Poker Hall of Famer Nearly Wins Tournament Named After Him

Mori Eskandi is a poker legend, having been behind the scenes of many of the most popular broadcasts in the history of the game, including shows like High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and many more. The longtime producer and frequent high-stakes mixed game player (pictured above) was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2018 for his contributions.

“Eskandani has helped bring the game of poker to the masses and ensure the game is always front and center with the public from a television medium standpoint,” said the World Series of Poker in the press release announcing his addition to that illustrious group.

The president of PokerGO had an event named in his honor for this year’s PokerGO Tour Mixed Games festival: the $10,000 buy-in Mori’s Mix. The tournament featured a rotation of limit hold’em, limit Omaha high, razz, stud, badugi, and triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball that is apparently favored by its namesake.

Eskandani nearly won his ‘own’ event, eventually finishing second to Maxx Coleman, who earned $210,000 as the champion. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner now has nearly $5.1 million in career cashes to his name. Eskandani earned $136,000 as the runner-up, the second-largest score of his career. He now has $1.1 million in lifetime earnings after this, his 45th recorded in-the-money finish.

During the broadcast commentator Remko Rinkema noted, “Since he is an employee of PokerGO, we are using regular [meaning non-RFID] cards, no bet tracking, and no chip count tracking until Mori has been eliminated.”

As it turned out, that meant the duration of the final day. This event drew 70 entries to create a $700,000 prize pool. The top 10 finishers cashed, with five-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser (10th), three-time bracelet winner Jim Collopy (9th), and high stakes regular Talal Shakerchi (8th) all hitting the rail inside the money before the end of day 1.

Day 2 began with Coleman leading the seven contenders who returned to the PokerGO Studio inside ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas. European Poker Tour champion Dzmitry Urbanovich was the first to hit the rail, running into a six low for four-time bracelet winner Mike Gorodinsky in a massive razz clash. Urbanovich was left on fumes after that and was soon sent packing in seventh place ($28,000).

Seven-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu got the last of his short stack in during a round of limit Omaha high. Negreanu check-raised all-in after a flop of J22 with A984. He was up against Q10109 for Gorodinsky, who called. The K turn gave Negreanu a second flush draw, but the 10 river improved Gorodinksy to tens full of deuces. Negreanu’s ace-high flush was no good, and the Poker Hall of Famer hit the rail with $38,500 for his sixth-place showing. He now has more than $53.7 million in career tournament earnings, the eighth-most of any player in poker history.

The next elimination took place during a round of stud. Steve Zolotow got all-in on third street with three to a flush and was heads-up against Eskandani, who had an ace and two other broadway cards. Zolotow made a pair of nines on fourth street, but Eskandani improved to a pair of aces on fifth street. The aces ended up being the best hand after seventh street, which meant that Zolotow was sent packing in fifth place. The two-time bracelet winner earned $52,500 for his latest deep run.

David Funkhouser’s run in this event came to an end in fourth place. The bracelet winner was the shortest stack entering four-handed action, and continued to slide before making his final stand in razz. He wound up making an 8-7-6-3-A, but it was no good against the 7-5-4-2-A of Coleman. Funkhouser was awarded $70,000 for his fourth cash of the series. He also finished fourth in the previous event, which was a $10,000 eight-game mix.

Gorodinsky lost a couple big pots in hold’em down the stretch to finish third ($94,500). The final one saw him call his last bet on a KQ79 board with J9. He was trailing the K9of Eskandani, and the A river was of no help. Gorodinsky cashed for $94,500, which puts his career haul at nearly $5.1 million.

Even after dragging that pot, Eskandani still entered heads-up play well behind Coleman. The roughly 2:1 chip advantage was expanded in the early going by Coleman, but Eskandani managed to battle back and then take the lead. Coleman then won a big stud pot with queens up to surge back in front and didn’t look back from there.

The final hand came in hold’em. Coleman raised from the button with 77 and then four bet over Eskandani’s reraise. Eskandi moved all-in with QQ and Coleman called. The board came down K104A7 to see Coleman river a set, coming from behind to lock up the pot and the title.

Final Table Results

Photo credits: PokerGO.