WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #5 SEVEN-CARD STUD
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
$1,500 BUY-IN
$1,500 in chips

UNRELENTING PRESSURE

Remember that dream you had once, where everyone called you to the river then
folded on your last bet so you never had to show your cards?

There were 253 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In, Seven-Card Stud for a total prize
pool of $356,730. 3 tables were paid, a total of 24 players.

Ron Durante had enough chips to call a short stack's all-in bet even though Ron
was on a flush draw and was up and obvious set of sixes on 4th street. The
flush arrived and the 25th player left. Everyone was in the money.

Bill Gibes is a Seven-Card Stud specialist. He's been to Stud Final Tables
before. He probably should have known better than to try to run over Peter
Moore with nine players left and two short stacks still worrying. Bill took a
pair of 9's with an Ace and pushed the pot against a flush draw for Moore. When
the third suited up card came for Moore, Gibes had Aces up and was stuck. Dan
Torla and Gene Frank were appreciative of Bill Gibes' largess and quit
worrying.

THE FINAL TABLE: 28 mins left of 75. The ante is $300, bring-in $600, playing
$2,000/$4,000
Player Hometown Chip Count
Seat 1 Dan Torla Huntington Beach CA $ 8,700
Seat 2 Ron Durante Sicklerville NJ $
29,500
Seat 3 Toto Leonidas Los Angeles CA $ 67,780
Seat 4 Gene Frank Evansville IN $ 14,700
Seat 5 Peter Moore Norcross GA $ 34,300

Seat 6 Steve Flicker Los Angeles CA $
25,200
Seat 7 Phil Ivey Atlantic City NJ
$142,100
Seat 8 John Hennigan Las Vegas $ 44,500

From the deal of the first hand it seemed inevitable that seven players were
vying for 2nd. Phil Ivey had that many chips. But it wasn't just chip count
that proclaimed the winner before the fight began. Ivey was dominating his
fellow players like few have before. Stu Unger comes to mind, Phil Hellmuth,
Huck Seed, Johnny Chan. You know the neighborhood. It's the poker greatness
neighborhood.

Is Phil Ivey going to be an 'immortal' like those other guys? At 25 it's too
early to tell for sure about Ivey. But the great ones were winning early. And
dominating early. What's interesting about Phil Ivey is that he's an
African-American. The first black poker superstar. In a game as dominated by
white males as golf used to be, poker may be seeing the emergence of its Tiger
Woods.

Hanging on by his finger and toenails, Dan Torla briefly had hopes for 7th
place when John Hennigan went all-in. John won his hand and Torla had to settle
for 8th. Dan was being anted out so he made a move on the antes by going all-in
with his last $4,000 and a pair of 7's. The table 'Terminator' Phil Ivey had to
search his mountain of chips for a stack as small as $4,000 to call Torla.
Since Dan was all-in we got to see Phil's cards for one of the few times all
day. Phil didn't need a hand to call Torla, with all those chips, and he didn't
have one. Phil was just doing his job as chip leader of trying to eliminate
players. Ivey turned over Q 8 2. The next four cards for each player were a
precursor of what must have happened to everyone who faced Phil Ivey today. Dan
Torla didn't improve his 7's at all to the river. Phil Ivey caught an 8 on 4th
St for an overpair then a running pair of sixes.

Ivey usually won hands by betting until all his remaining opponents folded.
Those few who went beyond 4th St with Phil, knew they would have to pay dearly
for their draws and might still lose. John Hennigan was a little bolder against
Phil than the others so he went out 7th. John had the temerity to start with
the best hand, split Kings, against Ivey's flush draw. John made what would
normally be a pretty good hand in Stud…Kings over Jacks. But Hennigan made
this nice hand on the wrong day. This was 'Phil Ivey Day.' Ivey had his King
high flush on 6th St. John Hennigan has a delivery business in Las Vegas called
"Everything Goes." Phil shipped the company CEO to the rail, C.O.D.

Steve Flicker is one of the bonafide characters in poker. Think Robert Mitchum
in a fright wig. One of the greatest living lowball players, Steve can and does
play all poker games well. With chips running low, Robert…er…Steve decided
to send it all in on a pretty Heart straight flush draw. He knew he was
trailing Peter Moore's Kings, but what the heck. He didn't have enough chips to
stay competitive anyway. Mitchum…darn…Flicker may or may not have dated
Marilyn Monroe also, but still finished 6th.

Phil Ivey was playing exactly the correct way against short stacks when you
have an Everest of chips. Phil put unrelenting pressure on them. He maxed every
bet on every card. The little guys knew they had to win any hand they entered
or they were gone. Ron Durante was the next publican to put his head on the
Ivey guillotine. Durante called the $2k bring-in then went all-in with his last
$4,200 and not much, a pair of 8's on 4th St. As usual, the victim squirmed and
pleaded for mercy but to no avail. Ron's 8's were good until 6th St when Ivey
made a running two pair with a trey and a 10. The man was Invincible!

The pounding continued until Gene Frank had had enough. He stepped up to the
plate only to be belted out of the park by Ivey. Gene had never played a Stud
tournament before and he may never again after seeing Phil Ivey in action.
Frank had pocket 10's and two pair on 5th St. Ivey had tons of chips and a
desire to wipe out the table by himself. Forget about it! As they say in Phil's
hometown of Atlantic City. Phil caught a gutshot 10 on the river for a straight
to put an entry into the diary of Gene Frank.

It was such a hopeless battle that even Peter Moore finally gave up. Peter kept
looking to his left at the Himalayas that Phil Ivey had built and saying,
"Awesome!" Peter had made a brief rush at 2nd only to fall back. He threw in
his last chips just to get off the table. His straight draw had failed and he
wanted to go home. Toto Leonidas had 7's full anyway.

At the start of heads up play, Phil Ivey had a 4-1 chip lead and it immediately
fell to 3-1. Might there really be a battle for first? No, there wouldn't.
After what seemed like hours of ante taking, Toto did the same thing everyone
else did today against Phil Ivey. He called to the river and folded to Phil's
river bet. No one could make a hand against Ivey. It was amazing. This never
happens to mere mortals. Maybe Phil Ivey WILL become one of the great ones.

Now with no hope of winning, Toto went all-in with split 3's and found Phil
with split Aces which held up. The unrelenting pressure of the Ivey Inquisition
was over. All were found guilty of offending Phil Ivey by their presence at his
table and were burned at the stake.

Official Money Winners
1. Phillip Ivey $132,000
2. Toto Leonidas 67,780
3. Peter Moore 33,880
4. Gene Frank 21,400
5. Ron Durante 17,840
6. Steve Flicker 14,270
7. John Hennigan 10,700
8. Dan Torla 7,500

9th-12th received $5,000
Bill Gibbs, Tony Cousineau, Steve Simmons, Barry Shulman

13th-16th received $3,560
Chris Bigler, Steven Banks, Ron Preston, David Colclough

17th-24th received $2,140
Patrick Burton, Edward Scharf, Pierre Peretti, Terry Fleischer, Mickey Seagle,
Barbara Enright, Eddie Fishman, Max Cabot

More Super Satellite winners are: Ron Aberman, Matt Heintschel, Dan Stephenson,
Gerson Mosbacher, J.J. Bortner, Paul Darden, Jr. Gary "Hog" Haubelt, Louis J.
Asmo, Travis Jonas (2), George Bartlett, Chris Tsiprailidis, Mickey Seagal, Ken
Jacobs, Joseph Brandenberg, Raymond Greenwell, Nicholas Dileo, Satish Vitha