| WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002
EVENT #6 LIMIT OMAHA
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
$1,500 BUY-IN
$1,500 in chips
POKER UNIVERSITY
Florida State University is known as one of the Top 10 party schools in the country. Nothing that happened at this Final Table is likely to change that perception.
There were 130 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In, Limit Omaha for a total prize pool of $183,300. Two tables were paid, a total of 18 players.
Rene Oliveras is a lucky man. Not because he finished 13th today or that his full house put everyone in the money. Rene is lucky because he's received that rarest of poker blessings. Oliveras has a wife that listens sympathetically to his good and bad beat stories, sharing his enthusiasm for the game, sweating his every move.
The Final Table was setup Wednesday night when Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis flopped top pair with A K J and knocked out two short stacks, David Colclough and Mark Mitchell on the same hand.
THE FINAL TABLE:
66 mins left of 75.
The blind were $1,000/$1,500.
Playing $1,500/$3,000
Seat-----Player------- Hometown-------- ChipCount
Seat 1) Jim Karambinis - Park Ridge, IL. $28,500
Seat 2) 'Miami' John Cernuto - Las Vegas, NV. $43,000
Seat 3) Williard Wellnitz - Rushville, NE. $9,000
Seat 4) Haviv Bahar - Las Vegas, NV. $18,500
Seat 5) Jim Grimes - Houston, TX. $1,500
Seat 6) Randy Holland - Orange, CA. $27,500
Seat 7) Barry Shulman - Las Vegas, NV. $20,000
Seat 8) Phil Hellmuth, Jr - Palo Alto, CA. $31,500
Seat 9) Mickey Appleman - Fort Lee, NJ. $4,500
Seat 10) Dave Russell - Redford, MI. $11,000
For a change, this Final Table didn't have a clear favorite going in. No one had more than 14 big bets. There were 15 WSOP bracelets at the table, so no one was going to be outplayed. The short stacks were in trouble as always, but anyone of seven players had a logical shot at the title. A good rush by any of several players would probably determine the winner.
The second generation of poker nobility was represented by Jim Grimes, son of the famous Tommy Grimes. Jim didn't learn from his father that you should always bring lots of chips to a Final Table. With only $1,500 Jim didn't even
have time for a cup of coffee. John Cernuto picked Grimes off with a flopped set of 3's to Jim's top two pair.
A fine player himself, 'Miami' John's son was sitting in the gallery watching his dad play. It would be no surprise to see both sons at a WSOP Final Table in the future.
It's safe to say that no poker player likes to lose. But few who do lose, do so with less grace than Phil Hellmuth. Even after seven gold bracelets, 32 Final Tables and many millions of dollars in earnings, the fire to win still
burns very high in Phil's gut. What doesn't burn at all is his desire to be civil to his fellow players. When the cards were turned over in an early hand, Phil loudly complained to Barry Shulman about Phil's being check-raised
on the flop when Barry only had top pair. They are funny later, these childish tantrums, but not at the time. Phil has become a physical presence at the table as he's filled out. Always tall at 6'6", Phil isn't skinny anymore. He looks like he could play tight end in the NFL. Standing up,
yelling like a mad man and waving his arms around, while everyone else is sitting down, could actually be frightening to someone who'd never seen this act before. Maybe that's what's intended.
"I'm not done, yet, boys." Phil said after he calmed down a little. But he was done soon enough. When Hellmuth picked up two suited 8's and 6's and an 8 flopped, Phil check-raised nearly all-in from the small blind with top set.
Randy Holland and Williard Wellnitz both had overpairs to the board and called. Randy had Queens, Williard had 10's. Wellnitz was all-in on the Hellmuth call. When a Queen turned, Randy Holland bet out and Phil went all-in with his last $3k. Randy said, "Top set." Which predictably started
another bout of yelling before Phil quietly said "Nice Hand" to Holland. Lost in the furor, Williard Wellnitz a quiet man from Nebraska finishing 9th said stoically "I won three hands in a row I didn't play and lost the one I did
play." The difference in attitude was striking, Wellnitz blamed himself, Hellmuth blamed everyone else. Phil got 8th place money for starting the last hand with more chips. He needed 5th or better to recatch T J Cloutier for 1st in all-time money winnings.
Barry Shulman is having some year. The Card Player Magazine owner has set up his life so that playing tournament poker is a legitimate business expense. How sweet is that! Coming into the Series, Barry was leading in points for 'Player of the Year.' By the sixth event he's fallen behind Huck Seed into second, but it wouldn't surprise many if Shulman regains the lead before the year is over. Low on chips, Barry raised under the gun and went all-in with his A J 9 8. Dave Russell had taken over the chip lead by then and David called with A K Q 9. Russell flopped a 'wrap' when the board came J 10 5 3 and got there with a Queen on the river. 7th place gave Barry Shulman too few points to catch Huck Seed.
Born in Israel, Haviv Bahar now makes Las Vegas his home. Hey a desert is a desert, right? Haviv, called 'Avi' had done a good job avoiding the perils but wasn't winning enough chips. Bahar took his last chance with pocket Kings
by going all-in with $4,500. John Cernuto called and flopped Aces up to give Bahar the opportunity to enjoy the desert sunset in 6th.
With 29 WSOP cashes and three bracelets, Mickey Appleman is the stuff of legend. One thing Mickey does better than almost anyone is to hold on with few chips. Mickey's problem, if he has any lately, is that he's getting too
much practice playing with a short stack. He'd prefer not to have the practice and win some big pots. Again today, the big pots didn't come. With the blinds growing, Appleman raised all-in for $6,500 and an unusual all-in hand… 9 7 6 5. With the flop of 8 4 3, however, it looked like the canny Appleman knew something. He'd flopped a complete wrap. He had every card from the 9 to the 3. But he still didn't have a straight with only two cards in his hand. When the turn and river showed Kings, Mickey's day was over in 5h, losing to Cernuto's pocket Aces.
Now it seemed to get personal, at least for Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis. Jimmy kept glowering at John Cernuto sitting next to him. Then he would give a look to the dealer for a bad beat that would turn a Greek god into stone. And all the time he was obviously swearing a blue streak in Greek. To someone who understood the language, this performance was probably fall-down funny. But no one at the table understood what Jimmy was saying. It looked for a second when Jimmy rivered top full against Cernuto's flopped nut straight that Karambinis could win this thing. But the gods weren't smiling on Jimmy. A crushing hand came when Cernuto reversed the river suck out. This time it
was Karambinis who had a wheel on the turn. Cernuto had 8's and 2's. An 8 on the river sent Jimmy on a probably unprintable Greek tirade. He was out in 4th soon thereafter when both Cernuto and Holland made straights leaving Jimmy's pocket Aces high and dry.
Like Rene Olivares last night, Dave Russell had his wife Ann in the stands rooting for him today. Lucky guys. It wasn't luck, however, that got Russell to 3rd. He played brilliantly against one of the best Final Table lineups
ever. Starting 7th in chips, Dave took over the chip lead a couple hours in and held it for some time. It was still fairly even three-way between he, John Cernuto and Randy Holland. Anyone who went on a rush would win. That someone turned out to be 'Miami' John Cernuto. Almost instantly, it seemed, John was winning all the hands. Both Randy and Dave were short stacked and playing for 2nd. Randy won that battle with pocket Queens that were good against the all-in straight draw of Russell. Ann Russell, who was sure her
husband would win, was justifiably proud of her man.
By taking out the 3rd place finisher, Randy Holland insured himself enough chips to make a decent deal with Cernuto. But with the money spoken for, John didn't cool down. Cernuto blitzed Holland in a battle of Florida State
Seminoles. They could 'chop' the money but they couldn't chop the bracelet. Both had two pieces of the precious jewelry, one would now have three. It was over quickly. What could have been a showdown at a Frat house poker party in the early '70's, was now a fight over the $1,500 Limit Omaha championship. Poker U. won and Poker U. lost. John Cernuto completed his heater to the title with a rivered straight on a wrap with 7 5 against Randy's flopped two
pair, the 'dead man's' A's and 8's.
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