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’Schmatte Man’ Leibgorin Sews
Up Biggest St. Maarten Win Yet
Michel Leibgorin, a French manufacturer of girls clothing, stitched together a win in the ninth event of the 2004 St. Maarten Open, $200 pot-limit hold’em, after two big pots gave him a huge lead. When he got heads-up with Benat Sonnert of Sweden, he had 415,000 chips to 300,000 for Sonnert. With blinds now at $10,000-$20,000 and antes of $3,000, they decided not to gamble and made a chip-count deal.
“Schmattes” is Leibgorin’s Internet name. It is a Yiddish slang expression for rags, as in, “I’m in the schmatte business.”
Leibgorin has won five Omaha tournamen
ts in Amsterdam and Paris and another five or six no-limit hold’em events, all in Europe. He’s bee
n playing poker for some 30 years, tournaments for about 10 and says he used to be an aggressive player but became more conservative as he got older.
Sonnert wrote on his bio sheet that his biggest poker achievement was winning three consecutive “sit and go” tournaments online.
With 186 entrants, 231 rebuys and 149 add-ons, this event set a prize pool record for any St. Maarten Open to date. This is largely due to the influx of players who got here via the Internet route. In fact, two of the players at the final table, Mark Novisoff and Ralph Buzzetta, were tournament victors at Planet Poker, a sponsor of this year’s St. Maarten Open. They won seats into the $1,500 championship event, plus $1,000 travel vouchers and an additional $1,000 cash.
Tonight’s final table got underway with blinds of $3,000-$6,000 and $1,000 antes, 8:20 remaining. John Olsen, a marketing consultant from Minnesota, had a very big lead with 175,000 in chips.
German airline pilot Eddy Scharf, who has two World Series bracelets and a 15th in this year’s WSOP championship, was in second place with $98,500 until he took a huge hit on hand six. Retired businessman Novisoff raised to $16,000 with pocket aces. He tried to bet more, but tournament director Warren Karp ruled he had made two motions with his chips. It didn’t matter because Scharf moved in for $69,500 with two kings and Novisoff called all in for $25,000. When the board changed nothing, Novisoff had about $160,000 and Scarf was left with $23,000.
Blinds now went to $4,000-$8,000. Gu Rong Qing of China became the first casualty when he moved in with K-Q. Farina Valter, making his third final table, called with 9-9 and flopped a set.
A hand later, the two big stacks went at it. Olsen opened for $20,000 and Novisoff popped it for 25k more, then folded when Olsen moved in on a flop of J-7-4. Olsen now had over 200k. Then Sonnert moved up to $135,000 by knocking out Fari Badimonsour, who moved in with Qc-Jc. Sonnert had pocket 10s and made a set on the river.
Buzzetta, a New York City sanitation engineer was all in from the big blind in three-way action. Valter for the second time flopped a set of nines, but the pot was won by Scharf, who made a small flush on the river. Soon after, Italy’s Luca Pagano finished seventh. Valter opened for 12k with Kd-10d, and Pagano chose a bad time to move in for 30k with just K-5 off.
A few hands later, Leibgorin won the first of his two big pots. Novisoff moved in for 67k with A-Q. “I must be in trouble,” he said after Leibgorin pushed in too. He wasn’t that much of an underdog with two overcards to Leibgorin’s pocket 10s, but he couldn’t improve and finished sixth.
Half the field was now gone after 17 hands. Four hands later, Leibgorin won his second major pot. He raised to $40,000 with pocket 10s, then called when Olsen moved in for $135,000 holding A-J offsuit. Theboard came 8-5-3-4-4. Olsen left as Leibgorin continued stacking his mass of chips in a big 10-chip triangle. A rough count showed him with 500k to 200k for Sonnert and 75k for Scharf.
Leibgorin was still occupied with his housekeeping on the next hand when Sonnert moved in. “You raised me?” Leibgorin said in mock surprise. “Let me look at my cards.” “Let me look too,” Sonnert replied, and they both examined Leibgorin’s A-10. The Frenchman decided to fold and Sonnert then showed pocket 3s. This irregular act of community peeking resulted in a stern warning from Karp.
Valter was next to exit. He moved in for $35,000 with 10h-9h. Sonnert saw him with Ac-6c. Sonnert made a flush, which was unnecessary because Valter ended up with just 10-high.
On hand 27, Sonnert raised to $72,000. Scharf moved in. “Do you have a pair?” he asked. Sonnert did, 2-2 to Ad-4d for Scharf. With a board of 7-6-6-5 and two clubs, Scarf had an amazing 27 outs: He had draws to a flush and open-end straight. An ace or four would give him a higher pair. And if the board paired the 5 or 7, Scarf’s ace would play. An offsuit 9 came, and the pilot crash-landed in third place.
Leibgorin and Sonnert played on for four more hands. “Want to surrender?” Sonnert joked. It ended in a chip-count truce rather than surrender, and chip-leader “Schmatte Man” was clothed in victory.
—Max Shapiro
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