Keeping
up with the Brunsons-Chans-Seidels-Iveys-Cunninghams-and
Greensteins:
David Chiu wins
WSOP gold bracelet Number Four and $347,410
in Omaha High-Low championship
David
Chiu regularly plays in the highest-limit
cash games in the world. Sitting in ‘the
big game,’ there are players that every
poker aficionado would recognize – names
like Brunson, Greenstein, Chan, Cunningham,
Ivey, Seidel, and others. In a game where
winning or losing six-figures is not unusual
but probable, one might expect any debate
about winning poker tournaments to be
inconsequential. Then again, the World
Series of Poker is no ordinary tournament.
David
Chiu watched the first month of this year’s
World Series and saw all of his friends
winning gold bracelets. Allen Cunningham
won his fourth (Event #2). Erik Seidel
won his seventh (Event #9). Barry Greenstein
won his second (Event #19). Johnny Chan
won his tenth (Event #25). Phil Ivey won
his fifth (Event #27). Doyle Brunson won
his tenth (Event #31). Left out of the
celebration, Chiu must have felt like
the poor kid who wasn’t invited to the
birthday party.
Even
a quiet, low-profile professional poker
player like David Chiu has an enormous
amount of pride. The last thing he wanted
to go through when he returned to the
big game was hear all the chatter about
gold bracelets. So, Chiu – a three-time
winner -- had to go out and get yet another
gold bracelet on his own.
And
that’s exactly what he did.
This
was the biggest Omaha High-Low tournament
in history. For the first time ever, an
Omaha High-Low event generated a prize
pool in excess of one million dollars.
After 215 players were eliminated on the
first two days, the nine finalists returned
to the final table on Day Three. Daniel
Horowitz, from Las Vegas, arrived as the
chip leader. Two of the finalists were
former gold bracelet winners – Allen Cunningham
(a 4-time winner) and David Chiu (a 3-time
winner, coming in):
The
Final Table:
SEAT
1: Russ "The Muscle" Salzer 223,000
SEAT 2: David Chiu 135,000
SEAT 3: Haim Kakoun 135,000
SEAT 4: Hiroshi Shimamura 113,000
SEAT 5: Stephen Ladowsky 109,000
SEAT 6: Danny Shak 95,000
SEAT 7: Bueno Patrick 42,000
SEAT 8: Allen Cunningham 76,000
SEAT 9: Daniel Horowitz 196,000
Players
were eliminated in the following order:
9th
– Daniel Shak is accustomed to
gambling. The oil futures trader from
Pennsylvania sat down in a less volatile
game of speculation (poker playing) and
his investment paid off handsomely. Shak’s
$5,000 buy-in returned $21,055 in just
three days. Annualized, that’s a return
of 29,426 percent. Wall Street and the
futures market can’t do much better than
that.
8th
– Bueno Patrick. a 39-year-old
businessman from Paris, France has previous
made final table appearances at major
tournaments in Europe. This was his first
WSOP final. Unfortunately, the Frenchman
was short-stacked and was the second player
to exit. Eighth place paid $31,585.
7th
– Allen Cunningham was making his
third final table appearance at this year’s
WSOP (the most of any player, to date).
He hoped to become this year’s second
two-time winner (Mark Seif is the only
duel winner). But Cunningham caught a
bad run of cards early and went out in
7th place. Another three days of work
-- another $42,110 in prize money for
Mr. Cunningham.
6th
-- Hiroshi Shimamura is one of
only a few tournament players from Japan,
which is potentially one of poker’s brightest
markets. Shimamura, a.k.a. ‘BlueJay’ flew
away in 7th place when his A-2-4-9 was
crushed by Haim Kakoun’s A-A-8-9. Shimamura
said sayonara and collected $52,640.
5th
– Stephen Ladowsky, a businessman
from Toronto was playing in his second
poker tournament ever. He had a fabulous
run, topping a tough field and finishing
5th. His final hand was A-3-8-10 against
Russ Salzer’s 2-4-4-7 (suited clubs).
The board showed A-6-J-10-2, with three
clubs. The flush froze the Canadian in
5th place – good for $63,170 for The Big
Ladowsky.
4th – Danny
Horowitz was the early chip leader but
went card dead as the limits increased.
He was getting low on chips and went out
with a hand that was not shown. Haim Kakoun
made kings-full, and Horowitz took a walk.
The 24-year-old poker pro from Las Vegas
– who concentrates mostly on high-stakes
game (he says he rarely play tournaments)
booked a nice win in this event -- $84,225
for 4th place.
3rd
– Haim Kakoun was born in Casablanca,
Morocco. He now lives in France. The import-export
business owner, who plays mostly in Europe,
went out when his two pair (Ks-Qs) was
cut down to size by two higher pair (As-8s)
and a made-low. David Chiu and Russ Salzer,
who split the pot, feasted on Kakoun’s
last chips like starving wolves. Kakoun
collected $105,280.
2nd
Place – When heads-up play began,
the chips counts were very close. Chiu
led about 600,000 to Salzer’s 520,000.
Limits were set at 15,000-30,000. It took
about 40 minutes for Chiu to defeat his
last opponent. The tournament could have
gone either way, but Chiu caught a nice
tailwind that ultimately pushed him across
the finish line. On the final hand, Chiu
had his opponent dominated with A-3-5-K
versus Salzer’s A-5-6-Q. With a better
high and a better low draw (and two diamonds),
Chiu watched as the flop came Q-J-9 (one
diamond). Chiu called Salzer’s bet and
then watched as a second diamond fell
on board (4d). Salzer bet again and Chiu
called. When the 7d fell on the river,
Chiu had the stone cold nuts with the
made-diamond flush and Salzer was busted
in second place.
The
runner up was Russ ‘the Muscle’ Salzer,
from New York City. The Muscleman has
made it to many final tables in the past,
here at the WSOP and at major tournaments
around the country. He received $191,610.
1st
Place – David Chiu, age 44, was
born in China. He first worked as a dealer
years ago when small stakes poker games
were legalized in Colorado. Chiu gradually
played his way up in limits and won as
much peer-respect as money along the way.
In recent years, Chiu has taken his place
amongst the biggest and best players in
the world. He won his first WSOP gold
bracelet in 1996. He also won the Tournament
of Champions in 1999.
Brunson, Chan, and the rest -- are all
bona fide poker legends. Maybe it’s now
time to put David Chiu into the
same category.
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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