First
Legends for O’Dell
“I finally broke the ice,”
said Frankie O’Dell, as he won his
first Legends of Poker tournament, $500
no-limit hold’em. O’Dell has
a clutch of other titles including the
World Poker Open championship. He took
a big chip lead after breaking Jean “Prince”
Gaspard and made a deal when he got heads
up with a 176-81 lead over Jerrry Poladian,
a recreational player from Newport Beach
who owns two markets.
With 229 players and 305 rebuys, this
was a long tournament. As 3 a.m. approached,,
with two full tables still left, O’Dell
was heard to say, “If I’m not
home by 8 a.m. they’ll think I’m
in jail.” Negreanu shortened things
a bit by knocking out two players at the
second table. He made a small investment
loose call with 8-5 against one all-in
player and a $200 all-in raiser and hit
a straight on the river.
The nine finalists arrived with antes
of $300, blinds of 1-2k. It was a top-notch
field that included three Card Player
columnists: Negreanu, Warren Karp and
Adam Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld, a retired
investor, retired quickly. On the second
hand he raised 5k with Q-Q, O’Dell
popped it for 20k more, Schoenfeld moved
in for the rest of his 22k, Frankie flipped
up aces and eight were left.
Warren Karp keeps busy. Besides playing
poker, he’s tournament coordinator
at Hustler Casino, ran the evening events
at this year’s World Series and is
chief operating officer for Professional
Sponsorship Group, a management company
that searches out sponsorship deals for
poker players. Tonight he managed his
money until hand five. He raised 5k with
A-8. “No choice,” he said, calling
when Stan Goldstein put him in for $5,700
more. With A-10, Goldstein was money in
the bank, a 98.6 percent favorite when
the flop came K-10-5.
Joel Fishbein, a poker player and horse
handicapper with a stud win at the L.A.
Poker Classic, raised to 7k with As-7s
on hand 12. Negreanu put him in and broke
him with pocket jacks.
With $500 antes and $1,500-$3,000 blinds,
Goldstein had a close call when he was
all in and O’Dell flopped draws to
a flush and straight, but Stan’s
pocket sevens prevailed.
A bit later, there was some choice table
talk between the always-entertaining Negreanu
and Prince Gaspard, a former basketball
player for Northeastern University. First
Gaspard raised 6k, and then Negreanu moved
all in. Daniel: “You must have a
hand, you’re thinking.” Prince:
“We all have hands, unless we’re
animals.” Daniel: “You’ve
been playing pretty good all day. You
going to mess it up by calling?”
Prince: “In the ghetto where I was
raised, that would mean you want action.
So I’m gonna fold.” He did,
and Daniel showed A-K, the better hand.
The next hand was the swing one. O’Dell
raised to 10k preflop and Gaspard called.
On a flop of J-7-4, Gaspard went all in
with Ac-Jc. O’Dell won with pocket
queens, confiscated all but $10,500 of
Gaspard’s remaining $51,000, and
took the lead with about 125k. Possibly
upset, Gaspard shoved his remaining 10k
in on the next hand with Q-J. Spring Cheong
called with As-7s and finished him when
an ace turned.
It was Goldstein’s turn to be upset
when he finished fifth place on a truly
bad beat soon after. Goldstein, with numerous
titles and WSOP and World Poker Tour final
tables, was all in with pocket aces against
Poladian’s 9s-9d when four spades
gave Poladian a flush. Two hands later,
O’Dell raised 10k with 7-7 and Negreanu
moved in for 37k more with A-K. Frankie
flopped a set and three were left. Two
hands later it was over when O’Dell
flopped a king to his K-7 to outrun Cheong’s
Ah-10h, and the finalists made their deal.
BIOGRAPHY
After
giving his traditional thanks “To
my lord and savior for your blessing,”
Frankie O”Dell dedicated his first
Legends win to his two sons, Brandon and
Gabriel. Odell is a resident of Denver,
Colorado. Besides his World Poker Open
championship he ha s titles from the Hall
of Fame and two at the Orleans Open, along
with a handful of smaller tournament wins..
He’s also currently listed #1 in
Omaha hi-lo in Card Player’s rankings.
Tonight, he said,
he was in decent chip position all the
way through. “When I saw Daniel Negreanu
at the table, I knew he was going to be
a problem because he doesn’t like
to make deals, which isn’t his style.
And I knew it was going to be interesting
playing with him, because I expected him
to bring the game up to par, which he
did. After I got him out, it was pretty
much smooth sailing,” he added.
Max Shapiro
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