Mark Seif Wins Marathon WSOP Battle

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Mark Seif show.

In an effort that was one part entertainment, one part emotion, and two parts limit hold’em mastery, Mark Seif survived a roller coaster of a final table to take the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event, notching his first ever WSOP bracelet.

The format of this “shootout” was different than most tournaments to which many fans are accustomed. In the “shootout” format, all players competed in isolated single table tournaments. The winner of each of these went on to the second round to play at one of nine 5-person single table tournaments. The winner of each of those advanced to the final table.

Seif, resident poker pro at AbsolutePoker.com, found himself in Seat 8, one spot to the left of last year’s champ, Kathy Liebert, and one spot to the right of the young Alex Borteh. These seats had actually been re-drawn prior to the start of the final table because the players had not been present for the drawing the night before. Seif felt fortunate, as he was in position to act after the very dangerous Liebert.

At the outset, it was actually Liebert who was in command, as she took down three of the first five pots, raking in many of Seif’s chips. Seif did not stray from his game, however, and actually teamed up with Liebert in what was to become a very amusing psychological attack on Borteh.

Borteh appeared extremely uptight for the early stages of the tournament, hunched over his chips, barely lifting the corners of his cards, as if he was afraid someone would see them. To any observer, he was a bundle of nerves. Surprisingly, however, the kid quickly took the chip lead. Chip lead or not, Seif and Liebert, and Seif in particular, needled Borteh relentlessly trying to make him more and more nervous. Most comments were said with a smile and were really all in good fun, but the two veterans did want to try to do what they could to shake Borteh’s confidence. It was really quite entertaining.

As an example, in a heads-up pot against Borteh, Seif held A-J on a 7-3-A flop. During the usual betting and raising, Seif told his younger opponent, “There’s no shame in folding.” When the turn produced a 10, Seif suggested, “You can get out of the pot right now and save yourself a lot of money.” The river gave Seif another Ace and he won the pot.

A short time later, the two got into another hand together, this time with Seif holding pocket Queens. After Seif won with a King on the board, he turned to Borteh, who looked a bit shaken, and asked, “What’s wrong with you? What did you have?” As Borteh slumped over his chips, Seif said, “It’s ok, Alex.”

Seif continued to do a lot of good-natured talking at the table, playing a large percentage of hands. This style of play made for an up-and-down day, as Seif often found himself winning several pots and then losing several. Eventually, he showed a few of hands after forcing others to fold just so everyone would realize he had good cards and wasn’t playing like a maniac.

In the meantime, Borteh played solid poker, holding the chip lead or close to it for several hours. Robert Mizrachi and Quinn Do had also become forces at the table, building up their stacks at the other end of the table in a quieter fashion.

As Friday became Saturday, there were still six players remaining from the original nine. The players were getting tired (the tournament started shortly after 3:00pm) and the talk had died down. Then, just like that, there were some fireworks.

Seif and the steady Bill Shaw got into a raising war pre-flop. After several more bets and raises through the hand, which produced a straight and a flush possibility, Shaw showed pocket 7’s to give him a straight and the pot. Disgusted with his inability to lay his hand down, Seif showed his pocket Queens, threw them down, and dropped the f-bomb. As is the rule, Seif was assessed a ten minute penalty for the outburst. Now short-stacked, this was not good for Seif, as he was going to lose even more chips as a result of forfeited blinds.

Thirty seconds before he was allowed to sit back down, Aram Zerounian was eliminated in 6th place, making it a profitable time-out for Seif. Then came the turning point of the night.

About the second hand after Seif returned, the action was four-bet by four players pre-flop. After the flop of Qd-7d-2c, Mizrachi bet and Seif called (the other players folded). When the turn card was a 10d, the two four-bet once again. The river card was the 5d, making four to a flush on the board. Mizrachi checked, Seif bet, leaving him with only a few chips, and when Mizrachi only called, Seif knew immediately that his Kd-9d and king-high flush was the best hand. Mizrachi flipped over his A-Q in disgust and the momentum, which had been with Mizrachi after taking a huge pot from Seif before the penalty, was squarely on Seif’s side.

On a run of emotion, Seif proceeded to bluff all the way down on the next hand with a measly 2-6 offsuit, catching the straight on the river for another big pot. When the players went on break a few minutes later, Seif had gone from the brink of elimination to the second stack.

As the players grinded away into the morning hours, the crowd got smaller and smaller. The remaining "crowd" small cheering sections for Do, Shaw, and Seif, and a large, vocal contingent for Robert Mizrachi, including his successful poker-playing brother, Michael. When Mizrachi was finally eliminated in 4th place, the main stage got very quiet, as the Mizrachi posse exited en masse.

Eyes drooped and conversations slowed as the final three, Seif, Borteh, and Shaw, found themselves with disturbingly similar chip counts. It was an interesting threesome. In one seat, there was Seif, the loose, emotional, yet mostly jovial table captain for a large duration of the evening. Then there was Shaw, who remained stoic and seemingly unaffected by anything that happened around him. Finally, there sat Borteh, a basket case hours ago, but at this point relaxed and comfortable, as he realized that he belonged at that final table.

At this point, one of the only things keeping the almost equally exhausted spectators’ spirits up was the fact that this was Las Vegas, which meant that cocktail waitresses continued to come around with free drinks.

Once Borteh was finally eliminated in the 3rd place after earning the well-deserved respect of his opponents, it was heads-up between Seif and Shaw. One hand after the one-on-one match started, the chip counts were astonishingly equal – Shaw was ahead by a single $1,000 chip. What made this even more amazing was that Shaw was all-in about an hour before.

A few more hands into heads-up play, with Seif taking the lead, Shaw, in a sign of great sportsmanship, suggested that the two split the prize money and just play for the cherished WSOP bracelet. Seif quickly agreed. The two asked Tournament Director, Johnny Grooms, what the procedure for something like this would be, but Grooms said that the WSOP does not officially allow deals and that whoever won would be awarded 1st place money. Any arrangement they make after that is up to them.

Shortly thereafter, Seif won a monster pot when the two players four-bet pre-flop and four-bet the turn before Shaw folded to Seif’s raise on the river. With the board showing Qs-Ks-8c-2s-9h, Seif flashed a King as Shaw mucked his cards. From there, there was not much Shaw could do with a crippled chip stack and Seif went on to the title.

After the brutal, thirteen hour battle, an exhausted Seif had nothing but kind words for his opponents. He lauded Shaw, in particular, admiring is unflappability and his ability to remain tight the entire match while at the same time picking the perfect spots to unveil aggression.

For Seif, this milestone event was confirmation that he could go toe-to-toe with anyone and, according to him, will hopefully serve as a precursor to several more deep runs at the WSOP this year. And when he does find himself at more final tables, fans would be wise to stick around and watch – they’ll be treated to one heck of a show.

Complete Final Table Standings

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. Mark Seif - $181,330
2. William Shaw - $93,770
3. Alex Borteh - $46,885
4. Robert Mizrachi - $40,675
5. Quinn Do - $34,465
6. Aram Zerounian - $28,255
7. Kathy Liebert - $24,840
8. Sam Siharath - $18,630
9. M. J. Partin - $12,420

Originally published June 18, 2005