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 #17. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #17 POT-LIMIT HOLD'EM
Saturday, May 4, 2002
$3,000 BUY-IN
$3,000 in chips

WELCOME BACK, KOTTER

About eight hours into this Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table an entertaining card
game broke out, until then there was Gabe Kaplan.

There were 175 entrants in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em for a total prize pool
of $493,500. Two tables were paid, a total of 18 players.

The then incendiary Brian McCann put the last 18 players in the money when he
flopped the second nut straight with J 7 to a short stack's Q 10, top pair and
gutshot straight.

The Final Table was setup Saturday night when Dennis Waterman's pocket 6's held
up. The all-in Jose Stawski flashed half a 'presto' (5) on his way out the
door.

THE FINAL TABLE 7 mins left of 75. The blinds were $1,000/$2,000.

Player Hometown Chip Count

Seat 1 Chris Ferguson Pacific Palisades CA $ 43,500
Seat 2 Dennis Waterman Myrtle Point OR $ 35,500
Seat 3 Ken Flaton Las Vegas NV $ 7,000
Seat 4 An Tran Las Vegas NV $ 68,000
Seat 5 Tom Schneider Phoenix AZ $ 57,500
Seat 6 Danny Qutami So. San Francisco CA $ 55,000
Seat 7 Tony Cousineau Daytona Beach FL $ 40,000
Seat 8 Fred Berger Slidell LA $15,000
Seat 9 Brian McCann La Mirada CA $158,500
Seat 10 Hylton Socher Winnewood PA $ 45,000

Have you ever heard of a 'Ground Hawk?' Well that would have been Ken 'Skyhawk'
Flaton. With 31 money finishes and one bracelet since 1981, Ken's WSOP resume
is unimpeachable. He just showed up defenseless today in 10th. $7,000 wasn't
going to get Ken very far. You needed the lofty sum of $15,000 to have a
chance. Ken went all-in for his last $2.5k with A 4 and turned a 4. Danny
Qutami in the big blind got two free cards and rivered a 7 with his 6 7.

"Africa" is the intriguing nickname of Hylton Socher. He didn’t stay around
long enough for us to find out its derivation. Obviously disgusted with his
inability to win a hand, Socher stormed out of the Final Table area in 9th when
the massive chip leader Brian McCann's K J crushed Hylton's all-in A 6 of
Diamonds. Two Jacks came on board and the Final Table was 'Out of Africa.'

The question is: How big a bet would Dennis 'Swami' Waterman have had to make
to get Tony Cousineau off the flop? The question is moot because at the time
Dennis was under water, man. Pocket Aces are nice to get usually, but in this
case K J or Q J would have been better. Waterman went all-in with the rockets
and $9k from the small blind. That wasn't enough to scare Cousineau off the
hand. Tony said to Dennis, "I hope you don't have a big Ace" and called. The
flop came K Q J. Tony had A J. Dennis had the biggest Ace, but for the second
straight expulsion two Jacks hit the board to drown Waterman in 8th. Bad beat.

It might have been possible to tell that this was going to become a strange
night when some of the bigger stacks started exiting early. Socher had started
5th in chips. Gone in 9th. Danny Qutami started 4th in chips. Gone in 7th.

After taking out Ken Flaton, it was all down hill for Danny Qutami. Danny found
one of the most bizarre ways to lose in recent memory. Gabe Kaplan of 'Welcome
Back, Kotter' fame and a serious poker player was doing the guest announcing
when Qutami raised Brian McCann to go all-in with A J. We need a quick
backstory to understand why what happened next it so bizarre. Gabe Kaplan is a
comedian by profession. He noticed that the hand 5 8 kept coming up and used
the hand for some shtick. Well, Brian McCann had half the chips at that time so
he was bullying the table with bluff raises. Probably because of the running
joke, when Brian picked up 5 8 he couldn't resist raising with it. Now, McCann
was stuck calling Danny Qutami's extra $20k all-in with Brian's bluff 5 8.
Brian could have laid the bluff down, but the call barely dented his stack. You
know what happens next. The flop comes Q J 7. Brian is drawing dead to a runner
runner straight. It's Qutami who's dead as the 6 and the 4 peel right off the
deck. The joke was on Danny Qutami.

The runner runners weren't over over. Tony Cousineau, who benefited from Dennis
Waterman's chip deficit now had one of his own. He, also, might have been able
to get Tom Schneider off the hand with more chips. That's the danger of being
light on ammunition. Tony had A K all-in, Schneider had the Q 10 of Hearts.
Tony caught an Ace of the flop and he would have pounded Tom if he could have.
Instead Cousineau could only watch helplessly as Schneider got the two free
cards he needed to dump Tony into 6th, heart heart on the turn and river.

Outside of An Tran's win with pocket Jacks against former champion Chris
Ferguson and the famous A 9, 'The Boss' had a miserable Final Table. Few of his
raises walked. He usually had to eat them as someone came over the top of him.
In an interesting betting sequence, An Tran may have been trapped by a call
from Tom Schneider. When Schneider only called An Tran's raise of $20k, Tran
may have thought he had the best hand with his pocket 6's. An Tran went all-in
on the flop for his last $15k. Tom Schneider didn't hesitate to call with his
pocket Queens. Another big stack (2nd at the start) An 'The Boss' Tran was an
underling in 5th.

As the remaining four players hammered out a deal, the next half hour gave
Kaplan ample material for a study stream of jokes about Brian McCann's motley
railbird financial advisors. (BTW, look for most of these lines to come from
the mouth of Big Denny in Max Shapiro's humor column as Max was scribbling
furiously. To comics, this is called 'borrowing.') With most of the money
guaranteed, the dynamics of the table changed radically as they usually do.
Suddenly, the formally omnipotent McCann was having trouble winning hands. This
happens so frequently after a deal it's almost a cliché.

But first McCann had to make a curtain call as chip leader by exiting Tom
Schnieder stage left. It was getting nearing 9 pm and Tom had to get to the
studio for his late night talk show…or whatever. Oh, that's Snyder. Tom
Snyder. Anyway, for some unclear reason, Schneider thought that the 4 3 of
Clubs would trap Brian with two worthless overcards. So Tom bet his last $15k
on the flop. Schneider was correct. McCann's overcards didn't pair. They just
flopped the nut flush. Bye, Tom.

It's not the policy of the Horseshoe to report on Final Table deals, so I won't
do it except to say that the prohibitive chip leader, Brian McCann, left a lot
of money on the table when the deal was made and he got none of it. Maybe it
turned out for the best for Brian, though, because McCann finished 3rd. We'll
never know for sure.

There were a couple of key hands in McCann's demise but the most shocking one
was the 'Doyle Brunson.' Much of Brian's stack was relocated in front of Chris
Ferguson when the flop came 10 10 2. Brian had K 10 in the small blind and was
cold decked unbelievably when Chris Ferguson showed him 10 2 in the big blind.
Brian fought back gamely, but was put away by two hands from Fred Berger. Brian
had A 9 and flopped an Ace. Fred had the J 10 of Clubs and called $175,000
all-in on a flush draw. Bingo! The flush card appeared on the river. Then the
man who started the day with almost $100k more than anyone else, and greater
then ten times more chips than Fred Berger was sent home by that same Fred
Berger. Brian went all-in with A K against Fred's pocket 10's. Berger didn't
need the 10 on the river, no Ace or King appeared.

Heads up, the guy who started with only $15,000 had a 4-1 chip lead on a former
World Champion. This would be amazing enough, but it gets even more amazing.
This is Fred Berger's first WSOP event ever, and the first time he has played
Pot-Limit Hold'em. "I wanted to try something new," the No-Limit player said.
"and I wanted to go up against the big boys." Well Fred got his wish.
Eventually Fred Berger was to double up his stack five times on the way to the
title, but he had to give it all away a couple of times to get there.

Chris Ferguson could have been very intimidating to Berger. Always the fashion
plate, Chris upped the ante on wearing apparel by putting his three WSOP
bracelets linked together as his hatband on his black cowboy hat! But Berger,
the Louisiana bead manufactured and the guy responsible for girls showing their
wares at the Mardi Gras, wasn't in the least bit intimidated. In an all out
shootout, Berger went from an 8-1 chip lead to a 1-9 chip dog against Ferguson.
It looked like both would win in turn.

It's hard to second guess a World Champion from the rail, but it seemed that
Chris may have given this one away. Ferguson had Berger down to $45k after
Chris caught the runner runner nuts all-in. The champ had A K. Berger had
pocket 3's. The flop came Q 9 6. Then 10, then Jack. How Fred survived is the
story of the tournament. Coming from 9th in chips to win is the greatest
performance of the year so far. And this by yet another WSOP rookie playing a
new game for the first time. Astonishing!

First, Fred said, "Last hand" and threw in his chips with the J 2 of Clubs.
Chris had pocket 7's. With a Jack on the turn, Berger still had a slim chance
to become King. Then came the equalizer. Fred had lost all his money on pocket
3's. Maybe Chris Ferguson waited one card too long to put Fred all-in on the
next key hand. Chris had Aces on the flop with A 7. When a 3 came on the turn,
Ferguson went all-in. Berger had pocket 3's again! And a set of 3's on the
turn. Now Fred was in business. Ferguson again may have waited too long (he
will have to tell the story from his viewpoint) on the pivotal hand. Chris had
A K. Fred had A J. The flop came Q J 6. Chris went all-in on the flop with only
a King and a 10 as outs. Now Ferguson had only $25,000 left. The last hand Fred
Berger won with King high. He was the Berger King. A match that looked like its
only entertainment would be Gabe Kaplan turned into a barnburner.

Official Money Winners
1. Fred Berger $197,400
2. Chris Ferguson $ 98,700
3. Brian McCann $ 49,340
4. Tom Schneider $ 29,600
5. An Tran $ 22,200
6. Tony Cousineau $ 17,300
7. Danny Qutami $ 12,360
8. Dennis Waterman $ 9,860
9. Hylton Socher $ 7,900
10. Ken Flaton $ 5,920

11th-12th received $5,920
Jose Stawski, David Levi

13th-15th received $5,420
Randall McCallum, Bobby Hoff, David Shu

16th-18th received $4,940
Young Phan, John Duthie, K.U. Davis