Tournament Trail

Hevad Khan Wins the 2008 Caesars Palace Classic
By Ryan Lucchesi

The second Caesars Palace Classic $10,000 no-limit hold'em championship once again lived up to its $1 million first-place guarantee, thanks to Caesars Palace adding $53,961 to the prize pool. The three-day event attracted 311 players, and 27 of them received prize money; the champion would walk away with $1 million.

Here is what the chip stacks looked like at the start of the final table:

Seat 1 - Joseph Cordi - 2,420,000
Seat 2 - John Hennigan - 2,800,000
Seat 3 - Michael Katz - 2,170,000
Seat 4 - Gary Friedlander - 1,625,000
Seat 5 - Michael Fantini - 1,430,000
Seat 6 - Michael Kamran - 2,150,000
Seat 7 - Adam Junglen - 2,705,000
Seat 8 - Jonathan Aguiar - 3,610,000
Seat 9 - Hevad Khan - 8,675,000
Seat 10 - Daniel Schreiber - 3,625,000

It took an hour and 40 minutes for the first player to fall after a number of players doubled up to kick things off, and the first victim was Michael Katz (10th place - $35,746). After the first elimination, the speed of play increased, thanks to the escalating blinds and antes, and Michael Fantini (ninth place - $59,127), Daniel Schreiber (eighth place - $88,691), John Hennigan (seventh place - $118,255), Adam Junglen (sixth place - $147,818), Joseph Cordi (fifth place - $177,382), Jonathan Aguiar (fourth place - $206,946), and Gary Friedlander (third place - $266,073) fell in succession during a series of coin flips at a final table that was defined by all-in shoves.

This brought things down to the two final players, but the heads-up match took on a decidedly different pace of play than the preceding period. Hevad Khan began the heads-up match against Michael Kamran with a 17,150,000 to 14,075,000 advantage. Kamran took a small lead and then began to chip away at Khan, until he was forced to move all in for 9,350,000. Kamran called him down, and Khan was able to double up and take back the chip lead when his pocket jacks held up against A-10. With the momentum back on his side, Khan whittled down his opponent until Kamran met his elimination: Khan raised to 800,000 from the button and Kamran made the call from the big blind. The flop was dealt J 9 2, and Kamran checked. Khan bet 900,000 and Kamran raised all in. Khan thought for a moment and made the call. Khan flipped over the J 6 and Kamran revealed the K 10. The turn was the 7, but the river was the 10, and Khan won the first major tournament title of his career. He took home $1 million, the crystal Caesars Palace Classic trophy, and a Breitling watch. Kamran took home $520,320 for his runner-up finish.

Jonathan Little Collects $1,120,310 With 2008 Foxwoods World Poker Finals Win

Foxwoods hosted the World Poker Tour in early November, and 412 players, a significant reduction from the 575 who entered in 2007, put up the $10,000 buy-in to participate. Fifty players walked away with their share of the $4 million prize pool, and after five days a final table was set. The chip leader heading into the final table was Jonathan Jaffe, a 21-year-old professional online player who had a strong showing at the 2008 World Series of Poker with three cashes, including a fourth-place finish in the $10,000 world championship heads-up no-limit hold'em event. Other players included Mike Matusow, who came in short-stacked and was the first player eliminated; Jack Schanbacher, a 26-year-old professional poker player from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Charlie Marchese, a 39-year-old small-business owner from New York; the always dangerous David Pham; and four-time WPT final-table participant Jonathan Little.

It took 275 hands, the longest WPT final table in history, for a victor to emerge, as Jonathan Little and Jonathan Jaffe traded the chip lead during heads-up play that lasted five hours. In the end, Little emerged with his second WPT title and increased his career earnings to nearly $4 million.

Here were the final results:

1. Jonathan Little - $1,120,310
2. Jonathan Jaffe - $670,636
3. Charles Marchese - $337,256
4. David "The Dragon" Pham - $240,344
5. Jack Schanbacher - $182,196
6. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow - $124,048

What's My Line? Osmin 'Oddie' Dardon
By Julio Rodriguez

Osmin "Oddie" Dardon is one of L.A.'s best cash-game players, and has recently made his presence known on the tournament circuit, as well. This summer, Dardon finished third in one of the World Series of Poker $1,500 no-limit hold'em events, cashing for $243,734. Recently, he went on a run through one of the toughest fields of the year at Bellagio's Festa al Lago. His third-place performance there earned him another $506,245, putting him in 40th place in the Card Player 2008 Player of the Year race.

Card Player spoke to Dardon about the hand that almost sent him to the rail. Instead, he averted disaster and rebounded to make the final table.

Event - Blinds/Antes	Festa al Lago	6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante
Player	Osmin Dardon	Olav Prinz Von Sachsen
Chip Counts	982,000	672,000
Hand	4 4	10 10

The Hand

Mike Wattel raised to 30,000 from middle position and was called by Osmin "Oddie" Dardon in late position and Olav Prinz Von Sachsen in one of the blinds.

The flop came 10 8 4 and Von Sachsen checked. Wattel bet 50,000 and Dardon thought for a moment before he raised to 125,000. Von Sachsen tanked for several minutes before pushing forward a check-raise to 375,000.

Wattel quickly folded and Dardon counted out his stack. After a minute, he asked Von Sachsen how much he had behind. The count was about 270,000 and Dardon did the math. He had both the raise and the amount behind covered, but something was bothering him. After about another minute of thought, Dardon mucked the 4 4 faceup, stunning the table.

As he slowly walked toward the balcony overlooking the Bellagio fountain, Von Sachsen put him out of his misery by showing his 10 10 to the table. After realizing he made the right decision, Dardon immediately burst into celebration, giving fist pumps and high-fives on the balcony for several minutes before returning to his seat.

After the hand, Dardon was left with 825,000 in chips, while Von Sachsen moved up to 935,000.

Julio Rodriguez: Oddie, can you walk us through your set-over-set laydown?

Oddie Dardon: Mike raised preflop and I made the call with pocket fours. It came to Olav in the blind and he hesitated. It looked like he wanted to reraise, but he just called. My profile of him at the time was that he was a very conservative, tight player. So, I put him on some sort of middle pair.

The flop came nicely for me, a 10-8-4 complete rainbow. But I looked over at him and it seemed that he really liked the flop. He checked, and Mike bet 50,000.

JR: What about Mike's bet?

OD: I thought he had nothing, just an ace-high continuation-bet. I was way more concerned with Olav. However, there was the possibility of a gutshot-straight draw with a hand like Q-J, so I decided to raise small.

It came to Olav, and he thought for so long that I knew he was strong. Based on his preflop range and image, I had him on an overpair or a set.

JR: After a few minutes of thinking it over, he reraised you pretty small.

OD: Well, there's the catch. Nobody tanks for that long and then practically min-raises. The minute he raised me after tanking so long, I told myself that he had the nuts. He made it a point to show me that he was super nervous by tanking and shaking his hands like that. I consider that a tell. That being said, it is still a very tough laydown to make. I took my time and counted out my stack, but ultimately I had to throw it away.

JR: Why did you show your hand?

OD: I thought it might motivate him to show me his hand.

JR: If the situation were reversed and you had flopped top set, would you have let him off the hook, as well?

OD: Absolutely not. In fact, I probably would have played his hand completely different. I don't think I would have given him that much information, and there's no way he would've been able to get away as easily as I did.