We’re
Not in Kansas Anymore:
After second- and third-place finishes
in previous stud high-low championships,
Steve Hohn finally takes the gold bracelet
Everybody
tells me I look like a conservative poker
player. But that’s not really true. What
I love about high-low games is how creative
you can be. You can play a board a different
way than might be expected. You can read
your opponents better. I like to play
games where I have more control.
-- Steve Hohn (2005 WSOP Seven-Card Stud
High-Low Champion)
It
was the longest Seven-Card Stud High-Low
event in poker tournament history. Clocking
in at just over of 36 total hours, Event
#14 at this year’s World Series of Poker
was just as much a test of stamina as
poker skill. Day One lasted 14 hours.
Day Two lasted 11 hours. And Day Three
lasted 11 hours. In fact, the third day
extended so long that the midnight hour
was crossed and Day Four began.
The
final heads-up marathon lasted a grueling
193 hands. Sore necks, stooped backs,
and bloodshot eyes were relieved when
56-year-old poker pro Steve Hohn won his
first gold bracelet. For Hohn, the win
was more than gratifying. It was way overdue
and marked the crowning achievement for
ten years spent as a professional.
Hohn
had previously finished second and third
in this event. His runner-up finish came
exactly 10 years ago. His third-place
showing came in 2000. He must have thought
he was trapped in a time warp at one point.
When Hohn got down to a heads-up confrontation
against mighty Mike Wattel, he watched
as his lone opponent built up a mountain
of chips. Down by a seemingly insurmountable
9 to 1 disadvantage, Hohn staged a dramatic
comeback, seized the chip lead, and eventually
closed with a victory as several down
poker zombies looked on with a mix of
exhaustion and disbelief.
Seven-card
stud is known for being an East Coast
game. Until a few years ago, stud (and
its variations such as High-Low Split)
was the most popular game to be found
in Atlantic City and Connecticut, which
are the hotbeds of poker action in the
northeast. Of the eight finalists, three
players were from the East Coast. But
it was the man from Kansas who took the
championship.
The
total prize pool amounted to $541,985.
Due to the large number of entries and
length of the event, a third day was added.
On Day Three the final table included
two former gold bracelet winner – Men
‘the Master’ Nguyen (with 6 wins) and
Mike Wattel (with one win). When play
began, it was a two-player race between
Mike Wattel and Jonathan Paul contending
for the chip lead:
THE
FINAL TABLE:
SEAT
1: Sheila St. Michael 37,500
SEAT 2: Giacomo D'Agostino 17,500
SEAT 3: Men "the Master" 43,500
SEAT 4: Steve Hohn 53,500
SEAT 5: Mike Wattel 155,500
SEAT 6: Peter Phillips 74,000
SEAT 7: Jonathan Paul 151,000
SEAT 8: Al Ruck 61,500
Players
were eliminated as follows:
8th
Place – Giacomo D’Agostino arrived
with the lowest stack, and managed to
survive a few ‘all in’ situations before
the odds finally dictated elimination.
On his final hand, D’Agostino made two
pair -- kings and jacks -- but lost to
Jonathan Paul’s trip fives. The 76-year-old
retiree from Rhode Island collected $14,080
for 8th place.
7th Place –
Men ‘the Master” was shooting for his
seventh gold bracelet, and given the results
of recent tournaments where so many big
names have won, his confidence was justified.
Unfortunately, the cards didn’t cooperate.
The Corona-slugging poker pro arrived
with too few chips and wasn’t able to
recover from a cold early run. On his
final hand, Men the Master had a 7-low
draw with a pair of fours. He bricked
on the final card (no low, no improvement)
and lost to Steve Hohn’s two pair -- queens
and jacks. Seventh place paid $20,035.
6th
Place – Sheila Marie St. Michael,
also known as ‘the Kissing Bandit,’ was
down to her last 15,000, which was barely
enough to play one hand with limits at
6,000-12,000. St. Michael, the fifth female
player to make it to a final table so
far this year, went out in 6th place,
good for $25,450. St. Michael is best
known at the WSOP for her 4th-place finish
in the women’s event in 1999.
5th
Place – Peter Phillips struggled
to stay alive during his final hour. The
70-year-old Atlantic City retiree was
dealt (9-4) 4-7-6 on his last hand, then
caught two bricks which failed to improve
the hand. Phillips, who has made final
table appearances at major tournaments
in the East Coast, earned $32,485 for
5th place.
4th
Place – Down to four players, it
was still anyone’s tournament to win –
although Mike Wattel and Steve Hohn were
neck and neck in chips. As play entered
the fourth hour, Jonathan Paul was ‘all
in’ with high cards against Al Ruck. But
Ruck was sitting on trip fours, which
effectively killed Paul’s chances to scoop
the high. Jonathan Paul, a 21-year-old
aspiring poker player from Pennsylvania
(he already has two final table appearances
this year at majors held in New York and
Australia), collected $39,525 for 4th
place.
3rd
Place – German poker player Al
Ruck went out next. The 63-year-old retiree
said auf wiedersehen when he lost
two tough hands in a row to Mike Wattel.
On the first hand, Wattel made a full-house
to Ruck’s two pair. Then, Ruck’s small
pair failed to improve and lost to Wattel’s
measly pair of sevens. Ruck ran out of
luck and made a few bucks -- $51,440 to
be exact.
2nd
Place – When heads-up play began,
Mike Wattel enjoyed a 2-to-1 chip lead
over Steve Hohn – 404,000 to 200,000.
The finalists battled for more than four
hours. During the first hour of play,
Wattel started to distance himself from
his rival. He built up an 8-to-1 chip
lead. Just when it appeared Wattel might
finish off the night, Hohn went on a monster
rush and won 8 of 9 pots. That put both
players into a virtual dead heat as midnight
was crossed and the fourth day of the
tournament began. “I always thought I
could come back,” Hohn said later.
Players battled back and forth, until
Hohn was the beneficiary of a favorable
stream of cards. He grabbed the chip lead
and it became obvious that Wattel was
discontented with the turn of events.
Wattel appeared helpless to stop the hemorrhaging
of chips into Hohn’s stack. When he started
with a promising hand, bricks would be
dealt and Wattel would be forced to fold
the hand. Finally, on the 193rd hand of
heads-up play, Wattel moved his final
chips into the pot on fifth-street showing
(7-6) 9-10-7. His opponent Hohn had a
pair of jacks, and nothing more. Hohn
failed to improve which meant Wattel had
an excellent chance to scoop a big pot
when he peeled to look at his final card.
With 18 outs, Hohn missed all of them
(a four came on the final card), and Hohn
was declared the winner.
Mike
Wattel, the winner of the 1999 WSOP Omaha
High-Low championship, was visibly disappointed
with the second-place showing in this
event. Wattel collected $88,800 as the
runner up.
1st
Place – Steve Hohn is a former
stockbroker who was born in St. Louis.
He attended the University of Kansas and
settled down in Overland Park, a suburb
of Kansas City. In 1995, Hohn quit his
job trading stocks to play poker full-time.
That turned out to be a wise decision,
as Hohn has made a living at the game
ever since. He prefers to play in cash
games (about 75 percent of the time, he
says). But coming to the World Series
has special meaning.
“This
gold bracelet means so much to me,” Hohn
said afterward, anticipating that he was
also about to be paid prize money totaling
$156,985. “Back when I finished second
and third, I had a chance to win both
times, but didn’t. I feel like I am a
much better player now than I was then,
so it’s really wonderful to win.”
Hohn
also talked about making the transition
from working a job to playing poker professionally.
“Playing poker to me is less stressful
than working (a regular job),” Hohn said.
“Aside from the luck factor, I feel like
I have more control when I’m playing.
I feel very comfortable playing the game.
With stocks (or in business), you never
know what’s going on. There are all kinds
of things that can blindside you. The
only thing that can blindside you in poker
is the randomness of the cards. If you
can manage that, you can be a winner.”
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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