I asked him in the exit interview how he won this event, he said he got cards at the right time. Two of those cards were the ones made famous by Robert Varkonyi, the Q 10 of Clubs. This is the hand that drove Phil Hellmuth to cut off all his hair in the 2002 WSOP. When the blind went up to the next level, Dawson made an uncharacteristic bluff at a small pot. Charlie bet 10k and Johnny raised it to 20k. Evidently, Dawson thought that Landreth wouldn't defend this small an amount. Often Johnny made probe bets that he dumped when raised. This time, however, Landreth's trap folds earlier paid off big time. Charlie Dawson is going to have a long ride home to think of an explanation for going all-in with 'almost the worst hand in poker, 7 3 offsuit. 350,000 in chips didn't intimidate Johnny Landreth. He 'liked' his hand. When this table began, I asked on of the players who was knocked out early how Johnny Landreth got all those chips when he obviously is a tournament rookie. "Dog ass luck," the player answered. After watching Landreth for five hours, seeing him make some very sophisticated plays--awkwardly mind you--but excellent in their concept. I'm not so sure that his 'aw shucks' style isn't intentional to slick the slickers. Maybe this event was worth staying awake for after all. Mike Paulle