By Nolan Dalla

Special to VegasInsider.com

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2005 World Series of Poker

Rio All-Suites Casino-Resort

Official Report

Event #30

Razz

Buy-in: $1,500

Number of Entries:  291

Total Prize Money:  $401,580

Official Results:

As Bad As It Gets:

O’Neil Longson wins grueling Razz championship

If Doyle Brunson’s record-tying tenth World Series of Poker lifetime victory was poker at its finest, then the final table of the Seven Card Razz event was every poker fan’s worst nightmare.  Think of working as a security guard on the graveyard shift in an empty warehouse.  O’Neil Longson won the most punishing event thus far at this year’s World Series.  He topped an all-time Razz turnout (291 entries) and collected $125,690 in prize money.  This was gold bracelet Number Three for the near-comatose retiree and poker pro from Utah.

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In every way, shape, and form the Razz finale was dreadful.  First, it lasted a seemingly infinite 16 hours.  On Day Two, play started off at 2 pm.  The tournament did not end until 8 am the next morning.  What brave (or insane) spectators remained who were scattered inside a near-empty tournament area were either snoozing or catatonic.  The winner, O’Neil Longson showed little emotion after winning, most appropriate given the circumstances.  A thrilling poker moment, this was not.

This is not to say that Longson, a widely-respected tournament veteran, did not put on a masterful performance.  In fact, play at the final table was extraordinary.  There were a number of highly-interesting poker personalities in the finale, which might have provided some riveting drama has the game been No-Limit Hold’em.  But instead, the game was Razz – a hybrid of Seven-Card Stud in which the object of the game is to make the worst possible hand.  There are no devastating rivers, nor coin flip showdowns in Razz.  Instead, there are hours and hours and hours of tedious monotony.  It’s poker version of an assembly line.

The eight finalists took their seats and play began.  There were three former gold bracelet winners – O’Neil Longson (2), Mike Wattel (1), and Hassan Kamoei (1).  Players were eliminated in the following order:

8^th – Hassan Kamoei went out first.  He arrived with the lowest stack (11,500).  Kamoei went out with an 8-6 low which lost to Larry Cesareo’s 8-4.  Kamoei collected $11,245 and got a good night’s rest.

7^th – Larry Cesareo was the next player to exit.  He was low on chips and made his last stand with 10-9, ultimately losing to Archie Karas’ 9-6.  Cesareo was slayed in 7^th place – good for $15,660. 

6^th – Mickey Wernick is a true poker pioneer.  He was one of the first non-American players to visit the WSOP back in the late 1970s.  He saw a new game being played called ‘Texas Hold’em’ told a few friends back in England, and the Brits have been playing it ever since.  Wernick is deserving of a gold bracelet and he has a number of in-the-money finishes and final tables in his 25-year WSOP career.  But 6^th place was the highest he could climb on this night.  Wernick went out when his 9-8-6 was bested by Archie Karas’ 9-8-4.  Wernick earned $19,675 in prize money. 

5^th – Mike Wattel fell just shy of winning gold bracelet number two a few weeks ago.  He was the runner up in the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split event.  Wattel walked away disappointed again, this time.  He fell low on chips and had a number of decent starting hands, which then turned into dogs when face cards and pairs killed his hand.  Wattel finally went out in 5^th place and received $24,900.

4^th – Anargyros Karabourniotis, a.k.a. Archie Karas, is one of gambling’s most mythological figures.  Ten years ago, Karas strolled into Binion’s Horseshoe with a few thousand dollars in his pocket and started shooting craps.  He won.  The next day, he came back and won again.  Big.  Over the next few weeks, Karas went on the biggest roll in Las Vegas history, winning an estimated $25 million at one point.  But in the end, Karas lost in all.  In recent years, Karas has played tournament poker regularly.  Although he has played in the highest cash games in the world, he has not yet won a major tournament.  Karas came close on this night, but ultimately fell short.  There’s no telling how long the $30,120 that was paid out to Karas lasted.  Odd are that he’ll either end up winning the Rio property or going bust.   

3^rd – Al Barbieri is just what one would expect in a person, given his South Philadelphia roots.  The Italian-neighborhood goombah, nicknamed ‘Sugar Bear’ (this is for real, folks) had Bruno Fitoussi ‘all in’ at one point and it seemed he might get heads-up against Longson.  But Barbieri lost that crucial hand and then saw his tall towers of chips get wacked.  Barbieri was eliminated in 3^rd place – good for $42,165.

2^nd Place – Heads-up play began with O’Neil Longson holding a 2 to 1 chip lead.  The betting levels were so high that only a hand or two could swing the lead in either direction.  In the end, Bruno Fitoussi ended up losing the final hand of the night (make that, morning) with 10-7 getting topped by 9-8.

The runner up was Bruno Fitoussi, a.k.a. ‘the King.’  Fitoussi is best known in the poker world as the manager of Aviation Club de France, in Paris.  Fitoussi has also proven to be a top poker player in his own right.  He won the World Heads-Up Championship in 2001 and also finished 15th in the main event (WSOP) in 2003.  Second place paid $70,275.   

1^st Place – O’Neil Longson is a 71-year-old professional poker player, who lists ‘retired’ as his profession.  But Longson shows no signs of slowing down, at least when it comes to winning tournaments.  This was Longson’s second gold bracelet in two years.

This was a day of both similarities and contrasts.  Poker legend Doyle Brunson won his gold bracelet on the same day.  That meant that two players in their 70s have now won championships at the World Series.  Poker may be a young man’s game, but Longson and Brunson are showing the world that the old-timers can win, as well.

Longson walked away from the nearly-empty poker room as he has many times, strolling casually and quietly back to his room at the end of a long day.  Those who may have passed him en route would never have known by the stoic look on Longson’s expressionless face that he had just won six-figures and become a three-time WSOP winner.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?