The
Verdict is In!
Mark Seif, former attorney turned poker
pro, makes his case as the shootout champion
Mark
Seif lives his life in the fast lane.
The former defense attorney-turned-poker
pro once made a living defending the most
nefarious members of society. Quick to
point out that our Constitution guarantees
all citizens the right to a fair trial
and the best legal representation possible,
Seif parlayed his love for the law into
a thriving private practice. Seif was
so good at his job that he turned down
cases that could have been exceedingly
lucrative.
As successful as Seif was in his legal
career, his courtroom triumphs came at
a price and extracted a personal toll.
Seif found his profession unfulfilling.
He needed something more. “I used to love
trying cases in court,” Seif explained.
“But what I didn’t like was doing all
of the hours of preparation. I eventually
discovered that what I liked most about
the law was the competition. So
that made me gravitate towards playing
poker.”
Eager
to satisfy those competitive instincts,
Seif started playing poker during his
spare time, mostly in cardrooms scattered
around Los Angeles. Once Seif discovered
a new game with a different battleground,
he became increasingly fascinated with
poker’s subtle nuances. He started playing
in tournaments and became convinced that
he could make a decent living at the game.
It might not have been quite as profitable
as working as a high-profile LA-based
defense attorney, but in poker Seif found
something that was both personally rewarding
and more fun at the poker table.
Stark decisions require vindication. The
notion that anyone would make such a drastic
career change voluntarily can only be
proven right by doing something even more
extraordinary. One means of vindication
is winning a gold bracelet at the World
Series of Poker. It is what Oscars are
to actors, and what Nobel Prizes are to
scientists. On a near-empty stage at 4:15
in the morning at the Rio Pavilion, Mark
Seif’s personal and professional detour
was validated. After years of coming to
the world’s most prestigious poker tournament
and later flying away in disappointment,
Seif finally snapped on poker’s most coveted
piece of jewelry. Winning a case at the
Supreme Court would not have been as satisfying.
Seif’s
victory came in Event #15. The Limit Shootout
championship requires different skills
than are required for standard poker tournaments.
In a shootout, the goal is to outlast
all the players at your table, much like
the way a single-table satellite is played.
The player who wins his/her respective
table moves on to play in the next shootout
round, until the final table takes place
and the champion is determined. Each time
a new shootout begins, all players start
with the same number of chips. So, ‘early’
chip leaders are insignificant in the
grand scheme of shootout strategy. Surviving,
outlasting, and ultimately winning
are the goals.
The
total prize pool amounted to $621,000.
The
final table included the defending champion
for this event, tournament pro Kathy Liebert
– who won her first and only gold bracelet
last year in the shootout event. All players
began with an equal number of chips when
play began:
THE
FINAL TABLE:
SEAT
1: William Shaw
SEAT 2: Mark Seif
SEAT 3: MJ Partin
SEAT 4: Robert Mizrachi
SEAT 5: Aram Zerounian
SEAT 6: Alex Borteh
SEAT 7: Samrane Siharath
SEAT 8: Kathy Liebert
SEAT 9: Quinn Do
Players were eliminated as follows:
9th
Place – MJ Martin failed to win
a pot of any significance during his disappointing
session in the finale. He was ‘all in’
on his final hand with J-8 after the flop
came 9-7-6 but ended up losing to Robert
Mizrachi’s pair of sevens. Martin, from
the Hawaiian island of Maui, has appeared
at several final tables at various tournaments.
But this was his first WSOP in-the-money
finish. Martin earned $12,420 for 9th
place.
8th Place –
Sam Siharath went out a short time later.
He took a terrible beat when he flopped
a set of aces, but ended up losing to
Mark Seif’s straight. Siharath is a Thai-born
Canadian now living in Toronto. His winnings
amounted to $18,630.
7th
Place – Four hours into play, seven
players remained. Five hours into play,
seven players remained. Six hours into
play, seven players remained. Seven hours
into play, seven players remained. Eight
hours into play, seven players remained.
During the intolerable poker epic, Aram
Zerounian established a formidable chip
lead. He scooped up over half of the chips
in play during a monster rush. Finally,
nearing midnight, the defending champion
busted out. Getting low on chips, Liebert
went in with A-3, which was dominated
by Williams Shaw’s A-8. Both players flopped
and ace, but Shaw had the better kicker,
and Liebert was booted off the final table
in 7th place. ‘PokerKat’ collected $24,840.
6th
Place – Incredibly, Aram Zerounian
was the next player to go out. Just as
he went on an early rush, the card avalanche
stopped and Zerounian went ‘all in’ with
A-K on his final hand. Alex Borteh’s pocket
sevens held up, which meant a shockingly
disappointing 6th-place finish for the
electronics manufacturing executive from
Southern California. Zerounian was playing
in his first WSOP ever and could certainly
be proud of the $28,255 in prize money.
5th
Place – Quinn Do, a Vietnamese-born
restaurant owner who now lives in Seattle,
went through several ups and downs at
the final table. When low on chips, he
desperately tried to double up with 2-2
which was topped by Alex Borteh’s 10-9
when the final board showed 8-7-4-9-6.
Quinn Do collected $34,460 in prize money.
4th
Place – Robert Mizrachi, a 26-year-old
real estate investor and poker player,
hung on for 10 hours before finally busting
out. The winner of last year’s Master
Classic in Amsterdam arrived at the final
table hoping to earn his first WSOP victory.
But the best he could do was 4th place.
Mizrachi went out with pocket eights against
Mark Seif’s A-J (a jack flopped). Mizrachi
received $40,465.
3rd
Place – Another hour passed. Then,
another. As the final table entered its
13th hour, fatigue on the players’ faces
became the most obvious tells. Smiles
and casual conversation were replaced
by blank stares and silence. Finally,
Alex Borteh went out when he ran cold
during a half-hour spell, during which
his marginal chip stack shrunk to the
felt. Borteh, a 22-year-old poker professional
from Columbus, OH, earned $46,885 for
3rd place.
2nd
Place – When heads-up play began,
both players were locked into a dead heat.
Bill Shaw had a 337,000 to 336,000 chip
lead. But that disappeared over a 30-minute
span during which Seif appeared to get
a good rush of cards. With Seif holding
a 2-to-1 chip lead, he was dealt K-Q and
made a straight when the final board showed
A-J-2-10-7. That hand ended the tournament
as what remained of a standing only crowed
rushed to the stage to congratulate the
latest WSOP winner.
The runner up was William Shaw, age 53,
who worked as a musician before turning
to poker playing. Shaw has quite a story
in his own right. He once played drums
with legendary rock band The Rolling Stones
and blues great Johnny Lee Hooker. He
banged out $93,770 for 2nd place.
1st Place –
Mark Seif is a 37-year-old resident of
Incline Village, NV – adjacent to Lake
Tahoe. Prior to this victory, Seif had
cashed or won at nearly every major tournament
in the country. His tournament resume
lacked only one significant detail, which
was completed on this night.
“I’ve
had the monkey on my back the last few
years here at the World Series,” Seif
admitted afterward. “I am really, really
happy to finally get it off and win one
of these.”
When
asked about the excruciating amount of
time it took to accomplish the victory,
Seif gave the victory some sense of perspective:
“It took 14 long hours for me to win this
event playing against a lot of very good
players. I don’t care if it took me 24
or 34 hours – I was prepared to do it.
I’ve waited 10 years for this.”
Case
dismissed.
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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