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Persistence Pays Off: After 20 tries and six straight years at the JBWPO, Nick Yobbagy wins first poker tournament – defeats newcomer Hung Ly in epic four-hour heads-up marathon
reported by Nolan Dalla

  The game of poker can be divided into two distinct eras – before and after. 

In the before era, Limit Hold’em was king.  All live hold’em games were limit.  Limit Hold’em tournaments attracted the largest fields and generated the vast majority of tournament circuit prize money.  No-Limit was a distant second in popularity, and was non-existent as an option inside virtually all cardrooms within the United States.  From Tunica to Las Vegas, it was easier to find a professional full-time keno player than to find a No-Limit Hold’em cash game.

Then came televised poker – and everything changed.

After the revolution, No-Limit Hold’em became the game.  Today’s poker neophytes are drawn to No-Limit.  As proof, look no further than this year’s Jack Binion World Poker Open.  The first two No-Limit events at this year’s tournament – comprised mostly of new faces -- set all-time attendance records.  Indeed, No-Limit games of all sizes have popped up in cardrooms from coast-to-coast – including games with tiny blind structures all the way up to the biggest games in the world.  Strangely enough, Limit Hold’em now seems to be poker’s proverbial stepchild, still part of the family of course, but no longer the most desired and loved of the bunch.     

The winner of Event #10 at this year’s JBWPO was a throwback to the ‘before’ era.  “I learned how to play poker when everything was Limit Hold’em,” said Nick Yobbagy, a former executive with Eastman-Kodak and now a newly crowned poker champion.  “The first time I played was back in 1969 at the Stardust (Las Vegas).  I grew up on limit poker.  I like limit poker because I can manage myself better.  I know what a hand is going to cost me.  So, it’s a very different game than No-Limit where one hand can cost all of your chips.  In Limit poker you can take more chances.”

There were 310 entries in this event, up 18 percent over last year.  Following Day One, during which 301 players were eliminated, the nine finalists took their seats at the final table.  Players were eliminated in the following order:

9^th Place –Matt Overstreet came to the final table lowest in chips and went out within the first ten minutes.  For Overstreet, a 21-year-old college student playing in his first major poker tournament, this was quite an accomplishment.  He collected $5,810 for 9^th place.  Someone please whisper to Overstreet that it’s not always so easy to make a final table.

8^th Place – Former JBWPO bracelet winner (from 2003) Jose Rosenkrantz was eliminated next.  The Costa Rican industrialist who now lives in Miami, FL received $8,454.

7^th Place – Matthew Palmer was low on chips and went out in 7^th place.  The 26-year-old Canadian took home $11,271 for a fine effort.

6^th Place – Sam Oliverio, a business owner from West Virginia went out next.  On his final hand, he started with the best of it – A-Q versus A-7, but lost when Nick Yobbagy made a straight with a board of 9-8-6-9-10.  Oliverio, who made the final table at the Las Vegas Bellagio’s No-Limit Hold’em event last summer, earned $14,089 in prize money.

5^th Place – Minh Nguyen was certainly one of the most accomplished players of the nine finalists.  Nguyen won two WSOP gold bracelets back in 2003.  However, the best he could do here was 5^th place.  Nguyen, now living in Lake Elsinore, CA, received $16,907.   

4^th Place – Norm Ketchum also won a gold bracelet at the WSOP, in 2004.  Ketchum, who has made many final tables (he came in second in an event here in 2000, along with 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 8^th in various events over the years), went out at the 4^th place finisher.  Ketchum, from Rockford, IL, took $19,275 in prize money and is way overdue for a win at this tournament.

3^rd Place – Gene Bowden, a 65-year-old business owner from Yuma City, AZ won his way into this event by winning a single-table satellite.  That proved to be a wise $120 investment.  The dividend was $25,361 in prize money for 3^rd place.

The heads-up match between Hung Ly and Nick Yobbagy lasted four excruciating hours.  There were 299 hands played in all during the six hour final table.  Two thirds of them were played head’s up.  The duel was interesting from several unique perspectives, not the least of which was the mutual respect by the two players for each other.  As it became obvious that a victory would not be fast or easy, the players dug in and played the best poker of their lives, carefully plotting one decision at a time.

It was a contrast of players and personalities.  For Yobbagy, age 62, it was finally reaching the ‘promise land’ after many years of trying and failing to make the big dance.  Yobbagy has entered 20 majors by his own estimate.  This was his first time ever to make a final table.  By grace of the poker gods, he earned this one.  Hung Ly, age 30, on the other hand was entirely new to the tournament poker scene.  He was eager to test his skills and play at the highest level.  The money seemed to be a secondary concern to the experience he was gaining in the heads-up match.

In fact, the two men never discussed nor made a deal.  With $40,000 the difference between first and second place, one might have expected some kind of financial arrangement.  But it was Ly who insisted he wanted to play the game as it should be played to the end -- for all the money, for the gold and diamond bracelet, for the $10,000 buy-in into the championship finals, and for the satisfaction of declaring a bona fide ‘victory.’  Some things have no price.

At various points during the showdown, either player could have won the title.  Ly was at a disadvantage much of the way, but staged a dramatic comeback when he won a critical pot by spiking a second pair on the river.  Yobbagy had Ly nearly ‘all in’ and held A-5.  Ly felt pot-committed with Q-6 after the turned showed A-J-10-6.  Yobbagy had top pair with Aces.  Ly had bottom pair 6s, with an inside straight draw.  On the final card, Ly spiked a Queen (two pair) to stay alive.

That hand ignited a see-saw battle that would continue for another two hours.  At one point, Ly had Yobbagy down 4 to 1 and was close to victory.  But Yobbagy scratched and clawed his way back into the chip lead and was able to inflict the knockout punch just shy of the 300^th hand.  With blinds and limits high enough to swing the outcome, virtually all hands were playable.  Yobbagy was dealt K-9 to Ly’s 9-5.  Both players made top pair when the turn brought a Nine, but in the end – Yobbagy’s King was the better kicker.

In a noble and gutsy first-time effort, Hung Ly took $49,594 as the runner up.  Perhaps just as meaningful, Ly won a lot of respect and encouragement from the crowd, including the winner Yobbagy.

“Hung is a very fine player and a real gentleman,” Yobbagy said afterward.  “When you sit and play with someone for so long, you learn about a person.  Hung sure has a lot of character and stamina.”

The victory had special meaning to Yobbagy, not just because it was his first time to break the barrier en route to a final table, but for a much more personal reason.  “My wife is having surgery later this month,” he said.  “I’ve made arrangements to have my 2005 main event entry here rolled over into 2006 to be with her.  She doesn’t know it yet, but this win is my gift to her.”

Indeed, some things have no price.  Whether it’s Hung Ly in his uncompromising quest for first place in a poker tournament, or Nick Yobbagy being able to call his wife and say that he finally ‘did it’ after years of trying – this was truly an epic battle of two poker champions.          

2005 Jack Binion World Poker Open Results for Event #10

Horseshoe Casino Hotel and

Gold Strike Casino-Resort, Tunica, MS

Daily Report

January 16, 2005

Event #10

Limit TexasHold’em

Buy-In: $1,000

Number of Entries: 310 

Prize Money: $283,214

Official Results:

1.  Nick Yobbagy 
Fort Collins, CO          $90,171

2.   Hung Ly
Angeles, CA 49,594

3.   Gene Bowden 
Yuma, AZ                     25,361

4.   Norman Ketchum    
Rockford, IL                 19,725

5.   Minh Nguyen                  
Lake Elsinore, CA        16,907

6.   Sam Oliverio                    Bridgeport, WV            14,089      

7.   Matt Palmer         
Ontario, CA                11,271

8.   Jose Rosenkrantz      
San Jose, Costa Rica    8,454

9.   Matt Overstreet     
Oxford, MS                   5,810

* plus a seat in the $10,000 buy-in championship event

10. Ronald Leo Surenkamp           Indianapolis, IN            3,486

11. Bruce Harris       
Cordova, TN                 3,486

12. Frank Kassela       
Germantown, TN         3,486

13. Stan Kusy, Jr.         
Lafayette, LA                2,905

14. Earl Holmes          
Valdosta, GA                 2,905

15. Mark Bassham       
Cooper, TX                   2,905

16. Sammy Nooner         
Hondo, TX                    2,324

17. Janie Trevino         
Corpus Christi, TX       2,324

18. J. Benjamin            
The Woodlands, TX     2,324

19. J.C. Tran       
Sacramento, CA           1,743

20. Jimmy Tran           
Las Vegas, NV             1,743

21. Phi Nguyen         
Hawaiian Gardens, CA     1,743

22. Davood Mehrmand    
Frankfurt, Germany      1,743

23. Chris Venne           
Boulder, CO                 1,743

24. Pete Ketzmer   
Hernando, FL               1,743

25. Robert Ed Leger        
 Houston, TX                 1,743

26. Joe Davanzo                  
Palm Harbor, FL              1,743

27. Andy Wynn           
New York, NY                 1,743

Final Table Started at: 4:00 pm CST

Final Table Ended at: 10:35 pm CST

Report by Nolan Dalla – JBWPO Media Director

Tournament Director – David Eglseder

Co-Tournament Director (Horseshoe) – Ken Lambert, Jr.

Co-Tournament Director (Gold Strike) – Robert McGovern

Events 1- 5
Click for Results for Event #6, #7, #8, #9,#10
Click for Results for Events #11, #12, #13, #14
click for Schedule of Events

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