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$2,500
Buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (Rebuys)
|
|
Seat |
Name |
Chips |
|
1 |
Ricky Byrd |
$22,900 |
|
2 |
Humberto Brenes |
$20,500 |
|
3 |
Elie "Rocky" Marciano |
$69,800 |
|
4 |
Phillip Marmorstein |
$19,400 |
|
5 |
Bill Gazes |
$25,700 |
|
6 |
Brent Carter |
$67,300 |
|
7 |
Surinder Sunar |
$18,100 |
|
8 |
Allen Cunningham |
$43,600 |
|
9 |
Chau Giang |
$25,400 |
|
10 |
Jan Hansen |
$172,500 |
You're reading that right: thanks in large part to a huge pot he played against Phillip Ivey, Hansen started the final table with almost two and a half times as many chips as his nearest pursuer. The Ivey hand aside, Hansen, a Danish player, had gotten there by playing a great many hands: tournament co-Director Matt Savage estimated he'd played 15 in a row at one point. (By the way, the more well-known star Thor Hansen is from Norway, not Denmark.)
I started off wondering if, with a night's reflection to aid him, Hansen might decide to play a little differently today. He could have simply sat on his hands and virtually guaranteed a top three finish; he could have tried to use the huge stack to overwhelm his opponents; or he could have tried to use his large capital pool to play a lot of speculative hands. Only time would tell which approach he would settle upon.
A QUICK PRIMER FOR THOSE NEW TO POT-LIMIT
There were 33 minutes left on the clock at the $600-$1,200 blind level when we began. First, though, a quick primer for those not familiar with bet sizing in pot-limit. There's a range in which the opening raiser can chose to make his bet. He can make the bet as small as twice the previous wager (in this case, $1,200, making the minimum $2,400), or he can first call that wager, and then make a bet that's pot-sized. In this example, calling the $1,200 bet would create a pot of $3,000 (600+1,200+1,200), which could then be bet, for a total wager of as much of $4,200.
That's why, as we move up the blind ladder, you'll see betting possibilities expressed in terms of ranges for the opening raise. At the opening level, the initial raiser could bet any amount from $2,400 to $4,200. Other players entering the pot via limping could change these amounts. You'll have the feel of it before we're done.
PRIMER DONE: NOW IT'S ACTION TIME
We began with some cautious sparring for the first six hands, and then on #7, with Elie holding the button, Gazes and Carter both limped in from the blinds. The flop came 2s-3s-Jh, Gazes bet 2k, and Carter called. The turn brought the 7c, Gazes again led out, this time for 7.5k, and again Carter called, a sign of strength with few apparent worthwhile draws on this board. The Ac hit the river, Gazes checked, the Carter bet enough to move Gazes in. The Marina Del Rey, CA resident thought a long while, but eventually gave it up, and his starting stack had taken a serious hit.
Two hands later, Elie, a Frenchman despite the Italian-sounding name, doubled the British Sunar through when Sunar flopped top set and Elie flopped a big wrap with his A-Q-10-4 and a K-5-J flop. This is exactly the sort of confrontation that can force two good players to commit chips, but when Elie never got the ace, queen or ten that would have given him the straight, the short-chipped but now more dangerous Sunar was back in the game.
NOT EXACTLY AN ALL-AMERICAN FINAL TABLE
If this final table is starting to sound like it sported an international flavor, your hearing is good. Although Byrd (Alabama), Carter (Chicago), Cunningham (Marina Del Rey, just like Gazes) were born in the US, we also had the Costa Rican Brenes, Elie, the German Marmorstein, the Vietnamese Giang, and Hansen. Given pot-limit's popularity abroad, it wasn't surprising at all to see six of the final ten players born somewhere else, although Giang has been living in the US for a long time now.
After hand #17, the blinds moved up to $1,000-$2,000, allowing an initial raise from $4,000-$7,000. Ten hands later, we lost Gazes, whose stack had grown smaller in a confrontation with Giang, when he tossed his last 4k all-in from the small blind, calling an earlier Hansen raise to 7k (Hansen, by the way, played not a single hand until #19, clearly determined to start out choosey in his play, but he'd raised the hand before this one and wound up raising the one immediately thereafter, so like so many of us, his early determination to play tightly lasted about 45 minutes).
Gazes turned over 7d-7-2s-3 (I'm only calling suits when they are relevant), with Hansen showing A-K-10-3. The J-10-8-A-K finished off a disappointed Gazes, who discussed the hand he had shown he'd thrown away in the big blind the hand before, J-8-8-2, with me as he collected his winnings.
"Neither one was much of a bargain," Gazes said. "But the first one was a zero, and this one was maybe a 1.5. I had a pair both times, but at least the second time I had a suit, and 2-3 can make a straight." Omaha is indeed a game of extra outs, draws, and possibilities, and even though Gazes' final hand wasn't a powerhouse, the pot odds offered by the probably fold from Carter's big blind (he wasn't likely going to want to mess around with the chip leader just to try to eliminate a short stack) made the attempt to nearly triple up with the button arriving worthwhile.
MARMORSTEIN HANDLES "EMERGENCY" WELL
A couple of hands later, Phillip Marmorstein started displaying some of the brilliance I'd expected from one of the world's ten best backgammon players. He raised to 6k, and Carter flat-called from the button. The flop came Jh-8s-5d, Marmorstein (who looks a bit like a smaller version of actor George Clooney) checked, Carter bet 12k, and Marmorstein moved his mere 25k all-in. It wasn't a huge raise, given the size of the pot, and so it meant he either held a huge hand, or was trying to send just that signal to Carter, who probably hadn't hit much on such a raggy flop when he'd merely flat called before the flop. Carter mucked, and Marmorstein had some ammunition.
On hand #33, Cunningham, who had been playing cautiously, raised it to the maximum 7k, and Brenes called from the big blind. The flop came Kc-6h-2s, Brenes bet the maximum, and Cunningham raised the last 2k in Brenes' stack, with Brenes making the obligatory call. The hands were:
Cunningham, A-A-8-3
Brenes, As-8s-K-7
Cunningham had the lead, but the 6s hit the turn, adding a flush draw to Brenes' outs, and a second king hit the river, hurting Cunningham badly by handing the 49k pot to Brenes, getting him back in the middle of the action. Cunningham had about 14k left, and my estimate of the chip counts at this point was:
Byrd, $17,000
Brenes, $49,000
Elie, $32,000
Marmorstein, $50,000
Carter, $62,000
Sunar, $45,000
Cunningham, $14,000
Giang, $36,000
Hansen, $180,000
Three hands later, Elie proved he was an experienced pot-limit player and capable of making a big laydown, but I'm not sure it was a good thing to prove. He made it 7k, and Carter called from the big blind. The flop came 7c-8c-Qh, Carter immediately bet the full pot size, and Elie folded, showing everyone he was folding two aces.
Two aces aren't a giant hand in Omaha facing a flop full of straight and flush draws, but I'm not sure I'd have wanted to let my opponents know I was willing to yield quite that easily. I probably would have mucked without showing, but Elie was playing and I was writing, so who's to say I'm right on this one?
After hand #43, we had a moment of comic relief. Phil Hellmuth had been eliminated rather quickly from the seven-stud eight-or-better tournament that had started at noon, and had continued this year's tradition of guest announcers at the final table. He spotted friend Daniel Negreanu walking away from the tournament area, and used the mike to ask "Are you out, Danny?"
"Yeah, why, you got a problem with that?" snarled Negreanu in mock anger. Surrounding the joke on either end were hands that doubled Elie up consecutively, moving him from 12k to 52k in the blink of a snarl, each time at Hansen's cost. Hansen was starting to play more hands, usually by calling, and it was starting to cost him.
The trend continued on hands #51 and 53. On the first, Marmorstein raised it to 6k, with both Sunar and Hansen calling. Marmorstein bet 20k at the raggy 2s-8s-4h flop, and everyone folded.
On #53, Sunar opened for a raise to 7k, Hansen called again, and Marmorstein shoved $29,000 into the pot, a raise of $22,000. Sunar mucked, but Hansen called, and after the flop came 4s-4c-5c, Marmorstein immediately moved in, and Hansen instantly mucked. Those calls were getting expensive. This hand brought us to the break, and the chip counts now were
Byrd, $33,000
Brenes, $51,000
Elie, $50,000
Marmorstein, $85,000
Carter, $76,000
Sunar, $17,000
Cunningham, $20,000
Giang, $60,000
Hansen, $93,000
In two hours, Hansen's chip total had nearly been halved, and we were still nine-handed, with the blinds moving to $1,500-$3,000, allowing an opening raise to range from $6,000 to $10,500.
On the very first hand after the break, Cunningham raised the maximum, and Carter called from the big blind. The flop came Kd-8h-6s, and Carter immediately moved in enough chips to cover the short-stacked Cunningham, who called relatively quickly:
Cunningham, A-10-8-6 (two pair, eights and sixes)
Carter, Ah-6h-K-5 (two pair, kings and sixes)
The turn and river came 9h-4h, first giving Cunningham some straight hopes, but finally giving Carter a backdoor flush draw he didn't need, and Cunningham was ninth.
BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, ER, MARINA DEL REY
It was a bad start for Marina Del Rey, California, because that's where both Gazes and Cunningham call home. Hmm, come to think of it, I doubt Marina Del Rey will suffer much, but two of its popular and talented residents did.
Moving along to hand #80, our new chip leader, Marmorstein, opened for a raise to 10k one off the button, and Sunar re-raised his 24k all-in from the small blind. Giang thought about it for a while, and while he was thinking, I did some speculating with Paul Wolfe, a rising star who had been sitting just behind me as part of the Costa Rican contingent cheering on Brenes.
"So, what you figure him for?" Wolfe asked.
"Marmorstein could have been stealing late, and Sunar knew that," I said, "but Sunar can't put money pressure on Marmorstein, so he probably has something decent. If Giang is thinking this long, he probably has kings and some back-up; he'd have gone with aces by now, unless they were dry. What Marmorstein has, I can't begin to guess."
Giang finally decided to move his 39.5k all-in, Marmorstein folded, and we got to see the hands.
Sunar, A-A-K-6
Giang, Kh-Kc-8h-4c
IT'S SO EASY FROM THE RAIL
Wolfe looked at me with new respect, and I told him it was a lot easier to figure these things out from the rail. I didn't bother telling him he'd earned my respect not merely with his play in some recent tournaments, but with a most comely companion he'd brought to watch the match (what can I say, two years at Esalen becoming a philosopher and I'm still shallow, although I'd like to think her warm personality influenced my judgment).
Sunar did hold the best hand, but the flop leveled the playing field: 10h-9h-4s. Giang now had outs to his flush draw, the lone king, and the remaining fours and eights. Giang was actually now a slight favorite. The Js hit the turn, but an eight hit the river, and Giang's eights and fours beat Sunar's aces. It was another perfect example of how every little out helps in this Omaha game.
The elimination of the tough British star left the chip count at
Byrd, $46,000
Brenes, $44,000
Elie, $65,000
Marmorstein, $85,000
Carter, $84,000
Giang, $80,000
Hansen, $81,000
We had, in other words, one heck of a horserace. With seven players remaining, any of the seven could have finished in any of the seven remaining spots without anything unusual happening, although it did look like the downward spiral his "call and yield later" style was causing was leaving Hansen was in big trouble.
The trend continued, and when we hit the break after #87, the chip counts now stood at
Byrd, $38,000
Brenes, $49,000
Elie, $59,000
Marmorstein, $88,000
Carter, $89,000
Giang, $105,000
Hansen, $57,000
The new blinds were $2,000-$4,000, allowing an opening raise to range from $8,000 to $14,000.
Just as it looked like Hansen was going to accomplish the near impossible and turn a monstrous opening chip lead into a sixth or seventh place finish, we hit hand #94, and boy, did the fur fly.
Marmorstein held the button. Hansen opened for a raise to 13k, Byrd moved all-in for his last 22k, Giang flat-called, and so did Hansen. The flop came down a scary Qs-10s-9d, Giang checked, Hansen bet 20k, and Giang called, with the pot now exceeding 100k.
The 8d hit the turn, Giang moved in, Hansen called all-in. What a board and collection of hands!
The board: Qs-10s-9d-8d
Byrd: A-A-Q-J
Giang: As-Js-10d-9s (two pair on the flop and nut flush draw on the flop, queen high straight on the turn)
Hansen: K-K-Q-J (king-high straight on the flop!)
A harmless five of clubs fell on the river, and Hansen had, in one titanic blow, eliminated Byrd, who had only started with the best hand, bored a big hole in Giang, and re-taken the chip lead. What a game this is. Had the final card been the 5s (or any spade, ten, or nine) instead of the 5c, Giang would have taken the worst starting hand of the three and eliminated two players with it!
On the very next hand, Brenes opened for a raise to 14k, and Giang re-raised by pushing 46k into the pot.
WHAT HEAT TURNS GIANG INTO A GASEOUS STATE?
"Are you steaming?" asked Brenes, with that irrepressible grin of his.
"No," Giang said. "Steaming last hand, with two pair and nut flush draw. Not steaming now."
"OK," Brenes said, mucking his hand. Giang showed two aces to make his point.
No one got eliminated on hand #113, but it was another good example of why you need a low tilt factor to play Omaha. With Carter holding the button, Elie limped, Carter limped, and Giang raised the max from the small blind, with Carter calling.
The flop came 7h-8d-9s, Giang moved all-in, and Carter called faster than a speeding bullet, and no wonder, because the flop had worked rather well for his hand:
Carter, Js-10d-Qd-8s (the nut flush, redraws to a higher flush, and a pair for emergency backup)
Giang: A-A-7-8 (aces before the flop but bottom two pair on the flop).
The 8c hit the turn, and suddenly Carter's nut straight didn't look so hot compared to Giang's eights full of sevens. But this is Omaha, after all, so when a ten hit the river, that "emergency backup" pair of Carter's had turned into eights full of tens.
This dizzying turn of affairs left the chip count at roughly
Brenes, $32,000
Elie, $38,000
Marmorstein, $125,000
Carter, $130,000
Giang, $35,000
Hansen, $125,000
Eight hands later, Hansen got in trouble with another call. Marmorstein opened for a raise to 14k, and both Hansen and Elie (the big blind) called. The flop came 2s-Jh-7d, Elie checked, Marmorstein bet $35,000, and Hansen fingered his stack of $5,000 chips for a while, looking at times like he might call, raise, or fold, before he finally decided to call again.
The Ad hit the turn, Marmorstein moved in, and Hansen mucked instantly, $49,000 poorer for his two calls.
RUNNER-RUNNER RUNS ELIE OUT OF TOURNAMENT
We lost Elie two hands later, when he started with the weaker hand, A-Jc-8c-8 to Marmorstein's Qc-7c-Q-J, instantly flopped his ace when the board came As-2s-9c, and then had to sit and watch as the board finished 4c-6c, the runner-runner queen-high flush just pipping his own jack-high flush.
We soon stopped for a dinner break with the chip counts now
Brenes, $53,000
Marmorstein, $166,000
Carter, $118,000
Giang, $31,000
Hansen, $117,000
The new blinds were $3,000-$6,000, allowing an opening raise to range from $12,000 to $21,000. Five hands later, on #132, Giang held the button and opened for the maximum. Hansen shut out the big blind by raising 50k more, and Giang called for his last 10k. They turned over
Giang, J-J-4c-2c
Hansen, As-8s-9h-3h
The Kd-Kh-5s flop looked harmless enough for Giang, but the Ad hit the turn, and no trey or jack saved Giang. We were four-handed, with Brenes now the target. That didn't keep Hansen from doing battle with another big stack on #143, when Marmorstein opened for a raise to 20k, Hansen pushed 62k in for a 42k raise, and Marmorstein, either holding a monster or sensing something, re-raised all-in for 55k more.
SOME CLOUTIER ANALYSIS FOR THE CROWD
Hansen hesitated briefly, and threw his hand away. T.J. Cloutier, who by now had taken over announcing duties from Hellmuth, told the crowd that "It takes a lot of discipline to put $62,000 into a pot and then lay it down for $55,000 more. You have to know your players to do that."
Five hands later, Carter owned the button, and Marmorstein opened for 20k, continuing the pressure he had been putting on the other players as the game got shorthanded. Brenes decided to move all-in for his last 44k, and Marmorstein called quickly.
Marmorstein, Ad-3d-5d-Qc
Brenes, Qs-Qd-8s-2d
The flop came Ah-Kd-10s, and Brenes was in trouble unless he could hit the case queen or one of his backdoor flushes. The 7s hit the turn, giving life to the spades, but the 10h hit the river, and one of poker's most colorful players was out fourth.
My respect for Carter's play notwithstanding, Marmorstein now had a clear chip lead, and seemed to have been playing the sharpest poker of the three remaining players. I started thinking about themes about a story about a German backgammon star winning a big poker tournament.
DEWEY BEATS TRUMAN
Hey, I tell you when I make a good prediction, I tell you when I make a bad prediction.
It looked for a moment like Hansen was going to be the third man out, as he made it 21k holding the button, only to have Carter raise and Hansen call so fast that it was one of those sequences when it wasn't clear who was betting and who was calling:
Carter, K-K-6-3
Hansen, A-Q-J-10
The board came A-5-6-J-7, and Hansen's starting 78k doubled him back into the game.
Cloutier shared some more of his Omaha philosophy after a three-way battle on hand #159. With the chip count now roughly
Marmorstein, $178,000
Carter, $70,000
Hansen, $237,000
Marmorstein limped in from the button, and we looked at a flop of 3s-4h-6d. Carter bet 18k, and Hansen raised the maximum, with Carter calling all-in, and small wonder:
Carter, J-5-7-2 (flopped nut straight)
Hansen, A-3-6-5 (flopped two pair)
A seven hit the turn, giving Hansen the same seven-high straight as Carter, as well as a freeroll for his full house, which he missed when a queen hit the river.
"That's a perfect example of Omaha," Cloutier said. "You flopped the stone nuts, one card came off, and now all you have left is a chance to tie."
Carter's misfortunes continued and eventually he dropped down to only $21,000, a point where he had to shove his money in and hope. He doubled up, and doubled again just a few hands later. Suddenly he was near 100k.
On hand #178, not so very long after Carter's position had looked hopeless, the chips stood at
Marmorstein, $111,000
Carter, $90,000
Hansen, $285,000
Carter limped in from the button, Hansen folded from the small blind and Marmorstein looked at the flop of Ks-8s-9c.
Marmorstein checked, Carter bet $15,000, and it kind of went zoom-zoom-zoom (raise-raise-raise) from there
Marmorstein, K-9-4-5 (top two pair, gutshot straight draw)
Carter, As-Js-6-7 (nut flush draw, open end straight draw)
A QUICK ROLE REVERSAL
The Jh hit the turn, changing nothing, but the 5c hit the river, giving Carter a straight, and leaving Marmorstein with only the same 21k that Carter had had not so long ago.
Marmorstein doubled up the next hand, but we lost him the hand after that, when he raised it to 21k with A-Q-J-5, got re-raised by Hansen's Q-Q-9-7, and he called. The board came 3-2-2-10-Q, and after 180 hands, we were heads up.
Hansen started the duel with almost exactly a 2-1 chip lead, 328k-157k, but Carter slipped back to 96k just as we moved up to $4,000-$8,000 blinds, with raises possible from 16k-28k.
Carter got a bit lower, but then doubled up, and we had the "ground war" phase of this battle underway. A left, a right, a right, a left. Carter tried to play smaller pots and grind away at Hansen, and eventually pulled even, at which point the players made some kind of money-balancing deal, details unavailable. Carter pulled ahead, maintaining the same chopping strategy, but Hansen wasn't about to roll over, and got a lead himself, when the monster hand everyone had been waiting for finally happened, with Hansen flopping a wheel that gave the Dane the title.
This was certainly one of the strangest final tables I've ever witnessed. We started out with a monster chip leader who seemed determined to play tight and make sure he finished high in the standings, only to see that determination slip away, along with as steady and shaky a chip decline as I've witnessed in a long time. Hansen was indeed a single card away from finishing sixth, and even after he escaped that battle, he still tossed off more than a third of his chips calling one hand twice and then mucking, and then later tossed off more than half of them making a big raise when he couldn't or wouldn't call the re-raise, despite the rather terrific pot odds being offered at that point.
Nonetheless, the chips Hansen (probably) saved by not calling Marmorstein's 55k all-in raise later stood him in good stead, and he withstood the pressures of an eleven hour final table in a heads-up duel with a veteran player. He probably earns the honor by virtue of having stayed at the final table longer than anyone else today, but I really believe Hansen made more errors than anyone else at the final table, and by a pretty wide margin at that. Despite that, and despite some tough play by a tough field, he was able to emerge triumphant, which proves two things, I guess.
First, no matter how much we "professionals" like to claim otherwise, there is still a lot of luck in this game on any given day. Second, if you keep your wits about you and have heart even when the head isn't outperforming your competitors, you've got a chance to strap on that treasured bracelet. I don't know if Hansen was a great Dane, but on this day, he was a winning one.
Final Official Results, Event #15, $2,500 Buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha
Total Entries, 89; Total Rebuys, 73; Total Add-ons, 32
Total Prize Pool: $471,650 (6% house entry fee charged only from original entries, not from rebuys or add-ons)
|
Finish |
Name |
Prize Money |
|
1 |
Jan Hansen |
$185,000 |
|
2 |
Brent Carter |
$105,070 |
|
3 |
Phillip Marmorstein |
$56,600 |
|
4 |
Chau Giang |
$33,020 |
|
5 |
Humberto Brenes |
$25,940 |
|
6 |
"Rocky"
Marciano Elie |
$21,240 |
|
7 |
Ricky Byrd |
$16,500 |
|
8 |
Surinder Sunar |
$11,780 |
|
9 |
Allen Cunningham |
$9,440 |
|
10 |
Bill Gazes |
$7,060 |
9th-12th, $2,440 each: Peter Brownstein, Paul Darden, Richie Wong, Gene Timberlake.
13th-16th, $1,620 each: Phyllis Meyers, George Shah, George Fisher, Thomas Cage.
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