WSOP Day 12 Update

There were no bracelets handed out at the World Series of Poker Monday, but the poker celebrities were still out in force to try to build up their chip stacks and make one of the two final tables to be played Tuesday.

The nine finalists for the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event were determined and will compete for the title at 2:00pm PST Tuesday. The following are the final table competitors and their chip counts:

(Seat/Player/Chip Count)

1. Steven Hudak - $125,000
2. Edward Moncada - $125,000
3. Yoshitaka Oku - $50,000
4. Elia Ahmadian - $74,000
5. Marco Traniello - $104,000
6. Freddy Deeb - $127,000
7. Shah Ajay - $207,000
8. Shargel Koumi - $102,000
9. David Cossio - $166,000

When the tournament had been narrowed to two tables, a mixture of tension and levity were evident.

An example of the tension rearing its head could be seen when there were 13 players remaining. Elia Ahmadian raised from the button, and Garry Bush, immediately to his left, pushed over the top, all-in. When the play was folded back to Ahmadian, he took another look at his cards, paused, and said, “I can’t lay this hand down,” and flipped over pocket Aces. Bush had a good, but dominated, Ac-Qc, and ended up losing the hand. Down to one chip, he busted out the next hand.

Bush was visibly perturbed by Ahmadian’s apparent “slow-rolling”. It is generally considered poor poker etiquette to pretend you are agonizing over an easy decision, such as Ahmadian’s call with his Aces. It is seen as rubbing it in or taunting. After a few words were exchanged, Bush said, after the hand was over, “I hope someone does that to him one day.” Ahmadian claimed that he had only looked at one of his cards before he made his initial raise, so his peek before calling Bush’s all-in was to check his other card.

On the flip side, there was some humor at the table, in the form of Freddy Deeb. At one point, when the field was narrowed to 10 and the players were all sitting at the same table, Ahmadian raised after the flop and the player to his right re-raised him. Ahmadian stared at him for a bit before finally asking, “If I fold, will you show me what you have?” He didn’t get much of a response other than, “Of course not,” and he kept deliberating over what he should do. From the other end of the table, Deeb asked, “Could you guys speak up? I can’t hear what you’re talking about. What are you talking about?” When Deeb was told, he asked the re-raiser, “If he [Ahmadian] folds, will you tell me what you have?”

A little while later, a player across from Deeb, who had yet to get involved in a hand since moving to that seat, raised pre-flop, prompting the following response from Deeb, “I didn’t even know you were sitting there.” That got a laugh from the players, including the heretofore invisible man.

At the same time the final table was being determined for the Hold’em event, play got underway for the $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys tournament. It was a relatively small field, compared to the previous tournaments, as only 212 players registered, but there were almost twice that many rebuys, pushing the overall prize pool to over $1.1 million.

The field was whittled to 18 before everyone retired for the night. Play will resume Tuesday to determine the final table. Below are the chip counts after the first day of the event:


(Rank/Player/Chip Count)

1. Arturo Diaz - $201,500
2. Doug Lee - $118,000
3. Ron Graham - $116,500
4. Erik Seidel - $87,500
5. John Juanda - $77,000
6. Jim Bechtel - $73,000
7. Josh Arieh - $71,500
8. Ari Abramowitz - $70,500
9. Dave Colclough - $59,500
10. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - $58,500
11. Lukasz Dumanski - $56,000
12. Daniel Alaci - $56,000
13. Tony Sevnsom - $49,500
14. Max Pescatori - $35,500
15. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi - $31,500
16. Joe Beevers - $23,500
17. Casey Kastle - $18,000
18. Tony Cousineau - $14,500

Originally published June 14, 2005