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| EVENT #10 | 4/30 to 5/1/98 |
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| SEVEN CARD STUD (Limit) $2,500 | |
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| TOTAL PRIZE MONEY - $380,000 | PRIZE MONEY TO DATE - $4,779,000 |
| ENTRIES IN THIS EVENT - 152 | TOTAL ENTRIES TO DATE - 2,511 |
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The Final Table How they finished Live From the 'Shoe The Play-by-Play |
 DEAL...OF...FORTUNE When the big chip leader goes out early, it's like kids in a candy store. Plenty of goodies for everyone. SPIN THE WHEEL We've seen repeatedly how important it is to get into the money in these World Series Events, no matter how few chips you have when you get there. Players who say, "I'm not playing for $2,000, I'm playing for $200,000." have been proven to be making a mistake. Play for $2,000, then when you have it in your pocket, play for $200,000. In an earlier Event, Michail Shadkin crawled into the money with three chips. He won the whole thing and $109,800. It happened again today. If you haven't peeked and don't know who won this tournament, here's a clue: It's one of the following short stacks.
Bart DeLuca and Harry Thomas had over $2,000 each. Only two of the four players could make it into the money. The antes were $200 and the bring in for the low card was $500. That meant that Artie Cobb and Phyllis Kessler were subject to being all-in on any hand they got the low card. Furthermore, they both could only play four more hands, low card or not. So why didn't Bart DeLuca and Harry Thomas wait? They must have been going for the "$200,000," not the "$2,000." So they got neither. It's a familiar story. Harry Thomas said, "I had buried Aces. The other player had an Ace showing. He caught a 4 and 5 for a wheel." Artie Cobb and Phyllis Kessler moved on by the narrowest of margins. BEHIND DOOR #1 No you don't have to adjust your set. The same thing happened again prior to setting up the Final Table. Only two of the four players can go to the Final Table. David Bradley had about $25,000 Chau Giang had about $22,000 Artie Cobb had $20,000 Phyllis Kessler had $11,000 Again, Artie and Phyllis were the low stacks. David Bradley tried to squeeze a full house from his Kings up. He went all-in, even though Robert Gingras had four diamonds showing. Gingras had the flush. Bradley had 10th. Chau Giang got married to his two pair and straight draw, and couldn't get divorced. When Jan Chen caught a third three showing, Chau tossed in his last chips anyway, hoping for maximum equity if he caught. He did. He caught 9th. Artie Cobb and Phyllis Kessler had dodged their second bullets to get to the Final Table. The contestants take their places.
Prize Money
Thor Hansen didn't have a lot of money, Robert Gingras did. Thor had been struggling, Robert was as hot as they come. When Hansen made 10's and 7's he went all-in. Gingras, who'd been sucking out on everyone for two days, did it again. He got an eight on seventh street for trip eights. Thor had failed to summon any help from the gods and finished 8th. Nothing was going well for Bruno Micchiardi at the final table. He was suffering from an incredible shrinking stack. Finally, he went all-in against Jan Chen with an overpair. Jan caught a second pair on seventh street sending Bruno tourin' in 7th. When Tibor Tolnai found Q's and 9's on fifth street, he shipped it all-in. Artie Cobb couldn't have been more delighted. He had an Ace high flush on fifth. Tibor felt like jumping into the Tiber when he didn't fill. He shouldn't go hungry though, he got 6th money. Robert Gingras is on some heater. This is his second final table in the World Series. He's been live in every event he's entered. He just won a Canadian Championship before arriving in Las Vegas. And for two days in the 7-Card Stud event he'd been on fire. Until the last hour and a half. Suddenly, the wheels started to come off. Like Layne Flack earlier this week, Robert couldn't make a hand. Everything that had been magical before, turned mystical now. He was spreading his hard earned chips around the table like a drunken sailor. Soon, he would meet the new marshal in town, Jan Chen. It was Jan, now, who could dream cards into his hand. Gingras went all-in with A K Q J on fourth street, and was called by Jan with Jacks and nines. Jan dreamt he'd catch a third nine, and did on fifth street, for a full house. Robert Gingras had gone from substantial chip lead to the felt, in a Canadian minute. The disappointed young man trudged over to Jack McClelland for his 5th place pay. His seat wasn't cool before the remaining four players started talking deal. Jan Chen was chip leader with $125,000. The other three were about even in the $80,000 range. They left the Final Table area like kids in a candystore, to chat about how to split up the remaining $288,800 in goodies. It is very probable that they made a deal based on chip count, after allocating some of the candy for first, second and third. After a deal is made at a tournament table something dramatic usually happens. A hot player will become frostbitten and a cold one will catch fire. It happens so often it's almost to be expected. It happened here also. Now, Jan Chen couldn't win a hand. Helmut Koch was shaking him like a rag doll. When Jan saw two Queens hidden in his hand and then showed two Kings up top, he shoved every chip he could into the pot. Phyllis Kessler had an innocent looking deuce on her board. Two not so innocent ones were underneath. Jan Chen left the table next in 4th. Phyllis Kessler is recognized as one of the best women's stud players in the world. She did nothing in the last two days to disprove it. We may have to drop the "women's" though. She had multiple opportunities to quit and the odds against her were enormous throughout. But she fought like a lioness protecting her cubs. In an incredibly impressive performance, Kessler who started the final table with only $11,000, finished third when Artie Cobb caught a third King on her. People who don't know Artie Cobb, know Artie Cobb. He's the Joker. The guy who wears the funny hats to poker tournaments. Today he wore a frog hat that had it's red tongue sticking out at the other players. The clownish appearance shouldn't be deceptive. This is the thirteenth time Artie's cashed in a Stud event at the World Series. He's won three bracelets in Stud since 1983. Well, make that four bracelets. After a heated back and forth where Koch first caught up, and then fell behind, Helmut Koch saw a starting hand he liked: A K hidden and a Queen up. Artie had a six showing. Helmut raised himself all-in. Artie called saying, "You got me, all I've got is a pair of sixes." Ha! Ha! Always the Joker. Artie Cobb won 1st place and his fourth bracelet with a pair of sixes over Helmut Koch's Ace high. FINAL RESULTS $2,500 7 Card Stud 152 Entries - $380,000 Prize Pool
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 #15 Friday 1 May 1998 LEAVING THE SEAT UP...FOR GRABS "I'll take fifth." Bruno Micchiardi volunteered. That would have been fine with the other four players left in this Super Satellite. Problem was Bruno wanted to be paid to give up his seat opportunity. Chris Tsiprailidis was only too happy to suggest that Brent Carter pay him. "You won a seat, you'll get paid in tournament chips." Chris wanted Brent to give Bruno $3,000 to lay down his chips. Brent couldn't talk about it. "A player who has already won a seat cannot negotiate in any deals at the final table." Patti Hughes told us. Chris kept wanting Brent to nod or something. Brent would only say, "Whose going to pay him?" leaving us to believe that Carter wasn't volunteering. At an impasse, they played on. Tonight, 141 players bought 112 rebuys bringing the prize pool to, $50,600. The following were the rewards for making the final table:
Some of the "names" who competed were:
Daniel Negreanu None of these esteemed players made the final table. Don Barton had been in this situation repeatedly in past Supers. He knew he needed chips quick. He tried to buy the blinds with A 4 off. In the big blind, Louis Asmo had 6's. He called. One 6 came on the flop. Don Barton was 12th. Asher Derei had just taken a terrible beat from Chris Tsiprailidis when Chris flopped trips with an underpair. Now heads up again, the same two were in switched positions, Chris had chips (Derei's) while Asher only had the two left that Chris hadn't taken the first hand. So Chris took them this time. Asher was 11th. Louis Asmo has played in almost every Super held this year. This was as high as he'd gotten. Now we know why. With plenty of chips to wait for someone else to go out, Louis impulsively shoved in his stack from early position. Bob Perry, who had a tower of chips called the all-in bet with J's. Keep playing Louis, you'll learn. Maybe. The final table:
John Chaseman got a bad break. When they raced off the $100 chips, John lost $400 of his $1,400 stack. Now he had to go all-in. His Q 4 lost the chase to Chris Tsiprailidis' K 4, man. John was 9th. Al Ethier had three chips left. He tossed the last one in when Robert Louisadat raised his big blind of two chips. Al had to take ether as his J 6 caught air for 8th. John Heaney already had a seat. Good thing 'cause he was all-in for the big blind with an awesome J 5 off. Oddly, he caught a J and a 5 for two pair. But the Ace and the 10 on board matched the hand of Bob Perry. John was 7th. After the non-negotiation failed, Brent Carter tried a move on the button. "I gambled at the wrong time." he said. His K Q off lost to Bruno Micchiardi's A 10. So for not being able to make a deal, Bruno picked up an extra $3,000 worth of Championship entry. It will be interesting to see if he can cha-cha with it in the Big Dance. Or if he should have thrown his chips away and taken the money as he wanted to do. The winners for Super Satellite #15 were:
Chris Tsiprailidis 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 Pretty warm today. The Temperature sign atop Binion's Horseshoe read 88 degrees at 3:00 PM on Friday. Hardly any wind. It was sunny, with some white, pillowy clouds around. The temperature in the Final Table Area goes through regular Hot and Cold cycles about every hour. It's almost like there is a demarcation on the thermostat at some point, above which hot air is released and below which you get cold air. Artie Cobb's Hat of the day was a large, green, foam rubber Frog, with a donut whole in the middle, to fit over Artie's head. The frog had large, white, glass eyes and a big red tongue sticking out at the other players.. MCCLELLANDisms When introducing Artie Cobb, Jack said "Artie has over $500,000 in WSOP career winnings, which makes the Race and Sports Books very happy." LENGTH OF FINAL TABLE
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY First 10 Events: $4,779,000 (1998) vs $4,826,500 (1997) WSOP FINAL TABLE DEALS
It is likely that a four way deal was made in Friday's $2500 7 Card Stud Event. At the time, Chen had 122K, Koch 89K, Cobb 87K and Kessler 82K. 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. 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 Rudy Lotief and the computer fought it out today, and the computer won. Rudy is the Keeper of the $10,000 Event Entry List, as he has been in past years, and has been recording Entries on the Pavilion Area Grease Board, as he has in past years. The only thing that has ever altered Rudy's List in the past was when a player withdrew, and rolled over to a future year. In this case, the next Entrant to sign up or qualify would take the spot formerly occupied by the withdrawee. Rudy found out today that this year's List is officially maintained by a computer, based on when entries have been reported to the compter, which in many cases are very different from Rudy's listing order. Rudy had to redo the whole list, and it now includes some cash entries that Rudy was unaware of, and hardly anyone has the same place on the list that they had on Rudy's List. THE List still isn't completely firmed up, so we're not running it today, but should have it up again tomorrow.  Colorful poker professional Artie Cobb outlasted 151 opponents to capture the $2,500 Seven Card Stud event, winning his fourth gold bracelet. It was the 18th WSOP money finish for Cobb, 55, who has now amassed $719,278 in total earnings. Cobb wore a large green foam rubber frog hat until he claimed his victory.
Cobb, who has attended every World Series except one since 1976 and was Tournament Coordinator for five years, said, "this was a strange tournament for me. I was all-in about seven times, and lost only one pot that went to the river in the whole tournament." He took the title after a 70-minute heads-up contest with Helmut Koch, during which he was never in serious danger. Cobb won a large pot with two pair, giving him a four-to-one chip advantage, and soon thereafter he took the final, $94,000 pot with a pair of sixes. "It feels great, I'm happy," said Koch, a 52 year-old German-born restaurant manager who had never before cashed in five trips to the World Series. "I really wanted that bracelet, but Artie wasn't giving it up." Third place went to Phyllis Kessler, the 1993 Women's Seven Card Stud Champion, who began with the shortest stack at the final table. "I'm pleased," she said, "but it's a strain. Men play a lot tougher, and women seem to chase more." Kessler's finish moved her into 11th place on the Women's Top Money Winners list with a total of $84,240. She had cashed three times in the Women's Championship but never before in an open event. She was eliminated when Cobb caught a third king on the river. Jan Chen, 60, a Taiwanese-born construction machine company owner, took fourth when his two pair lost to a Kessler full house. "I'm very happy with my first finish in the money at the World Series," he said. "I'm not very experienced in tournaments. My dream is to retire and make enough money playing poker to sustain my lifestyle." Chen lives in Princeton, NJ but his three children all went to Harvard. Finishing fifth was Canada's Robert Gingras, the only competitor to cash four times already in this WSOP. Gingras, 36, is on an exceptional roll, having won two tournaments in Canada last month. This time he lost a sizeable chip lead, having aces cracked in a key hand before exiting when Chen made a full house against him in five. Tibor Tolnai, a 33 year-old chess Grand Master and relative newcomer to poker, became the first Hungarian to finish in the money at the World Series, placing sixth when his two pair did not improve to beat Cobb's diamond flush in five. "It was great," Tolnai said. "This tournament is much tougher than the European ones - there are much stronger players here." Retired Italian businessman Bruno Micchiardi, 56, took seventh place, his third cash in three trips to the WSOP. "It's always tough," he said, "and now every year you see more good European players who come to play against the top Americans." Micchiardi was eliminated when his pair of fours did not improve against Chen's two pair. Still another European, veteran Norwegian poker professional Thor Hansen, finished eighth. In 1988, Hansen, 50, won the $5,000 Seven Card Stud event, the first of eight money finishes at the WSOP. "Bad beats happen," he said philosophically. "When you're all in, there's nothing you can do about it." He was knocked out with two pair from fourth street when Gingras caught a third eight on the river. 
The Final Table
Standard Stud Notations
3rd Street ( 3: ) Up cards are listed in Seat # order for each Street. 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. *** 4:03 PM Friday 1 May 1998 *** 36 minutes remaining at 3,000/6,000 Level with $500 ante and $1,000 bring in.
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"This one is the most special of all," Cobb said, "because
my wife's father, Mel Malmud, who worked the World Series
tournament board for many years, passed away April lst. This
was a family affair."