Event 11 Recap

$260 + $40 Seniors No Limit Hold'em

God Save the Queen is the National anthem of the United Kingdom, but in the Seniors tournament, it's the Q♠ that saves the day for Sonny DeVivo (Binghamton, NY).

DeVivo was all in and at risk against Nissim Chabi (Brooklyn, NY) who had two pairs on the turn, but the river queen counterfeited Chabi and gave DeVivo a 1.2 million chip side pot that propelled him to the win.

"When I saw the nine I thought it was over," said DeVivo, who held K 10, and was in bad shape when Chabi hit two pairs with K 9.  But on the final board of K Q 6 9 Q, both players had two pairs, kings and queens, with DeVivo's ten kicker making the best hand.

"When I saw the queen I smiled again," said DeVivo who's 68-years-old and earned $13,241 for the win.

"I thought I had the best kicker," explained Chabi when he moved all in for more than 700k into a 60k pot.  He had DeVivo covered and was still alive after he shipped 664 across the table.

"You know how it is," said Chabi a retired businessman, "It comes and goes."

The main pot was chopped between DeVivo and Ray Snoots (Leonard Town, MD), who also held K 10, but Snoots had been a short stack for most of the final table and eventually was eliminated in 6th place.

After the biggest hand of the tournament the final eliminations went very quickly with Jeff Rothberg (Scarsdale, NY) and Jay Bovasso (Long Branch, NJ) going out in 5th and 4th places respectively.

Then it was Rick Frumkin (Hazleton, PA) who finished just behind Chabi and DeVivo for third place.

The day began with 175 Seniors who put up a total buy-in of $45,500.  The field featured Borgata regulars Don Brown, Nancy Martin, Bob Santilli and Fritz Stoner, but none of them made the money.

Notables who did cash included last woman standing Martha Patella (18th), Dan Spirer (16th) and Tony Campagna (8th).

DeVivo, a car dealer, said he's only been playing for two years and this is by far the biggest poker achievement thanks to a little lady luck.

Final Table Results 

1 Sonny DeVivo (Binghamton, NY) $13,241
2 Nissim Chabi (Brooklyn, NY) $7,282
3 Rick Frumkin (Hazleton, PA) $4,193
4 Jay Bovasso (Long Branch, NJ) $3,531
5 Jeff Rothberg (Scarsdale, NY) $2,648
6 Ray Snoots (Leonard Town, MD) $2,207
7 Jim Tejado (Yardley, PA) $1,765
8 Tony Campagna (Manorville, NY) $1,324
9 Dennis Altman (Polk City, FL) $993
10 Chuck Bryant (Berwyn, PA) $883