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World Poker Tour - 5-Star World Poker Classic - Event 9 |
| by 2005 World Poker Tour Coverage | |
| Thursday, 14 April 2005 |
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PokerPages,com at Five Star World Poker Classic Event #9
by Mike Paulle $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Russell Rebounds To Win Event #9  Matt Russell Wins Matt Russell looked for all the world as if he was headed for the parking lot when his cards turned around. The last hand Freddy Bonyadi raised all-in with pocket 4's on the button. "Call," Matt Russell said quickly. No kidding. Matt had the rockets. Pocket Aces. It was over. Russell owns a water treatment company in Vegas, and he just starting to play tournaments after 30 years absense. "I saw the resurgence of poker," Russell said. He's going to take a year off to play on tour. Matt Russell Las Vegas, NV 1st $274,075* includes $25,000 seat Farzad Bonyadi Alisa Viejo, CA 2nd $153,530 Antony Lellouche Paris, France 3rd $76,765 Richard Tatalovich Scottsdale, AZ 4th $43,870 Mike Graffeo Fort Mills, SC 5th $32,900 David Pham Cerritos, CA 6th $25,590 Alex Brenes Miami, FL 7th $18,280 Abe Mosseri Manhattan, NY 8th $14,620 Isabelle Mercier Montreal, Canada 9th $11,700 Juha Helppi Helsinki, Finland 10th $8,775  Matt Russell ponders For all you tournament junkies, like me, here's something I like to look at to see who played best at the Final Table. The third column is starting chips. The next column is what the chips would be worth on a cashout. Then what the player earned. The last column is the the plus or minus for the table.  Farzad Bonyadi 2nd Matt Russell Las Vegas, NV 293,000 $123,823 $274,075 $142,646 Farzad Bonyadi Alisa Viejo, CA 311,000 $131,429 $153,530 $29,707 Antony Lellouche Paris, France 226,000 $95,508 $76,765 -$18,743 Alex Brenes Miami, FL 175,000 $73,955 $18,280 -$55,675 Richard Tatalovich Scottsdale, AZ 172,000 $72,688 $43,870 -$28,818 Juha Helppi Helsinki, Finland 137,000 $57,897 $8,775 -$49,122 David Pham Cerritos, CA 134,000 $56,629 $25,590 -$31,039 Abe Mosseri Manhattan, NY 44,000 $18,595 $14,620 -$3,975 Mike Graffeo Fort Mills, SC 43,000 $18,172 $32,900 $14,728 Isabelle Mercier Montreal, Canada 27,000 $11,410 $11,700 $290 As I leave with 89 left in the $5,000 NLH Event #10, these are the 38 names I still see:  Benny Behnen & Jason Lester  Eric Lindgren Lonnie Alexander Benny Behnen Ross Boatman Gary Bush Tony Cousineau Danny Dang Antonio Esfandiari Amnon Filippi Tony G Bill Gazes Ken Goldstein Gary Haubelt Christer Johanssen John Kabbaj Thomas Keller Allen Kessler Paul Kroh Chad Layne Jason Lester Erick Lindgren Marcel Luske Tony Ma Michael Mizrachi Carlos Mortensen Reza Payvar Young Phan David Plastik Alex Prendas Ron Rose Erik Seidel John Shipley Hilbert Shirey Gavin Smith Gene Todd Jimmy Tran Randy Jensen Reza Payvar Vinnie Vinh 6:45 Of course, as soon as I say it, I put the hex on Freddy. Matt Russell just doubled up with A K and a board of A K. He'd called with pocket 6's. Freddy said it was the fourth hand in a row that Matt had gone all-in. Russell had 478k all-in and now has the 2-1 chip lead that Bonyadi started heads up with. 6:35 New level 3k ante 8k/16k. Tournament pro and WSOP title holder, Freddy Bonyadi is running over Matt Russell. No surprise, really. Freddy is so intimidating. Matt's down to around 300k. 6:05 Win from the big blind, win from the small blind. That's how you do it. Antony was the big blind, but he couldn't play it like Freddy Bonyadi does. Lellouche raised all-in over Bonyadi for an extra 91k. Freddy thought for a minute then called with the 10 9 of Hearts. Anthony had K 8 offsuit. The flop came with a 9. The 8 on the turn didn't help Antony much as it gave Bonyadi a straight flush draw. With a blank on the river, it's au revoir to Lellouche in 3rd. Heads up, Bonyadi has about 1.1 million to about 450k for Russell. The starting chip leaders are the last two sitting. 5:55 Now it's Matt Russell's turn to be the small blind to Freddy Bonyadi. Matt made it 56k, Freddy raised another 200k. "I think I have the best hand," Russell said but he mucked anyway. Lellouche is short stacked and 2nd place money looms. "I had threes," Matt Russell had. Freddy flashed me Jacks and told Matt he had Jacks. 5:45 Now he wishes he'd called. Since the break, Freddy Bonyadi dominated the table. Richard Tatalovich made his move from the small blind again for his last 51k and Q 5 of Diamonds. Freddy called and turned over K J offsuit. Richard was 4th, when his flush draw and two live cards missed on the river. Three handed Bonyadi has well over half of the chips with about 800k. Matt Russel is next with about 500k and Antony Lellouche has 250k. 5:35 I asked Paul Wolfe, Dan Heimiller and Arnold Spee what would they have done with Jacks in that situation. Each said they would have had to call. But what do they know? Playing 2k ante 6k/12k blinds. Each hand is costing 6,500. The average stack is 390k or 33 big blinds. Plenty of time for everyone. 5:05 15 minute break. On the last hand before the break, Richard Tatalovich told me "Jacks." He'd raised to 125k from the small blind. Freddy Bonyadi reraised all-in for about 200k more or enough to cover Tatalovich. Richard couldn't pull the trigger and mucked. Freddy asked me "What did he say?" Jacks. Do you fold? Tony Cousineau said "Freddy would have done the same thing with a big ace." 4:45 Chip counts four handed in seat order: Richard Tatalovich 380k Freddy Bonyadi 420k Antony Lellouche 320k Matt Russell 390k It can't get much closer. 4:35 Starting ninth in chips today, Mike Graffeo got to watch four players give him money. Nice work if you can get it. Finally, Mike made a move with A 8 offsuit in the small blind. Antony Lellouche made it 25k to go, Graffeo reraised all-in for another 30k. Antony gave Mike the French kiss off in 5th with presto, pocket 5's. 4:15 Five handed, the action has slowed as it should at these new blinds of 4k/8k. With 150 left in Event #10 the $5,000 NLH, these are some of the players I recognize. Lonnie Alexander Dan Alspach Jim Bechtel Joe Beevers Benny Behnen Jean Robert Bellande Barny Boatman Ross Boatman Gary Bush T J Cloutier Tony Cousineau Steve Crockett Danny Dang Harry Demetriou Antonio Esfandiari Amnon Filippi Tom Franklin Tony G Bill Gazes Ken Goldstein Abe Gray David Grey Voulgaris Haralabos Gary Haubelt Kenna James Randy Jensen Chip Jett John Kabbaj Thomas Keller Allen Kessler Christian Kruel Paul Kroh Ted Lawton Chad Layne Nam Le Jason Lester David Levi Erick Lindgren Toto Leonidas Marcel Luske Gioi Luong Tony Ma Jim Miller Michael Mizrachi Carlos Mortensen John Myung Men Nguyen Reza Payvar Max Pescatori Young Phan Paul Phillips David Plastik Alex Prendas Ben Roberts Ron Rose BR Savage Alan Schein Fred Segur Erik Seidel John Shipley Hilbert Shirey Mike Sica Gavin Smith Johan Storakers Julian Studley Jerri Thomas Alex Todd Gene Todd Jimmy Tran Mimi Tran David Ulliott Vinnie Vinh Eric Weiner Jerry Young 3:55 If you are at a poker table with David Pham, you hate for him to call your all-in. The Dragon has been one of the handful of ultra-successful players over the last few years. When Richard Tatalovich limped in with pocket 6's, Pham raised from the big blind with A Q offsuit. Richard went all-in preflop and cringed when David called. The 6's walked and so did The Dragon. For once David's hand didn't hit in 6th. 3:45 After a couple of uncalled or winning all-ins, Alex Brenes reraised Matt Russell all-in for about 75k with A Q offsuit on the button. Russell called the extra amount with pocket 9's which were golden again. Do you ever win with pocket 9's? Me, either. These players came to gamble. They had plenty of time to wait, but chose to ship it. The blinds are still only 3k/6k, so what's the rush? That's why they are there and we are here, right? 3:15 "I've got a bad hand, but I'm getting two to one so I have to call," Richard Tatalovich said in the big blind. Abe Mosseri was all-in for 21k with Q 9 offsuit. Richard reluctently turned over an A 3 offsuit. "That's a bad hand?" Abe asked. The board came A Q x x x to sent Abe out in 8th. Abe wondered aloud what took Richard so long to call. 3:05 That didn't take long. Juha Helppi went all-in for over 100k with pocket 10's and behind him Antony Lellouche had pocket KIngs. Juha flopped a straight draw that didn't get there for 10th. Then Isabelle Mercier was so short she went all-in with the K 5 of Diamonds and she was called by David Pham in the big blind, logically, wth the 7 3 of Spades. With a 7 on the flop, the lovely and talented Mercier is gone in 9th. 3:00 FINAL TABLE 1 Mike Graffeo Fort Mills, SC 43,000 2 Richard Tatalovich Scottsdale, AZ 172,000 3 Farzad Bonyadi Alisa Viejo, CA 311,000 4 Alex Brenes Miami, FL 175,000 5 David Pham Cerritos, CA 134,000 6 Juha Helppi Helsinki, Finland 137,000 7 Abe Mosseri Manhattan, NY 44,000 8 Antony Lellouche Paris, France 226,000 9 Matt Russell Las Vegas, NV 293,000 10 Isabelle Mercier Montreal, Canada 27,000 |
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