Viva
La France! Paul Testud, from Paris,
Captures JBWPO Seven-Card Stud Event
A
star-studded lineup of poker veterans
took their seats on Day Two of $1,000
buy-in Seven-Card Stud event at the 2004
Jack Binion World Poker Open. Six of the
eight finalists had previously made final
tables at this tournament, making it the
one of the more intriguing matchups at
this year�s event.
Mark
Seif, who won the $500 Limit Holdem event
last year, arrived at the final table
with the chip lead. However, with betting
limits at $1K-2K all it took was a few
hands to quickly change things.
Twenty
minutes into play, short-stacked Steve
Raphael became the first casualty, when
he began with four diamonds, but caught
three successive blanks to exit in eighth
place. Raphael started with (7-2) 3-9
of diamonds, then caught three consecutive
bad cards, while Humberto Brenes made
two pair -- Kings and Jacks. Raphael,
a salesman from Kansas City who has enjoyed
success in small poker tournaments, cashed
for $2,314.
John
Bonetti then won a key pot against Mark
Seif, making an extraordinary call on
seventh-street with a lone pair of 6s
against a scary looking board by Seif,
who showed face cards. Bonetti snapped
off the pure bluff by Seif and won $16K
in the pot, taking almost half of Seif's
stack away.
John
Womack, a retired government attorney,
has made three final tables here at the
JBWPO. He was short on chips and made
his final appeal with split 4s. The motion
was denied by Paul Testud. His final hand
showed (A-4) 4-2-Q-10 (9) which was topped
by Testud's pair of Jacks. Womack, a good
Samaritan who works on behalf of handicapped
children in his spare time, received a
consolation prize of $3,087 for seventh
place.
"Irish
Mike" Pilkington wasn't so lucky when
he caught Aces and Threes against Humerto
Brenes' bigger two pair -- As and 6s.
Pilkington was the next player to go out,
in sixth place. Pilkington, who has made
many final tables and who has won two
majors in his poker career, received $3,858.
Mark
Seif had just about everything go wrong
at today's final table. He bled away chips
early and then lost a number of key pots
until he was down to just a fraction of
his initial stack. On his last hand, Seif
was dealt (A-5) 2-3-Q-3 (J), which lost
to Humberto Brenes' (8-8) K-10-9-7 (10)
-- two pair. Seif, who has won several
major tournament in his impressive tournament
career, went out a very disappointing
fifth place, receiving $4,629. An interesting
side note -- Seif holds the all-time JBWPO
record for (winning) the fastest final
table � clocking in at 77 minutes. Coincidentally,
it was exactly 77 minutes into the final
table when Seif was eliminated from this
event.
Brenes ($35K) had a small chip lead over
Bonetti ($29K) when four-handed action
commenced. Limits increased to $1500-3000.
Harold Winters started with a big hand
when he played hidden Aces against Bonetti's
hidden Nines. When Winters made two pair,
Aces and Threes, he was "all-in." Bonetti
won the hand with (9-9) 5-A-7-9 (4) to
Winters' (A-A) 3-J-3-4 (Q). Winters, who
lives in Atlantic City eight months out
of the year playing high-limit stud, added
$5,401 to his poker bankroll for fourth
place.
The
three finalists represented three countries
from three different continents -- Costa
Rica (Brenes), Testud (France), and Bonetti
(U.S.A.). John Bonetti was in classic
form at this final table. The cantankerous
ex-Brooklynite chastised everyone around
him, and put on a show that left half
the audience laughing, and the other half
wondering who the grumpy old man in the
Five Seat was. But when play became three-handed,
Bonetti became his lovable self and said
-- It's a pleasure to play with such fine
gentlemen."
Brenes
wasn't very gentlemanly when he knocked
out Bonetti about 15 minutes later. With
limits at $2K-4K Bonetti ran into a roaring
freight train when his (3-3) 8-8-4-7 (3)
made Threes-full against Brenes' (Q-4)
Q-8-4-7 (Q) -- good for Queens-full. Bonetti,
who has won millions of dollars over the
past decade on the tournament circuit,
including two third-place finishes in
the main event at the World Series of
Poker, received $9,259 for third place.
That left Costa Rica to face France for
the championship. When heads-up play began,
Brenes had a 3 to 2 chip advantage. They
battled for nearly two hours hour before
Testud won several key pots -- including
a monster hand where he made 5s full of
Jacks against Brenes' wheel -- and took
a 3 to 1 chip lead. Limits went up again
to $5K-10K and soon thereafter, the final
hand was dealt as follows:
Brenes:
(Q-4) Q-J-4-K (2)
Testud: (7-7) 7-3-10-K (J)
On
the hand, Brenes started with split Queens.
Testud started with a monster hand --
rolled up Sevens. Brenes was "all-in"
by fifth-street with two pair, but he
failed to improve and lost to Testud's
trip-Sevens.
Humberto
Brenes, who won the JBWPO championship
event in 2002, was the runner up in this
event. The popular Costa Rican collected
$17,745 in prize money.
Parisian
Paul Testud won his biggest tournament
to date, after several years of in-the-money
finishes and final tables. Tunica, Mississippi
has never looked so appealing to a Frenchman.
-- by Nolan Dalla
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