After Wayne Harvey, a self-described "ordinary blue collar family man" had played 40 hands heads-up with J (his full first name) Hijar, they were still about dead even in chips. During the break, Harvey decided that conservative play and luck had gotten him this far, but for heads-up action, he needed to be more aggressive. Returning, he souped up his play and, aided by some good cards, steamrollered Hijar in a few hands to take down event four of the WSOP Circuit at Grand Casino Tunica, $500 limit hold'em, winning $28,756.

(Yes, they still play limit hold-em, though the turnout of 183 players was noticeably fewer than for the three prior no-limit tournaments, further evidence of how no-limit has taken over poker.) .

Harvey, 35, a resident of Rincon, Georgia, is married with two children. He is self employed in the vinyl siding and electrical contracting business. He's been playing poker for 16 years, but hold'em only for a few months, and this is the first large tournament he's ever entered. The victory earned him $28,756   

Forty-two minutes were left when the final table assembled. Blinds were 1,000-2,000 and limits 2,000-4,000. Harvey, with 89,000 chips, had the lead.

The starting chip count:

SEAT     NAME          CHIP COUNT

   1       Wayne Harvey        89,000
   2     J Hijar            33,000 
   3     Joseph Baumgartner      27,000
   4       Ryan Kennedy       53,000
   5       Doug Paxton               23,000
   6       Jason Munson       32,000 
   7     Jack Lee          30,000
   8       Salim Kassab          35,000   
   9       Sonny Perry               46,000     

In early action, Doug Paxton had one chip left when a fourth-street ace pairing his A-K also gave Joseph Baumgartner a straight. Waiting a full round until his big blind, Paxton didn't have much hope when he was dealt 7-4 with five-way action, and lost to Sonny Perry's pocket kings. Paxton, 58, is from Weatherford, Oklahoma and is a custom harvester/poker player who harvests for various growers, also finding lots of time for poker. His credentials include wins in the Oklahoma State and  North Dakota State Heads-up championship events, and a second and fourth in pot-limit Omaha at the World Poker Open. He earned $1,775 for finishing ninth.

Two hours into play, with limits now at 4,000-8,000, there were still eight players left, while  Harvey had increased his lead to 112,000. Two players, Salim Kassab and Jack Lee, narrowly escaped elimination when river cards rescued them. Finally, Lee succumbed when he and Ryan Kennedy were all in pre-flop in three-way action. Kennedy had pocket 8s, Lee had Ac-Qc. The 8s held up, Kennedy tripled up, and Lee, who is 67 and retired from the Air Force, finished eighth, cashing for $2,663. Lee, who learned poker in the military, has been playing for 40 years.

Three hours had gone by before we lost our third player. Jason Munson, a 38-year-old real estate developer from Atlanta, was all in for the fifth time for 8,000 with A-K. He got two callers, and Harvey, with 10-9, picked him off by pairing a 10 on the river. Munson has been playing poker  seriously for five years. His main tournament finish was third in a $500 event at the Gold Strike Poker Classic. Seventh paid $3,550.

Limits  moved up to 5,000-10,000. Harvey, who had been getting a lot of good starting hands that didn't always hold up, had  dipped to 92,000, a few chips behind Hijar. Asked about his unusual initial first name, Hijar explained that for generations in his family, it was traditional to give the first-born male a name starting with J. But since his parents couldn't agree on a name,  they settled for just the  letter.

Two players went out quickly at the new limits.  Kassab, from Syria, was down to 2,000 when Harvey took it from him by making a Broadway straight on the river Kassab, 39, is in real estate. He has one prior final table. Tonight he got $4,438 for sixth place.

Joseph Baumgartner, a 59-year-old salesman from Cedar Park, Texas, soon followed. He was all in for his last 10,000 with 7-5, no match for Harvey's pocket aces after no help from a J-10-5-4-9 board. Baumgartner, a dedicated outdoorsman, finished fifth in a WSOP $2,000 event in 2001. Tonight's finish was worth $5,325.

Harvey then knocked out yet another player. This time it was 22-year-old student Ryan Kennedy, who has a heads-up tournament win to his credit. With a board of K-6-3-5-5, Harvey bet his A-K, only to have Kennedy raise and go all in. He hesitated, then called, and was surprised when Kennedy could only show pocket queens. Kennedy, typical of so many young players, learned poker on the Internet. He got $7,100 for finishing fourth.

Harvey had now increased his lead to 144,000. He later got knocked down some by Hijar. Both had flushes, Harvey had queen-high, Hijar king-high. Both thought they had the best hand, and had maneuvered to get the most chips out of each other.

Hijar then took another big pot, this time from Sonny Perry. Holding 6-4, he check-raised with a full house when the board showed J-8-6-6-8. He now had taken over the chip lead.

"I'm starting to play a lot of hands like you," Hijar said to Harvey.

"Six-four?" Harvey replied. That's the kind of crap I'd play."

Down to 25,000, Perry soon went out. He decided to re-raise Hijar and go all in with J-8. Hijar had K-9, which held up when the board showed Q-6-2-2-6. Perry, 64, is from Nashville and is retired from the construction business. He twice won Circuit rings in New Orleans and came in third in Grand Casino Tunica's championship event last year. His third-place finish tonight was worth $8,876.

Heads-up, Hijar had about 220,000 to around 145,000 for Harvey. The blue collar guy then pulled even when he held 5-4, made a straight, and check-raised when the board showed 9-6-3-9-2. Hijar, giving him credit for a hand like that, made a good laydown.

Harvey moved in front again as action continued, until a monster pot developed. On the 30th heads-up hand, he had pocket treys, flopped a set when the board came J-3-2, and filled when a second jack came on the river. He reraised, only to see Hijar turn up J-2 for a bigger filly.

With limits now at 8,000-16,000, they were even again. But now Harvey was in an aggressive stage, and Hijar, unable to take a pot, went steadily downhill. On the final hand, the board showed 8-J-5-8-6. Hijar raised. Harvey, betting his A-Q all the way, gave Hijar credit for a better hand, but called anyway and was surprised to see Hijar had raised with 10-9 for a missed straight draw. 

With his first big cash-out, Harvey said he definitely planned to play a lot more tournaments now. Hijar, a system software architect with Cingular, had no prior cash-outs of any size either. He's 30, is from Atlanta, and took home $15,088 for second place. —Max Shapiro

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Max Shapiro  -- WSOP Media