Heimiller
Ends Bad Streak
Aided by a great run of cards, Dan
Heimiller finally broke a long drought
by winning the 28th event of Legends 2003,
½ 7-stud hi-lo and ½ Omaha
hi-lo. It was the first win in 10 months
for the journeyman pro.
Meanwhile,
it was announced that that no-juice one-table
satellites would run now through Sunday
at 4 p.m. for the Frank Mariani/Jerry
Buss Charity Open on August 31. Buy-in
will be $315, with winners receiving a
$3,075 seat plus $75. Players may sign
up for either hold’em or stud satellites.
The charity event, to benefit the Magic
Johnson foundation, will be ½ hold’em,
½ 7-card-stud.
Tonight,
Mike Sexton just missed the final table.
He started with buried aces, couldn’t
improve and missed a low draw, losing
to Don Halpern’s trip queens. However,
the World Poker Tour commentator didn’t
leave empty-handed because $2,010 had
been voted to the bubble finisher.
Dealing
stud, final table play started with 26
minutes left at the $200 ante, $300 low
card bring-in and $1,000-$2,000 limit
level. On the fifth hand, Tom Brownscombe
bluffed with the best hand. He missed
his low draw and bet with just two fives.
Shaking his head, John Hoang called with
unimproved open fours. Very short-chipped,
Hoang went all in two hands later with
two treys and couldn’t beat Minh
Nguyen’s open sevens.
On
the next hand, Benny Wan went broke and
finished seventh in three-way action.
On fifth street, Wan, catching a third
queen, re-raised all in. Original raiser
Halpern, free-rolling with (A-3)4-5-7,
capped it. Nguyen, showing open kings,
called. At he end, Nguyen had three kings,
Wan hadn’t helped and Halpern took
low.
Heimiller,
meanwhile, had been catching cards. By
the time the game switched to Omaha, with
1.5-3k limits, he had tripled up from
his 20k start. Spring Cheong, the only
woman gracing this tournament, had not
been faring as well, saying she hadn’t
seen a hand in two hours. She put her
last $200 in on hand 33 with A-J-6-6.
Halpern and “Miami John” Cernuto
checked the pot down, and Halpern scooped
with 10s and fives.
On
hand 47 the game became stud, $300 antes,
$500 bring-in and 2-4k limits. Cernuto,
who holds the Legends record of four wins
in one year, had been struggling, all
in three times, finally going out in fifth
place. He started with low cards and caught
bricks while Halpern, with (6-7)6-7, filled.
Two hands later, Nguyen followed him out.
He couldn’t get away from his starting
aces and made two pair. Heimiller, who
had split fives, put him away with a third
five.
As
play proceeded, Hapern and Brownscombe
were about even with 25k each. Then Halpern
got in trouble when Brownscombe scooped
him with a straight and better seven.
On
the next hand, Halpern went all in with
(23)4, got hit by bricks and lost to Heimiller’s
two eights. Heads-up, Heimiller had 88k
to Brownscombe’s 46k. “This
might take a little while,” Heimiller
said. Yes, 65 hands to be precise.
Brownscombe
played catch-up for a while in Omaha,
then faltered. The final level was stud,
$1,000 antes, $1,500 bring-in, 4-8k limits.
After going all in a total of five times,
Brownscombe, low-chipped, got committed
with (A-10)Q. The best he could make was
two 10s while Heimiller, missing a flush
draw, put him away with two pair.
BIOGRAPHY
Dan Heimiller was overjoyed to shake his
worst losing streak ever. “Before,
when people told me they had been running
bad for more than two months, I thought
it was impossible.” Heimiller, whose
best career cash-out came when he placed
third in a World Series ½ hold’em,
½ stud event, splits his time between
tournaments and live games. Until now
it was the $30-$60 side games paying the
rent. He likes to mix up his games, playing
“whatever they’re playing that
day.”
Tonight
he said he had a pretty easy time of it
because he “got hit by the deck”
the last three hours. He noted that at
the second table, Miami John and Spring
Cheong were the chip leaders, and he publicly
apologized for “displacing”
their chips. Another benefit of his win,
he added, was that it might cut down the
ragging of his friend Frankie O’Dell,
“who’s ranked 14th in the world,
while I’m like 114th.”
Max
Shapiro
|
