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| EVENT #5 | 4/25 to 4/26/98 |
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| OMAHA (Pot Limit) $1,500 | |
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| TOTAL PRIZE MONEY - $387,000 | PRIZE MONEY TO DATE - $2,456,000 |
| ENTRIES IN THIS EVENT - 183 (Rebuys - 119) | TOTAL ENTRIES TO DATE - 1,369 |
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The Final Table How they finished Live From the 'Shoe The Play-by-Play |
 GREAT O'DEA IN THE MORNIN' "I've played live with the guy a lot. He'll act aggressive (like he's steaming) when he really has a good hand. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, shove in your chips and hope for the best." SHOW ME THE MONEY Roger Moore needed the skill of James Bond to defeat Lindy Chambers. Showing that his game has a fictional character, his Q's couldn't reign over Lindy's J 9, which hit for two pair. Roger Moore finished 22nd. With a first and second last year, Vasilis Lazarou wasn't used to going out this early. Steve Rydel, arguably the hottest player in tournament poker the last two months, was not impressed with Lazarou's past record. Vasilis' A K Q got cracked by Rydel's A K 9 when two nines hit the board. Vasilis got a 1 and a 2 this year. It's called 21st. Parkinson's hand made him forget that he could get "Chan's disease" by raising in front of the former World Champion. Padraic had Kings and an overpair to the board. Johnny flopped the nut straight with a 10 9. Padraic Parkinson's position was a forgettable 20th. Phil Hellmuth was in danger of missing the cut. Worse, he could be the last one out before the money. To someone with as much pride as Phil, this humiliation would be unacceptable. Still he'd waited an hour for Kings or Aces. When he got them he had to bet them. Hilbert Shirley, right behind Phil, called. The flop came Q x x. After some thought, Phil bet eight of his last sixteen chips. Hilbert came over the top almost immediately. After the fates, Hilbert and the dealer took some abuse, Phil showed two K's and mucked his hand. Hilbert flashed two Queens. It was Billy Thomas who got the muffin - 19th place, when none of his overcards hit and Norbert Holting's sevens held up. Everyone left had chips and were in the money. Billy Thomas went home to kick his dog. YA GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN IT Berry Johnston never had any chips in this event. Only a player of his caliber would have made it this far. On his last hand, he couldn't overcome Johnny Chan's three Aces with his three 4's and had to settle for 12th. Hilbert Shirey was the guy who aggravated Phil Hellmuth earlier. Now it was his turn to be upset. His Kings lost to Howard Greenspan's two pair when a Jack arrived on the river. Surely, Hilbert would finish higher than 11th? Not this time. For the third straight day, Doyle Brunson had a mountain of chips. The first day he won the event. Yesterday, he was mugged by a maniac and missed the money. Today, he went deep and was a hand away from the final table. Doyle went all-in with A Q 10 7 against Steve Rydel's A 10 7 7. The sevens stood up and so did Doyle. 10th wasn't what the Bear had in mind. But he's playing well and will be back. These are the heads sitting around the table.
Prize Money
Lindy Chambers shoulda stood in bed. He got to play only nine minutes today. When he flopped the nut straight, he went all-in. When the turn and river brought higher cards, his nuts got crushed. Howard Greenspan was dealt a higher straight. Lindy could have had his ninth place money brought to his room. Johnny Chan was drawing real thin on the flop, but unfortunately for Dan Heimiller, didn't know it. Chan called Heimiller's all-in bet needing running clubs to win. Guess what Johnny got? As the third club hit the river, Dan pounded the table. He knew it was the one suit he didn't want to see. Heimiller was feeling pretty low when he went to see Jack for his 8th place money, Howard Greenspan, with a healthy chip lead at the start, was hurt badly in a memorable hand we'll tell you about later. Weakened, he went all-in with K Q J 9. Johnny Chan, the terminator, had Aces. Howard had everything going his way yesterday. Today it was a different story. A disappointed Greenspan won't be raising interest rates anytime soon. He's in 7th hell. What's rarer than a brunette from Sweden? A brunette from Sweden who beats Johnny Chan at a final table. Ken went all-in with Q's and caught a heart draw. Chan had Kings and got another one. Ken had a nice tournament. He's another of the young lions that Europe seems to be manufacturing to take poker winnings out of the states. He took out $13,545 for 6th place. If you've been following the pros for the last few months, you know that Steve Rydel has been on fire. Well, an Irish rebellion of sorts doused that fire today. Donn O'Dea, an Irishman living in London, only had two overcards to the board, but he thought that was enough to call Steve's all-in bet. Steve had flopped an up and down straight draw and he had two tens. The Queen on the river gave Steve a Queen high straight and Donn an Ace high straight. Those Irish have no respect for royalty! Steve finished fifth. Steve Zolotow was running out of chips so he went all-in with A 10 10 9. Roy Thung called with A K 6 5. The flop was J 8 5 and the turn a 6. Steve made it two Steves in a row. Suddenly Jack is up to his eyes in Steves wanting their money. Zolotow was fourth. Aces versus Kings. Isn't that how this game is supposed to be played? That's how Roy Thung and Donn O'Dea played it. Surprise! The Aces won and they belonged to Donn. Thung had lost most of his chips a hand earlier with Johnny Chan when Johnny hit trip Aces on the flop and caught running Jacks for a full house to crack Roy's nut flush. Donn just put the icing on Thung's cake. Roy was disappointed but shouldn't have been. He played beautifully for third. When the chips were 200k for O'Dea and 187 for Chan, the guys made a deal. We are guessing that it was about even money for both which would have been $116,100 each. Where did all of those chips come from for Donn O'Dea? He didn't bring them to the final table and he didn't play very many hands while there. They came in one key hand with the then chip leader Howard Greenspan. From our viewpoint it was the hand that won O'Dea the tournament. The flop came Q 6 3 and Greenspan bet $3,000. Donn called. A J came on the turn and Greenspan bet $12,000. Donn called again. When the river came 2, Greenspan bet $35,000. O'Dea thought for several minutes then called with $35,000 of his last $40,000. He was effectively out of the tournament in seventh if he had made the wrong decision. O'Dea said, "I've played live with the guy a lot, He'll act aggressive (like he's steaming) when he really has a good hand. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, shove in your chips and hope for the best." When Donn turned over Q J for two pair, Greenspan tapped his cards in the gesture meaning good hand and threw his cards away. It was the play of the day. Not only could Howard have had a straight, trips could not be ruled out either. Until he relinquished his chip lead to Johnny Chan heads up, Donn was never passed again. That hand gave O'Dea the cushion both to make a nice deal and to withstand the later onslaught by the former Champion. Chan and O'Dea played for another hour and forty minutes, and at one point O'Dea was down to $51,000 in chips. Then in two hands, O'Dea took every chip. In the first of the two monster pots, Donn flopped a straight, while Johnny flopped trips. On the final hand Donn turned QUADS!!! What a way to end a tournament. Those Irish, they have no respect for royalty. FINAL RESULTS
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha with Re buys
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 #10 Sunday 4/26/98 HOLLAND'S AMERICA CRUISES You are going to have to forgive me today, gang. In my rushing from the Stud High-Low Split which took forever, I forgot to write down the payoffs for last night's Super Satellite. As we are under a deadline to get you the results as fast as possible, the pay outs will have to be a guess. It shouldn't be far off. The biggest prize pool yet amounted to an increase of about $5,000 in cash to the players. There were the same six seats given out. Tonight, 177 players bought 179 re buys bringing the prize pool to, $71,200. The following were the approximate rewards for making the final table:
Places 1 thru 6 A $10,000 entry into the Championship
event plus $590 ($10,590) Some of the "names" who competed were:
An Tran None of these esteemed players made the final table. Tex Martin sheepishly admitted that he had slow played Aces. This cost him the final table as John Foley made two pair. Tex finished eleventh. Every night we have a player who can't get that one key card that would get them in the money. Tonight that player was previous winner Ralph Hoots. The very same Ralph that knocked M.E. Mack out in 10th last night. What goes around, Hoots. The final table:
Bill White in 9th and Paul Honas in 8th had already gotten their cash when the second chip leader, John Foley had two run-ins with last night's hero, Thor Hansen. It's probably not a good idea to mess with people who've been named after gods. Especially if they can play as well as Thor does. John, who would have been much better served in the coffee shop where he couldn't see his cards, raised with pocket Jacks. Thor who needed chips for safety, called all-in with Kings. Round 1 to god. Now John was in trouble. The 12 chip blinds were headed his way and he made a move. He went all-in for a call of the big blind. There was Thor again. This time he didn't have a decision to make. He turned over his hand. It read K Q off. John Foley had to obey Patty Hughes rules and turn over his hand. J 10 off. A round 2 knockout for god. John was 7th and the rest of the table celebrated. Thor Hansen had won seats on two consecutive nights. But he wasn't the big winner. Randy Holland won two seats in the Championship event at the Commerce Club in California last month. That means he got paid for the second one. "$10,100" he told me. Tonight he won his second one here. That's four now. The cash is piling up. So if he doesn't make it into the money in the Big One don't shed a tear. Holland is cruising in America. The winners for Super Satellite #10 were:
Thor Hansen 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 $220 buy-in No Limit Holdem Satellites, ten Players start with $800 each in chips. The blinds start at $10/$25, increase every 15 minutes, and the winner gets four $500 Lammers plus $100 in cash. No Single Table Satellites for the $10,000 Championship Event have been run yet. LAS VEGAS WEATHER The Temperature sign atop Binion's Horseshoe read 73 degrees at 3:00 PM on Sunday. Not a cloud in the sky, a little bit of haze, and Saturday's high winds had died down to a moderate 5/10 mph. LENGTH OF FINAL TABLE
SENIOR'S V POKER TOURNAMENT Oklahoma Johnny Hale informed me that the fifth edition of the Senior's Poker Tournament will be held this year at Harrahs in Las Vegas. Details to be announced later. WSOP DEALS
WHERE THE BOYS ARE Last year by Sunday night we had two female event winners and over $240,000 in winnings for the girls. This year only Mimi Tran has made the final table to finish fourth and pick up $70,000. There's still lots of time. But the girls better get busy or the boys will start talking about them again. You know how they are. This was Steve Zolotow's fifth WSOP appearance at a Pot Limit Omaha Final Table, and he had never finished higher than fifth before today. As soon as Steve Rydel went out in fifth place, Steve Zolotow asked "Do you guys give up now?" Noli Francisco entered the Final Table area, between hands, and whispered something into Roy Thung's ear. Steve Zolotow said, "Noli, if you want to be a coach, start your own football team." Lindy Chambers ordered something to drink from the cocktail waitress as Final Table play began and quipped, "I hope I'm alive long enough to drink it." He wasn't. McCLELLANDisms Every day a crowd gathers near the tournament sign-up desk around 6:30 when Super Satellite entries are being taken. Today Jack asked everyone to clear the area if they weren't in the sign-up line, and when he spotted Tom McEvoy in the group, Jack said "Just follow Tom McEvoy to the rail". Jack noted that the Pot Limit Omaha prize pool was lower this year, and said that this was due to Lindy Chambers not making his usual number of re-buys. Roy Thung was lamenting losing a huge pot when his nut flush on the turn was beaten by Johnny Chan's full house on the river, and Jack quipped "This must be Omaha that we are playing." When Johnny Chan picked off a Roy Thung bluff on the river, Jack observed that Roy probably learned to bluff from hanging around with Noli Francisco. Four of the top five all-time WSOP money leaders cashed in the $1500 PL Omaha event. The total prize pool is up almost 2 % over last year for the first five events. 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. SCOREBOARD
Steve Morrow reports that Phil Tanner's infraction was unintentional. Phil Tanner was "juggling" his cards and accidentally dropped one on the floor. So, he accidentally got a 20 minute penalty. 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. POKER ROOM Shift Supervisors Jimmy Stefan, John Buchanan, Tony Shelton and Cathy Wood run the Poker room where the lower limit games are played. A recent check showed the following games being spread:
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. A recent check showed the following games were being spread:
$10,000 CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRANTS Updated through Saturday Noon 25 April 1998
Alphabetized:
Don Barton  Ireland's Donn O'Dea overcame a star-studded field to capture the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, winning his first World Series gold bracelet after trying since 1982. "It feels great," enthused O'Dea, 49, who swam for his native country at the 1968 Olympics.
O'Dea took the title from two-time World Champion Johnny Chan after a two-and-a-half hour heads-up contest which the winner described as "sort of strange." He said, "I expected Johnny to play more aggressively...he knows pot limit Omaha is my best game, of course. We showed a lot of respect for each other." O'Dea overcame a three-to-one chip advantage early to draw even, later fighting back from even worse positions and surviving three all-in efforts. The crucial hand saw O'Dea with K-J-5-3 flop a wheel while Chan with J-5-4-4 flopped a set. The straight held up and O'Dea suddenly had $330,000 in chips to Chan's $57,000. In the dramatic next hand, the Irishman flopped three eights and turned the fourth, to win. Chan, 40, a Hong Kong-born gaming consultant and restaurant owner, was denied his sixth WSOP title but pushed his leading all-time earnings to $2,392,094. This was his 19th in-the-money finish since 1983; he won back-to-back World Championships in 1987 and 1988. "It was a good tournament, I enjoyed it but I didn't win it," Chan said. "Last year I finished 9th in this event; next year I will win it." Third place went to Roy Thung, an Indonesian-born private investor who has been playing poker for 10 years. "I'm reasonably satisfied," he said. "I wanted to win the bracelet, but what can you do. They were all very fine players; it was an honor to be playing with them." This was Thung's third money finish at the WSOP. His hopes were dealt a double hammer blow in consecutive hands: he made a nut flush on the turn, only to see Chan's three aces turn into a full house on the river. Then Thung went all in with K-K-6-3 and found Chan again with pocket aces. Neither player improved. Steve Zolotow, 53, a partner in New York City bars with masters degrees in finance and poetry, took fourth place when he went all in with A-10-10-9, flopped an open-ended straight draw but lost to Thung's two pair. This 15th money finish brought his WSOP winnings to $308,260 since 1985. British player Steve Rydell, a 50 year-old former jeweler making his first trip to the World Series, finished fifth. "It was a tough field; I'm quite pleased but I'd have liked to do a bit better." He was eliminated with a river card oddity - a queen made him a king-high straight but it gave O'Dea an ace-high straight. Ken Lennard, ranked Number One this year in Europe in Pot Limit Omaha, finished sixth in his first WSOP tournament. The 26 year-old Swede, a former company owner, said he had never felt uncomfortable at big European tournaments. "But when I sat down here, I felt nervous. There were World Champions at my table. This is something else!" Seventh place went to Minnesota attorney Howard Greenspan, 43, playing in his third WSOP event. He described himself as a "recreational player" and said he made a bad mistake in assuming O'Dea, who successfully called a large semi-bluff, was aware of his newly established image as a tight player. "You have to play the person, not the cards," Greenspan said. Dan Heimiller, 35, a former industrial engineer, took eighth place and said that, "coming in as the shortest stack, I did as well as I'd be expected to with those few chips." This seventh money finish brought his WSOP earnings to $138,669. The ninth place finisher was Lindy Chambers, 65, an amusement company owner who had three previous WSOP cashes. "I have no complaints," he said. "And I had no rebuys!" 
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.
*** 1,000/2,000 Blinds
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This was his l2th finish in the money at the WSOP and it brought his total
earnings to $347,251. O'Dea has cashed five times in the $10,000 Championship
event. "The World Series gets bigger and better every year," he said. "It's
amazing the number of low limit players in Ireland and the U.K. who want to come
here. It's what everybody aims at all year because this is the mecca."