GOOOAAAAL!  JOHN SOZIO KICKS THE COMPETITION
Council Bluffs, IA—The fourth event of the Horseshoe Council Bluffs Circuit, $300 Omaha Hi-Lo, had excitement galore. John Sozio, director of the Nebraska Soccer League, started the table with the chip lead, 12 times that of celebrated player and Omaha specialist Brent Carter.

By the time they got heads-up, Carter had worked his way into the lead with more than twice as many chips as Sozio. Then, after going all in twice and surviving, Sozio clawed his way back up with careful play in a marathon match lasting about 90 minutes before finally claiming victory. The win brought him $8,068.

Sozio is from York, Nebraska, and has worked as League director for 15 years. He’s been playing poker since age 18 and last year made a final table at a H.O.R.S.E. event here. He said he played very conservatively against Carter, picking his spots, only trying a couple of bluffs against him, and mostly staying out of his way until they got heads-up.

"If he checked twice in a row, then I could bet into him," he said.

Sozio, who tried a couple of WSOP Omaha events last year without cashing, likes Council Bluffs because it’s only 110 miles away, and this Circuit event precedes the March 20 date when he’s too busy working to play.

This 4 p.m. event drew 77 players who made a prize pool of $22,407. When the final table assembled, blinds were 1,500-3,000 with 3,000-6,000 limits and 22 minutes left at that level. Sozio started well in front with 106,000 chips, while at the other end, Jerry Rau was near the cloth with 4,500 and Carter not much better with 9,000.
 
9th place: A few hands after action started, Rau raised pre-flop with A-2-3-K and put in his last chip when the flop came 4-6-10. There were 21 cards to give him a nut low. But he missed when a 10 and Q hit, while Richard Walter, holding another low starting hand of A-4-5-K, paired his 4 to leave Rau in ninth place, which paid $672. Rau, 48, is a financial operations group manager from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This final table is his poker highlight.
Limits moved up to 4,000-8,000. Carter, near elimination, hung on when he was all in and got a quarter of the pot with a nut low. Then, all in again against three opponents with another low hand, A-3-8-Q, he got lucky when no low came, but he made queens and treys, scooped and quadrupled up.

Limits inched up to 5,000-10,000 and then again to 6,000-12,000 with all eight players still around. But after returning from break, three players quickly departed.

8th place: First to go was Luke Burgher. Down to a couple of chips, he lost when his garbage cards stayed that way after he missed the flop completely and he left with $896 for eighth. Burgher, 35, is a dentist from Lincoln, Nebraska. His poker highlight is winning the Friday Night Poker League Championship. (Actually, it’s his home game, but it sounds impressive.)

7th place: Walt Lustgroot followed him a couple of hands later. He went all in with the classic low starting hand of A-2-3-4. A flop of K-2-7 looked promising, but a 9 and 10 left him with nothing but a pair of deuces, and he lost to a paired king. Seventh paid $1,120. Lustgroot, 36, from Queen Creek, Arizona is a former casino shift manager who has now settled for just being "a bum who hasn’t gone broke yet."

6th place: Immediately after, it was Tim Van Buren’s turn to leave. He had to post his last chips from the big blind holding a weak 8-9-10-5 in multi-way action. When the board came 9-J-J-A-7, Carter, holding A-5-8-8, took the pot with his paired ace and Van Buren cashed sixth for $1,344. Van Buren, 51, is from Omaha.
As play continued, Carter, starting with A-2-3-J, made aces and jacks, took a big pot from Larry Christensen, and moved into a slight lead with just over 100,000.
 
5th place: With limits now at 8,000-16,000, Christensen went out after getting into a raising war with Curt Timperley and going all in with A-4-6-6. He couldn’t make any kind of low and lost to his opponent’s aces and jacks. Fifth was worth $1.568. Christensen, 54, is a former rancher from Kennebec, South Dakota who "just enjoys playing."

4th place: With the board showing          , Walter bet his last chips. Carter called. All Walter had was pocket kings, while Carter, holding        , had flopped a set of queens and now had a flush. As Carter moved into a bigger lead, Walter moved to the payout desk to pick up $1,793 for fourth.
Walter, 63, lives in Schickley, Nebraska where he is in insurance and real estate. His poker highlight is knocking Barry Greenstein out in a 2008 WSOP shootout event. He has four Circuit cashes and this is his second Circuit final table.
 
3rd place: With limits of 12,000-24,0000, the match got heads-up after Timperley got into a raising war with Carter. He made a six-low but got blown away by Carter’s wheel and cashed third for $2,465. Timperley is a truck driver from Battle Creek, Nebraska. He’s 51 and has some small tournament wins to his credit.
 
Heads-up, Carter had more than a 2-1 lead over Sozio. They played a dozen or so hands until the next break, with Carter gradually wearing his opponent down. They resumed play with 16,000-32,000 limits. Carter had Sozio all in twice, but both times Sozio escaped with a split before climbing back up. By the end end of the level, with limits now at 20,000-40,000, he had regained the lead he started the final table with.

2nd place: Carter couldn’t make much headway after that, and drifted down. On the final hand, the board showed        . Holding        , Sozio bet and Carter was left with one chip after calling with 7-4-2-J for a wheel draw. A river 5 was useless to him, but Carter called anyway with a jack-high, as he ended up second, worth $4,481.

Carter, 61, a former harness race driver from Oak Park, Illinois, is a well-known tournament pro with literally hundreds of cashes in his long career. Among them are a final-table finish in the 1995 WSOP main event and a dozen final tables in Omaha. –Max Shapiro