(This 4 p.m. tournament was a one-day event. The opening tournament, $300 no-limit, is two days, with 11 remaining players coming back on the second day.)
Wentzel, 41, is in sales for a consultant firm and hails from Plymouth, Minnesota. He has two prior WSOP final tables, one at Tunica and one here. He’s been playing poker since he was a kid, about eight years seriously. He splits his online time between tournaments and cash games, and in casinos, mostly tournaments, about 10 a year.
This is only his second limit hold’em event, but he plays enough live limit to have felt comfortable. Tonight he was down to about 4,000 chips with four tables left, but started building from there.
This event drew 66 players who made a prize pool of $12,804. The final table started at midnight at level 14 and three minutes later moved up to level 15 with blinds of 2,000-4,000 and limits of 4,000-8,000.In a near-tie for the chip lead were Adam Clayman with 98,000 and Wentzel with 97.500.
Here were the starting chip counts:
|
Name |
Seat |
Chip Count |
|
Mike Van Genderen |
1 |
37,000 |
|
Dale Hanke |
2 |
23,500 |
|
Randy Belmont |
3 |
21,000 |
|
Tom Wentzel |
4 |
97,500 |
|
Bob Cox |
5 |
27,000 |
|
Dan Povondra |
6 |
33,000 |
|
Ryan Gerdes |
7 |
19,500 |
|
Mark Schubbe |
8 |
55,000 |
|
Adam Clayman |
9 |
98,000 |
9th place: First to depart was Ryan Gerdes, who is 32, self-employed, and from Omaha. With the board showing two pair in three-way action, the best he could come up with was a queen-high, and the pot was taken down by Bob Cox, with an ace-high. Ninth place paid $384. Gerdes listed his poker highlight as "folding hands."
8th place: With limits now at 5,000-10,000, a short-chipped Mark Schubbe put in his last chips with A-9, up against Mike "Bird" Van Genderen’s pocket queens. All babies came on the flop and turn. Schubbe’s only hope was an ace, but he missed, collected $512 for eighth, and moved to the sidelines to root for his friend Tom. Schubbe, 44, is a mortgage banker from Chanhassen, Minnesota.
7th place: Next out was Randy Belmont. He was all in pre-flop with 10-9, dominated by Van Genderen’s K-10. The board came A-5-A-5-4, and Belmont was out in seventh place, worth $640. Belmont, 49, is a bar manager from Omaha. He had a ninth-place finish in a $300 no-limit event here last year.
6th place: With limits now at 6,000-12,000, Clayman was all in with only a "Dolly Parton" 9-5 (the name derives from Parton’s movie "Nine to Five"). He was up against Wentzel’s pocket 7s and couldn’t help enough when the board came 5-6-8-2-6. Clayman is 49 and a futures trader from Ogallala, Nebraska. Sixth paid $768.
5th place: Last year Cox, playing in a H.O.R.S.E event at age 82, was credited with being the oldest player in the tournament, but still made the final table, finishing seventh. Now a year older, and "dead tired" as the clock approached 2 a.m., he still got half-way through another final table here.
He went out when the flop came 3-6-J, and he called with his last chips after Dale Hanke, holding A-J, bet out. When a 4 turned, Cox had an open-ended straight draw, but he missed when a river ace gave Hanke two pair and cashed fifth for $896. The talented octogenarian is from Omaha.
4th place: Next to leave was Dan Povondra. He got short-chipped when he held A-Q and lost to Wentzel, who held J-10 and snagged a jack. On the next hand, Povondra’s last chips went in from the big blind when he had just 8-5 and couldn’t catch anything against Wentzel’s A-K. For fourth, he collected $1,024. Povondra, from La Vista, Nebraska, is in sales.
3rd place: Soon after limits went to 8,000-16,000, Hanke had a close call. He bet all in with K-7 and escaped against Wentzel’s A-K when a 7 flopped..But not long after he was all in again holding A-7. With the board showing 10-5-9-2, he called when Van Genderen bet his pocket kings. A 10 came on the river and Hanke cashed third for $1,408. Interestingly, Hanke and Van Genderen play together in a weekly home game, but obviously Van Genderen showed no favoritism against his buddy. Hanke is 62, retired, and lives in Ankeny, Iowa.
2nd place: Heads-up, Wentzel enjoyed about a 4-1 chip lead. Van Genderen held on for a while with a couple of draw-outs, but went out on the 12th hand, betting his last chips with pocket jacks. Wentzel called with A-10, and the event was over when the board came A-3-4-8-2.
Van Genderen, 40, is a race car driver from Newton, Iowa, who previously was a regional manager for an insurance firm. – Max Shapiro .