Athletes who have gotten knocked silly during competition often ask, when coming to their senses, "Did you get the number of that truck?" When the final duel commenced in today's $2,500 World Series of Poker Omaha Eight-or-Better, former AmeriTrade CFO Bob Slezak found himself staring at a man who has often played the role of "runaway truck" in poker, the great Tony Ma.

Ma had won two WSOP bracelets going into this competition, as well as numerous "best all-around player" awards in month-long events at the Commerce and the Bicycle Casino, but he was going up against a guy who had a proven track record at knowing exactly when to cash in his chips. Slezak retired as Ameritrade's Chief Financial Officer in November 1999, cashing out just before the dot.com fade. Whether he'd be able to cash out at just the right moment against Tony Ma was a more difficult question, although it only took 13 hands to answer it.

When we started play today with a full 80-minute round of $2,000-4,000 blinds, playing $4,000-8,000, the seats and chip counts were:

Unlike some final tables we've had here, where play at the start was so tight you couldn't pull a greased wire through them, we started here today just like we finished, fast and loose.

Yoshihara, a Hawaiian native now living in Reno, opened hand one for a raise to $8,000, Davis called two bets cold, and Ma and Shipley both called from the blinds, putting $32,000 into the middle of the table before anyone could blink. The flop came 5-4-3, the classic Omaha dream flop for a player holding A-2, and Ma bet straight out, with only Davis calling. An eight hit the turn, Ma bet again, and Davis raised it to $16,000. Ma re-raised his last $500, and as you already know Ma at least made the final two, you've guessed he didn't get scooped.

GEE, JUST WHO WE WANTED TO SEE GET CHIPS

A seven hit the river, and both players turned over their A-2's, but Ma also had 6-9 for a bigger straight, giving him ¾ of the pot and almost doubling Ma through instantly, a result that probably didn't thrill any of his less famed adversaries.

We lost Culp on hand two, ruining all sorts of bad puns I had planned about culpability, when Abecassis made it $8,000 to go and Culp called, leaving only $3,500 in front of him. The flop came Qh-9d-Qc, Abecassis checked, and Culp tossed his last few chips in. Despite his huge chip lead and great pot odds, Abecassis took a long time before deciding to call, but eventually did, and his A-2-4-7 wound up winning the pot when a seven hit the turn; all Culp could show was A-2-3-10.

Although Abecassis, a French player who is also a medical doctor and a bridge player of some note, added to his stack here, he and his chip lead started heading south pretty quickly after that. He got scooped on a big pot against Yoshihara on hand 5 when he flopped twos full of queens, only to have Yoshihara make queens full of tens on the river, and by hand 13 his starting stack had been more than halved by several hands where he had limped in or come in for two bets cold, only to have to release the hand on the flop or the turn.

We didn't see the hands, so we can't know for sure, but Abecassis was either very unlucky or played very loosely right out of the box.

THE CHIP LEADER GETS IN EARLY TROUBLE

On that thirteenth hand, Fay and Abecassis both limped in, along with the two blinds, Slezak and Yoshihara. The flop came Kd-8d-3c, Abecassis bet out, and both Slezak and Yoshihara called. The 9d hit the turn, Slezak checked, Abecassis bet again, Slezak made it $16,000, Yoshihara gave it up, and Abecassis called. The Qh hit the river, Slezak bet right out, and Abecassis couldn't call.

The $36,000 profit Slezak collected on this hand moved him right near the lead, while Abecassis kept heading in the other direction, dropping to $27,000 on the very next hand. There was suddenly a very real possibility that the final table chip leader might go out in eighth place.

Shipley, an English player, ensured that wouldn't happen when he raised hand 16 in early position, got 3-bet by Wing Wong, and Shipley called for his last $2,500. Shipley turned over an odd hand on which to risk his last few chips, 3-5-6-8, and Wong showed A-2-3-5 with diamonds suited.

WHY, WING WONG'S WHEEL WINS!

The flop came 10d-3d-7d, ending most of the doubts about the high side, and when the 4h hit the turn, Wong had a wheel and Shipley had a nice leather final table jacket and $8,680.

In 16 hands, the chip leader had been drawn and quartered, and two players were out. We certainly had us an action game. It stayed lively through the first break, although no one else departed, and as we got ready to play with $3,000-6,000 blinds, 6&12, I estimated the chips at

Davis, $47,000
Ma, $61,000
Wong, $34,500
Abecassis, $31,000
Slezak, $68,500
Yoshihara, $70,000
Fay, $135,000

Abecassis kept sliding, and was down to $6,000 and drawing on the turn on hand 36, but his A-5 made a wheel when the board came 10-9-2-3-4, and Abecassis split the pot with Slezak, who also had A-5. They both made some money on the hand because Davis had been in there with them the whole way. Slezak got the small side pot created on the end, and this hand got Davis ready for the end, which came immediately.

Davis raised the next one, Ma looked at Davis' stack, saw $13,000 left in it, and decided to call. The flop came Qs-7h-2d, Davis bet $6,000, and Ma called. A queen hit the turn, Davis called for his last $7,000, and showed us a pretty starting hand, A-2-3-4, while Tony turned over A-5-5-10.

MURPHY'S LAW, COROLLARY SIX

As all Omaha eight-or-better players know, though (or at least, as all of them say when telling their bad beat stories), it's impossible for three low cards to hit the board when you start A-2-3-4, and a jack on the river gave the pot to Ma and his pair of fives. Davis was seventh at 5:45.

Ma showed us something that not all Omaha players know, just the good ones, on hand 41, when he only check-called on the end with the Ac-4c in his hand and the board showing Kc-Qc-Qs-3c-4d. Yoshihara turned over the 8c-7c, and $30,000 moved from his stack into Ma's. The nut flush isn't the nuts with a pair on board, and Tony Ma is smart enough to figure that if he raises on the end, he's probably only getting called when he's beaten. I gotta remember that one.

Abecassis finally started getting back into the game three hands later, when he kept leading at the Jc-4d-4h-6c-4c board, only to have Yoshihara give it up on the end with only $15,000 left in front of him, and, it's safe to assume, no four in his hand.

HE WORE CANARY, COULD HE EAT THESE CATS?

Wing Wong, who was back at the final table for the second time in this World Series, departed on hand 46 when he made it $12,000 to go and Slezak, wearing a bright canary yellow shirt that I give second place in the colorful department to the purple silk affair Tom McEvoy wore last week, popped Wong back for his last $4,500. Wong could only show 3d-4-6d-Q, and Slezak turned over A-J-9h-6h. The board came 9d-8s-2s-8h-Kc, and Slezak's pair of nines sent Wong out sixth at 6:00.

Yoshihara got quartered on the next hand and knocked out the hand after that, when he got his last few chips in with A-2-9-Q against Fay and Slezak, who had limped in from the button. Fay and Slezak checked the hand down all the way, and when the final board showed K-4-10-2-6, Yoshihara's A-2 had been counterfeited and Fay's J-10-7-3 took both sides of the pot. Yoshihara was fifth at 6:05.

Ma started becoming more aggressive, making lots of unchallenged raises that were collecting $9,000 in blinds each time, and a few minutes later I estimated the chips at

Ma, $165,000
Abecassis, $85,000
Slezak, $78,000
Fay, $120,000

With the big money close, Ma remained the aggressor, and most of the next 16 hands were played without a flop, with Ma taking more than his share. He then hurt Fay twice in three hands, first grabbing $18,000 on #69 when he made a straight to beat Fay's three nines (again, with the board paired, Ma merely called on the end), and then scooping a pot that started with four-way action when he bet out at the 6s-8c-2s-5d board on the turn and then bet again when the 3s hit the river. Fay didn't call, and Ma's stack was growing faster than the line at the Men's room when 200 players get a ten-minute break.

AN EQUAL-OPPORTUNITY BULLY

Ma wasn't picking on Fay. He was just picking on everyone, and he picked Abecassis almost right out of the tournament two hands later when he came in via the big blind, and bet out on every street at the 2s-8d-9s-Kh-3h board. Abecassis called the whole way, but couldn't beat Tony's K-3-2-2 (trip twos), and couldn't show us a low.

Ma finished what he'd started the very next hand, when he raised from the button and Abecassis decided to drop his last $3,000 into the pot along with the $3,000 he already had invested via the small blind. Abecassis probably wished he had more to drop in, too, because he turned over A-A-3-8 double suited, while Tony showed a real hand of his own, Ah-Kh-Qc-10c. Things looked good for Abecassis until the river, but when the board finished K-4-5-9-10, Tony had two pair, and two-thirds of the chips left in play:

Ma, $308,000
Slezak, $70,000
Fay, $70,000

Ma had been hitting his opponents with both aggression and good hands, an awfully tough combination to beat, and either his opponents didn't understand the dynamics of shorthanded Omaha as well as Tony did, or they had really rotten starting hands, because Tony was just pushing them right off the table, and they weren't doing much to push back.

Even though short stacks shouldn't enjoy it when the limits go up, I had a feeling that when the clock went off to end this round a couple of minutes later, Ma's opponents caught a break, because they needed to regroup. They couldn't possibly continue letting Tony remain the unchallenged aggressor if they wanted to have any chance to win. Maybe ten minutes off and time to figure out that Tony couldn't have as many hands as he was representing would give them some life.

SORRY, NO SHORT BUY-INS ALLOWED

Even if it did, they would have to score quickly, because we were moving up to $5,000-10,000 blinds, playing $10,000-20,000, and a $70,000 stack doesn't last long in that game. Think about sitting down in a $10-20 game with seventy bucks and you'll get the idea.

From the way they played as soon as they sat down again, it was clear that both Fay and Slezak had gotten the idea. Whether or not they'd get the hands remained unclear.

Ma let Fay and Slezak play against each other for a while, and Slezak got the better of it early, but Fay pulled back even again when he raised from the button, got Slezak to call from the big blind, and got his last $10,000 in on the Jd-Qd-Ac flop, which probably wasn't quite what Slezak was looking for with his 3-4-6-9, especially when Fay turned over Ad-5d-10-6. The 4d on the turn locked up the high but gave Slezak a chance to escape for low, but a queen on the river gave Fay the $65,000 pot.

All but one $5,000 chip was gone when hand 89 ended though, and with a bit of consideration and a smile, Fay decided to toss his lone chip into the pot on hand 90. Ma and Slezak checked it down the whole way, but Fay managed to take the main pot and "triple up" to $15,000, $10,000 of which immediately had to go in as his big blind the next hand.

Once again Ma and Slezak limped in, and we saw a K-2-Q flop. Fay tossed his last chip in, Ma and Slezak called, and again checked it down, but they couldn't beat Fay's two pair, queens and twos, and with his second consecutive triple-up, Fay was now off life-support with $45,000.

A DOUBLE TRIPLE

He'd eaten two triples in a row. I had a friend in college who once, on a bet, ate three triples at Wendy's, and I was wondering if Fay was about to pull off the same trick. My friend, Rich Lerner, was one of those annoying skinny guys who could eat as much as he wanted without gaining weight. Fay is one of those annoying poker players who manage to stay nice and fit despite playing lots of poker (he's only annoying because he's fit; he was quite pleasant at the table). He doesn't look like the type to eat three triples at Wendy's.

Actually, Slezak and Ma are quite fit, too. Slezak stands about 6'4", used to play a lot of competitive tennis, and still plays, if one can believe anything a poker player says about anything, a pretty competitive game of basketball. Ma is shorter, but also looks pretty fit, and his jaw looks like it's made out of stone. Even his hair looks hard.

Ma finished off Fay on hand 95, making a straight with his 3-6 to knock off the two pair Fay had flopped with J-7-5-2, when the board finished 7-5-8-10-4. Fay exited at 7:30, and as we began the heads-up battle, Ma led $348,000-$100,000.

THREE KINGS GIVE SLEZAK LIFE

We chopped hand 96, but Slezak won $50,000 with a set of kings on the next hand, and an another $40,000 the hand after that when Ma raised before the flop, Slezak called, they both checked when they saw 2h-6h-Kc, Slezak bet and got called when the 10c hit the turn, and bet again without Tony calling when the 5h hit the river.

Three hands into the heads-up action, and we had a game, $258,000-$190,000.

Nothing exciting happened for the next five hands, but then Ma limped in from the button, Slezak raised, and Ma called. The first four community cards came 10d-7h-Ah-Ad, with Slezak betting out and getting called each time, but when the 2h hit the river and Slezak bet again, Ma declined, and we had a new chip leader, albeit with a very small lead.

Ma won an uncontested pot on hand 105, and then hand 106, for all intents and purposes, decided the tournament, so let's look at it nice and slowly.

THE KEY HAND UNFOLDS

Ma brought the hand in for a raise from the small blind on the button, with Slezak calling, and the flop came Js-9d-6d. Slezak checked, Ma bet $10,000, and Slezak called.

The turn brought the 10h, making the board Js-9d-6d-10h, Slezak checked, Ma bet, and Slezak raised it to $40,000. Ma then won an Academy Award nomination for a sigh that reeked of depression and defeat, except he more or less blew his chances with the Academy by raising Slezak back $40,000. Slezak called.

The 7d hit the river, making the board Js-9d-6d-10h-7d, Slezak checked, Ma bet, and Slezak raised. This time Ma's concern looked and stayed more real, and he called.

Slezak showed us the Ad-8d for the nut flush, and took the $220,000 pot. Ma turned over Ks-Kd-Qd-9c: an overpair to the flop, the stone cold nut straight on the turn with no chance of his opponent escaping for low, and with, no less, redraws to the second-nut flush on the end. The next time a beginner asks me if a king-high flush is a good hand, I think I'll use this hand as an example of why I can't answer that question until I know what the other fellow has.

SLEZAK GIVES MA A BREAK

Tony Ma had $65,000 left. We've seen bigger miracles: Scotty Nguyen had only $19,000 left just a few days ago and won. Ma took the next hand in a walk, getting him to $70,000, and asked his opponent if he could take a short break. I wouldn't have blamed Slezak for saying no, figuring Ma had to be emotionally reeling, but Slezak showed a lot of class and said fine.

Ma returned after his brief respite, and on hand 108, the 13th hand of heads-up play, Ma brought it in for a raise from the small blind on the button, Slezak called. The flop came 7c-2d-10c, Slezak checked, Ma bet $10,000, and Slezak raised, with Tony calling. The 3h hit the turn, Slezak bet out, and Tony called again.

Slezak bet Tony's last $10,000 when the 8s hit the river, and Tony made the call. Slezak turned over 7d-7s-4d-5s, a set of sevens, and when "all" Tony could show was his overpair with Q-Q-K-J, Slezak leapt so high into the air that I had to give him full credit for the stories about still playing competitive basketball: he gave it the biggest vertical anyone has managed so far as any tournament I've ever covered.

WERE THOSE AIR JORDANS, OR WHAT?

When he returned to earth, Bob Slezak put his hands to his head, staring at the ground in an unmistakably happy "I can't believe it, what just happened?" look. Ma looked equally stunned, but for obvious reasons, not equally happy. His mammoth chip lead, bracelet, and huge payday had all disappeared in 13 hands, and the great champion had to settle for second place.

Slezak hails, appropriately enough, from Omaha, Nebraska, and plays his poker on the riverboats at Council Bluffs, Iowa, although he has started going to some of the major tournaments. When you retire at age 41 from a CFO job at successful Internet company before the dot.com bubble burst, you can afford to pick the hobby's you want.

I wanted to know more about the mystery man, so I asked about his family. "I have three kids," he said, "Scott, Anna and Brett. Today is Scott's ninth birthday, I was supposed to…." Slezak stopped talking for a moment, his eyes tearing up. "I was supposed to be there for his birthday, when you've never made a final table before, you don't include making the final table in your travel plans. I had a flight out of hear scheduled for ten this morning, and when I made the final table at 4:00 a.m., I had to go make some changes in my itinerary. I'll try to make it up to him."

Never before a final table, and now he'd won a World Series event? "Well, I've won little tournaments," he said, "$25 buy-in things, but never anything anywhere at a real tournament, this is all still pretty new to me, I've only been playing seriously for the last year and a half."

It was all so new, in fact, that Slezak had never played Omaha eight-or-better heads-up before, but that didn't phase him.

THE PRESSURE CAME OFF AND THE BRACELET WENT ON

"After I won that first pot, I felt like all the pressure was off," Slezak said. "I've played a lot of competitive sports where I've felt the pressure was on me, as the guy expected to win, and I could tell all the pressure was on Tony, because no one in the room expected me to have a chance against him. I knew enough about how much better he is than me to know I didn't want to play some three-hour marathon against him. I wanted to get the money in there fast, and the deck hit me in the face. Say, how many hands did we play heads-up, anyway?"

I checked my notes, and told him, "Your new lucky number, 13."

"Wow," he said. "That was quick, but that's what I wanted to try to do, and I got very lucky."

Ma remained stunned for a while, indeed very much like someone who'd been run over by a runaway truck, but eventually regained his composure, and he always retains his class. He came over to let Tom Sexton, the Poker Masterpieces guy who is taking shots of all the final table players, making for some nice souvenirs, take a picture of the two of them shaking hands, and as they took the shot, Slezak said, "This means a lot more to me, beating a great player like Tony Ma." True enough.

Oh, and Scott… if you're reading this, dad really did want to be there for your birthday. A chance like this doesn't come along too often. But seeing as how dad is now $173,625 richer, I'd work the guilt thing for a really, really nice present. Dad seems nice enough to do it anyway, but if you're a chip off the old block, you'll figure out how to extract maximum value from the situation.

Final Results, $2,500 Buy-in Omaha Hi-Lo Split:

10th-12th, $5,210 each: Melissa Hayden, Phyllis Meyers, Andreas Krause.

13th-15th, $4,775 each: Hemish Shaw, John Brody, Phil Ivey.

16th-18th, $4,340 each: Arthur Young, Marc Durand, Mark Wilds.

ACE TO FIVE LOWBALL DRAW RESULTS

As I reported in your last bulletin, I took yesterday off, and a good thing, too, because immediately after filing my story, I tripped over my power cord, sent my laptop crashing to the ground, and destroyed the power source, so I will now get to see if the Dell folks are as good about service as I had heard they were before I bought the dern thing.

As Daffy Duck used to say, "Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency. Absolutely everything was backed up, including the bile in my throat, so I didn't lose any data, just some sleep and part of my "restful" day off going out to rent a replacement. The new keyboard will take some getting used to, so pardon me if the reports have more than the usual number of "finished at 5:00 a.m." typographical errors.

Meanwhile, they held the Ace-to-Five Lowball Draw tournament finals, and though I needed to recharge my own batteries, ironic enough on a day when I couldn't recharge my laptop's, I would have liked to have been there, because my friend Stan Goldstein was amongst those who made the final.

Stan didn't win, and maybe I'm biased, but with Howard Lederer having finally won a bracelet last year, only three days after I wrote "Lederer is probably the best player in the world never to have won a bracelet, and he might win two this week, but he didn't start today," I think Stan is now one of the best American tournament players never to have won one (I say "American" because my respect for the European players grows weekly).

I also qualified my statement by calling Stan a "tournament player" because there are a lot of great poker players in the world who don't play tournaments. Stan is one of the few players around who is very successful in both arenas.

The results:

127 Entrants, $1,500 Buy-in, Total Prize Pool $184,785

1. Cliff Yamagawa, $73,915
2. David "Rabbi," $36,955
3. Steve Flicker, $18,480
4. Billy Baxter, $11,085
5. Stan Goldstein, $9,240
6. Glenn Schott, $7,390
7. Ace de Hollan, $5,545
8. Jerry Reed, $3,695
   

9th-12th, $2,770 each: Lois Sakamoto, Edward "Eskimo" Clark, David Hoekstra, Craig Kaufman.

13th-16th, $1,850 each: Vince Burgio, Michael Wiesenberg, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Lindsay Jones.

If Lindsay Jones had a Card Player column, the last four finishers could all have discussed their fate in the same issue.

BIG TOURNAMENTS FOR FOUR PLAYERS

Although there is plenty of World Series yet to come, four players are standing out with the finest records during the first two weeks of the 2001 WSOP:

Defending World Champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson has one win, a second final table, and three other in the money finishes (all, oddly enough, 12th place).

1989 World Champion Phil Hellmuth Jr. has one win, a second final table, and three other in the money finishes.

Jim "Cincinnati Kid" Lester has one win and two other final tables, including a second place finish.

Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott has two second place finishes.

Andrew N.S. Glazer, Editor
Wednesday Nite Poker

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