You
Gotta’ have Faith:
Pat Poels quits his job, plays poker,
and wins $270,100
How
many recreational poker players could
walk up to their spouses and say with
a straight face, “I’m going to quit
my job to play poker for a living.”
Pat
Poels did.
About
a year ago, Poels, a 37-year-old father
of three from Mesa, AZ, received the approval
and encouragement of his wife to leave
a secure, good-paying job in order to
pursue a dream. “She actually wanted me
to become a pro poker player,” Poels explained
of the situation, as a confused poker
audience scratched their collective heads
and wondered if they were hearing voices.
That faith paid off when Pat Poels crushed
a record-field of 699 players in the $1,500
buy-in Omaha High-Low world championship
and won a whopping $270,100 in prize money.
No
one -- sans Mrs. Poels who sat in the
front row cheering on her husband -- could
have predicted that Poels would end up
with his first gold bracelet. Consider
what happened on Day One, when there were
still about 200 players remaining and
blinds were at 100-200. Poels lost a big
pot and was down to just 300 in chips
– barely enough to see a few more hands.
Amazingly, Poels was just about to get
up from his table and leave when he was
‘all in’ with an ace, and spiked an ace
on the river – good for top pair. Those
700 in chips might not have seemed significant
at the time. But a day and a half later,
they would transform a previously-unknown
middle-limit pro from the Phoenix area
into the latest WSOP champion. In essence,
hitting that ace netted Poels over a quarter-million
dollars in prize money.
There
were other obstacles, as well. The final
table was comprised of four former gold
bracelet winners (and two players with
two wins each – Nguyen and Lukas). Furthermore,
‘Minneapolis Jim’ Meehan was making his
third straight final table appearance
in this event (2003, 2004, and now 2005),
a most impressive accomplishment considering
the large fields and high level of competition.
Poels came in fourth in the chip count:
THE
FINAL TABLE:
SEAT
1: Minh Nguyen 24,000
SEAT 2: Pascal Perrault 27,000
SEAT 3: John Lukas 168,000
SEAT 4: Jeff Duvall 123,000
SEAT 5: Darrell Dicken 190,000
SEAT 6: Boris Shats 106,000
SEAT 7: ‘Minneapolis Jim’ Meehan 87,000
SEAT 8: Dan Heimiller 149,000
SEAT 9: Bahram Kianfar 73,000
SEAT 10: Pat Poels 113,000
Players
were eliminated as follows:
10th
Place – Pascal Perrault’s stay
at the final table was mercifully short.
He arrived with barely enough chips to
cover a round of blinds and was the first
player to exit. Perrault, who is one of
Europe’s top players, has won many poker
events. However, for all his tournament
success, he has yet to win a WSOP bracelet.
Perrault will have to wait at least another
day to have a shot at his first victory
stateside. He cashed for $10,610.
9th
Place – Minh Nguyen, the winner
of two gold bracelets, was the next player
to hit the rail. Like Perrault, Nguyen
arrived desperately short-stacked and
was scooped on his final hand of the night.
Nguyen picked up $19,290 for 9th place.
8th
Place – Russian-born Boris Shats
was eliminated next. The 23-year-old sales
manager, who now lives in Los Angeles,
has been playing poker for only a year.
He picked up 29,940 as the 8th-place finisher.
7th
Place – Darrell Dicken went out
next. The 27-year-old poker pro from Iowa
has made it to three final tables this
year at tournaments elsewhere. Unfortunately,
not much went right for Dicken towards
the end of this event. Dicken arrived
with the chip lead but could do no better
than a 7th-place showing. He did receive
$38,585.
6th Place –
The third time was not a charm for ‘Minneapolis
Jim’ Meehan. The former attorney, who
is now retired and mostly plays high-limit
poker and tournaments for a living, was
making his third consecutive final table
appearance in this event. But Meehan couldn’t
establish any momentum in the closing
stages. Just when it looked as if Meehan
might make a move, he lost a big pot and
was gradually down to the lowest stack.
He was eliminated by Jeff Duvall. $8,230
was paid out for 6th place.
5th
Place – Dan Heimiller was one of
four former gold bracelet winners sitting
at the final table. This was his 11th
career final table appearance. Heimiller
collected $57,785 for 5th place.
4th
Place – Pat Poels took the chip
lead and shifted into high gear. He became
the most aggressive player at the final
table, and the modification of strategy
served him well. While opponents tended
to play more timidly, Poels constantly
applied pressure and won more than his
fair share of pots. The same could not
be said for Bahram Kranfar. The Iranian-born
retiree now living in Palm Desert, CA,
went out next and collected $67,525. That
left Poels with a 3 to 1 chip lead.
3rd
Place – Jeff Duvall, a London-based
professional poker player, has previously
made it to a final table at the WSOP.
At age 56, Duvall now says that poker
has become a ‘young man’s sport.” But
by the looks of this final table, the
older generation was doing just fine (eight
of the 10 finalists were 40 years of age
or older – which some might say is typical
of Omaha events). Duvall was the next
player to exit, in 7th place – good for
$77,170.
The
heads-up duel was a clash of backgrounds
and styles. John Lukas was a two-time
gold bracelet winner facing Pat Poels,
a player who was making his first WSOP
final table appearance. But Poels came
into the battle with at least one crucial
advantage. He had more chips – 600,000
to about 450,000. Limits were 15,000-30,000,
which meant the duel was certain to continue
for a while. Lukas made a small move and
drew close to even in chips with Poels.
Then, after about an hour of heads-up
play, disaster struck Lukas.
Poels
scooped five consecutive pots.
No
player, not even the best player in the
world, could survive the onslaught of
a card rush, which is exactly what happened.
Poels made two-pair twice, a flush, a
straight and won one pot with an uncalled
bet, which ended the tournament at 3:35
am in front of a nearly empty room of
yawning, blurry-eyed spectators. Given
that play on Day One took 14 hours, and
play on Day Two took another 15 hours,
Poels’ victory was not so much a raw exhibition
of poker success, but perhaps more fittingly,
an exercise in the art of stamina and
survival.
The
runner up was John Lukas, a former Vietnam
veteran who is now retired and lives in
Las Vegas. Lukas won his gold bracelets
in Razz (1983) and Seven-Card Stud High-Low
Split (1985). Afterward, he was consoled
by his wife, who joined Lukas on what
was the night of the couple’s 44th wedding
anniversary. Lukas fell just short of
what would have been gold bracelet number
three, and was visibly disappointed that
he did not win. Lukas did handle the defeat
with style and grace and deserved every
bit of the 2nd-place prize money, totaling
$139,870.
The new $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low world
champion is Pat Poels. However, the real
winner was the entire Poels Family --
for believing, for trusting, and for having
the courage to allow a man to pursue a
dream. For some, dreams do come true.
Note: The defending champion of this
event was Curtis Bibb, formally from Las
Vegas, NV. In 2004, Bibb topped a (then-record)
field of 374 players and won $160,000.
Sadly, the defending champ passed away
about two months before the start of this
year’s World Series. Everyone in the universal
poker family, especially World Series
of Poker staff, wish to extend our most
sincere condolences to Mr. Bibb’s family.
He will be sorely missed.
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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