Fran's
the Man in 7-Stud/8!
Frances
"Fran" Pinchot, the colorful retired teacher
and basketball coach who had been struggling
lately, was back in form as he dominated
the final table and won the 11th event
of Big Poker Oktober 2002, 7-card stud
hi-lo. "In limit poker, I'm as good as
the best and better than the rest," he
modestly remarked after his victory. He
demonstrated his reading skills when Raymond
"Iceberg" Sitra, showing 2-J-Q-5 of hearts,
bet all in on the river for $1,200. Pinchot
called and won with just pocket 8s. Pinchot's
final opponent was Tom Roach, winner of
the $100 Omaha hi-lo event. Fran started
the match-up with a sizeable chip lead
and never gave Tom a chance to get close.
The last nine finishers played hand for
hand for hand for hand for hand for one
long hour. It dragged on so long partially
because Daniel Dahan was saved by a mistake.
He had only $200 left when he bet the
river with aces-up. Sitra, a TV production
executive and former poker writer, called
with three jacks, but failed to raise
him all in. Iceberg later explained that
because of a vision error, he had thought
chips belonging to an adjacent player
were actually Dahan's. Daniel proceeded
to go all in and survive three times,
and then he was the one to finally knock
out the ninth player, Jeff Kanow, with
a straight and a 6-low.
CHIP
POSITION FINAL TABLE
Fran
Pinchot $16,700
Daniel Dahan $4,200
Anton Ulker $14,200
Raymond Sitra $22,600
Pam Aguirre $3,500
Y. S. Woo $13,700
Larry Kantor $3,700
Tom Roach $11,300
The final table moved faster; four players
gone in 20 minutes. After two minutes
of play, limits went to $2,000-$4,000,
with $300 antes and a $500 low-card bring-in.
On the first hand at those limits, the
venerable Y.S. Woo, respectfully known
to one and all as "Mr. Woo," started with
pocket 10s and made a second 9 on sixth
street. He went all in for $2,500 and
lost to Pinchot's aces-up. Four hands
later, Dahan went all in with split 10s.
He couldn't improve and lost to Anton
Ulker's pocket queens.
One
hand after that, "Lucky" Larry Kantor,
a CPA, started with 2-8/5 and went all
in with 5s and 7s. But Pinchot, starting
with buried aces, was waiting for him
with aces-up. A couple of hands later,
Pam Aguirre bowed out. Starting lowest-chipped
with $3,500, she had been hanging on,
finally found herself all in with just
three medium-sized cards and ended up
unable to beat Roach's two 7s. Six hands
later came the hand that melted down the
"Iceberg." Sitra started with 3-4/2, so
besides his four up-card hearts, he also
had a wheel draw on sixth street. When
he caught a 10, he couldn't even beat
beat Pinchot's board of 6-Q-4-K, so his
only out was a bluff bet. Partially because
he himself had three hearts showing, and
partially because he had put Sitra on
a low draw, Pinchot, remarking on his
opponent's "scary board," made a good
call with his unimproved pocket 8s.
Ulker
now had about $23,000 and Roach around
$16,000. It was hard to tell how much
Fran had because he likes to keep his
chips in a big, messy pile, but simple
math showed he had about $51,000. Limits
now went to $3,000-$6,000, with $500 antes
and $1,000 low card. After Anton lost
some chips to Tom, Pinchot finished him
off. Anton went all in drawing to a 2-3-4-5,
made zip, and lost to Fran's pocket queens.
Fran
now had better than a 2-1 chip lead and
the two went at it, warily, for some 24
hands. Along the way, a tournament staffer
observed that the last of the noisy spectators
had disappeared. "Thank God," Fran said.
"Now we can play poker." As Tom gradually
sank, he was finally left with $7,000
after folding with 6s showing against
Pinchot's board of K-10-7-3. Shortly after,
Tom bet with K-5/A-7-2 and Fran check
raised him all in with 10-5/3-3-10. Tom
missed his low and back-door flush draws
and Fran savored victory.
BIOGRAPHY
Frances
Pinchot taught high school phys-ed and
coached basketball in Trenton, New Jersey
for 30 years and is proud that all 40
of the boys he coached (with a combined
119-21 record) earned full scholarships.
He's played poker almost 50 years, picked
up a lot of savvy playing with mob guys
in "joints," and ran his own game for
14 years.
Stud
(naturally for an Easterner) is his best
game. He feels it takes the most skill
"because you can control your money better
and make so many moves." As a basketball
competitor, Pinchot says he's more interested
in the winning than the money. Not primarily
a tournament player, he's won only one
other, at an Atlantic City resort. In
7-stud, he had a flush, bet the river,
got raised, correctly put his opponent
on a full house, folded with $25, anted
$15 on the next hand, and still won. Tonight,
he said, he had chips, and that put him
in full control.
ALL-AROUND
PAYOFF POINTS
Name
Total
1.
Binh Do 129
2. Minh Ly 109
3. Tom Roach 106
4. Tony Abesamis 105
5. Clinton Moore 98
6. Justin Westmoreland 95
7. Ulises Molina 91
8. Andom Ghebre 87
9. Jollibert David 73
10. Can Hua 61
11. Albert Luna 60
12. Tho Ngo 58
13. Fran Pinchot 57
14. Joe Grew 57
15. Farhang Ebadipour 57
16. Men Nguyen 57
17. Anthony Tran 57
18. Leo Alvarez 56
Max Shapiro
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