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ATLARGE III - Results
No Limit Hold'em
We nearly filled our six alloted tables (nine players each) with 52 players
sitting down at 10AM (well, there were a couple of sleep-ins, and David
Hughes, a former BARGE winner, was a no-show (still placing 28th by blinding
out!).
It didn't take too long before the shout of "Presto!" was heard, and
Tony Goldstein (D Karma) took down the mystery prize (The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Gambling like a Pro) with 5h5s. There were at least two other
Presto winners (sorry, no more books), including one that made quad fives!
I won't detail the early bust-outs, but the record shows (my thanks
to Peter Segal for keeping such an accurate record) that the most
popular bust hand was AA (no surprise) with 3 out of 42. The only other
bust hands occuring more than once were AKs (twice) and AK (twice). Surprisingly,
there was only one bust with 55 :-).
The final table got started at 1:35PM (after a break, just 3 1/2 hours
after we started) with nine players (all the tournament tables are stud
tables). Several of the players had entered the 12:15 tournament (also
No limit hold'em) that the Trop spread for the non-rec.gamblers --- what
is the EV of playing two tournaments at once?
| Seat |
Name |
Initial
Chips |
| 1 |
Tom Hummell |
5050 |
| 2 |
Kennedy Lemke |
3025 |
| 3 |
Mordecai Schwartz |
2350 |
| 4 |
Scott Byron |
975 |
| 5 |
John Epehimer |
4625 |
| 6 |
Aaron Packman |
2100 |
| 7 |
Al (Bud) Frampton |
2750 |
| 8 |
Matt Treasure |
3925 |
| 9 |
Tom Oboyle |
1275 |
Despite starting with the shortest stack by far, Scott Byron proved
incredibly resilient, doubling through Matt holding 88 against Matt's AJ
when neither improved. Matt survived an all-in holding AQ versus big-stack
Tom Hummell holding KJ when the board produced a straight and a split-pot.
Al (Bud) Frampton wasn't so lucky confronting Scott with 66 against Scott's
QQ, sending Al to "Tournament 2". By this point, Scott had a stack to be
reckoned with.
Mordecai Schwartz was delighted when Scott put him all-in, holding AA
against Scott's AK pre-flop. Scott began counting out a stack to match
Mordecai's not-inconsiderable one as the dealer flopped Txx, Q, J! This
has to be one of the worst beats of the tournament.
The secret of staying alive seemed to be avoiding going all-in versus
Scott, as Tom Oboyle and Kennedy Lemke each survived all-ins against Tom
Hummell and Aaron Packman, respectively. The rule proved true as short-stacked
Matt Treasure confronted Scott holding A7s against AQ, not finding enough
7's or his suit to win the pot and so finishing in 7th.
The first all-in to lose to anyone other than Scott occured when Tom
Oboyle fearless took his QQ into the fray against John Epehimer who held
KQ, but managed a King on the board to send Tom O home in 6th place. The
sweet victory wasn't enough to sustain John for long though after he bled
off some chips to Tom H, soon followed by an all-in with a lowly 97 against
Scott who won (of course) holding AT.
The next to go was stalwart Kman (Kennedy Lemke, master of the ATLARGE
mailing list) who went all-in with the best hand (AQ) against Tom H holding
J9, which was good enough when a 9 showed up on the board.
We were down to three players after just over an hour at the final table.
I don't have a stack-count, but I think Scott had about half the chips
at this point, with Tom H having a slight lead over Aaron. Aaron soon had
to surrender after taking his 22 against Tom's A4s, which was more than
enough with both an Ace and a 4 on the board. Now it was just a matter
of time before the two remaining players each found a hand they wanted
to play. You can't be too selective when you're the short stack, and Tom
decided to play T7s, which turned out not to be good enough against Scott's
A9s, actually making a flush according to my somewhat sketchy notes.
| Finish |
Name |
Payout |
| 1 |
Scott Byron |
$988 |
| 2 |
Tom Hummell |
$520 |
| 3 |
Aaron Packman |
$390 |
| 4 |
Kennedy Lemke |
$260 |
| 5 |
John Epehimer |
$182 |
| 6 |
Tom Oboyle |
$104 |
| 7 |
Matt Treasure |
$52 |
| 8 |
Mordecai Schwartz |
$52 |
| 9 |
Al (Bud) Frampton |
$52 |
In addition to the top prize, Scott Byron had the privilege of playing
Trop VP Will Espin in a heads-up challenge No Limit Hold'em match (being
a casino officer, this the only way Will can get to play poker in NJ).
The format was set to a quicker pace than the regular tournament, and it
only took 45 minutes before Scott was $500 richer. I watched the contest,
but I didn't really see a lot of showdowns --- Scott just managed to erode
Will's stack until the final hand, which Scott recalled as follows:
"I picked up TT. He called my raise, flop was AA3 with
two hearts, he went all-in with K9 of hearts, I made the call and two pair
held up."
Scott
was simply unbeatable on this Saturday, as he went on to win the East competition
for a WSOP trip later in the evening. [It has been pointed out to me that
Scott didn't win East outright, but took a sweet deal when they got down
to the final two. Jim Vichench had the chip lead, but decided he would
have trouble making it to TARGET, and decided to make Scott a deal.]
Limit Stud
Unfortunately, my notes on the stud tournament are much sketchier --- for
one thing, it's much harder to record all the details of stud confrontations.
Also, I must confess that after busting out myself two hours into the tournament,
I slipped off to lose a little money at $5&10 hold'em in a game with
a line up of mostly other ATLARGErs. I do want to thank Ross Poppel
for keeping an accurate record of the finish order. I did show up in time
to watch the final table action, but did not manage to get a starting chip
count.
| Seat |
Name |
| 1 |
Linda Lewis |
| 2 |
Jim Karlinski |
| 3 |
Al (Bud) Frampton |
| 4 |
Alan Richter |
| 5 |
Irv Kessler |
| 6 |
Paul Hodosh |
| 7 |
Sandi Benditt |
| 8 |
Ray Di Donato |
Very soon after the final table started, Ray Di Donato and Sandi (Siona)
Benditt got knocked out on the same hand. I have Ray in 8th place as having
the shorter stack. Soon thereafter, Jim Karlinski got clipped at the T200/400
level. Irv Kessler was out 15 minutes later, followed by Paul Hodosh when
the betting got up to T300/600, three hours and forty minutes into the
tournament. This left Linda (Llew) with the big stack and Al and Alan about
even. The players made a money deal, but you can be sure no one slacked
off with not only the glory, but also the chance to take on Will Espin
for $500 at stake. It turned out that Linda made a wise decision, because
she was the first eliminated among the last three, about 20 minutes after
the deal. It took only about 5 more minutes before Alan stood alone with
all the chips.
I apologize for the lack of detail in reporting the stud tournament.
I plead exhaustion after two wonderful days (and too much pot limit :-).
I'll try to do better next year. At least, I have the final order of finish
and the official money :-).
| Finish |
Name |
Payout |
| 1 |
Alan Richter |
$740 |
| 2 |
Al (Bud) Frampton |
$462.50 |
| 3 |
Linda Lewis |
$185 |
| 4 |
Paul Hodosh |
$148 |
| 5 |
Irv Kessler |
$111 |
| 6 |
Jim Karlinski |
$92.50 |
| 7 |
Sandi Benditt |
$55.50 |
| 8 |
Ray Di Donato |
$55.50 |
The challenge match versus Will was agreed to be scheduled at the convenience
of the winner. Since Alan was staying in AC another day, they decided to
meet on Monday. Alan reports that his lack of concentration after the long
weekend was not enough to withstand Will's not-inconsiderable skills.
The ATLARGE group can be proud to win half their matches against a very
strong player.
Best All Around
There was some controversy after the FARGO best all-around decision, and
there may be again here (but if you complain too much, you may find
yourself organizing ATLARGE next year :-).. There are innumerable ways
to decide the best overall title, but I think the one I've chosen is fair
and equitable, if not always intuitive. The method awards the prize to
the person with the highest total, where the total is computed as the product
of the number of people beaten (including self) in both events. (This is
equivalent to the product of the ratio of positions.) Although people seem
to think that winning the event with more people should be worth more than
winning the smaller event, it is difficult to decide a fair way of weighting
the events. The method I use weights both events equally --- which seems
appropriate to me as the winner is supposed to show the best all-around
skill.
The top three contenders were the winners of the two events (Scott Byron
and Alan Richter) and Al Frampton (the only player to make both final tables).
The decision was actually extremely close. Scott's score was 52x28 (he
finished 10th in stud) for a total of 1456. Alan finished 12th in hold'em,
and so had a score of 41x37 = 1517. But the honor and the winner's jacket
went to Al Frampton for finishing 9th and 3rd with a score of 44x36 = 1584.
Last year's overall winner (Paul McMullin) was unable to attend because
of the date. Let's hope all these fine players return next year to give
us a great battle.
(Content supplied by Jazbo).
