| A CHIP AND A CHAIR
That old poker bromide is adhered to more often in the breach, but not today. This was REALLY a chip and a chair.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
Seat 1 Chris Bjorin London, England 43,500
Seat 2 Scott Aigner Dubuque, IA 55,500
Seat 3 Qi Liu Hacienda Heights, CA 20,500
Seat 4 Jack Rosenfeldt West Covina, CA 53,500
Seat 5 Farzad Rouhani Germantown, MD 142,000
Seat 6 Andy Blumen Las Vegas, NV 24,500
Seat 7 Dao Bac Garden Grove, CA 4,000
Seat 8 Aitan Hillel Pasadena, CA 44,000
The ante is 500, the low card is 1,000. Playing 3,000/6,000. Five minutes left at this level.
At the start, chip leader Farzad Rouhani only has chip dog Dao Bac by 70.5 TIMES. No problem for the young Vietnamese. Bac doubles up over seven times to take the title from an early one chip all-in. AMAZING!!!
What is uncommon, nearly unprecedented, is to do it at the Final Table. It's not uncommon for a player to win a tournament after going all-in with his or her last chip. Usually this all-in happens in an early round when the blinds and antes are still relatively low. When Dao Bac went all-in the ante was 1,000. The bring-in was 2,000, playing 5,000/10,000. Don't try this at home. It will never work.
Dao Bac had only one 1,000 chip left, which wasn't enough to even call the two chip bet in front of him. He had a five chip equity, in what surely would be his last pot, on the sixth hand of the day. The other seven players had all the rest of the 386 1,000 chips.
When Dao Bac won his portion of the main pot with Aces up, he had five chips. He scoops the next hand with his five chips and now has 15. He's all-in for the third straight hand and takes the high. He now has 40 1,000 chips in three hands. He's out of trouble.
Who's in trouble now is Qi 'Candy' Liu. It's been infrequent to have a female at these tables. It's a shame to lose eye Candy so quickly. All-in on a giant draw, Candy couldn't catch squat and made no pair, no low for a lowly 8th.
No pair, no low was a common theme for the dearly departed. Dr. Scott Aigner has taken a leave from his medical practice FOR THIS! Starting the day second in chips, the good doctor had one more house call to make.his own in 7th. Scott's no-no came in the 15th hand against Aiten Hillel who made a low and a pair of crummy 6's. You might want to reconsider the medical hiatus, Doc. This is what tournament poker is like.
On the next hand, Dr. Aigner had a fellow patient in the ER. Chris Bjorin has made more major event Final Tables than practically anyone alive or dead. He is a WSOP millionaire. He also is one of the nicest people on this poker-crazed planet. What Chris doesn't do is go on tilt. He's experienced everything poker can throw at him. He merely shrugs when he also can't make a low or a pair all-in against the new chip leader Dao Bac with Aces up again. Unlike a lot of players I see at these things, for sure I know that Chris Bjorin will be back.
No one has enough chips to play at this level. A 10,000 chip big bet is one-seventh of the average stack. Stud 8 is a five bet game. This should be over quickly. But no one can dominate. It is a split game where scooped pots aren't that easy to come by.
So when the level goes to 8k/16k and there are still five players, it sort of boggles the mind.
Finally on hand 65, Jack Rosenfeldt is the one to crack. He'd taken the chip lead briefly then his cards went dead. Farzad Rouhani made Kings up and an 8 low on Jack to send him out frustrated and disappointed in 5th.
Ten hands later, we went back to someone pitching a no-no. No pair, no low. No chance. Aiten Hillel is animated. It can be said that he doesn't take losing blissfully. All-in for his last 17k, Aiten couldn't beat Dao Bac's wired 5's. Tough game, this Stud 8.
Andy Blumen is a career casino executive, which doesn't necessarily make him a bad person. He can also play poker a little bit. He has a few WSOP Final Tables on his resume. Here, Andy hung on until hand 114. No mean feat even for a casino executive. Blumen Queens! Andy looked like he had the best hand at first with Q Q J 10 all-in. But Farzad Rouhani had a King in the hole and one up for K K 8 6. Andy caught three bricks for a small outhouse in 3rd.
Heads up the starting chip leader, Rouhani, had a 2-1 chip lead on Dao Bac. But Dao reversed that with a couple hands of higher two pairs. Playing an astronomical 15k/30k, Dao first made three fours to take almost all of Farzad's last chips. Then on hand 160, Dao sent Farzad Bac to basics with a low and a flush on the river.
What a comeback! This one should have been recorded for posterity. Or at least posterior.
Dao Bac had the chip and the chair.
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