The curtain is coming down on Farzad Rouhani's tournament. He has less than 40,000 after a few recent hands of Omaha Hi/Lo. The last one was contested three-ways with Ron Schiffman and Fabrice Soulier.
Soulier raised pre-flop, with Rouhani and Schiffman calling from the blinds. All players checked the flop. On the turn, Rouhani checked and Schiffman bet. Everyone called.
The on the river checked all the way through. Schiffman turned up for an eight-high straight and the second nut low. It drew a quiet fold from Soulier, and an angry pitching of Rouhani's cards into the muck.
Lana Maier just scooped the entire pot from Brian Malcolm on a board of . She held and Malcolm held . Maier's aces up with a five kicker played against Malcolm's four kicker for the high. She also bested his low by one card with a four-deuce to his four-three.
Lots of action in a hand of Omaha Hi/Lo on Table 151. We didn't see what happened preflop, but the pot was contested among Phillip Marmorstein, Peter Gelencser and Mitch Schock. On a flop of , Marmorstein acted first and fired out a bet. Gelencser and Schock both called.
On the turn , Marmorstein fired again. Again Gelencser called in front of Schock, who now raised. Marmorstein called all in for less; Gelencser called all in for even less than Marmorstein and the cards were opened.
Schock:
Marmorstein:
Gelencser: ? [he flipped them up, then mucked them too quick to see]
Gelencser was drawing dead with no low draw; Marmorstein was drawing at a low to chop or the case ace to scoop. The on the river was a brick, allowing Schock to scoop.
Because Marmorstein started the hand with more chips than Gelencser, he was the 12th place finisher. Gelencser finished 13th.
The tournament floor recently took a vote of the players to determine if they'd rather have dinner at 5:40, or play an extra hour and take it at 6:40. When he didn't immediately announce the results, Mitch Schock's curiosity reared its head.
"So what are we doing?" Schock asked.
"We're gonna play poker," quipped Bryan Micon.
"When are you gonna start?" retorted Schock.
The plan, by the way, is to take dinner at 6:40, after two more levels of play.
The game with the action (and the game that probably plays the biggest) in the H.O.R.S.E. rotation is hold'em. It's also the game most players are most comfortable with.
On Table 151, Phillip Marmorstein opened with a raise from the cutoff. Lana Maier called from the small blind and Peter Gelencser called from the big blind. The blinds checked to Marmorstein on a flop of . He followed up his pre-flop raise with a flop bet. Only Maier called.
Both players checked the turn. When the river fell , Maier led out. She picked up the pot by inducing a fold.
After making open jacks on fifth street, Fabrice Soulier put the pedal to the metal and began firing bets into James Van Alstyne. Soulier bet fifth, sixth and seventh streets. On the river, Van Alstyne squeezed his card... then called with , trip sevens.
"No!" cried Soulier in disgust. He flashed an ace in the hole for two pair, aces and jacks, before mucking.
Lana Maier: (X-X) (X)
Peter Gelencser: (X-X) (X)
Bryan Micon: (X-X) (X)
Micon drove the action in the early goings, but things slowed down to a lot of passive checks on the later streets between the three players. When it was all said and done, Micon scooped the high half after revealing , for two pair. Maier announced that she held a low and showed . Gelencser mucked his hand and the other two players chopped up his money.
Micon showed that he started with on his first four cards. "Sickest start to the hand ever." he proclaimed.
The pot added about 50,000 chips to both Micon's and Maier's stack.