Binion's poker tournament getting tougher for only champ left in field

A poker hall of famer who overcame recent health problems, a former pro football player seeking a gambling milestone and two top women gamblers are among those who will win money in this year's finale to the World Series of Poker.

Jack Keller, the 1984 world champion and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, was in eighth place in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em world championship at Binion's Horseshoe. He was the only past champion left in the field that started with 13 ex-titlists on Monday and still had seven left on Tuesday.

"It only gets harder from here, because even though $25,000 (19th-27th place money) is good, it is nowhere as good as the $1 million first prize," said Keller, who is seventh on the tournament's all-time money list with $1,554,330.

"Being the only remaining ex-champion in the field doesn't add to the pressure -- the million dollars is enough pressure."

When the 21-event, month-long tournament began in mid-April, Keller, a former Las Vegan who now lives in Mississippi, was hampered by a kidney stone that limited his tournament participation. He did not place in the money in any of the prior events. He was in second place after Round 1 on Monday.

Tuesday's second round concluded shortly before 2 a.m. today and will resume at noon with the 27 survivors of the original record field of 350 players vying for prize money ranging from $25,000 to $112,000.

The top six players after today's freeze-out style action will come back at 10 a.m. Thursday to compete for prize money ranging from $150,000 to $1 million in the 29-year-old granddaddy of all gaming tournaments.

T.J. Cloutier, a longtime Dallas area gambler who in the early 1960s played in the Canadian Football League, was pleased with his second-day play that moved him from 12th to fourth place.

"I think it gets a lot harder now, but you just bet the hands," Cloutier, 12th on the all-time World Series earnings list with $1,255,886, said. "I won't do anything different."

Cloutier, a former tight end for the old Montreal Allouettes and the Toronto Argonauts who now is noted for his stone-faced play and cigarette chain-smoking at the tables, earlier in the tournament won his fourth career World Series title and recorded his 49th overall major tournament victory.

He would like nothing better than to make the world championship -- the one major crown that has eluded him over the years -- title No. 50.

"Besides, if I win, I'll be second on the all-time money list -- that's something to shoot for," Cloutier, this year's $2,500 buy-in pot-limit Omaha champion, said. "Of course, if Jack wins, he'll be the all-time money leader."

To do that, they will have to get past the Day 2 leader, Scotty Nguyen, of Henderson. Nguyen went off at 95-to-1 odds to win the championship, according to Leroy's Race and Sports Books, a chain that operates casino books statewide.

Veteran gamblers Bobby Hoff of California and Dewey Weum of Wisconsin round out the top three.

Day 1 leader, "Eskimo" Clark, a veteran, burley Louisiana gambler, enters today's action in 11th place.

The tournament began with nearly a dozen women. Four survived the first round and two of them -- a pair of Las Vegans -- made it to Round 3.

Kathy Liebert, who last year placed second in the $3,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em championship, was in 16th place (up from 20th place after round 1) and Susie Isaacs, the 1996 and '97 women's world 7-card stud champion, was in 20th place (up from 188th place after the first round).

"There are a lot of good women gamblers out there, and there is no physical reason why a woman can't play cards as well as a man," Liebert said.

"I think the play gets easier from here because we are in the money. It's now just a matter of getting into the chips or getting out. And, of course, you need opportunities and good cards."

The pre-tournament favorite, Lyle Berman, a former Binion's Hall of Fame Classic champion, was eliminated in the first hour of competition Tuesday.

Leroy's had made Berman a 12-to-1 favorite to win it. He appeared in good shape after Day 1 with $27,900 in chips and was in 30th place. But, as is the nature with no-limit Texas hold 'em stacks of chips grow and disappear dramatically.

The past world champions to experience that feeling Tuesday were Poker Hall of Famer Doyle Brunson (the 1976 and '77 titlist), Hamid Dastmalchi (1992), Jim Bechtel (1993), Russ Hamilton (1994), Dan Harrington (1995) and Huck Seed (1996).

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