Two of poker’s stars clashed in a heads-up match for the ages in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event Saturday evening. Brandon Cantu and Lee Watkinson were the first bracelet winners of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) to play heads-up for a title and the large crowd that gathered at the ESPN stage in the Amazon Room wasn’t left disappointed.
In the end, it was Cantu who finished on top to earn his second WSOP gold bracelet and $228,867. Cantu fought back from a 5:1 chip deficit to take control of the match and eventually put Watkinson away. On the final hand, Watkinson raised and Cantu called to see a flop of Q-6-4 with two clubs. Watkinson moved all-in and Cantu called:
Watkinson: [7h][5s][3c][2c]
Cantu: [Ah][Tc][7c][4d]
Watkinson was unable to fill his low and straight draws and Cantu’s set of fours held up to seal the victory. The win came just a week after Cantu took second place in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event despite having an enormous chip lead throughout most of the final table. He earned $403,951, but the result came with plenty of discontent.
“This is really special, especially because I should have won a week ago,” he said of winning his second bracelet. “That loss was really hard for me to take. This one really was special… I put so much time into playing these tournaments. The money comes and goes, but the bracelet will always be there. It’s nice winning titles. It’s great.”
Cantu took nearly twice as many chips (1,025,000) into the final day of the Pot Limit Omaha High-Low event as his closest competitor (Mathieu Jacqmin). At one point during Day 2 he had 25% of the chips in play, reaching the one million chip mark before anyone else had hit 300,000. Despite having limited experience in the game, Cantu went on a rush that hadn’t yet been seen at this year’s WSOP. “I don’t know if this game suits my style,” Cantu explained. “But everything worked. You can’t be quite as aggressive in this game. You have to slow down a little bit. In the end, everything worked.”
Cantu’s first gold bracelet win took place in what was his first time ever to cash in a major live event. He won a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em WSOP event in 2006 for $757,839. The tournament drew 2,776 players, which at the time at the time was the largest non-Main Event tournament in WSOP history.
Watkinson was also playing for his second career WSOP bracelet Saturday. His first came in the 2006 in the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha championship. Watkinson also made it to the final table of the 2007 WSOP Main Event, taking eighth place for $585,699.
Here a look at the final results from the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low event:
1. Brandon Cantu – $228,867
2. Lee Watkinson – $141,873
3. Mathieu Jacqmin – $92,946
4. Ted Weinstock – $74,727
5. Tommy Vedes – $47,617
6. Steve Jelinek – $36,893
7. Aaron Sias – $30,028
8. Ronnie Hofman – $25,618
9. William McMahan – $22,862
One player will be awarded a bracelet Sunday as the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout comes to a close. Bracelet winners Greg “FBT” Mueller, Tom Schneider, David Williams, and Marc Naalden headline one of the most talented final tables formed at the 2009 WSOP. Online stars Matt “mattster24” Sterling and Joep “Pappe_Ruk” van den Bijgaart will also be vying for the bracelet and $ 194,854 prize when play resumes at 2:00pm Vegas time.
Day 3 of the $50,000 HORSE will get underway at 4:00pm with 53 of the original 95 players still in the field. Gus Hansen is the chip leader heading in to Day 3 with 686,000 while Ray Dehkharghani (643,000), Erik “erik123” Sagstrom (560,000), and Todd Brunson (549,000) are close behind. A winner will be crowned on Tuesday and collect $1,276,802.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on all of today’s events at the WSOP.
