Council Bluffs, IA—Elton Nolde is a 40-year-old golf superintendent from Ogallala, Nebraska who wrote on his bio sheet that he’s won satellites but never a tournament. That changed tonight when he was the victor in the third event of the WSOP Circuit tour at Horseshoe Council Bluffs, $500 No Limit Hold’em, which brought him $26,086.
“A lot better than winning tournament chips in satellites,” he remarked.
Besides winning the majority of his races tonight, he credited his win to changing his style of play. Early in the event, he said he found himself chasing and playing “stupid” cards. He re-analyzed himself and reformed, vowing to play very tight and avoid getting into situations where he was not in control, a strategy that was to work well for him.
The key hand came when he was heads-up with Jon Chovanec, starting with roughly 450,000 chips to about 750,000 for Chovanec. A few hands later he won a big pot, holding A-Q to Chovanec’s K-Q, He won easily with aces-up to take a big lead and soon nailed down his win.
This event had 166 players and an $80,510 prize pool. Second-day final table action got underway with blinds of 3,000-6,000 and 500 antes, 30 minutes left. In front with 325,000 chips was Fred Winter, holder of two Circuit rings.
Here were the starting chip counts:
|
Seat
|
Name
|
Chip Count
|
|
1
|
Elton Nolde
|
132,500
|
|
2
|
Jay McVeigh
|
167,500
|
|
3
|
Jon Chovanec
|
253,000
|
|
4
|
Ron Lecina
|
133,000
|
|
5
|
Fred Winter
|
325,000
|
|
6
|
Nick Stille
|
113,000
|
|
7
|
Jesse Starke
|
79,000
|
|
8
|
Bryan Testin
|
63,000
|
|
9
|
Nick Frost
|
95,000
|
9th place: In early action, Nick Frost went out on a tough beat. All in with K-J, he flopped top two when the board came J-2-K. A deuce turned, and then a river 10 gave Fred Winter, holding A-Q, a Broadway straight. Ninth paid $1,610. Frost is a former college student turned pro from Chicago. He had three cashes at the Hammond Circuit: eighth in the opening event (the biggest Circuit ever); 11th in the championship finale; and a win in the Six-Handed No Limit event.
8th place: Soon after, Bryan Testin pushed in his last chips with . He had a flush draw when a flopped, but couldn’t complete when an offsuit king and 8 showed up. He lost to Winter, who had called from the small blind with 8-6 and paired his 8.
Testin is 45, from Hawthorn Woods, Illinois and retired. This was his fifth final table, and he won a last chance event here last year. “If I’m not playing, I’m golfing,” he wrote.
7th place: Players returned from break to blinds of 4,000-8,000 and 1,000 antes. A very short-chipped Jesse Starke moved in with and was called by Chovanec, holding . A flop of gave Starke hopes of a flush, but two offsuit 6s came and he cashed seventh for $3,220.
Starke, 39, is from Loveland, Colorado and he listed his occupation as a “single dad of two amazing kids.” His prior cashes include a final table at Tahoe this year and a 25th in a six-handed WSOP event.
6th place: Jay McVeigh was next out. He called all in with pocket 8s after Chovanec pushed in with . Chovanec paired his ace on a flop of A-4-Q, McVeigh couldn’t find a miracle 8 to save him, and went out sixth for $4,026. McVeigh is a 34-year-old accountant from Kansas City, Missouri who finished 12th in the opening event here.
As play went on, we had an unusual set-over-set confrontation with an all-in Ron Lecina winning with a set of 4s to beat Chovanec’s set of treys.
5th place: Soon after blinds went to 5,000-10,000 with 1,000 antes, Lecina moved in with two black 6s. Five diamonds -- a , , , and -- hit the board, Chovanec had a in his hand, it played, and Lecina took home $4,831 for fifth place. Lecina is a 51-year-old municipal worker from Muscatine, Iowa. At this event last year he had two cashes and a final table.
4th place: Winter was next to go. He looked at and pushed his stacks in. He looked in good shape, dominating Nolde, who button-called holding . Then the flop brought 7-Q-7, and another 7 turned to give Nolde 7s full of queens. Winter, 35, is from LaGrange, Illinois where he is a finance manager. He has two wins in $500 no-limit events at Hammond.
3rd place: With three players left, Nolde and Chovanec were roughly tied for the chip lead, trailed by Nick Stille. They returned from break with blinds now up to 8,000-16,000 with 2,000 antes. Stille quickly found himself all in and in very bad shape with K-Q against Chovanec’s A-Q, the same match-up that would later give Nolde the lead. Even more unusual, there was also an identical outcome as Chovanec also won with the same aces and queens when the board came A-8-J-7-Q!
Third place paid $8,051. Stille, 23, is from Omaha and began playing full-time after graduating from the University of Iowa. His specialty is playing heads-up sit ‘n go online for as much as $5,000.
2nd place: Heads-up, Chovanec led with about 740,000 chips to around 530,000 for Nolde. But everything turned around when Nolde won that big pot with aces and queens, leaving Chovanec with just a bit over 150,000. They played a few more hands and Chovanec doubled up once as Nolde finally lost a race, (holding A-Q again, but losing to Chovanec’s K-8 when a king flopped) but that’s as far as his opponent got.
On the final hand, A-Q came up yet again. This time Chovanec held those cards against Nolde’s . An flopped to give Nolde a flush draw, and a on the turn completed his flush and nailed down the win for him.
Chovanec, collecting $13,687 for second, is 34, from Valparaiso, Indiana, and works as a sausage casing salesman. This is his second Circuit cash, and he also chopped the month-end $500 tourney in Hammond for $13,000. – Max Shapiro