World Series of Poker -- Day 3 of Event No. 3 $1,000 No-limit Hold'emIrving and Rich Rice Make Final 10 in 4,435 Player Field |
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While the Mizrachi brothers were battling for the bracelet in the $50,000 Players Championship, across the Amazon room sat Irving Rice and Rich Rice at the unofficial final table of ten in event No. 3 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em).
Irving, 81, and his son Rich, 56, visiting Las Vegas from Fort Lauderdale, FL, entered the 4,435 player event with dreams of playing heads up for the bracelet and all the cash.
Late Tuesday night it almost came true.
The possibility of meeting at the final table seemed improbable at times, especially when Irving was missing from his seat for half of level 25, due to an error in the tournament clock after a break was called to color up the chips.
“The clock showed an hour timeout so I ran up to the room [in the Rio] to get a half-an-hour nap,” Irving said. “After I left they said the clock was wrong and there was only a 20 minute break. I was upstairs sleeping and by the time they got me I had been blinded out a couple hundred thousand chips.”
The elder Rice returned with a below average chip stack of about 750,000, or 25 big blinds. Remarkably, three players at the table were eliminated during his nap, as the field had dwindled from 14 to 11 while Irving was laying in bed.
The Rices never had drawn the same table at any point in the tournament, until Dmitry Gromov was eliminated in 11th place, and the final two tables combined.
With his son two seats to his left, Irving was in the small blind with the Q
Q
. Gabe Costner was under the gun and raised to 100,000. Action was folded to Irving, who moved all in for 815,000 total. Costner tanked before eventually making the call with the A
K, for the classic coinflip. The flop was safe for Irving as it came 9 7
3. However, the A put a dagger in the heart of World Series of Poker history. The 2 on the river sent Rich over to console his father.
“It meant so much to me. I haven’t been at the same table with my dad the whole tournament. So by sitting at the same table, I don’t care how long it was for, it was pretty freaking awesome,” Rich said.
Even though his father won’t have a shot at the bracelet or the $625,872 first-place prize, Rich would be happy to have him there as a spectator at the final table tomorrow.
“I probably will be there,” Irving said.
“Unless he is taking a nap!” Rich interrupted.
“Since he didn’t wake me up in time, he is going to have to chop with me,” Irving said. “I have half his action from here on out.”
Here is a look at the final-table chip counts:
1. Aadam Daya — 2,850,000
2. Cory Brown — 2,315,000
3. Gabe Costner — 1,830,000
4. Dash Dudley — 1,355,000
5. Bart Davis — 1,355,000
6. Nick Mitchell — 1,280,000
7. Isaac Settle — 970,000
8. Rich Rice — 700,000
9. Deepak Bhatti — 400,000
Stay tuned tomorrow starting at 2:30 p.m. PST for action from the final table of event No. 3 at the 2010 WSOP.
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