Event
#4
Mark
Seif, a Los Angeles-based criminal attorney
and regular on the poker tournament circuit
, blistered through the final table in
record time to capture his first World
Poker Open title. Seif took just 77 minutes
to personally knock-out seven of his eight
opponents at the final table in the $500
buy-in No-Limit Holdem event. It was the
second-largest field in World Poker Open
history, with a whopping 555 entries.
Play
started with a $500 ante and blinds at
$2K-$4K. Play was tight early, until an
absolutely stunning hand developed. Mickey
Baldwyn made a $10K pre-flop raise with
Q-Q. Barry Shulman looked down and saw
10-10 and re-raised all-in. Everyone else
folded around to Mark Seif in the big
blind. Amazingly, Seif woke up with A-A
and also moved all-in. Baldwyn called
and both players were mortified to be
left staring at Seif's pocket aces. "No
funny stuff," Seif shouted out as
the dealer tabled the flop. Five low cards
fell and Seif had not only increased his
chip position up to $250K, but he had
also taken out two of the biggest stacks.
"When I looked at my hole cards,
I said to myself -- give me two aces!"
Seif said later. It took several minutes
for the buzz in the room to quiet down
after the hand.
Mickey
Baldwyn, from Tupelo, Mississippi collected
$4,307 for 9th place. Barry Shulman, the
owner and publisher of Card Player magazine
and a former bracelet winner at the World
Series of Poker, took $5,384 for 8th place.
Jody
Simon came in lowest on chips, but still
managed to move up the money ladder. He
was down
to his final $10K and decided to make
his final stand of the night with A-2
of hearts. Wendell Teets faded the all-in
bet with K-J and was delighted to see
a king come out on the flop. The final
board, K-7-3-Q-3, gave Teets two-pair
and put Simon out in 7th place. Simon,
an auctioneer from Houston who plays poker
four nights a week and specializes primarily
in single-table satellites, collected
$6,729.
Next,
it was John Womack to make an unwanted
exit. Womack caught 10-9 suited in the
blind and called a raise enough to go
all-in. Unfortunately, Mark Seif was sitting
on top of A-K which held up and knocked
out Womack in 6th place. Womack, who is
a retired former government attorney,
said afterward, "That's the best
hand I had at the final table. I had to
go in with something." Nevertheless,
Womack took $9,421 back to Florida.
Wendell
Teets won his seat in this event a few
months earlier by playing in an online
tournament sponsored by the Internet site,
PokerPages.Com. Teets, who is a student
at the PokerSchool Online, outlasted 500
other players and made the final table.
However, Teets took the worst of it when
he moved all-in with Q-J suited, which
was called immediately by (you guessed
it) Mark Seif with Q-Q. It was an awful
predicament for Teets, who failed to catch
a much-needed miracle. Teets, an Chief
Petty Officer on active duty for the U.S.
Navy, was sunk in 5th place -- good for
a $12,113 paycheck.
A
few hands later, Bill Eichel made a nice
move when he doubled-up with A-Q suited
against Seif's A-J. That key hand left
Seif with a 2-1 chip lead over Eichel
-- with Asher Derei and David Bach still
in. Seif's chip position was threatened
a short time later when Bach's pocket
aces held up to win a $60K pot. After
the flop came J-6-6, Seif moved all-in
with J-10 and was quickly called by Bach
with the pocket rockets. Unfortunately,
Asher Derei was unable to accummulate
chips late in the tournament. He tried
to steal the blinds and antes with A-4
and was called by Seif with A-7. Both
players flopped a pair, with Seif's 7s
as the better hand. Derei, a native of
Israel who now lives in Southern California
and has made the money in several big
tournaments, took $16,151 for 4th place.
Seif
was now comfortably in the lead with $240K.
Bill Eichel had a chance to cut into that
lead when he was dealt 4-4, a slight favorite
versus Seif's A-K. Eichel was willing
to take the chance to double through,
but when the final board showed K-9-2-Q-5,
he was knocked out of the tournament.
Of the close to 50-50 proposition Eichel
later said, "I won a lot of coin
flips to get here, but lost that one."
Eichel, who is a South Dakota farmer as
well as a highly respected poker player
amongst his peers, finished in 3rd place
-- good for $25,572.
Heads-up
play began with Seif holding a dominant
6-1 chip lead over David Bach. But Bach
wasn't quite willing to accept second-prize
just yet. Bach doubled-up when he moved
all-in with J-3 after the flop came J-6-3.
Seif called with J-8, but failed to catch
an 8 or pair the board for a split pot.
The hand put Bach to within one big pot
of drawing even, as the chip counts stood
at approximately $300K for Seif and $140K
for Bach.
But
that's as close as Bach would get on this
night. Bach's final concerto was played
out when he moved all-in with A-K and
was called by Seif with 5-5. The board
was dealt, which ultimately showed 9-9-7-6-2
giving Seif two pair. More important,
the final hand gave Seif his first World
Poker Open victory.
The
second-place finisher, David Bach is a
professional bowler. In recent years,
he has traveled around the country on
the pro bowling tour. Bach noted that
there are "striking" similarities
between poker and bowling. Both involve
lots of pressure, although Bach says the
pressure in bowling is both mental and
physical -- whereas with poker it's mostly
mental. He won $51,143 for playing poker
in his "spare" time.
Mark Seif is a true poker champion who
has earned his victory by spending the
last several years playing tournament
poker. Seif also worked for many years
before that as a highly-successful criminal
defense attorney in Los Angeles. As evidenced
by his impressive victory, the final verdict
on Seif as a great poker player is "guilty
as charged." The final verdict amounted
to $99,595.
-- by Nolan Dalla
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