My friend Mike Paulle has given me permission to post his daily reports for each event of the World Series of Poker this year to the ChipBoard! Below is his report on Event #6. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #6 LIMIT OMAHA
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
$1,500 BUY-IN
$1,500 in chips

POKER UNIVERSITY

Florida State University is known as one of the Top 10 party schools in the
country. Nothing that happened at this Final Table is likely to change that
perception.

There were 130 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In, Limit Omaha for a total prize
pool of $183,300. Two tables were paid, a total of 18 players.

Rene Oliveras is a lucky man. Not because he finished 13th today or that his
full house put everyone in the money. Rene is lucky because he's received that
rarest of poker blessings. Oliveras has a wife that listens sympathetically to
his good and bad beat stories, sharing his enthusiasm for the game, sweating
his every move.

The Final Table was setup Wednesday night when Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis
flopped top pair with A K J and knocked out two short stacks, David Colclough
and Mark Mitchell on the same hand.

THE FINAL TABLE: 66 mins left of 75. The blind were $1,000/$1,500. Playing
$1,500/$3,000
Player Hometown Chip Count
Seat 1 Jim Karambinis Park Ridge IL $28,500
Seat 2 'Miami' John Cernuto Las Vegas NV $43,000
Seat 3 Williard Wellnitz Rushville NE $
9,000
Seat 4 Haviv Bahar Las Vegas NV $18,500
Seat 5 Jim Grimes Houston TX $
1,500
Seat 6 Randy Holland Orange CA $27,500
Seat 7 Barry Shulman Las Vegas NV $20,000
Seat 8 Phil Hellmuth, Jr Palo Alto CA $31,500
Seat 9 Mickey Appleman Fort Lee NJ $ 4,500
Seat 10 Dave Russell Redford MI $11,000

For a change, this Final Table didn't have a clear favorite going in. No one
had more than 14 big bets. There were 15 WSOP bracelets at the table, so no one
was going to be outplayed. The short stacks were in trouble as always, but
anyone of seven players had a logical shot at the title. A good rush by any of
several players would probably determine the winner.

The second generation of poker nobility was represented by Jim Grimes, son of
the famous Tommy Grimes. Jim didn't learn from his father that you should
always bring lots of chips to a Final Table. With only $1,500 Jim didn't even
have time for a cup of coffee. John Cernuto picked Grimes off with a flopped
set of 3's to Jim's top two pair.
A fine player himself, 'Miami' John's son was sitting in the gallery watching
his dad play. It would be no surprise to see both sons at a WSOP Final Table in
the future.

It's safe to say that no poker player likes to lose. But few who do lose, do so
with less grace than Phil Hellmuth. Even after seven gold bracelets, 32 Final
Tables and many millions of dollars in earnings, the fire to win still burns
very high in Phil's gut. What doesn't burn at all is his desire to be civil to
his fellow players. When the cards were turned over in an early hand, Phil
loudly complained to Barry Shulman about Phil's being check-raised on the flop
when Barry only had top pair. They are funny later, these childish tantrums,
but not at the time. Phil has become a physical presence at the table as he's
filled out. Always tall at 6'6", Phil isn't skinny anymore. He looks like he
could play tight end in the NFL. Standing up, yelling like a mad man and waving
his arms around, while everyone else is sitting down, could actually be
frightening to someone who'd never seen this act before. Maybe that's what's
intended.

"I'm not done, yet, boys." Phil said after he calmed down a little. But he was
done soon enough. When Hellmuth picked up two suited 8's and 6's and an 8
flopped, Phil check-raised nearly all-in from the small blind with top set.
Randy Holland and Williard Wellnitz both had overpairs to the board and called.
Randy had Queens, Williard had 10's. Wellnitz was all-in on the Hellmuth call.
When a Queen turned, Randy Holland bet out and Phil went all-in with his last
$3k. Randy said, "Top set." Which predictably started another bout of yelling
before Phil quietly said "Nice Hand" to Holland. Lost in the furor, Williard
Wellnitz a quiet man from Nebraska finishing 9th said stoically "I won three
hands in a row I didn't play and lost the one I did play." The difference in
attitude was striking, Wellnitz blamed himself, Hellmuth blamed everyone else.
Phil got 8th place money for starting the last hand with more chips. He needed
5th or better to recatch T J Cloutier for 1st in all-time money winnings.

Barry Shulman is having some year. The Card Player Magazine owner has set up
his life so that playing tournament poker is a legitimate business expense. How
sweet is that! Coming into the Series, Barry was leading in points for 'Player
of the Year.' By the sixth event he's fallen behind Huck Seed into second, but
it wouldn't surprise many if Shulman regains the lead before the year is over.
Low on chips, Barry raised under the gun and went all-in with his A J 9 8. Dave
Russell had taken over the chip lead by then and David called with A K Q 9.
Russell flopped a 'wrap' when the board came J 10 5 3 and got there with a
Queen on the river. 7th place gave Barry Shulman too few points to catch Huck
Seed.

Born in Israel, Haviv Bahar now makes Las Vegas his home. Hey a desert is a
desert, right? Haviv, called 'Avi' had done a good job avoiding the perils but
wasn't winning enough chips. Bahar took his last chance with pocket Kings by
going all-in with $4,500. John Cernuto called and flopped Aces up to give Bahar
the opportunity to enjoy the desert sunset in 6th.

With 29 WSOP cashes and three bracelets, Mickey Appleman is the stuff of
legend. One thing Mickey does better than almost anyone is to hold on with few
chips. Mickey's problem, if he has any lately, is that he's getting too much
practice playing with a short stack. He'd prefer not to have the practice and
win some big pots. Again today, the big pots didn't come. With the blinds
growing, Appleman raised all-in for $6,500 and an unusual all-in hand…9 7 6
5.
With the flop of 8 4 3, however, it looked like the canny Appleman knew
something. He'd flopped a complete wrap. He had every card from the 9 to the 3.
But he still didn't have a straight with only two cards in his hand. When the
turn and river showed Kings, Mickey's day was over in 5h, losing to Cernuto's
pocket Aces.

Now it seemed to get personal, at least for Jimmy "The Greek" Karambinis. Jimmy
kept glowering at John Cernuto sitting next to him. Then he would give a look
to the dealer for a bad beat that would turn a Greek god into stone. And all
the time he was obviously swearing a blue streak in Greek. To someone who
understood the language, this performance was probably fall-down funny. But no
one at the table understood what Jimmy was saying. It looked for a second when
Jimmy rivered top full against Cernuto's flopped nut straight that Karambinis
could win this thing. But the gods weren't smiling on Jimmy. A crushing hand
came when Cernuto reversed the river suck out. This time it was Karambinis who
had a wheel on the turn. Cernuto had 8's and 2's. An 8 on the river sent Jimmy
on a probably unprintable Greek tirade. He was out in 4th soon thereafter when
both Cernuto and Holland made straights leaving Jimmy's pocket Aces high and
dry.

Like Rene Olivares last night, Dave Russell had his wife Ann in the stands
rooting for him today. Lucky guys. It wasn't luck, however, that got Russell to
3rd. He played brilliantly against one of the best Final Table lineups ever.
Starting 7th in chips, Dave took over the chip lead a couple hours in and held
it for some time. It was still fairly even three-way between he, John Cernuto
and Randy Holland. Anyone who went on a rush would win. That someone turned
out to be 'Miami' John Cernuto. Almost instantly, it seemed, John was winning
all the hands. Both Randy and Dave were short stacked and playing for 2nd.
Randy won that battle with pocket Queens that were good against the all-in
straight draw of Russell. Ann Russell, who was sure her husband would win, was
justifiably proud of her man.

By taking out the 3rd place finisher, Randy Holland insured himself enough
chips to make a decent deal with Cernuto. But with the money spoken for, John
didn't cool down. Cernuto blitzed Holland in a battle of Florida State
Seminoles. They could 'chop' the money but they couldn't chop the bracelet.
Both had two pieces of the precious jewelry, one would now have three. It was
over quickly. What could have been a showdown at a Frat house poker party in
the early '70's, was now a fight over the $1,500 Limit Omaha championship.
Poker U. won and Poker U. lost. John Cernuto completed his heater to the title
with a rivered straight on a wrap with 7 5 against Randy's flopped two pair,
the 'dead man's' A's and 8's.

Official Money Winners
1. John Cernuto $73,320
2. Randy Holland 36,660
3. Dave Russell 18,320
4. Jim Karambinis 11,000
5. Mickey Appleman 8,220
6. Haviv Bahar 6,420
7. Barry Shulman 4,580
8. Phil Hellmuth, Jr 3,640
9. Willard Wellnitz 2,940
10. Jim Grimes 2,200

11th-12th received $2,200
David Colclough, Mark Mitchell

13th-15th received $2,020
Rene Oliveras, Mark Williams, Al Matthews

16th-18th received $1,840
Van Hoang Pham, Lonnie Heimowitz, Billy Boutte