John
Phan K.O.’s the Field
If this were a prize fight, it would
have been stopped in the early rounds.
Poker player John Phan arrived with a
big chip lead, raised non-stop, knocked
his opponents silly, and with five players
left had more than half of the $300,000
in play. When it got three-handed, he
had virtually 2/3 of them. The fight was
stopped then, and he walked off with the
lion’s share of the prize money.
Roberto Flood, jeweler to the poker world,
and supplement distributor Ron Faltinsky
took home the rest.
When the final table assembled, the players
were looking at $500 and $1,000 blinds
and limits of $1,000 and $2,000. It didn’t
take long for the first two players to
depart. It was child’s play to eliminate
pediatrician Bob Landan. On the first
hand he was in the big blind and went
all in with a decent A-Q suited, but couldn’t
pair and then missed a flush draw. Just
three hands later, John Harris had all
his chips in before the flop with 10h-9h.
The board came Q-7-2-4-K, and Paul Abbamanto,
making two pair with K-Q, easily broke
him.
Ryan Russ estimated he had gone all in
about 22 times before the final table.
Continuing his perilous habit, he made
it number 23 with pocket fives and they
held up as he once again escaped against
Bill Condon’s A-J. Abbamanto, meanwhile,
had been doing a lot of raising without
much success. When he missed his open-ended
straight draw and tried a bluff on a board
of 9-7-10-3-Q, Faltinsky made a good call
and picked him off with a paired nine.
When he finally did win a hand, he needed
pocket aces to do it. “Can’t
miss ‘em all,” he said.
On hand 14, James Ferrel was under the
gun and raised all in for 4k with Ah-5h.
“Looks terrible,” he said as
the flop came Jc-9c-8c. Bad enough. Phan
had pocket 10s, and that was all he needed
to leave Ferrel in eighth place. Phan
had now moved up from his starting count
of 79k to about 90k.
Limits were kicked up to $3,000-$6,000.
Once again, “All-in Russ” did
his thing and came out alive again when
he made a flush with Ah-Kh, at the expense
of Abbamonto, who had K-Q. Three hands
later Abbamonto, a mortgage broker, went
even broker. He raised from the button
with A-10. Faltinsky put him for one more
chip with J-8 suited and proceeded to
make a full house on a board of J-8-4-8-9.
Things continued much as before. Russ
went all in and escaped a third time,
and Phan continued to pick up pots, running
his total to about $115,000. On hand 29
he raised again, with A-4, and bet blind
before the flop, which came Q-Q-4. After
a long hesitation, poker player Ben Tang
called with K-J and added his last chip.
A nine and deuce came, and Phan’s
paired four put Tang away.
As Phan raised yet again on the next hand,
Faltinsky asked, “Don’t you
ever let anything get by?” Replied
Phan: “No, not at this point.”
“He’s unstoppable,” added
Russ. Phan now had about 135k.
On the very next hand, Phan put business
owner Bill Condon out of business. All
in, Condon, with A-10, had the lead with
a board of 10-6-5-5. Holding K-10, Phan
called for a king, the only card he could
win with. Guess what came? Phan now had
roughly 160k.
Taking a break, Phan folded on the turn
with a board of K-Q-9-7, and allowed Flood
to wash away the next player. Flood had
10-9 and Russ was all in for the last
time. After a few more hands, with Phan
holding 190k to 66k for Flood and 44k
for Faltinsky, a deal was struck, and
Phan’s arms were raised in triumph.
BIOGRAPHY
John
Phan, originally from Stockton, California,
moved south to Long Beach some four years
ago. He’s has been playing poker
for a dozen years and professionally for
six or seven. His game of choice is limit
hold’em, he divides his time between
tournaments and side games, and he generally
plays $60-$160 limit hold’em cash
games. His biggest prior cash-out was
about $40,000 in a Commerce Casino L.A.P.C
hold’em event.
Phan
describes himself as normally an aggressive
player, and said that tonight he was just
playing his standard game. In early going,
he was never in trouble and accumulated
his big stacks by winning a combination
of large and small pots before arriving
at the final table. “I just tried
to play the best I could,” he said.
That he did.
Max Shapiro
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