A
Wild Win for the Dragon
Tonight's $500 limit hold'em contest,
#19 in Legends 2004, was truly memorable.
It featured great play, a tremendous laydown,
amazing draw-outs, an incredible comeback
and some raw emotion. The winner was David
"The Dragon" Pham. He came to the final
table with nearly 40 per cent of the chips,
but later found himself in a brutal three-way
battle with John Phi Nguyen and "Super"
Mario Esquerra where the lead kept changing
hands. It ended in a quick chip-count
deal after Esquerra had been eliminated.
Nguyen, with $64,000 to Pham's $181,000,
had made a stunning comeback from 17 hands
earlier when he was down to two $1,000
chips!
Limits
at the final table started at $1,500-$3,000,
28:39 remaining. Two short stacks left
quickly. On hand two, Ron Faltinsky raised
all in for $2,500 with A-5 and lost to
Joey Flores' A-K. On the next hand, Sirous
Baghchehsaraie, blinded down to the same
$2,500, said "Get my money ready," as
he raised all in with A-K. Pham was a
big underdog with As-5s, but hit a 9-high
straight. Give Sirous his money.
Barry
Greenstein then had two narrow escapes.
All in against Esquerra, his pocket 9s
held up with four spades on board. Next
Greenstein had A-K against Travis Dang's
K-K and flopped an ace. With limits at
$2,000-$4,000, self-described tournament
rookie Joey Flores busted out. He flopped
an ace to his ace-10, but Nguyen had K-Q
and hit a third king on the river. On
the next hand, Greenstein tried an all-in
move with 10-7 on the button and Nguyen
picked him off. He had A-6 and caught
a 6 on the river. Later, Esquerra, who
had been at three tables with Greenstein,
expressed awe at his intuitiveness. "I
couldn't find any fault with his play,"
he said. Greenstein is also famed for
giving all his tournament cash-outs to
charity.
David
Levi was defending champion in this event.
Tonight the best he could manage was sixth.
On hand 31 he had K-3 and flopped a trey,
while Travis Dang (brother of Danny) had
a J-5 and flopped a 5. Five were left.
"Mexico against Asia," Esquerra remarked
as he faced a Pham, a Phan (Cuong Phan),
a Nguyen and a Dang.
Mixing
up his play, Pham, in the big blind, made
it three bets after Phan button-raised.
Pham then bet the Q-4-4 flop, Phan folded
and The Dragon showed a 10-7. Dang busted
out on hand 47 with A-2 in the big blind
when Esquerra, in the small blind with
8-6, flopped a 6. With $3,000-$6,000 limits,
another bad beat left Phan in fourth place.
He had K-Q to Pham's Q-6 and a 6 flopped.
Pham
at this point had over 100k, but dropped
$39,000 of it to Esquerra in a pot that
was capped pre-flop. The river showed
K-8-4-4-A. Pham bet, Esquerra raised and
Pham, holding A-K for top two, gave Esquerra
credit for kings-full, 8s-full or maybe
even quad 4s and made a tremendous laydown.
Esquerra then confirmed he had pocket
kings. The two were now roughly even with
about $90,000 each.
For a long time, chips moved around with
no players getting short. Then Nguyen
lost a few pots, and by hand 88, with
limits at $4,000-$8,000, was down to $2,000,
which he posted on the next hand. Pham
raised with 5h-3h and Esquerra blew up,
even after Pham explained that he thought
the blinds were $4,000-$8,000 and he wanted
to get heads-up with Nguyen cheaply. Nguyen
had Q-10, made a straight, began moving
up and getting more hyper with each pot
he won, loudly proclaiming that he would
capture the tournament.
On hand 104, Esquerra had pocket kings
again, but this time took a big hit when
Pham, with A-2, made a wheel. Esquerra
busted out on the next hand. He capped
the pot pre-flop with A-K, bet his last
$4,000 dark and lost to Pham's pocket
queens. The deal was made and a remarkable
tournament was over.
BIOGRAPHY
Tonight's win is just the latest in David
"The Dragon" Pham's outstanding poker
career. "I got lucky; anybody can win,"
he said modestly. He said he played badly
early in the tournament and played too
many hands because he was tired and wasn't
playing up to his standards since it was
a relatively small buy-in event and wasn't
getting his full attention. As he began
catching cards, however, he got more alert
and began playing his A-game. When the
tournament got down to three and then
two tables, he went on a rush and began
speeding, pushing hands super-aggressively,
which is how he came to the final table
with such a large lead, holding 95,500
of the 245,000 chips in play.
In
no-limit, Pham is known for his inscrutable
play by almost invariably making his pre-flop
raises three times the big blind. In limit,
he said, he is more flexible, basing his
play on his opponents and the stacks on
the table.
Max Shapiro
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