| WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES
For pictures of this event, please check out Mark Napolitano's videos on the homepage.
There were 314 entries for a total prize pool of $435,200. 27 were paid.
FINAL TABLE
Seat/Player/Hometown/Chip Count
1 Thomas Komulainen, Iron River MI, 20,900
2 Jo Handman London, England 39,800
3 J C Tran Sacramento CA 16,800
4 Ruben Ybarra, Chicago IL, 94,900
5 Jeff Burns Mt Juliet TN 74,200
6 Leo Boothe Farriday LA 73,400
7 Glyn Banks Smithville TN 16,200
8 Jac Arama London, England 71,200
9 Davood Mehrmand Frankfurt, Germany 63,600
19:54 remained in the 1,500/3,000 level. 400 ante.
To underscore yesterday's theme about the difference between tournament Limit Hold'em and No Limit, with approximately the same amount of chips on the table, heads up went 16 hands today rather than the 206 hands yesterday. TV has found its perfect poker game, No Limit Hold'em.
We've only had three women make final tables in this year's WPO, so it was unkind for the gents to treat Jo Handman rudely. Sure! All the guys who go all-in survive, but let a female go all-in for the first time and it's her only time.
On hand 4, the hand of death this year, J C Tran bet his case 5,500 with pocket 7's. The chip leader, Ruben Ybarra, tried to get rid of the dangerous Tran by calling with A 8 offsuit. When the Ace flopped, Tran was drawing dead to a 7 which conveniently came on the turn. Then on hand 10, J C tried his luck again. It's safe to say his luck was good. This time Tran had A 6 against an A 9 held by Jac Arama. No worries, when a 6 came on the turn, one of the beginning four mini stacks was out of immediate danger.
Another of the rude males was Glyn Banks. He shoved all his 14k in on hand 5 with presto, pocket 5's, against Davood Mehrmand's double presto--pocket 10's. No contest. The five flopped and another of the little ones was safe.
The third undersized stack belonged to Thomas Komulainen. When he went all-in he got no callers.
That brings us to the victim of all this chauvinism. Jo Handman came over from England for this? On hand 14, she made a move on the blinds and antes for her entire 24,500 with A 2 offsuit. Right behind Jo sat J C Tran with pocket Aces. We got a little thrill with a deuce on the flop, but the lovely Jo Handman left the table in 9th to those bad boys.
This was European pro Davood Mehrmand's second Final Table of the WPO. He hasn't had much luck in two tries. This second time was especially brutal. Mehrmand had the pocket 10's cracked by Glyn Banks' pocket 5's, earlier. Then, on three consecutive hands he was gone in 8th. On hand 24, Mehrmand tried to take an A J offsuit up against J C Tran's A Q of Diamonds. Bad idea. Tran had 60k which left Davood with only 23k. The very next hand, Davood is so naturally manic it's hand to tell if he is steaming. He called Thomas Komulainen's all-in for 11,500.
Mehrmand had the best hand preflop, but what does that mean? Thomas had the Q J of Diamonds and 11,500. Davood had the K Q of Clubs. No waiting, the flop came Q J 7 all hearts. Fighting to the last, Davood sailed his last 6k in against yet another all-in bet by Thomas Komulainen. Tom had A 10 off, Davood had 6 4 off. And Mehrmand was off in 8th talking a mile a minute as usual.
Now it is two hands later. Starting second in chips, Jeff Burns had a nightmarish Final Table. He was the designated donator to everyone. Jeff sank to 7th place and out when his dominating A K off and 32,500 all-in was called by the stack-rich and flamboyant Jac Arama with A 5 off. Arama gave the crowd a chuckle by screaming 'No help?' when a fourth chub hit on the turn and 'no help' was announced. Jac had flopped a 5, but he had no Clubs.
The fourth Club dramatically increased Jeff Burns' outs going to the river. Anyone who's ever been in this situation where you dream all night about how gracious you'll be when you win the bracelet and all that money, you'll know how disappointed and heartsick Jeff Burns feels tonight.
One of the preseason favorites for the GENERATION 20 title is J C Tran (27). He had a huge 2004 and he's starting out strong this year. He is so good, he doesn't need to be this lucky. Tran called 23,500 from the all-in Glyn Banks and flopped an underpair with his pocket 8's.
Unlike earlier when Tran hit a two-outer to stay alive, this time J C picked up a flush draw with his 8 of Diamonds on the turn. Yet it was still the 8 on the river that came in. Glyn Banks $21,664 for 6th place. It's just tough to play against someone who can catch cards like that.
The quiet man from Iron River, Thomas Komulainen, barely spoke a word on a table that had several chatty Cathys. Actually it would have been hard to get a word in edgewise. Thomas had several all-ins pan out to last until 5th. But, to mix a metaphor, you can only go to that well so often as Mike Sexton likes to remind us. Komulainen tried the all-in gambit on hand 44 with A 7 off and 30k. J C Tran had his signature hand of the night again, pocket 8's, and called. This time the 8's were always good, no suckout was needed.
Now for the hand of the night, maybe of the tournament so far. On hand 64 two birds were hit by one stone. But first I have to tell you where all of J C Tran's chips went.
Tran probably couldn't believe it when he picked up pocket 8's for the third time in a half hour. Maybe that's why he didn't raise the big blind with them. Could the 8's really win three times in a row? When the flop came 4 3 2 rainbow it was too late for Tran to protect his hand. In the big blind Ruben Ybarra was going to play his 7 5 offsuit to the death.
He'd flopped up and down and he'd decided he had the best of it. When a second deuce came on the turn J C went all-in with his two pair. Incredibly, Ybarra called instantly for all 116,500 of his chips with a straight draw. When an Ace hit the river, Tran found out if pocket 8's could win three times in a row. They couldn't.
Two hands later it's time for the big one. Tran raises all-in for 22k with K 8 offsuit in the cutoff position. Ybarra folds and Leo Boothe in the small blind flat calls the 22k. Boothe has 63,500 left. Over the top comes Jac Arama in the big blind with plenty to cover both players. Leo is incredulous that Jac would give protection to Tran. 'Nobody wants him out more than I do,' Boothe says.
(They'd had an early run-in where Leo felt J C had intentionally overstated his chip count) After confirming with the floor that he would be third if both he and Tran were knocked out on this hand, Leo Boothe reluctantly called all-in. Bang, comes the pocket rockets from Jac Arama. Leo Boothe has the infamous pocket 8's. In one second we went from four players to two.
Heads up Ruben Ybarra had a 3-2 chip lead and he would need it. Because on their second hand, tournament vet Arama talked the rookie Ybarra out of almost all his chips. Ruben had raised 20k each hand. In a classic performance, Arama pretended to be affronted by Ruben's aggressiveness. 'Are you going to do that every time?' Jac asked. Appearing to be steamed by the raises, Arama bets all-in and Ybarra calls at once.
Jac has pocket Kings. Ruben, A J offsuit. The trap was sprung beautifully. Now Ruben has less than 50k left. Fellow Englishman Gary Jones shouts to Jac jokingly, 'Now, just don't lose it.' It didn't seem possible that another Englishman could have a major meltdown in only a few days here.
It was possible.
I'm so sure that Jac would win that I ask Gary Jones to do the postgame interview of his friend.
Well, the jinx was in for sure then.
In the next few hands, Ruben went all-in for 39k with K 6 off and won. He nearly jumped out of his seat when Jac went all-in with the J 9 of Spades. Ruben had 99k and pocket 10's. It's almost even, now, and Jac Arama can see it coming. He gives a big sigh. Even with the big chip lead, Jac was willing to give Ruben an extra 14k to make a deal. Ybarra refused.
On hand 80, only 16 into heads up play, Ruben went all-in with A 3 off. Jac called immediately with pocket 7's. When the flop came K J 4, Jac had a huge lead but he still wanted insurance. The loser of the hand would be the extra 14k from the winner. That was a deal that the former mortgage broker, Ybarra, couldn't refuse with only two outs.
The turn came a deuce and the math wiz Ruben saw he had eight more outs. He suggested the deal be redrawn but Jac didn't hear him.
In one of the more embarrassing moments in the life of a poker player, when a 5 hit the river Jac Arama shot his arms in the air and yelled, 'Yes, baby!'
No, baby!
Ruben Ybarra had a wheel and the title. And the All-England Club had another distraught member.
Television time is wildly expensive. Usually we see only about 20% of the hands that are played. That's what makes the telecasts so exciting. They seem to be happening in real time. Television won't pay for hours of unusable tape. They need a winner quickly. That's why TV loves No Limit Poker. What a difference a game makes.
Mike Paulle
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