Just
Like Fine Wine:
T.J. Cloutier gets better with age –
65-year-old poker superstar wins gold
bracelet number six
History
was made tonight when poker legend T.J.
Cloutier won gold bracelet number six.
His victory in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit
Hold’em championship marked his 58th major
tournament win during the past 20 years.
More important, the $657,100 first prize
rocketed him up into second place on the
all-time World Series of Poker money-winnings
list. It almost didn’t happen.
The
(now) six-time champ, who has probably
taken more bad beats than anyone in WSOP
history (recall his disastrous bad beat
heads-up versus Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson
in the 2000 championship), actually drew
out on an opponent when play was six-handed,
spiking a six-outer the effectively propelled
him across the finish line four hours
later.
That decisive hand took place when opponent
Neal Wang had 9-9 versus Cloutier’s A-Q.
With the river still to be dealt, Cloutier
desperately needed to catch a pair to
survive. Wham! A queen fell from the sky,
an archangel of a card that exercised
the demons of World Series pasts. For
an instant, the bad karma of getting all
the money in with the best hand, only
to lose, had been reversed. “It sure felt
good to suck out on someone for a change,”
Cloutier chuckled later.
Of
the 13 events held so far, this final
table was unquestionably the most theatrical.
It marked the return of the explosive
77-year-old Brooklyn-born John Bonetti
to poker’s grandest stage. It also featured
a complete newcomer to tournament poker
who was making his first-ever final table.
Steve Zoine picked up a book by T.J. Cloutier
(co-authored with Tom McEvoy), read through
it, and decided to come to Las Vegas to
see if he could play poker with the very
best. He couldn’t possibly have imagined
that just two days after getting off the
plane, he would be sitting across the
table from the author, battling Cloutier
for a gold bracelet. Then, there was Cloutier
himself, less than two years removed from
suffering a serious heart attack and now
back where he belongs, sitting at a final
table playing for a poker championship.
The total prize pool amounted to $2,190,200.
The final table included four former gold
bracelet winners – T.J. Cloutier (with
5 wins going in); John Bonetti (with 3
wins); Tony Ma (with 2 wins); and John
‘World’ Hennigan (with 2 wins). But it
was 37-year-old self-employed Neal Wang,
from Los Angeles, who had a dominant chip
lead when play began:
THE
FINAL TABLE:
SEAT
1: Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf Los Angeles,
CA $233,000
SEAT 2: Todd Brunson Las Vegas, NV $16,000
SEAT 3: Jason Berilgen Houston, TX $159,000
SEAT 4: Gavin Smith Las Vegas, NV $142,000
SEAT 5: Neal Wang Los Angeles, CA $630,500
SEAT 6: T.J. Cloutier Richardson, TX $281,500
SEAT 7: John Hennigan Philadelphia, PA
$363,500
SEAT 8: Hieu "Tony" Ma South El Monte,
CA $61,000
SEAT 9: John Bonetti Houston, TX $248,000
SEAT 10: Steven Zoine Merrick, NY $194,500
With
ESPN television cameras rolling, players
were eliminated as follows:
10th
Place – Gavin Smith suffered a
disastrously short stay at the final table.
The latest poker ‘millionaire’ (Smith
won a major tournament here in Las Vegas
last month) lost most of his chips with
A-Q versus A-K to John Hennigan. Then
desperately low on chips, he made one
last futile attempt to get back into contention
and was pummeled into defeat by TJ Cloutier.
Smith, a college dropout originally from
Canada, picked up $24,090 in prize money.
9th
Place – Hieu ‘Tony’ Ma, a.k.a.
‘Tony the Tiger’ has won two gold bracelets
at the World Series. But he could do no
better than 8th place in this event. Ma
moved ‘all in’ before the flop with A-K
and was covered by Cloutier’s 3-3. Ma
failed to catch a pair which meant the
49-year-old poker pro originally from
Vietnam was out. His take amounted to
$48,805.
8th Place – Todd
Brunson arrived at the final table on
life support with just enough chips to
post the blinds, but managed to jump two
steps up the money ladder. Brunson failed
to ever seriously threaten any of the
larger stacks and was finally eliminated
when his A-3 was topped by Steven Zoine’s
K-J. A jack flopped and Brunson was out.
His cut of the tournament loot amounted
to $65,705.
7th
Place – Dustin ‘Neverwin’ Woolf
howled on his final hand when he was dealt
A-7 versus Steven Zoine’s 5-5. All of
Woolf’s chips went into the pot after
the flop came A-4-5. Ooops. Bad timing.
Zoine flopped a set of fives, turned and
full-house, and ripped into Woolf like
a dead carcass, devouring his chips. Woolf
vanished in 7th place – good for $87,610.
That key pot gave Zoine the chip lead,
a position he would hold for the next
three hours.
6th Place –
After Cloutier caught his miracle queen
to avoid elimination, it was time for
another player to leave the poker stage.
John ‘World’ Hennigan always makes the
“toughest opponent” list any time a poll
is taken as to which players pose the
greatest challenges. Hennigan, a sky-high
cash game player who won a gold bracelet
last year, appeared to be in good position
to challenge the new chip leader. But
a few tough beats took away most of Hennigan’s
stack. He was eliminated four hours into
play when his A-10 was flattened by Cloutier’s
pocket aces. Hennigan walked away quietly
in 6th place, which paid $109,510.
5th
Place – Jason ‘Doc’ Berilgen was
another remarkable success story at this
final table. The 27-year-old medical doctor
who specializes in treating cancer (currently
on staff at world-renowned M.D. Anderson
in Houston) was playing at the WSOP for
the first time. He managed to finish ahead
of 461 of the world’s toughest players.
Doc Berilgen was dealt 6-6 against John
Bonetti’s K-K. Berilgen failed to catch
a six, which meant the good doctor was
discharged. Fifth-place paid $131,410.
4th
Place – Coming to the final table
with the chip lead has been a bad omen.
Remarkably, through 13 events only two
players have gone on to capture victory
thus far, after arriving with the big
stack. Neal Wang added to the curse by
coming in with nearly a 2 to 1 advantage,
losing the lead about midway through,
and then finally going out. He was eliminated
by Steven Zoine, who was starting to become
the table bully. Wang’s payout amounted
to $153,315.
3rd Place –
Each of the last two events here have
featured ‘all gold’ when play became three-handed.
In Events #11 and #12, each final trio
included players who had previously won
titles at the World Series. That was almost
the case in this event, too – except that
Steve Zoine wouldn’t cooperate. Cloutier
and Bonetti had eight bracelets between
them. Meanwhile, Zoine had stepped off
a plane 48 hours earlier, read one poker
book (Cloutier’s) and was now showing
the old masters a thing two about tournament
poker.
Cantankerous
curmudgeon John Bonetti tinkered on the
verge of elimination all night and managed
to stay in the game with a few well-timed
big hands. Muttering profanities under
his breath during the cold spells, Bonetti
gave the audience the drama it was expecting,
playing off his alter-ego and longtime
rival Cloutier. The two Texans (Cloutier
from Dallas and Bonetti from Houston,
by way of his native New York) bantered
back and forth while Steven Zoine kept
quiet mostly, protecting the chip lead.
Then, a big hand broke out. With both
players very close to even in chips, Cloutier
was a dealt Q-Q and Bonetti was dealt
A-K. It was a classic confrontation in
every sense of the word, as both poker
legends faced-off to see who would get
a chance to play heads-up for another
gold bracelet. Cloutier won that privilege
when Bonetti failed to pair his overcards.
Bonetti, normally one of poker’s most
combustible personalities when defeated,
managed to put on a smile for the television
cameras and congratulated his two opponents.
It was a great scene to watch Bonetti
make it to the finale, and walk away with
a big prize ($175,215) only a few days
following his 77th birthday.
2nd
Place – A final table that was
filled with theatrics was about to get
a few encores. One of the biggest hands
of the tournament took place when Zoine,
with a slight chip lead was dealt 6-6.
Cloutier was dealt J-9. The flop came
10-8-7 and Cloutier had to re-focus his
eyes. He flopped the nut straight. Zoine
was prepared to be done with the underpair,
then after both players checked the flop,
a six landed on the turn – giving Zoine
trips. That lit a fuse under both players
as a flurry of raises broke out and Cloutier
was ‘all in.’ Zoine was one card away
from pairing the board, which would have
given him a remarkable upset victory.
It wasn’t to be. A blank fell on the river
and Cloutier seized a massive chip lead.
Whatever
Cloutier wrote in his book, it must have
worked. Most players might have given
up at that point after losing such a heartbreaker,
but Zoine made Cloutier earn every cent
of his 657 grand. First, he doubled up
with A-J against Cloutier’s pocket kings
(catching an ace on the turn). Then, a
while later down by a margin of 1,400,000
to 900,000, he had a golden opportunity
to re-gain the chip lead. On the final
hand of the night, Zoine opened for 50,000,
which was re-raised to 300,000 by Cloutier.
Zoine moved ‘all in” and Cloutier called
instantly. Zoine showed A-K against Cloutier’s
A-5. The flop came 9-8-6, giving Cloutier
a straight draw. Miraculously, a seven
spiked on the turn, which gave Cloutier
the inside straight and his sixth gold
bracelet.
The
runner up, Steven Zoine played as well
as anyone in history for a first-time
effort. He was quick to acknowledge Cloutier’s
influence on improving his game and experienced
a surreal two days in Las Vegas. Not many
tourists can say they played with the
very best, appeared on national television,
and made $352,620 while on vacation.
1st Place –
This was T.J. Cloutier’s 47th time in-the-money
at the World Series of Poker (one finish
behind Berry Johnston and Phil Hellmuth)
and 37th final table appearance (he holds
the all-time record). Cloutier has now
won over $3.7 million at the WSOP in lifetime
earnings and is second only to last year’s
$5 million winner, Greg Raymer. Perhaps
most remarkable of all is the fact that
Cloutier has now cashed 19 consecutive
years at the WSOP, dating all the way
back to 1986.
“It
always feels good to win,” Cloutier said
afterward. “I’m not ready for the pasture
just yet. I still have a few more wins
left in me. (John) Bonetti was here tonight
and he’s 12 years older than me. So, maybe
I can still be doing it when I’m his age.
Compared to him, I’m still a kid.”
Official Report
by Nolan Dalla – World Series of
Poker Media Director
World
Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations
– Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director
– John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael
Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert
Daily
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