Paul
Phillips Leads Final 6
“I played as good as I could,
everything went right and knocking out
someone like Huck Seed at the end was
like a gift from God.” So exulted
Paul Phillips, a 31-year-old former computer
programmer and currently a self-styled
“dilettante,” who will come
to the third-day final table of the Legends
of Poker Championship/WPT with an enormous
chip lead of $657,000, twice that of anyone
else. It will be an intriguing final table,
too, featuring the likes of T.J.Cloutier,
Mel Judah, Chip Jett, Farzad “Fred”
Bonyadi…and a student from Ireland.
Second-day
play resumed at 4:15 p.m., with antes
of $200 and limits of 6-12k. Though it
had been decided to redraw for seats,
a number of players said they wanted to
stay where they were, so it was back to
Plan A, with unchanged seating from the
night before.
Chip
leader was the aptly named Chip Jett with
$99,900, which he had steadily accumulated
during the nine hours of play on day one.
Jett, a Vegas pro originally from Scottsdale,
Arizona, won the championship event and
$214,700 at the Commerce Casino’s
California State Poker Championship two
months ago. At the 6:30 race-off, Jett
was still in front with $155,000, closely
followed by Cloutier.with $146,500 and
Phil Laak, the Irish student, with about
$135,000. The most spectacular performance,
however, was turned in by Huck Seed, who
started the day with $19,400 and had zoomed
at that point to around $100,000.
After
about 15 minutes of hand-for-hand dealing,
Ernie Sebastian ended in 28th place, one
out of the money. He had A-K in the big
blind, and Bob Stupak put him away with
pocket aces, bringing his own chip count
up to just below 100k. As play progressed,
Stupak was less interested in playing
than in watching his boxer, heavyweight
Tyson Fields, who was fighting on TV.
(He won in a 12-round decision.) Jim Miller,
tournament director at Hustler Casino,
also had a nice comeback, doubling up
at the start of the day when his A-Q held
up againt A-8. However, he went out in
25th place shortly after blinds went to
$1,500-$3,000 with $500 antes.
The
field got down to two tables after “Miami
John” Cernuto busted out in 19th
place. Blinds were now 2-4k, with $500
antes, and Cloutier at that point had
grabbed a big chip lead with $259,000.
Trailing him were Judah, Phi Nguyen, Seed,
Laak and Jett, all in the 100k range.
Soon
after, Fred Bonyadi, an Iranian-born poker
player with a bracelet in limit hold’em,
did major damage twice with A-Q. The first
time he was all in against Jett, flopped
two pair and left the one-time chip leader
with only about 50k. The second time he
went against Jim Bechtel, who was all
in with pocket deuces. This time Bonyadi
caught an ace to break the 1994 WSOP champ
and run his chip count up to about 190k.
By
the next break we were down to 13 players.
Laak had taken over the lead with 231k,
followed by Bonyadi, 209k; Judah, 195k;
T.J., $165k; and Phi Nguyen, 152k.
Players
returned to $1,000 antes, $3,000-$6,000
blinds. Toto Leonidas finished 13th. After
Jett raised to 20k with pocket sixes,
Leonidas moved in for 46k with K-J. Chip
flopped a set and Leonidas was left with
$6,500. Four hands later, Leonidas’
last $2,500 went in with A-6. Phi Nguyen
had A-5 and caught a five on the river.
Next out was Stan Goldstein, who suffered
a truly horrendous beat. He was all in
with pocket 10s against Seed’s A-J.
After the flop came 10-7-2, Goldstein,
close to a 97 percent favorite, watched
in disbelief as Seed made a runner-runner
straight.
The
last 10 players were moved to a single
table after Scott Lundberg finished 11th.
Without looking, he moved in for 23k.
He should have looked: he had 7-5 offsuit.
“Gotta call,” Seed said. He
had K-10 and flopped a king.
The
players and chip counts, starting from
seat one, were: (1)Chris Ferguson, 66.5k;
(2) Bonyadi, 184k; (3)Laak, 192.5k (4)Stupak,
75k; (5)Cloutier, 210k; (6)Phillips, 155.5;
(7)Seed, 241k; (8)Jett, 92k (9)Nguyen,
138k; and (10)Judah, 191.5. Playing with
$1,500 antes and 4-8k blinds, Stupak was
the first to leave the table. After Phillips
made a trap raise to 20k with pocket aces,
Stupak moved in for about 50k with pocket
kings and couldn’t improve. T.J.
made a play a few hands later designed
to throw the other players off stride.
He raised from the button to 30k pre-flop
and was called by Seed and Jett. When
the flop came K-10-9 he moved in for 104k.
His opponents folded and he showed J-6
offsuit.
Ferguson
departed soon after that. In the big blind
with K-8, he called when Nguyen raised
to 30k. When Nguyen, holding Q-J, bet
the Q-6-3 flop, Ferguson put in his last
6k, busting out and leaving Seed as the
last remaining world champion.
With
antes now at $2,000 and blinds of 6-12k,
Nguyen became the next player out. Cloutier
raised to 30k with pocket nines and Nguyen
moved in for 89k with Ks-10s. T.J. called
and Nguyen ended up in eighth place when
the board came Q-J-J-2-5.
There
was one more player to go before the table
was set for the World Poker Tour finale.
And that player was Huck Seed. After Phillips
raised to 40k with a pair of queens, Seed
moved in for more than 100k with K-J.
A flop of Q-4-4 gave Phillips a full house
and a huge chip lead, and the stage was
set for the Championship finale, with
all the color, drama and theatrics that
the World Poker Tour has brought to the
game.
Max
Shapiro
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