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 #18. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #18 ACE TO FIVE DRAW LOWBALL

Sunday, May 5,
2002
$1,500 BUY-IN
$1,500 in chips

ALIVE AND WELL, THANK YOU

With anything as successful as the World Series of Poker has been over the
years, there will always be people who'll want to tear it down. They'll say
that the best is in the past. That it can never be again what it was. That this
or that new tournament will be even bigger and better. Well, those naysayers
were silenced today as the big news Monday wasn't the Ace To Five Final Table,
it was the attendance for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event #19. An
extraordinary 528 players showed up on a Monday at noon. "If you schedule it,
they will come." This was, it's obvious now, what the players wanted as nearly
400 of them were 'walk-ups.' That is to say, they didn't pre-register for the
event or win a satellite to get in. Here was a chance, for $1,500, to win over
$200,000 for 1st place and the coveted Gold Bracelet. That is the kind of
multiple of one's buy-in and prestige award that has made the World Series of
Poker so unique in tournament history.

There were 111 entrants in the $1,500 Buy-In, Ace To Five Draw Lowball for a
total prize pool of $156,510. Two tables were paid, a total of 16 players.

Layne Flack offered Tommy Reynoso some of his beer then put Tommy out of the
tournament, one out of the money. If it hadn't of been Layne, it probably would
have been someone else as Reynoso was the only short stack left. Tommy was
drawing one card to an 8 all-in and caught a King. Flack's one card draw was a
Jack.

The Final Table was setup Sunday night when David Hockstra rapped pat with 8 5.
The ever-aggressive Ram Vaswani, who'd made his move with about $6,000, mucked
his hand in 9th without showing it. Tom Moore with only $3,000 in chips could
now breathe again.

THE FINAL TABLE: 68 mins left of 75. The blinds are $1,000/$1,500
Player Hometown Chip Count
Seat 1 Tom Moore Orange CA $
3,000
Seat 2 David Hockstra San Pedro CA $25,500
Seat 3 Cary Moomjian Dallas TX $17,000
Seat 4 Thor Hansen Oslo, Norway $36,000
Seat 5 Norm Ketchum Rockford IL $17,500

Seat 6 Ken Coplon Malibu CA $
8,000
Seat 7 Brian Nadell Las Vegas NV $38,500
Seat 8 Tony Grand Chatsworth CA $21,500

The problem with reporting on Ace To Five Draw Lowball is that one seldom sees
any cards. Few hands go to a showdown, as whoever pairs or catches paint on
their draw throws their hand away when there is a post-draw bet. Therefore,
representing a made hand is often sufficient to win the blinds and any called
raises.' Stealing is Mandatory in Lowball' for survival and for victory. Nobody
catches enough hands to win the tournament; they have to take whatever there is
available. An air of confidence when betting a stone-cold bluff, where you
catch an 8 for a pair on an 8 draw for example, is worth many wheels over the
course of a seven hour Final Table. In Lowball, bluffs and steals can make up
the majority of the chips won by the end of a tournament.

None of these sophisticated plays were available to Tom Moore, however. Tom was
only going to get one hand to play, with only $3,000 in chips. If he didn't win
that one hand, he was history. Well, Tom waited and waited then waited some
Moore. Tom didn't bet through either of his first two blinds. He only had one
$500 chip left. Ken Coplon held up one chip and showed it to Moore. "This is
the key chip," Ken said. It was that extra chip that would get Coplon through
his blinds and force Moore all-in on his next big blind. A casual observer
might wonder what all this posturing is about. The difference between 7th place
and 8th was only $1,560. That casual observer probably wasn't around for the
agonizing hours it took to get to the Final Table. Not being the first one to
leave is a big pride issue for most players.

But as soon as Ken Coplon quit chortling about his extra chip, he looked down
at his big blind hand. Now came one of the most dramatic moments in a Lowball
tournament. Ken Coplon picked up 6 perfect (6-4-3-2-A), the second best hand
possible. What to do? It seemed impossible he would lose this hand, yet if he
did, he would be 8th and Tom Moore's one remaining chip would be key. Ken
Coplon raised his extra chip all-in. Norm Ketchum in the small blind called and
drew two cards. They don't call Norm, Ketchum for nothing. He did catch 'em.
Starting with Joker 3 4. Norm caught 'em, the 2 and the 5 for a wheel, which
was probably about a 500 to 1 shot. Unbelievable! A stunned Ken Coplon
staggered over to the pay window in 8th.

Now Tom had Moore money in 7th. The patience that seemed foolish had paid off.
With J 9 8 7 5 in the big blind, Moore had "no where to go." So he rapped pat,
hoping that Thor Hansen would miss his one card draw. Thor Hansen wouldn't miss
many draws today. Hansen turned over 8 7 to turn over Tom Moore.

At every Final Table it seems there is someone with chips who doesn't win a
hand. That someone today was Tony 'Not So' Grand. Before we knew it, Tony had
raised all-in with his last $3k. Norm Ketchum was there in the big blind to
Ketchum and throw 'em out. It was a Norm that Ketchum would turn over a 10 9 in
the blinds. And it was inevitable that Tony would pair up on his draw to leave
in a less than Grand 6th.

An experienced all-around SoCal tournament player, David (Never In) Hockstra
might be seen at any Final Table for any game in the LA area. He's that solid.
But David's one card draw 8 6 was no match for the one card 6 5 shown him by
Thor Hansen in the big blind.

Now there were three big stacks and Cary Moomjian. Cary is one of a rare breed
in America, a "Wildcatter," an oil well driller. Used to boom and bust cycles
with sudden 'gushers,' Cary would get none of that except the bust. Cary
wouldn't be granted his wish for a big all-in hand in the big blind. Moomjian
made a two card draw 10. Thor Hansen was playing a Norse God at the time and
pulled a one card 6 5 to gush Cary out in 4th.

For a while it was competitive three-handed. The chips were close to even at
one point and Norm was still catchin' 'em. Then, inexplicably, Norm stopped
catching. The magic cards that had been coming, disappeared. On an elevator
stuck on 'Down,' Norm left in 3rd when his pat Jack lost to Thor Hansen's one
card 8 6.

If you don't see many cards eight-handed in Lowball, you REALLY don't see cards
heads up. 90% of the hands are "bet and take it." Over the next two hours, the
heads up contestants went through three major swings. Whoever caught the third
swing would win the tournament and the Holy Grail--the gold bracelet.

Thor Hansen had $90,000 in chips and Brian Nadell had $78,000 when they made a
deal for most of the money. What motivated these two poker professionals was
the bracelet. Thor had one already. Brian was desperate for his first. "I
promised the bracelet, if I won, to my daughter Melodie," Brian said. Nadell
kept a picture of his daughter in his breast shirt pocket, "Close to my heart"
and kissed the picture a few times for increased motivation.

"Actually, I should be happy I even got here," Nadell would say afterward. "I
was down to $200 at the $400/$800 level." Once you do get there, though, it's
hard to take the loss. Maybe Brian wants it too much. At first it appeared that
Nadell had no chance. Never has a player seemed so dead as Brian was. Coughing
lint after only an hour of heads up play, Brian won his all-in hand against
Thor Hansen and went on one of the most amazing reversals imaginable. Now it
was Nadell who couldn't lose a hand. "How do you make EVERY hand," Hansen asked
incredulously. Thor could have asked himself. That's what Hansen had been
doing only minutes before.

Over the next 90 minutes, Nadell fought all the way back and actually took a
2-1 chip lead at one point. When the $3k/$6k level started, though, there were
only 14 big bets on the table. It was over quickly. "He (Hansen) surprised me.
He'd been taking two cards on the button all day. I thought he'd take two as he
usually did so I that my Jack was a favorite." In a multi-raised pot that would
decide the victor, Nadell rapped pat with his Jack. To Brian's chagrin, Thor
Hansen only took one card and turned over an 8 5. Melodie is going to have to
wait for her bracelet.

Official Money Winners
1. Thor Hansen $62,600
2. Brian Nadell 31,300
3. Norm Ketchum 15,660
4. Cary Moomjian 9,400
5. David Hockstra 7,850
6. Tony Grand 6,260
7. Tom Moore 4,700
8. Ken Coplon 3,140

9th-12th received $2,340
Ram Vaswani, Robert MacGregor, Lewis Cotton, E. Mahalingan

13th-16th received $1,560
John Hamilton, Layne Flack, Larry Steinhauer, Lamar Wilkinson

Some of the recent Super Satellite winners were: Tony Grand, Osman Mustanoglu,
Paul Rowe, Douglas Booth, Kevin Lewis, Jan Sjavik (9th), Barney Boatman, Dallas
Flowers, Tom McKeone, Ron McMillan, Majid Vafamanesh, Scott Brayer, Surinder
Sunar (2nd), Gerson Mosbacher, Asher Derei, Ted Forrest, Quoc Vinh (3rd)

David Lamb, Super Satellite Director, said how pleased he's been with the
deportment of all the players in the Supers. "I haven't given one penalty."
There hasn't been one card thrown off the table, no dealer or player/player
abuse. David attributes this new attitude to the post 9/11 civility we've seen
in the society at large.