By Nolan Dalla

Special to VegasInsider.com

2005 World Series of Poker

Rio All-Suites Casino-Resort

Official Report

Event #16

No-Limit Hold’em Shootout

Buy-in: $1,500

Number of Entries:  780

Total Prize Money:  $1,076,400

Official Results:

Demolition Man:

Anthony Reategui annihilates final table in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, and takes $269,100 for first place

If Anthony Reategui ever decides to quit playing poker for a living and start a business, he might consider a career as a demolition man.  He flattened a formidable final table lineup in such convincing fashion, that the outcome was foreseeable even when as many as seven players remained.  When he busted his closest rival in chips and gobbled up more than half the chips in play, it appeared the remaining players were all competing for second place.  Reategui effectively busted seven of his nine opponents, making a shambles of their confidence and leaving a wasteland where their chips once proudly rested.

Reategui’s victory came in Event #16.  The No-Limit Shootout championship requires different skills than are required for standard poker tournaments.  In a shootout, the goal is to outlast all the players at your table, much like the way a single-table satellite is played.  The player who wins his/her respective table moves on to play in the next shootout round, until the final table takes place and the champion is determined.  Each time a new shootout begins, all players start with the same number of chips.  So, ‘early’ chip leaders are insignificant in the grand scheme of shootout strategy.  Surviving, outlasting, and ultimately winning are the goals. 

The total prize pool amounted to $1,076,400.  The final table included one former gold bracelet winner – Ted Lawson who won $500,000 in the Pot-Limit Omaha championship last year.  After the 13 finalists on Day Two played down to the remaining ten, players and starting chips counts were as follows:

THE FINAL TABLE:

SEAT 1 --          Erick Lindgren   74,500
SEAT 2 --          Kenny Robbins 116,200
SEAT 3 --          Keith Quilty                   33,300
SEAT 4 --          Dariush Imani                67,900
SEAT 5 --          Young Phan                  79,500
SEAT 6 --          Allen Goldstein 287,000
SEAT 7 --          Ted Lawson                   35,400
SEAT 8 --          Paul Kroh                      80,000
SEAT 9 --          Anthony Reategui          284,900
SEAT 10 --        Phil Gordon                   85,000

Players were eliminated in the following order:

10^th Place – Keith Quilty had a rough second day.  About an hour into play, Quilty moved his last 30,000 into the pot with A-6.  Paul Kroh called with K-Q and hit a king on the river, knocking out the 39-year-old professional gambler who lives in Las Vegas.  Quilty sewed up $16,145 for 10^th place.

9^th Place – Erick Lindgren has been as hot as anyone in tournament poker over the past two years.  However, the one thing that has eluded the California-born poker pro has been a victory at the World Series.  This was Lindgren’s fourth time to make it to a final table, but the best he could do was 9^th place.  On his final hand, he was dealt A-7 and lost to Anthony Reategui’s Q-10.  A queen flopped to send Lindgren away.  His cut amounted to $20,450.

8^th Place – Looking back at this final table, the suspense pretty much ended after the two big chip leaders went to war. Allen Goldstein was the major obstacle to Anthony Reategui from the start.  Reategui was the early aggressor and when Goldstein looked down and saw pocket nines, he made an ‘all in’ re-raise on the button.  Goldstein might as well have been walking a gangplank wearing a blindfold.  Retegui called instantly, and flipped over pocket queens.  Goldstein looked stunned and walked away dejectedly when he failed to improve.  Eighth place paid $25,835.  The demolition job had begun.

7^th Place – Phil Gordon put a bad beat on Dariush Imani when he called a small raise with K-4 against Imani’s K-9.  Gordon called for a four and it flashed on the river to evict Imani, a real estate investor from Utah.  Seventh-place paid $32,290.

6^th Place – Two hours passed before lightning struck the final table and the next four players were torched.  The most exciting hand of the tournament took place in a three-handed pot between Kenny Robbins, Ted Lawson, and Anthony Reategui.  Robbins (with K-K) re-raised an initial raise by Reategui (with 9-9).  Lawson called ‘all in’ with J-J.  Reategui knew he was probably beat but decided to call the raise since he enjoyed such a large chip advantage and could knock out two players if he hit a nine.  Three small cards flopped and it appeared Robbins was about to triple up.  Then, the card of death came.  Wham!  A nine crushed both Robbins and Lawson and left the huge crowd in a state of shock.  The board paired on the river and Reategui took down two players with a full-house and dragged another monster-sized pot.  Two more walls came tumbling down.  Former gold bracelet winner Ted Lawson staggered away from the final table shaking his head.  Somehow, the $43,055 in prize money for 6^th place was not at all comforting.

5^th Place – The three-handed shocker knocked out Kenny Robbins in 5^th place.  Robbins was one of five players in his 20s at this final table.  The Las Vegas local could certainly be pleased with $53,820, although he expects to improve in the future.  This was Robbins third time to finish in the money at this year’s World Series.   

4^th Place – On the very next hand, Young Phan had the best of it when he raised ‘all in’ with A-9.  Reategui seemed to know exactly what was coming, as he called with K-Q then caught running diamonds to complete a flush.  Another pillar was demolished.  Phan, normally a quiet and reserved player, shook his head and was still mumbling about Reategui’s rush of cards while he was paid $64,585 for 4^th place.  Phan, one of poker’s most talented players, has yet to win a gold bracelet at the World Series.  His time will certainly come at some point.

3^rd Place – When play became three-handed, Reategui had about 85 percent of the chips in play.  The two remaining players, Phil Gordon and Paul Kroh sat together with hands folded looking at each other.  They must have felt like beef cattle about to be led to the slaughterhouse.  And it was Anthony Reategui holding onto the sledgehammer.  Neither Gordon nor Kroh wanted to go first, since $70,000 was at ‘steak’ -- the difference between 2^nd and 3^rd place.  Finally, as the blinds escalated, Gordon made a decision to move ‘all in’ with A-6.  Reategui could afford to call the small raise in his sleep.  He flipped over J-8 and hit a pair.  Phil Gordon was disemboweled in 3^rd place, collecting $75,350 for his bit role in the ‘Tony Reategui Show.’    

2^nd Place – Paul Kroh had a mountain to climb and this one was bigger than Mount Everest.  In a snowstorm.  Without oxygen.  The Battle Mountain, NV resident won an event earlier this year in San Diego on the World Series of Poker Circuit.  He hoped to win his first gold bracelet in this event, but realized the near-futility of the situation the more he witnessed Reategui’s domination.  

On the final hand of the evening, Reategui was dealt A-2 of diamonds against Paul Kroh’s K-Q of diamonds.  Nether player made a pair, which meant the ace-high played.  That knocked out Kroh and ended one of the most commanding performances in World Series of Poker history.  Paul Kroh, a 59-year-old retired poker player who has won several majors around the country, earned $148,380 as the runner up. 

1^st Place – Anthony Reagetui is a 29-year-old poker pro who was born in Chicago.  However, he has spent most of his life in the Phoenix area.  He worked in a car wash before he discovered poker six years ago.  Since then, Reagetui has grinded out a steady income from online poker games and casinos in and around Phoenix. 

Most interesting is the fact that Reagetui got his inspiration to enter the World Series from Pat Poels, who won the Omaha High-Low championship (Event #4) at this year’s tournament.  “Before, I used to think I was dead money in these tournaments,” Reagetui said.  “Then Pat (Poels) told me, ‘don’t worry about it, you’re a good player, you’ll get there.’  So, I decided to play and got red hot in this event.  And look, here I am.”

Asked about his plans for some of the $269,100 in prize money, Reagetui says he intends to play more poker.  “The best thing about winning is that I can stay in action longer.  I can also play a bit higher, now.  I also told all my friends that if I won we’d all go to Hawaii.  That’s like six or seven of us.”

Aloha.