TOMMY
HANG WINS STUD HI-LO
AND DECIDES TO BECOME A PRO
Tommy Hang, who has been in the mortgage
broker business in Washington, came to
Los Angeles eight months ago to see about
playing poker for a living. He came in
third in an earlier limit hold'em contest,
and after winning the 21st event of LAPC
XIII, $1,500 7-card stud hi-lo, he is
definitely going that route. In the late
stages of tonight's event, he went on
a rush. He kept catching cards, ran over
the field and won easily.
Limits
at the final table started at $1,000-$2,000,
with $100 antes and a $300 bring-in.
There
was spirited four-way action in early
going. On sixth street, the boards showed:
Van Pham, Q-A-5-5, Fred Koubi, J-2-7-10;
Tim Fu, 3-10-K-4; and Josh Ariah, A-3-5-K.
On the river, Pham turned up (Q-Q-J) for
a full house, Fu had a 7-6 low and Ariah
had folded his counterfeited low draw.
Koubi, who finished second in the Omaha
hi-lo event the day before, was all in
and made a production out of turning up
his hole cards. First a 5, then a 4, and
then he called for an ace in order to
make a better low than Fu's. "I said ace,
not 8!" he declared when an 8c gave him
a useless flush and 8-low as he finished...8th.
David
"You play gooood" Levi, who started the
final table lowest-chipped with 9k, was
getting short on ammo when he started
with (2-7)5. He caught a queen, then raised
all in for $3,500 with a paired deuce
on fifth street. A jack and trey got him
nowhere. Ariah, beginning with (4-4)10,
made two pair and the former pro soccer
player from Israel cashed in seventh.
Limits
went to $1,500-$3,.000 with $200 antes
and a $500 bring-in. Toward the end of
that level, a last-card draw-out left
Tim Fu in sixth place. He started with
buried kings and made two pair on sixth
street. Ariah, with (6-2)A-5-10-6, caught
a bullet on the river and won with aces-up.
Two
hands later, Hang took the lead. He was
freerolling with 2-3-4-5-8 against architect
Edward Sirakovit, who showed 9-8-8-6 and
made aces-up. Hang hit an ace on the river
for a wheel and now had 80,000 in chips,
half the chips in play. On the next hand,
Jim "Jimbo" Geary was all in for $2,900
showing 5-A-8-K. He scooped with 8s and
6s to leave Ariah with just $4,700.
Limits
become $2,000-$4,000 with $300 antes and
$500 bring-ins. Ariah quickly succumbed.
Going in with split jacks, he missed an
inside straight draw and lost his last
chips to Geary, who made two pair.
Geary,
a "soccer dad" who was on the U.S. Scrabble
team during the last four championship
events, said the key hand for him came
earlier in the tournament. "Paul Phillips,
the game theory expert, gave me all his
chips with two deuces," he laughed.
However, he was still low on chips himself,
but then got a little breathing room when
he went all in and scooped Pham with queens-up.
Hang
now began his dominance over the table.
He bet into Pham showing 10-7-9-6, then
turned up an 8 for a straight. This brought
him to about the 120k level and dropped
Pham down to around 20k. Hang moved up
to around 125k, then fell back a little
when Geary, all in again, made a set of
deuces. Then Hang attacked Pham again,
making a set of 4s to leave him with just
$2,000. Soon after, Pham was all in with
pocket 9s. Holding A-5-6-3-2, Hang caught
a 4 for a wheel and 6-high straight, and
Pham departed in fourth place.
As a generous consolation prize, however,
Pham picked up 36 points in the Best All-Around
points race and, with one more day to
go, had locked up first place, worth $22,500
of the $50,000 prize pool.
Three-handed,
Sirakovit had about 21k, Geary 5k and
Hang had all the rest. The outcome appeared
ordained, but it took Hang a long time
before he had all the chips. Geary was
to go all in seven times and Sirakovit
three before the contest ended.
By
the time limits had gone to $3,000-$6,000,
with $500 antes and a $1,000 bring-in,
things hadn't changed much. Sirakout had
15k while Geary was still hanging on with
7k.
As it turned out, Sirakout was the one
who got the match heads-up. On fifth street,
Geary was all in and showed A-6-K. "You
have no outs," Sirakovit said. He showed
5d-7d-3, and turned up a 4d-6d for a spectacular
five-card hand: a 7-high straight with
an open-end draw to a straight flush!
He caught a 9d for a flush, while the
best that Geary could make was aces-up.
That
brought Sirakovit up to $29,500, but he
was still a 4.5-1 underdog. On the first
hand heads-up, Hang scooped with a pair
of 10s, and Sirakovit was in more trouble.
Still,
the match-up lasted a total of 15 hands.
On the final deal, Sirakovit started with
(6-5)6. By sixth street he had a straight
draw but missed, ending up with his starting
6s. Hang, beginning with a less-promising
(A-6)Q, caught an ace and a queen and
his two pair took it all.
Add
one more pro to the list. If he keeps
catching cards like tonight, he'll make
a fortune
-- by Max Shapiro
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