The Borgata Winter Poker Open just concluded from the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. One PocketFiver, Laurence “Wolfman79” Wolf, walked away victorious in Event #13, a $500 No Limit Hold’em event, for $63,275. 430 poker hopefuls entered this event. PocketFives.com sat down with Wolf to learn about his live win and his young poker career. Wolf gave us a quick rundown of the day: “I actually was late for the tournament, so I entered as an alternate and was fortunate to be seated at Table #2 – a table not to be broken until we got to the final table. The official start time was at 12:00 noon and around 4:00 am on Tuesday with four players left, we did a chop that gave me first place, the engraved Tag Heuer winner’s watch, and about $37,000 in cash.” Nothing was handed to Wolf in this tournament: “It took a while for it to sink in, but I am extremely pleased to have won the first major tournament in which I made the money. A few things did run through my mind. One was how I came back from 2,500 in chips to 1.2 million – I felt that was some comeback. Another was how I never really had any power hands like sets or flushes and only one boat. Another was that almost all of my strong hands held and I won all of my all-in up or out plays, even if they looked bad before the river.”
When down to the final table, Wolf’s poker skills were put to the test: “The final table started out with a couple of interesting things. The first was that we got to 10 players when Table #1 had a monster three-way all-in that had a set over set win leaving the gentleman from Columbia with a significant lead when we started. The next was that before the first hand was dealt, we voted that 9th and 10th place would get at least $5,000 to be paid by the winner. After that, there was a lot of all-in poker and not a lot of flops seen. Since I got great cards this worked in my favor.”
Before making the final table, Wolf was low in chips: “Early on, I was very frustrated with weak hands on a table with a lot of overbetters. I won very few hands and found myself short for many hours and almost out. After Level 7, we had an hour dinner break and while I had won a few chips I was still short - all I would think about was getting blinded out and another sad ending. I did not even eat dinner. Coming back from dinner, it turned around for me.”
Wolf slowly worked his way back up in chips, in part by catching cards and in part by his skill in the tournament. Then, the key hand, as vividly described by Wolf: “I had a nice stack of about 250,000 chips and get pocket threes and I raise it up. The big blind, who been annoying me with overbetting for hours, called. The flop came J-4-5 and he bet out big. I immediately put him on A-K or A-Q and saw this as another bluff. The turn was a 6, giving me a straight draw, but also putting three hearts on board. He pops all-in for another 71,000 and now I am looking at calling for a 300,000 pot. I was positive he did not a flush and I had 10 outs for my straight or set. At this stage the tourney, I was in the money and down to three short tables, so I really thought about it. Finally, I decided that even if he had a jack or overpair, I had enough outs to call for this huge pot and, even if I lost, I still had over 100,000 chips to play on. I said, ‘I call,’ and flipped over 3-3 – his face fell and I asked, ‘Got the flush?’ He replied, ‘I got nothing.’ He showed K-8 off and the river was a blank. He went crazy asking how I could make that call. Meanwhile, others at the table and the crowd watching also expressed amazement, calling it a great call. My table image was set and I went on to take a couple of more people out as my run of cards continued.”
His stated goal coming into the tournament was, “Make the money, then see what happens.” His use of money, “I plan to spend 90% of it on wine, women, and whisky. The rest, I suppose, I’ll just waste. Just kidding lol.” His grandmother provided the impetus for his online poker career: “My grandmother taught me poker when I was seven – we mainly played penny ante seven card stud for hours and hours. She was a winning player for about 70 years. But I only played off and on until I picked up hold‘em a couple of years ago. In the third tourney I ever played, I took second in a four-way chop and I have been playing tourneys ever since live and on-line.”
Despite his recent success and long-term love of poker, the game is not his sole profession: “I am an Information Technology consultant working with a variety of firms primarily in the financial services and pharmaceutical sectors. I publish articles and speak at conferences to share the knowledge and methodologies that I have developed over the years in solving some very difficult problems for clients.” His other interests include wrestling, movies, reading, and cooking.
He is also friendly with many other online poker greats, which has undoubtedly provided a great positive influence on his game: “Some of my online poker friends include P0ker H0, Annie Duke, Debo34, Shawn Rice, Erbloore, Ole_School, Zmen, and Potroast00. I also talk to KrazyKanuck, BeL0WaB0Ve, Leggggggggggggy, and others. Most remember me from various final tables I have made. Since I have won a couple of trips to Vegas on UltimateBet, I have had to chance to meet most of these players at the UB functions. While I don’t really fear anyone that I can think of, I do have a lot of respect and caution for all of the above players as well as JohnnyBax, Annette_15, and others.”
Congratulations to Wolfman79 on his Borgata Event #13 win. We hope to see continued success in both the live and online poker arenas. For more live poker action, be sure to check out WPT events live on www.pocketfiveslive.com.
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