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| EVENT #15 | 5/5 to 5/6/98 |
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| TEXAS HOLD'EM (Pot Limit) $3,000 | |
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| TOTAL PRIZE MONEY - $516,000 | PRIZE MONEY TO DATE - $6,781,000 |
| ENTRIES IN THIS EVENT - 172 | TOTAL ENTRIES TO DATE - 3,167 |
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The Final Table How they finished Live From the 'Shoe The Play-by-Play |
 STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM AT BINION'S It was Bjorn Borg against John McEnroe at Wimbledon. The baseline slugger against the serve and volley specialist. One would dink, drop shot and dive to the net, the other would stay back and bang it cross court. QUEUE UP The names went hard but they went out, out of the money, that is. Kirk Morrison, an Event winner here, fell to Joe Rutledge on the river. Kirk had A Q, Joe J 10. An Ace and a 10 flopped. Another 10 rivered. Morrison went out the side door in 24th. Paul Ladanyi didn't show his hand when Taz Kampf showed his K K. Paul left Hungary in 23rd. Jesse Jones tried K K also, but with disastrous results. Surinder Sunar's one Ace was enough, as an Ace rivered. Jesse may be losing his Jones for poker. 22nd. Bobby Hoff out kicked Tommy Hufnagle with his A K sending another Event winner to the showers in 21st. Mike Sexton had few chips left, and threw them in on a K Q. Andre Boyer had a huge stack, so he called with A 2. Neither hand caught anything, so Mike had to leave in 20th. Peter Vilandos couldn't resist an A A even though there were two shorter stacks in jeopardy. He paid for his gamble with the $3,000 buy-in. Andre Boyer had too many chips to be intimidated, he called. The flop comes A 7 4. Peter has no worries. He did the right thing. Nope, wrong thing, a six comes on the river to give Boyer's 5 8 a straight. The heartbreak of tournament poker. Peter felt like Abzorba the Greek. Last out of the money. QUEEN'S RULES Huck Seed may be the favorite to win the Championship event, but with few chips, he was a dog to win his last hand. The Huckster went all-in with A K, and the ubiquitous Andre Boyer was there to call with 5's. No Ace or King on board made Huck feel Seedy in 13th. Derek Baxter tried big slick too, with the same results. Mike Magee's J 10 caught the pair and Derek fell like a domino in 12th. Surinder Sunar had been today's King of the River. It was a Queen he caught this time with his A Q to put Joe Rutledge's J J in a rut in 11th. Tommy Nguyen thought a long time before calling all-in. The board read A Q 8. He must have thought he needed chips more than he needed to get to the Final Table. Tommy couldn't put Rydel on an Ace for some reason. Nguyen went all-in with K Q. Steve turned over his Ace, and Nguyen found that he would have some free time the next day in 10th. Poker, the American game?
Prize Money
Taz Kampf sits on a cushion that has a picture of the cartoon figure of Taz the Tasmanian Devil on it. The aggressive figure couldn't help his 10's, however, when he went all-in. Chau Giang's A K caught a King on the turn to send Taz spinning out in 9th place. Chau Giang had a lot of chips. He also had a lot of stubbornness, which lost those chips for him. When the flop came rags, Chau bet. Steve Rydel raised. Rydel had more chips. For some reason Chau must have thought he picked up a tell. He went all-in. Steve Rydel said fine, let's go. Giang's A K found Rydel's A A. Ciao, Chau! You're 8th. There are amazingly few real bad beats at the Final Table. Here is one. Andre Boyer went all-in with A K. Dave Ulliott called with A 10. The flop came K 8 6. The turn a 9, and the river a gut shot 7 for a straight. Boyer headed for the foyer in 7th. Surinder Sunar had a chance to put out two players on one hand. Tom McCormick, with little more than the blinds, went all-in with K Q. Mike Magee raised all-in, and Sunar called them both. Magee had J J, Sunar had Q Q. No King came to save McCormick but four diamonds did, the last on the river. Magee was no fibber. He was 6th. Short on chips, Lenny Barshack went all-in with pocket 10's. Surinder Sunar called the short stack with A 7 off. An Ace and a 7 came on board. Lenny needed another Club to fall on the river to stay alive. He left looking for a Barshack in 5th. Tom McCormick was all-in for the big blind. He caught top pair on the flop. Steve Rydel had no worries, he already had a mountain of chips and a 9 8. The flop was Q 10 10, the turn a 4 and the river, a straightening Jack. McCormick didn't feel very spicy leaving in 4th. The meeting of the All-England Club was now called to order. Cheerio, old bean! Strawberries and cream all round, Mr McClelland. There's a good fellow. Surinder Sunar of the Wolverhampton Sunar's had gotten his chips up to over $100,000 only to see them melt away three handed. He took a big hit when Dave Ulliott flopped up and down, then caught a straight on the turn. Surinder paid him off. Later, all-in with J 10, Sunar was called by Ulliott with K Q. A Queen flopped and Surinder had to give up in 3rd. Now it was David Ulliott of the Hull Ulliotts, heads up against Steve Rydel of the Stoke-on-Trent Rydels. Commoners, the lot, but oh how they could play Pot-Limit Holdem. This wasn't a Monty Python skit, this was Civil War. Rydel started with a better than 2-1 chip lead. There was no talk of a deal, no quarter expected, nor none given. Centre Court at the All-England Club for 206,400 American. Real money even in England. It was Bjorn Borg against John McEnroe at Wimbledon. The baseline slugger against the serve and volley specialist. One would dink, drop shot and dive to the net, the other would stay back and bang it cross court. David Ulliott is known as the "Devilfish." He is as deceptive as they come. You can never know if he's bluffing or slow playing the nuts. Steve Rydel waits for quality hands, then shoves so many chips at you that it takes your breath away. Somehow, Rydel was able to read Ulliott, where so many others had failed. The base liner beat the serve and volley specialist from the get-go. After several shots at an all-in Ulliott, Rydel high carded Ulliott for the title and his first bracelet. The meeting of the All-England Club was adjourned. FINAL RESULTS
$3,000 Pot Limit Holdem
SUPER SATELLITES (Patty Hughes and Rudy Lotief) The No-Limit Super Satellites start each evening at 8:40 PM in the Satellite area. The Entry Fee is $220 for $200 in Tournament chips and there are unlimited $200 re-buys during the first hour, if you have less than $200 in Tournament chips. You may also make a single or double add-on at the end of the re-buy period. Blinds start at $5/$10 and increase every 20 minutes. Available monies will be converted into non-negotiable, non-transferable, non-refundable seats in the $10,000 World Championship event, with at least $5,000 in cash and $500 Lammers being divided among the final table players. WSOP SUPER SATELLITE #20 Wednesday 6 May 1998 MORE BONEHEAD PLAY There's pre-Final Table strategy and Final Table strategy. When they are giving six seats away, it doesn't matter if you have one chip left or one hundred. All surviving stacks are worth exactly the same. But you've got to survive. Tonight, 194 players bought 149 rebuys bringing the prize pool to, $68,600. The following were the rewards for making the final table:
Some of the "names" who competed were:
Catherine Brown None of these esteemed players made the final table. Greg Benson was in the big blind and all-in. He didn't show his hand as Dave Roepke flipped over A Q and an Ace flopped. Benson may be lying in the Hedges about now. He was 12th. Tom Franjesh survived one all-in, and then thought he had a chance with Q Q. The dealer found a 4 5 on the flop a 2 on the turn and a gut shot 3 on the river to deny Tom any chips. Paul Martin had an Ace for the straight. Franjesh finished 11th. Dwayne Pierce got a good luck kiss from his friend Mallie, then went all-in with his one chip in the big blind. His Q 2 wasn't enough to overcome Jim Walterburg's A 7 when an Ace flopped. Pierce arrowed 10th, one out of the money. The Final Table:
Every night we see players make the mistake of looking at their cards at the Final Table. It's excusable for a first time finalist. But four times? Bob Walker is known as a world class No-Limit player. He's not only won a seat in a Super, he was fifth in last year's Championship Event. But even stars need chips. Bob didn't have very many. Bob went all-in from middle position with Q 10 of Hearts. O'Neil Longson found A Q of Spades in his big blind hand. Bob was a Walker in 9th. I've given you plenty of clues. Who didn't get a seat tonight and why? Right. The beknighted Jim Walterburg for the fourth time made the Final Table and for the fourth time left without an entry into the Big Dance. He now holds the futility record for this year's WSOP Super Satellites. Jim Walterburg had $13,000 in chips coming to the Final Table. The speedy play that got him those chips was correct, until he arrived here. With only three players to eliminate, and the blinds going up, if he hadn't looked at his cards, he would have been all right. First Jim saw Jacks, and went all-in from early position!!! Richard Tatalovich said thank you, I needed that, and called all-in with Kings. That took about $8,000 from Walterburg. Next he threw a few more chips in to try and eliminate an all-in David Roepke. More wasted chips. Jim's Q J off couldn't cover Roepke's A 6 of Hearts. Now for the most bizarre hand of several nights. Everyone can see that Paul McKenney and Jim Walterburg have three chips, $1,500. David Roepke had the eight chip big blind. Earl Key calls, O'Neil Longson calls. Paul McKenney throws in his three chips. Jim Walterburg asks Patti Hughes what happens if he calls and loses. She says he would split the combined places with whomever else is eliminated. Walterburg calls with A Q of Clubs. Five way action. Roepke and Key make obvious raps pre-flop. They have no intention of betting. The flop comes Js 4s 2c. All check in collusion ... I mean unison. The turn is the 6 of Spades. Roepke and Key rap the table hard. O'Neil Longson bets. David Roepke whoops. "O'Neil's got it. He wouldn't have bet if he didn't have it." Obviously, David doesn't know our O'Neil as well as we do, does he? The river is a blank. O'Neil turns over a less than nutty 9 8 of Spades. It's enough, and we have five new seat holders. None of whom bear the name Jim Walterburg. The winners for Super Satellite #20 were:
Randell Skaggs SINGLE TABLE SATELLITES (Becky Kerber, Barbara Lotief and Terry Vanderlip) Single Table Satellites are run continuously 21 hours every day (8:00 AM until 5:00 AM) and usually last around 90 minutes. There are featured Satellites each day for the next day's event, as well as other Satellites depending on demand. Single Table Satellites for the $10,000 Main event and for the next no-limit Holdem event are spread frequently. Binion's charges $10 per player in a Satellite. For the $320 buy-in No Limit Holdem Satellites, ten Players start with $1,200 each in chips. The blinds start at $10/$25, increase every 15 minutes, and the winner gets six $500 Lammers plus $100 in cash. For the $1,010 buy-in Single Table $10,000 Satellites, ten players start with $4,000 each in chips. The blinds start at $25/50 and increase every 20 minutes. The winner gets a non-transferrable seat in the Championship Event. LAS VEGAS WEATHER The Temperature sign atop Binion's Horseshoe read 71 degrees at 3:00 PM on Wednesday afternoon. The sky was partly cloudy, sunny, blue and clear. The wind was out of the SW at 15mph, gusting to 25mph most of the day. Taz Kampf went all-in on each of the first two hands at the Final Table. On the first hand, his pocket nines lost to David Ulliott's pocket Jacks, and on the second hand his pocket ten's beat Steve Rydel's A Q. A ten on the turn more than offset a Queen on the flop. McCLELLANDisms As David Ulliott was taking some time to decide if he should go all-in to call Steve Rydel's bet, Jack said "If Devil Fish calls, he'll be all-in, or all-out." Devil Fish did call, and he won the hand. LENGTH OF FINAL TABLE
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY First 15 Events: $6,781,000 (1998) vs $7,028,000 (1997) WSOP FINAL TABLE DEALS It is not likely that a Deal was made in today's $3000 PL Holdem Event.
Formal, official Deals at the WSOP are done in private, under the supervision and guidance of Jack McClelland, WSOP Tournament Co-ordinator. Deals represent a reallocation, or split of the announced remaining prize pool, that is agreeable to all remaining players. All remaining players do not have to participate in an official Deal, as long as all remaining players give their consent. All pay outs by Binion's, and the tax reporting will reflect the Deal allocation, but press releases and official WSOP earnings reflect the scheduled, announced pay outs. Jack McClelland tries to immediately squelch any "Deal talking" in the Final Table area, and will stop the playing clock and allow a "Deal break" at any time. A normal Deal will probably allocate the bulk of the remaining prize pool equally (or unequally, relative to chip count, perceived ability, bargaining skills etc.) between the remaining participants, with a small portion (perhaps 10 % or so) and the Title going to the eventual winner. Some deals may earmark some of the un allocated portion to the eventual second or third place finisher, in addition to the allocation for the first place money. Binion's attempts to prevent private Deals, which are unenforceable and may present tax complications, by the participants. Binion's probably would prefer a Deal free environment all together, but recognizes that a top heavy pay out structure is conducive to Deals, and has arrived at the current procedure as the best solution. PLAYER CONDUCT Any player abusing employees or other players, either verbally or physically (swearing, throwing cards, etc.) or disrupting the tournament will be penalized. The following will be the MINIMUM penalty imposed:
FIRST OFFENSE - 20 minutes away from the table.
(Blinds and/or antes to be forfeited)
The WSOP Floorpeople will be strictly enforcing the rules, with zero tolerance. Every player starts each Event with a clean slate as far as penalties are concerned. SCOREBOARD
TOURNAMENTS Jack McClelland is assisted by Steve Morrow and Jeff Vanderlip as Assistant Tournament Coordinators. The 1998 WSOP continues the two-day format that was inaugurated last year, for most of the tournaments. Also, all two-day events start one level lower than in past years, and each level at the Final Table has been lengthened from 60 minutes to 80 minutes. Limit Holdem and Omaha events have two new levels of betting. First day play continues until the field is reduced to the Final Table, and Final Table play begins at 4:00 PM on the second day. In addition to the money and a gold bracelet, each winner of a 1998 WSOP Event will get free rooms at next year's WSOP. If you win more than one Event, you can roll subsequent hotel accommodations over to later years. The extra betting levels added to this year's WSOP Events, and the longer duration of levels at the Final Table, "promised increased playability and a higher expected return for the skilled player." If "skilled player" equates to well known "world class player", then the the higher expected return for the skilled player has not been happening. Except for a few scattered exceptions, the 1998 WSOP has been dominated by lesser lights and relatively unknown players. POKER ROOM Shift Supervisors Jimmy Stefan, John Buchanan, Tony Shelton and Cathy Wood run the Poker room where the lower limit games are played. Games being spread on 30 April:
SIDE ACTION Shift Supervisors John "Scoff" Sheffield, Kathy Hudson and Marshall Kassoff run the higher limit games on the south end of the Tournament Pavilion. Games being spread on 30 April:
$10,000 CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRANTS Updated Through 8:00 PM Wednesday 6 MAY 1988
Alphabetized:
"Amazon" Erik Alps  Britain's Steve Rydel, a soft-spoken former jeweler and an icy-cool competitor, trounced a World Series record field to capture the $3,000 Pot Limit Hold'em title and a custom-designed gold winner's bracelet. Making his first trip to the WSOP, Rydel, 50, has now earned $223,8l5, having placed fifth in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. He began playing poker some 25 years ago in a local casino in Britain, always pot limit as the game is played throughout the U.K.
Rydel was finally heads-up for just 33 minutes against another British poker-playing jeweler, David Ulliott, last year's $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em titleist. Rydel's commanding two-to-one chip lead was never in jeopardy. He took the title with an undramatic high-card Q-9 against Ulliott's J-6 with a board of A-K-3/K-A. Ulliott, 44, who has been a poker tournament regular for less than three years while maintaining his jewelry business, said dejectedly, "I feel sick. But it was a good tournament. Steve played well. The World Series is definitely the place to come for players." Ulliott, with four cashes, has now won $292,220 in two years at the WSOP. Still another British player, Surinder Sunar, finished third - his 12th WSOP cash and his seventh final table since 1990. The Indian-born Sunar, 39, is still looking for his first bracelet. "I felt good at the start of final-table play," he said. "But I never had a premium pair. Another dream down the drain." His World Series earnings now total $270,943. Sunar was eliminated with J-l0 against Ulliott's K-Q when the board came Q-8-7/5-2. Fourth place went to Tom McCormick, 48, "a professional engineer and for five years a poker professional," his seventh money finish which raised his WSOP earnings to $189,135. "I'm not upset, and reasonably pleased," he said. He noted that having read of a previous final-table player's lucky 1977 penny card spanner, he picked up a penny from the elevator floor and found that it, too, was 1977. "So I used it all through the tournament," McCormick said. To the gasps of the large audience, McCormick was knocked out with Q-6 with a flop of Q-l0-4 against Rydel's 9-8. The turn and river came 10 and a killing Jack. Two minutes earlier, Lenny Barshack, 39, owner of the Bigfoot Internet company which hosts the European Poker Players Association website, had left in fifth place. He was crippled in a pot with a flop of 9-9-9 when he bet $39,000 into slow-playing Sunar who called all-in with Q-9. "It was an honor to play against the world's best players," Barshack said. Taking sixth was another U.K. player, Mike Magee, a 52 year-old design consultant and the 1996 Dutch No Limit Hold'em Champion. He said his first cash at the WSOP was "exciting, but I'm very disappointed." Magee was eliminated with pocket jacks when McCormick made a diamond flush. Canadian-born Andre Boyer, 55, a tournament regular, finished seventh, his 6th WSOP cash and his second final table this year. He lost with A-K with a flop of K-8-6 against Ulliott who held A-l0 and made a straight with 9-7 on turn and river. Graciously philosophical, Boyer said, "I did it to some players during the tournament, so...Tomorrow it's back to the drawing board." Vietnamese-born Chau Giang, this year's $2,000 Omaha High-Low Split titleist, took eighth place which brought his WSOP earnings to $417,033. He has cashed 16 times since 1992. Giang, 42, exited when his all-in A-K ran into Rydel's pocket aces. Ninth place went to Taz Kampf, 54, an attorney making his second final table in a week, who said, "I'm happy to be competing against the best in the world. But I'm disappointed because if I'd won that pot I'd have gone to third or fourth chip position." His pocket tens were beaten by Giang's A-K when the board came 9-5-9/K-8. 
The Final Table
NOTES
d = dealer First action reported in a betting round, normally means the first player that put money into the pot in that betting round. A check is usually not reported as the first action in a betting round. Folds are not always reported. If there are four players at the beginning of a betting round, and it's reported that one player bets and is called by one other player, then the remaining two players folded.
*** 52 minutes remaining at 1,500/3,000 Blind level.
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"I'm absolutely over the moon," Rydel said of his
biggest-ever tournament win. "I noticed how many final-table
chip leaders have lost, and I didn't want to be one of them.
I think I kept the chip lead throughout the final table,
which for me was a world class table. I was catching cards
and had good runs." Rydel said that with his prize money, "I
think I'm going to buy some property in Las Vegas so I'll
have some place to stay and not have to live out of a
suitcase."