$1,500 Limit Omaha: 'I Must ... Break You'

Editor's note: This is one in a series of articles originally written for an Internet website for the 2001 World Series of Poker tournament events.

I never cease to be amazed at how often poker provides metaphors for life, and one of the more common ones involves the value of never giving up, never quitting, never yielding in the face of insurmountable odds, at least not when there's no reason to quit fighting. The old "chip and a chair" axiom came home to roost again, in spades, in the $1,500 limit Omaha championship.

A total of 144 players started this tournament, and when we started play at the final table, the chip counts looked like it was going to be pretty easy to pick two of the final four players, at least:

Seat – Player – Chip Count

- 1 – Tom McEvoy – $7,500

- 2 – Tony Cousineau – $10,500

- 3 – Eddie Scharf – $23,000

- 4 – David Sklansky – $6,000

- 5 – Ben Tang – $42,500

- 6 – Allen Cunningham – $13,000

- 7 – Eli Balas – $27,000

- 8 – Don Barton – $79,500

- 9 – Michael "Pizza Man" Davis – $7,500

In a no-limit or pot-limit event, anything can and often does happen, no matter what the chip positions, but in limit poker, especially with 42 minutes left at the $500-$1,000 blinds, playing $1,000-$2,000, you could have gotten awfully good odds from anyone that the "hopelessly" outgunned Sklansky (who drew the big blind position for the first hand) and Davis would both outlast chip monsters Barton and Tang.

It would have been a nice parlay bet to get down, too, because that's exactly what happened.

McEvoy Arrives Late, Exits Early

1983 World Champion Tom McEvoy must have been using a 1983 model automobile to get to the tournament, because he arrived at the final table a full 18 minutes late, and with his short stack, under normal circumstances he would have stood a fairly good chance of getting a big chunk of his meager pile blinded off. Fortunately for McEvoy, whose only comment as he rushed up to the table was, "You don't want to know," two different microphones malfunctioned and several other technical problems got the cards in the air just as he rushed into his seat.

"McEvoy must lead a charmed life," quipped Tournament Director Bob Thompson. "For those of you in the crowd who don't know, Tom has written a wonderful book about tournament poker." A wonderful book it is, too, but I'm pretty sure it advises readers to arrive on time for their final tables.

Chip leader Barton came out firing, raising the first two pots and taking the blinds without a fight to move to $82,500. He raised the third pot, too, but this time Allen Cunningham, the Ventura, California, pro who had already made one final table at this Series and will probably win a half-dozen bracelets before he's done playing, decided to fight back, calling the raise, check-raising the flop and calling Barton's three-bet, firing out on the turn, getting called, and firing again on the river, with Barton passing.

Cunningham increased his stack to $20,000 on the hand, and the table noticed that despite firing at almost every possible opportunity on the first three hands, Barton hadn't shown any cards to anyone yet. They didn't forget.

McEvoy exited the table first, when his K-K-J-5 looked pretty good against a flop of J-8-5, but Tang held Q-10-J-8 for top two pair, and the 6-2 finish sent McEvoy packing.

'I'd Like One With Pepperoni and the Two of Diamonds'

It appeared that we were going to lose Davis, who gets his "Pizza Man" sobriquet via owning three pizza delivery businesses in Harker Heights, Texas, next, when Barton limped in from the button with 9-6-6-4, called Davis' raise out of the small blind, and got the rest of Davis' money in on the 9-4-2 flop. Davis showed us A-A-8-8, and needed an ace, an 8, or the board pairing something other than a 9 or 4 to stay alive. The 3 wasn't any help on the turn, but the 2u on the river kept Davis in the game, giving him aces up.

Sklansky, probably poker's greatest theorist and the author of most of the books that got many of today's players started, showed tremendous patience, and kept tossing hands away until he could find something worth playing. He survived seven different all-in situations, mostly because he didn't allow himself to get all in unless he had an actual hand.

Barton, who had the chips to be patient, wasn't. He was playing three times as many pots as anyone else, and his stack was slowly shrinking. When the buzzer went off to end the first 42 minutes of play, he had about $63,000, and I was pretty sure that unless he could find another gear, his chip lead wasn't going to last very long. Pushing people around with a big stack in no-limit is one thing. In limit, it's quite another. Tang, a poker host at Casino Arizona, was suffering from the same problem, although not anywhere close to the same degree.

A Stark Contrast

Unlike the previous day's no-limit hold'em final, which featured lots of fast play and even more fast talking, this table looked and sounded more like the "rejects" table at a poorly planned wedding that wasn't serving any alcohol. Everyone was grim-faced and more or less silent. That's limit Omaha for you. It's a game for the mathematically inclined, a game of calculation and card odds rather than aggression, imagination, and people reading. I'm fond of calling poker a people game played with cards rather than a card game played by people, but limit Omaha is an exception to that statement.

The blinds moved to $500-$1,500, playing $1,500-$3,000, and after Sklansky slipped a few more all-in nooses, Eli Balas, a local high-limit player, went on one of those rushes most of us can only dream about.

Down to his last $12,000 or so, he won an all-in pot against Barton, doubling up when he made a full house, and knocking Barton down to $57,000. He squared off against Barton on the very next hand, and won that one, too.

On hand No. 3 of The Streak, we had four-way action and saw a flop of 7 4 3. Tony Cousineau, a rapidly improving pro who has made three other Omaha final tables this year, bet out at the flop and got called by Cunningham, Balas, and Barton. The Au hit the turn, putting a possible flush out. Balas bet, Barton called, and Cousineau showed me the 6-5 in his hand before mucking what had been the nuts on the flop. The 3 hit the river, Balas bet again, and Barton called, with Cunningham dropping out. Balas showed his pocket aces for a full house, and Barton showed his two diamonds – one of which was the Ku for an expensive flush.

Balas won the next hand, again hurting Barton and taking the chip lead with about $60,000, then won No. 5 in a row. In an example that players "on a rush" should follow everywhere, he ignored his streak when he tossed his next starting hand into the muck.

He made it six of seven with an under-the-gun raise that got no callers, and hurt Cunningham badly on the next hand when running diamonds on the turn and river gave him seven wins in eight hands, leaving Cunningham with only $8,000.

Resistance was Futile

When Balas folded his next hand in the small blind, The Streak meant he was Seven of Nine, but since he possesses dark hair and craggy features, and is short in stature and the wrong sex, the chances of anyone ever mistaking him for Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan are worse than Tiger Woods' chances of shooting 246 on his next tournament round.

Balas might not have the body for Ryan's skin-tight outfit, but he was starting to make it seem that resistance was indeed futile.

Balas Assimilates Tang, Cunningham

Tang limped in, Cunningham raised, and Balas and Barton called, along with Tang, and the flop came down 9 6 2. Tang bet, Cunningham raised, and Seven of Nine (Balas) called, with Barton dropping and Tang calling. The 8 hit the turn, Tang bet, Cunningham called all in, Seven of Nine raised, putting Tang all in, and the 4 hit the river. Seven of Nine showed us a 7 and a 10 for a straight, knocking out two players, with Tang getting seventh-place money based on starting the hand with more chips.

The win made Balas Eight of Ten, putting him into a different Borg category, and allowing me to drop the Star Trek references. Cunningham showed that he'd had pocket aces knocked off on the turn. He told me he considered letting it go on the turn, when the possible straight hit, to save his last $3,000, but there was so much money in the pot, he decided to hang in and try for a shot at the title instead of a ladder move.

Balas won another pot a few hands later, knocking Barton down to about $23,000, and then, possibly deciding not to follow Barton's example, or possibly going card dead, switched gears into absolute neutral. He did play a hand against Cousineau, raising preflop and getting called, and the flop came 9 3 2. Balas bet and Cousineau called, but both checked when the 10 hit the turn. The 5 hit the river, putting a possible flush out, and both players checked. Cousineau turned over pocket jacks, and Balas mucked.

"Like the spade on the end, Tony?" I asked him as he collected his chips.

"Tell me about it," he said. "I don't know what I would have done if he had reached for his chips, probably laid it down, it makes a big difference, him checking there. I knew I had the nuts on the turn, when he checked, but the river card was as scary as it gets, it could have given him a straight, too."

Sklansky finally got ahold of some chips when he got everything in against Balas on a flop of 8 7 5, holding A Q 5 5, giving him a set of fives with a redraw to the nut flush or a full house if the board paired. He needed the redraw, too, because Balas had flopped a straight, but an 8 on the river filled Sklansky up as the round ended.

It Still Looked Like 'Eli's Night and the Pips'

The buzzer went off ending the 80-minute round, and even with this little defeat, Balas had his competitors by the throat. My rough estimate of the chip counts at this point was:

Balas – $96,000

Barton – $26,000

Davis – $38,000

Cousineau – $16,000

Scharf – $32,000

Sklansky – $22,000

In case Scharf's name sounds unfamiliar, you're right, I haven't mentioned it since the start, because he had been playing very solidly and hadn't gotten involved in many action hands, slowly moving up the ladder, never saying a word. He's German, a pilot for Lufthansa, and if he is as steady and silent when flying a plane as he is at a poker table, I'd board his craft anytime. (I don't know about you, but when I'm flying, I'm usually either trying to work or sleep, and pilots who drone on about what you can see on the other side of the plane every 10 minutes don't do it for me.)

The blinds moved to $1,000-$2,000, playing $2,000-$4,000, and a few hands in, the original chip leader checked out. Barton check-raised the A J 4 flop against Cousineau, who called, and then called Cousineau down as he bet out on the 8 turn and 7 river. Cousineau turned over a set of jacks, and Barton had about $5,000 left. Scharf took the last of those with a set of fours a few moments later, and the man who had owned nearly 37 percent of the chips when play began ninehanded exited in sixth place.

No Sklansky Conspiracy

Sklansky lost some chips to Scharf, who was starting to play a few more hands, and then found himself all in against both Balas and Scharf when the flop came K 8 5. Everyone in the room was expecting Balas and Scharf to use the "silent conspiracy" to check Sklansky down, in a maximum effort to eliminate a player, but Balas came out firing. Scharf looked a little surprised and folded, and I assumed, with a player of Balas' experience, that this could mean only one hand, a set of kings that didn't want any backdoor accidents.

It's always easier to figure these things out when you're not in the game. Balas did indeed turn over K-K-5-2, and Sklansky's 7-5-4-3 never made a straight. Poker's greatest theorist exited fifth, a pretty nifty accomplishment considering at one point he had $3,000 to Barton's $75,000.

The chip count now stood:

Balas – $112,000

Davis – $30,000

Cousineau – $16,000

Scharf – $58,000

Davis then won a big pot from Scharf, who got the chips right back in a big pot against Balas, leveling the playing field a bit for everyone but Cousineau, the most animated (actually, the only animated) player left. Balas looked bored and smoked a lot, like he'd been playing his usual high-stakes game for about 30 hours. Davis was growing more energized and calculating, you could see it by the way he was sitting straighter in his seat and getting a hungry look on his face, like he realized this tournament could be his, while Scharf just sat there like a stoic machine.

Cousineau, though, wasn't afraid to express himself, slamming his chips in frustration when he lost a tough pot against Scharf when his straight lost to a better straight. "Nut against second nut, tough to beat those hands," he exclaimed.

Scharf might have looked stoic, but his play didn't lack imagination. Staring into a board of K 9 6 8, he bet out, got raised by Davis, three-bet it, and then called Davis' four-bet. The 10 hit on the river, Scharf bet, and Davis considered awhile before calling the huge pot.

Scharf turned over J J 10 4. He'd three-bet the turn with an underpair, an open-end straight draw (when a possible straight was already out), and a weak flush draw. Davis stared at the hand a long time, a pretty strong signal that he'd held the straight on the turn, and mucked.

And Then We Were Three

Scharf caught another good river card to eliminate Cousineau's short stack when he took A-J-3-3 up against Tony's Q-8-8-5, with all the money going in by the turn, when we were looking at a 9-7-4-2 board. As Cousineau yelled, "No ace, no five!" (missing that a 3 would also have done him in), an ace hit the river, and we were threehanded:

Scharf – $95,000

Balas – $105,000

Davis – $16,000

It looked like a battle to eliminate Davis and play for the serious money, but Davis wasn't having it. He doubled through Balas just before the buzzer went off and we moved to $1,500-$3,000 blinds, playing $3,000-$6,000, and doubled through Balas again not that long thereafter, giving us a horserace:

Scharf – $80,000

Balas – $76,000

Davis – $60,000

With the chips more evenly distributed, and Balas suddenly flailing, Scharf got more and more aggressive. He raised several pots without getting called, and when Balas finally decided to see if there were any real hands behind Scharf's bets, he found there were, twice, and in the course of perhaps 40 minutes from the "it's time to eliminate Davis" count, the bottom spot had changed:

Scharf – $130,000

Balas – $30,000

Davis – $65,000

'I Must … Break You'

Although Scharf is German, not Russian, as I watched his unrelenting pressure and emotionless expression, I was reminded of the Dolph Lundgren character in Rocky IV, Ivan Drago, as he stood toe-to-toe with Sylvester Stallone and said in that deep, foreboding voice, "I must … break you."

Although it took quite a while, Scharf did exactly that to Balas, flopping a nut straight with the Q-J in his hand when the board showed 10-9-8. A second club on the turn briefly gave Balas some hope, as he was holding the A 10, but a harmless king fell on the river, and Balas, who had looked to have this tournament by the throat during his days as Eight of Ten, had to settle for being Third of 144.

The 'Break Effect'

Scharf held a $170,000-$46,000 lead, and he and Davis played for a few minutes before the buzzer went off to bring us to the new level, $2,000-$4,000 blinds, playing $4,000-$8,000. I think part of the Ivan Drago image I had stemmed from the very straightforward manner of play that Scharf, Davis, and Balas had all been engaging in. Bet, fold. Bet, raise, and fold. I hadn't seen a check-raise in probably 90 minutes, I realized.

A German journalist who had been following Scharf throughout told me his nickname back in Cologne is "The Brain." "He's not a gambler, very thorough," the fellow told me. It certainly fit the profile for an Omaha player and the way Scharf had been playing. They didn't make a deal on the break, either, but sometimes 10 minutes off has a way of changing the pattern of play. I don't know whether it's just the time to reflect, or advice from friends, but I often see players adopt new tactics after a break, and this one proved no exception. I think I wasn't the only one to realize no one had check-raised anyone recently.

After an hour and a half of zero check-raises, the first two hands after the break were each check-raised. Each player had independently decided to get cute with the other, I guess.

These two hands also produced two huge pots for Davis, and zoom-zoom, just like that, we were even. Davis won a third hand to take a $25,000 chip lead. He'd certainly picked a good time to finally pick up some hands, with the higher betting limits and new levels of aggression. He got two more hands, too, the second time in the tournament that we'd seen someone win five hands in a row, and on No. 5, he knocked off a flopped set of aces with a flopped straight, a common enough occurrence in a full ring game, but a little unsettling heads up. Scharf had to be wondering what had hit him, when he finally won a big pot of his own to put the chip count almost exactly even.

Suddenly, the size of the limits, the vulnerability to rushes, and the level chip count inspired both players, and they took a little walk. It took only 30 seconds for them to make a deal: $60,000 each, leaving $5,710 and the bracelet in play.

Finishing in Style

A lot of times, a deal shifts player styles, but I couldn't detect any change in the way they were playing. In fact, it looked like each tightened up for a while, but Scharf started putting the pressure on again, and Davis couldn't find any kind of hand.

Scharf built a $166,000-$50,000 lead, and then finished off the tournament in a style we might never see again. He made, I kid you not, straight flushes on two of the last three hands. On the final one, the money went in on the 8 6 4 flop. Davis held the lead with K-Q-J-J, but Scharf had the big draw with Q J 9 5, and when the 7 hit the turn, Davis was done. You generally don't have any outs when your opponent has a straight flush.

Neither player is a professional, but both have pretty impressive poker resumes. Davis came in second in the pot-limit Omaha event at the '97 WSOP, and has been in the money in the Big One the last two years. "I went card dead at a bad time, but I've got nothing to complain about," he said. "Sixty grand is pretty good compared to what I was looking at when we started this morning. That's a lot of pizzas my guys would have to deliver."

Scharf, 47, has been playing ever since Lufthansa sent him to flight school in Phoenix, Arizona, when he was 21. "We would go to Las Vegas on our vacations, and I would always see the same players with chips at the poker tables," he said. "I didn't like the idea of gambling that much, but I figured if the same people kept winning, this poker game; it had to be a lot less gambling than the casino games, had to be something someone could win at consistently." This is his third WSOP, but only his fifth tournament; he comes mainly for the side action.

I was curious about one thing. A lot of players talk about the pressure of a World Series final table. Scharf had looked fearless throughout, and I wondered if the pressure of playing poker was nothing compared to the pressure of flying and landing a 200,000-pound aircraft full of people.

"No, I don't really feel any pressure flying," he said. "That's my job, I'm very relaxed about it. But you are right, I didn't feel much pressure here; I feel a lot more pressure in a big-money side game. Here, it doesn't feel like I am playing for $80,000, because I don't have that much invested, even though I can win that much."

If Eddie Scharf is a representative sample of the cool, calm guys Lufthansa has flying for them, I think I know which airline I'm taking to the European tournaments later this summer. I'll let Cool Hand Luke handle my takeoffs and landings anytime.

Final results:

$1,500 limit Omaha

Entrants: 144 • Prize pool: $209,520

- 1. Eddie Scharf – $83,810

- 2. Michael Davis – 41,900

- 3. Eli Balas – 20,950

- 4. Tony Cousineau – 12,570

- 5. David Sklansky – 9,430

- 6. Don Barton – 7,335

- 7. Ben Tang – 5,240

- 8. Allen Cunningham – 4,190

- 9. Tom McEvoy – 3,350