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'YOU GOTTA LEARN TO LOSE GRACEFULLY' John Bonetti.
For pictures of this event, please check out Mark Napolitano's videos on the homepage.
There were 234 entries for a total prize pool of $210,979. 18 were paid.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
1 Chad Moore Frankfort IN 62,000
2 Russell Burns DeKalb IL 23,000
3 Amnon Filippi New York NY 25,500
4 Mark Fledderman St Louis MO 62,000
5 Larry Keene Fitzgerald GA 13,500
6 Pete Bigelow Moose Lake MN 26,000
7 Jeff Heiberg Buffalo WY 49,500
8 Salem Helou Lafayette LA 35,000
9 Edward Ameen New Orleans LA 74,500
16:00 remained in the 1,000/2,000 level.
Tournament play isn't about winning. That's the easy part to deal with. Can you handle the constant losing? That's the test you must pass. Between 80% and 90% of the time, the average tournament player will finish out of the money. It's like batting .150 in baseball. It can tear you to pieces if you let it. In my long career writing tournament reports, I've seen tens of thousands of players come, then go. They couldn't keep losing, gracefully or otherwise.
The quote above is funny for those of us who have watched John Bonetti lose. 'Gracefully' isn't the word that comes to mind as Bonetti furiously castigated dealers for the cards they dealt. But John has looked death in the face the last few years and he's mellowed to the point that he's trying to help young players handle losing. The Lion's roar has become the kitten's mew. Good for him.
The other side of tournament life was manifest by today's Final Table. Most of these gentlemen were recreational players. Poker is a form of entertainment for them. Winning is wonderful, losing isn't dreadful. They don't play hundreds of events a year. The pros, who do play for a living, were shuffled to the side yesterday before this table formed. They got to practice their losing gracefully. These nine guys all got paid at least four times their buy-in to have fun.
How tough is that to handle?
Yet it still hurts to leave, especially when you worked all the previous day to get a lot of chips. Salem Helou started in fifth chip position and went out 9th. I don't have record of Salem winning a contested pot. His one move, on hand 24, ended when Larry Keene came over the top of Salem's raise, all-in, forcing Helou to muck his hand. It was a trial for Salem in which (witch?) his hunt for a pot ended abruptly on hand 26. Salem was burned at the stake on a 6-outer.
Helou picked up pocket 7's in the small blind. He reraised his last 15,500 on a hand that must have looked like a monster to him, after what he'd been looking at. Dead seats are so frustrating. The luck of the draw is no respecter of a person's playing ability. Jeff Heiberg was on the button, with plenty of chips. Jeff had raised to 8k, and then he called the extra 7,500 from Helou with the K J of Diamonds. The play didn't look too clever, until the Jack hit on the river, to light Salem's feet.
Five hands later, the inevitable attrition of tournament play began. Russell Burns tried pocket 6's for 10,500 all-in from the cutoff seat. There ought to be a law against pocket Aces in the big blind. The pesky Larry Keene had them and you could paint his eyes big when another Ace flopped. Russell Burns in 8th.
Another six hands and the fun stopped for Pete Bigelow. Purists may argue that ten outs doesn't represent a bad beat. But they didn't see this hand. Pete tried pocket 4's for his case 10,500. Edward Ameen had Bigelow covered like a carpet. Edward was the starting chip leader and he had the A Q of Spades.
It hardly gets any Ameen-er than this. The board came 10 9 9 3â?¦10. With the double pair on the river, Bigelow's 4's were counterfeited. The Ace high won and it rolled Bigelow out like a runner to the rail in 7th.
We move up to hand 54 were two players go out on consecutive hands.
It's better to live like a man than die like a mouse. Or so it would seem for Mark Fledderman. Mark put such a strong move on Edward Ameen, he almost didn't get called. Here's what this card opera is all about. Fledderman bet out 7k under the gun. Ameen called from the button. The flop came 9 8 8. Mark checkraised Edward's 12k bet all-in for 33,500. Edward pondered for some time, understandably.
He only had the K 9 of Clubs and no flush draw. When Ameen finally pulled the trigger, Mark said 'good call' and turned over a straight draw with two overcards, Q 10 offsuit. (What is this fool jabbering about? It wouldn't be fun to tell.) The opera is over when the fat lady sings. Mark had to be disappointed in 6th place. Ameen's 9's held up.
After a quick break, the blinds went up and Larry Keene went down. Jeff Heiberg made it 14k to go under the gun. It was the maximum raise at this new level. Keene was in the big blind with K Q offsuit and he called the extra 10k to trap himself but good. The flop couldn't have been worse for Larry, Q 5 2 rainbow. Not unreasonably, Larry thought the flop was Keene. He shipped his 37,500 first to act. Delightful, Jeff Heiberg must have thought. Jeff called immediately with pocket Kings. Larry Keene was painted on velvet in 5th.
Four handed the chips sloshed around the table for the next 50 hands as no one wanted their fun to stop. But tournament play is like musical chairs, eventually they pull out a chair and someone falls to the floor.
That someone was Chad Moore. Moore was left hanging in 4th when his great read went unpublished. This was Moore's second appearance at a WPO Final Table this year. The guy can play. The board came 9 8 6 6 with two hearts on hand 104. Chad went all-in for 33k after a check by Edward Ameen. Chad didn't need any Moore than Ace high at the turn. It was the best hand. But Ameen had the K J of Hearts for a ton of outs, with second nut flush draw and two overcards. When a King rivered, the Chad fell off.
There was one non-recreational player at the table, Amnon (Eric) Filippi. He's quite serious about becoming a top pro. It's difficult not to feel a little concern for these young men. They don't know how brutal the life they are seeking can be. John Bonetti was on the microphone and John made a few miscalls that aggravated the intense Filippi. Amnon didn't even like the way John said his name. Filippi went all-in from the button for his last 6k with pocket 2's. Jeff Heiberg called from the small blind with J 7 offsuit.
The flop came with two diamonds, and the turn was a diamond. Filippi was leading, but his deuce of diamonds was smaller that Heiberg's 7. Amnon felt that Bonetti called for a diamond on the river. When one came, Filippi was yelling at Bonetti for asking for a diamond. John is not passive when attacked. He called Amnon a sore loser and said, 'You gotta learn to lose gracefully.' It was all unfortunate and won't be repeated.
Heads up, Edward Ameen had a 241k to 110k chip lead on Jeff Heiberg. Jeff took an extra $10k and they played on for the bracelet and WPT entry. They didn't play for long, though. Three hands in, Edward Ameen picked up the 9 5 of Hearts. Jeff Heiberg, the K 6 of Clubs. The flop came 9 6 4 with two diamonds. Ameen bet out 32k, Heiberg raised all-in for another 60k with second pair. Edward Ameen is a successful business man who plays only a few tournaments a year. This is fun for him. He didn't have to worry about losing gracefully, today. Ameen's 9's held up again.
Mike Paulle
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