Amir
Wins, is Still No.1
Amir Vahedi solidified his current
ranking as Card Player magazine’s
best all-around player of the year with
a resounding win in the 11th event of
Legends of Poker 2003, $500 limit hold’em.
He’s had several second-place finishes,
but this $75,000 guaranteed event was
his first Legends win.
At the final table, he got off to a start
that belongs in the Guinness Book of Records.
. He arrived with a huge lead of $68,500
and a reputation for aggressively unorthodox
play, and immediately began using his
chips to bully the table with raises.
He took the first three hands that were
dealt to climb to the $100,000 mark, then
proceeded to win all 13 of the first 13
hands he played (taking seven pots and
stealing six antes) to amass about $150,000
of the $237,000 in play. Not until hand
32 did someone beat him, and to do it,
Dr. Barry Marfleet needed four queens
to beat Vahedi’s full house.
On hand 12, Tony Nguyen, second only to
Vahedi in aggressiveness, raised going
in, then jumped up in shock when Vahedi
turned up J-4 at the end, winning with
trip fours. “Is that a professional
play?” Fernando Ramirez wondered.
“I’m not playing professionally,
I’m playing my game,” Vahedi
replied. When Nguyen forcefully raised
on the next hand, Vahedi decided not to
enter the pot. “He’s a wounded
camel and I don’t want to mess with
him,” he said.
Amir made it eight for eight on hand 17
by knocking plumbing contactor Juan Holub
out in ninth place, winning with pocket
nines when Holub couldn’t hit his
As-10s. He then took his ninth straight
pot with a Qh after five hearts hit the
board. “Play good and get good cards,
a deadly combination,” he remarked
as his chips hit the 139k mark.
Next out was James. He went with his A-7
in the big blind and lost to Ramirez’s
A-J.
With limits of 2-4k, Vahedi made it 12
for 12 by knocking out Billy Juleff after
raising with 4h-2h and making a straight
on the river. More cries of pain from
his opponents. “Do you want me to
sit back? I’m just doing my job as
chip leader,” Vahedi informed them.
His streak was finally broken when he
went in with pocket 10s against Marfleet’s
A-Q and three ladies hit the board. Marfleet,
going on a small rush of his own, a few
hands later eliminated Nguyen, who raised
all in with pocket sevens. Marfleet had
A-K and flopped a king.
One hand later, property investor Ramzi
Daniel invested his last chips with K-J
and finished fifth against Ramirez’s
pocket eights. At this point, Vahedi was
still a mile in front with about 140k,
while Marfleet had around 42 k and Ramirez
and Steve Boudrgham each had between 26
to 28k. Some15 hands later, Boudrgham
four-bet and went all in with pocket aces
on a flop of Q-7-6. Ramirez turned up
Q-6 for two pair. “Yes!” Boudrgham
exclaimed, when a river six gave him aces
up. “Oh,” he said when he realized
that it also gave Ramirez a filly. Three
left.
Vahedi,
meanwhile, had gone into a bit of a slump,
losing four straight hands as he tried
to bust all-in players and dropping to
$119,500 against $67,500 for Ramirez and
$47,500 for Marfleet. It was now 6 a.m.
and after some negotiating, the three
finalists made a deal and the 11th event
was in the books.
BIOGRAPHY
This has been an incredible year so far
for Amir Vahedi. At the World Series,
the Iranian-born pro won the $1,500 no-limit
event, came in fifth in $5,000 no-limit,
and then finished sixth in the big one.
He also won the championship event at
Hustler Casino’s Challenge Cup. Past
triumphs include a best-all around at
Foxwoods and no-limit hold’em player
of the year in 2001.
Tonight, Vahedi
said, he picked up much of his chip lead
at the third table. He said his style
of play was to carefully pick his spots
and play the right hands (an assessment
his opponents might take issue with),
but he also acknowledging that he was
able to use his chips to run over the
table final table. “A combination,
I guess.” Vahedi added that, even
with his formidable lead, he agreed to
a deal because of the hour and because
he wanted his first Legends ring. “And
in a tournament, anything can happen.”
Max Shapiro
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