Poker world ready for new champion

Steve Addy

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

From a record field of 631 poker players, all of the former World Series champions are gone.

Everyone else with a weighty tournament reputation, history.

The self-nicknamed "stars," the publicity-mad poker website hawkers and the all-hat no-cattle pretenders, they're all watching from the rail now.

All that remain in the 33rd World Series of Poker championship field are nine unheralded but undaunted players who've survived a week of high-stakes no-limit Texas Hold 'em, chasing the record first prize of $2 million at Binion's Horseshoe on Fremont Street.

When the final table convened today at noon, a new champion was certain. In fact, none of the survivors had ever played on the last day of the Series, nor had they made the final table in any of the 34 lesser Series events held since April 19 at Binion's.

Though 47-year-old Englander John Shipley took control of about a third of the $6,310,000 in play, using a late rush Thursday to build his stack to $2,033,000, it's difficult to dub anyone the favorite, so unknown is this bunch.

Also, under the hot glare of the final table, the potential for costly errors is magnified.

"You'd have a hard time handicapping this field," said Johnny Chan, the Series champion in 1987 and '88, who exited on the second day this week. "Having a chip lead is important, but it doesn't necessarily make you a favorite."

Obviously, neither does past Series success. When the tournament began Monday with 631 players, up from last year's 613, 13 former champions were in the field. By Wednesday they were all gone, with 1989 winner Phil Hellmuth surviving the longest, exiting before the cutdown to 45 players.

Seven of Wednesday's top nine chip leaders maintained their status in Thursday's 11-hour marathon, but they didn't do it by crawling into a shell. They stayed ahead of the field with selective aggressiveness, and some daring plays.

When 11 players remained, with everybody hoping to survive two more spots to make the final table, Shipley took command by winning a pot worth about $1.2 million against Amir Nasseri.

Each player wagered $140,000 before the three-card community "flop," then Nasseri pushed in his remaining $459,000 after the flop showed three clubs, jack high. Shipley weighed his response for two minutes, then called Nasseri's all-in and showed pocket 8s, with the 8 of clubs.

Nasseri was in the lead with jack-nine of diamonds (top pair), and the fourth community card helped neither player, but the final card -- queen of clubs -- gave Shipley a flush, pumped his chip total to $1.6 million and cut the field to 10.

"There was too much money in the pot to fold," Shipley said. "When (Nasseri) bet after the flop, I knew he didn't have a flush. He would have checked a flush, hoping I would bet. He had been trying to run over the table, so I thought my 8s would be good."

A half-hour later, Shipley eliminated Don Barton of Pahrump by flopping three jacks, beating Barton's unimproved ace-queen hole cards for a gain of $450,000. That ended play for the night, and nine unheralded players celebrated their final-table status.

The highest climbers of the day were Russ Rosenblum of Bethesda, Md., and Harley Hall of San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Rosenblum started in 29th place with $83,500 and dipped to $32,000, but finished with the No. 2 chip count of $927,000. He won an $875,000 pot in the final hour, with his pocket jacks holding up. Hall started 40th with $37,500, but gradual gains allowed him to move into ninth at $161,000.

The other finalists, with their chip counts, are: Rafael Perry, Russia, $766,000; Rob Varkonyi, Brooklyn, N.Y., $640,000; Minh Thoaily, Las Vegas, $614,000; Scott Gary, Ireland, $545,000; Julian Gardner, England, $394,000; and Tam "Tony D" Duong, Los Angeles, $231,000.

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