Other articles by Barny Boatman

Where was Ram ?

Four Queens Poker Classic, Las Vegas
$300 Pot Limit Omaha
Report by Barny on Tuesday, 23 September 2003 at 10:14 pm

Three Mobsters make first final of The Tour

Where were you Ram ? The first event on the Prima Poker Tour and one of the Mob failed to appear at the final table! What a shame, we would have had a bit of a story.
It seemed like we’d waited forever for the first tournament and it was great that it was Pot Limit Omaha, the one game the Europeans have an edge over the Americans in.
Peter Costa won it last year and he was gutted to have arrived from Atlantic City just minutes too late to defend his title. The field was small, only 45, but did include some top tournament players such as Mick ‘The Clock’ Cook and An Tran.
Some of the games biggest talkers were there too. Anyone who has ever played in Vegas knows ‘Silent Bob’ eponymous proof that Irony exists in at least this part of the USA. He was on his usual form declaring at one point ‘You are all answers to a trivia question…The question is who were the last people ever to see Silent Bob play a hand? Because after what just happened you sure won’t be seeing me again!’ Well he didn’t say we wouldn’t hear him again. That would really be unbelievable.
Making even more noise was Omaha gold bracelet holder and slimmer of the year Robert Williamson III. He managed to be in more hands that anyone even though he was out of his seat every two minutes sprinting across the hall to take a phone call. This is clearly the secret to his losing 200 pounds in a year. The call plan diet!
For me the tournament started slowly. I didn’t play a hand in the first hour (whaddya mean ‘Yeah right’?). The whole event was good natured and chatty and after a couple of hours play got a little faster. Ram came to my table and was playing his usual swashbuckling game. He lost a huge pot when he flopped three nines and improved to a house against a bigger house. There was no escape and no way back for Ram, who starts every comp he plays in as favourite to win and pretty short odds to go out early! In a few hours we were down to two tables. David Lamb the tournament director declared that he would never let the tables get seriously unbalanced. He was not in a position to make the same guarantee about the players. When we got down to the final table Robert Williamson, 200 pounds in a 400 pound shirt was still there and was getting focused. I could see why he was a gold bracelet winner.

Did I mention that three of us got to the final? From what I could see, the boys had been playing well. Ross lost a big pot against a player who made a call on the flop that you wouldn’t find in any text book. It cost him most of his stack and he started the final lowest in chips. Joe and I were in slightly better shape but there were a few massive stacks including chip leader James Hoeppner.
As there were less than fifty runners only five got paid so the $30,000 prize pool still seemed a long way away. Joe played solid throughout the comp and didn’t waste a chip; in the final he didn’t pick up cards and was forced to gamble his remaining chips with AKJ4. He got two callers and would have been right back in it if he’d hit the straight or flush draw he picked up. But Williams picked up the pot and Joe was unfortunate to just miss the money.
Ross, with his back to the wall had come out fighting and it was a case of fortune favouring the brave. He played an impressive game and when we got into the money he had gone from lowest chips to chip leader. I was now the lowest chips and kept my head down until one key pot. Howard Stevens raised and Hoeppner called on the button. I had KK63 and didn’t have the raiser on Aces. I re-raised the pot and after a long think Hoeppner set me in. He had AKQ5 and his was a surprising play. My 6,3 stood up when I flopped two pair and for the first time was in the first division of chips. The rest of the field seemed to melt away and when Ross finally dispensed with Hoeppner we were left heads up.

Ross and I made history last year when we were the first brothers to make a world series final together (well, the first that were each other’s brothers). But this felt even more special somehow. Of course, the game was not over and we both really wanted to win. We played a very cagey heads up match that seemed to last forever. I drew level on chips and finally it was all down to one big hand. I had A,A,Q,10 and raised from the big blind (the first time I had done so). Ross called and the flop was J 9 x. The money went in and Ross showed K Q 10 7. The straight never came and I won it with the Aces which, on a remarkable day, was the most remarkable thing of all!

Throughout the final everyone was talking about the Mob and Prima Poker and all in all it wasn’t a bad way to kick off The Tour. But like I say. Where were you Ram?

$300 PLO 45 entries 62 Rebuys

1st Barmy Barny Boatman $14,010
2nd Rocky Ross Boatman $7,785
3rd James Hoeppner $4,670
4th Bob Walker $3,115
5th Howard Stevens $1,557
6th Robert Williamson III
7th Joe ‘The Elegance’ Beevers
8th Bobby Law
9th O’Neil Longson

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