Local poker pro among chip leaders in Vegas

Arizona -- About a year ago, Tucsonan Ned Shabou made the decision to give up being a working stiff so he could play poker for a living.

Right now he’s making that decision look to be a smart one.

Shabou, 47, finds himself 12th in chips out of 446 remaining players entering the second day of the 2009 World Series of Poker’s second event, a $1,500-buyin No Limit Hold’Em tournament.

“I have 75,000 in chips … I’m doing pretty good,” Shabou said today via cell phone from the Rio in Las Vegas, about 90 minutes before action was to resume.

The top 378 players will get paid, with first prize coming in at a sweet $831,279.

The tournament began with 3,929 players, the largest non-Main Event field in WSOP history.

Shabou said his strong first day effort was a combination of smart play … and getting hit with the deck quite a few times.

For the first time in my life, seven times I had pocket aces,” Shabou said. And five times I had pocket kings. I never lost once. That was an incredible day.”

Shabou said he was also able to get strong reads on his opponents, in order to make some calls when his foes tried to bluff him.

To date, Shabou’s top cash was for $87,875 at a preliminart event from the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker last August in Los Angeles. He has one previous WSOP cash, earning $2,860 for a 53rd-place finish in a No-Limit event in 2005.

Arizona Night Buzz

News Added: 03 June, 2008

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