Over the last two days at the 2012 World Series of Poker, four different bracelets have been awarded to their fortunate recipients. The four tournaments ran the gamut over different disciplines of poker, giving something for the railbirds inside the Amazon Room intriguing events to watch.
Event #12 – $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em World Championship
After knocking the 152 players down to the Final Four, this tournament concluded on Thursday with the matchup between the four men who would determine the ultimate champion of this event:
Tommy Chen vs. Brian Hastings
Jason Mo vs. Brock Parker
The two semi-final matches took little time to conclude, as Mo surprisingly jumped out to a lead over Parker and Hastings almost immediately had Chen on the ropes. Both Chen and Parker, however, would fight back against their opponents to take slim advantages approximately two hours into each match. By the three hour point, both Parker and Mo had used up all of their rebuy chips (putting everything into play in their match), while Hastings knocked out Chen when Chen’s pocket eights couldn’t hold up against Hastings’ K-10 when a ten appeared on the turn.
Soon after Chen’s elimination, the final cards fell in the Mo/Parker match-up. After a pre-flop raise from Mo and a Parker call, a K-9-Q flop saw all the chips enter the middle of the felt. Mo held K-4, good for top pair) and Parker tabled a Q-8 for a middle pair and some backdoor options. Once a three appeared on the turn and a ten on the river, Mo had dodged all of Parker’s outs to eliminate him from the tournament.
The Mo/Hastings battle would be dominated by Hastings as Mo never could seem to gain any traction against the CardRunners pro. After an hour of play, Hastings had established a huge lead (with both of his rebuy chips in reserve), while Mo had used up all three of his bullets. After another half hour (including a hand where Hastings crippled Mo down to only about 400K in chips), all of this chips would be Hastings’ when he was able to get Mo to commit his final chips with Q-9 against Hastings’ A-4. An Ace on the flop virtually sealed the deal and, although a pairing Queen on the turn gave Mo some additional outs, a blank on the river gave the championship to Hastings.
1. Brian Hastings (Hanover Township, PA), $371,498
2. Jason Mo (St. Louis, MO), $229,722
3. Brock Parker (Silver Spring, MD), $130,606
Tommy Chen (San Jose, CA)
Event #13 – $1500 Limit Hold’em
The 25 survivors from the 730-player field came back on Thursday to crown a victor in the first Limit Hold’em event on this year’s WSOP schedule. Leonid Bilokur headed the field but would not be around when the final table was determined, knocked out in fifteenth place by David Arsht. Using those chips, Arsht would push to the final table in second place behind only Glenn Engelbert.
Al Barbieri was also in the mix at the nine-handed final table, making some early movement up the leaderboard by taking some chips from Donald Auger. Barbieri would continue his surge to the lead after this, knocking out Lori Kirgan (ninth) and Alex Queen (eighth) to push his chip stack over a million. With the blinds climbing, however, it would be anyone’s match as one hand made massive swings on the leaderboard.
Arsht would make the most impact at this time, earning a double knockout or Auger and Barbieri to go against Stephen Hung for the title with a 5:1 chip lead. On their first hand, the duo saw a Q-J-6 flop and they got their chips to the center of the felt. Both had hit the Queen with their hands, but Arsht’s Q-10 was in a dominant position over Hung’s Q-3. The case Queen came on the turn, leaving Hung looking for a three, six or Jack to continue the match. A four on the river ended the tournament, crowning Arsht as the champion.
1. David Arsht (Bala Cynwyd, PA), $211,921
2. Stephen Hung (El Cerrito, CA), $130,903
3. Al Barbieri (Long Beach, CA), $84,388
4. Donald Auger (Littleton, CO), $61,820
5. Glenn Engelbert (Sicklerville, NJ), $45,953
6. Ben Landowski (Hartland, WI), $34,620
7. Jeff Weiss (Davie, FL), $26,401
8. Alexander Queen (Bethlehem, PA), $20,370
9. Lori Kirgan (Phoenix, AZ), $15,886
Event #14 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout
Twelve players came back on Friday from the 1138 runners earlier this week, looking to make someone a WSOP champion. With everyone pretty much even in chips due to the shootout format, the two six handed tables that started the day promised some great action from the players.
On one table, Layne Flack seemed to be in control as he stormed out of the gate. Somehow Flack had missed the draw for the other table that featured Justin Schwartz, Jeff Madsen, Brandon Schaefer and Jarred Solomon in action. After Zachary Korik and Solomon were eliminated, however, the two tables combined to play down to the bracelet.
Flack would continue his onslaught as he eliminated Dylan Horton in tenth place, just off the official WSOP final table. He would lead the final table in the early going – with Schaefer creeping up behind him – but Jonathan Cohen would make his stab at taking home the WSOP title. When play reached four handed, Cohen held the lead over Flack and Schaefer, with Adam Kagin holding down the short stack position.
Kagin would get back in the match by eliminating Flack in fourth place after Cohen had taken much of Flack’s stack. His rebirth would be short-lived, however, as Schaefer knocked him out in third place to set up a heads up battle between Cohen and Schaefer, with the two holding nearly identical stacks.
Only a few hands into heads up action, Schaefer had moved out to a 2.6 million chip lead and wouldn’t look back. The final hand saw Cohen get his chips in the center holding Q-J on a Q-9-6 flop and deuce on the turn. Schaefer made the call, but all he could show was an 8-7 for an open ended straight draw. That turned out to be enough as the five came on the river, giving Schaefer the straight and the WSOP bracelet.
1. Brandon Schaefer (Seattle, WA), $311,174
2. Jonathan Cohen (Santa Maria, CA) $192,559
3. Adam Kagin (Henderson, NV), $120,329
4. Layne Flack (Las Vegas, NV) $87,446
5. David Chase (Alameda, CA), $64,555
6. Michael Corson (Mercer Island, WA), $48,393
7. Jeff Madsen (Las Vegas, NV) $36,809
8. Brandon Steven (Wichita, KS), $28,375
9. Justin Schwartz (Milford, CT), $22,168
Event #15 – $5000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
The day on Friday began with hopes that this event would see crowd favorites Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey make a run at claiming a bracelet during the 2012 WSOP. While Hellmuth came up short in his run at the final table (eliminated in fifteenth place), Ivey would be in the mix when the final table was determined.
2012 WSOP bracelet winner John Monnette would continue to demonstrate his prowess at Seven Card by coming to this table in second place behind Adam Friedman. Lurking back in the pack were Ivey and Todd Brunson (making another final table at the 2012 WSOP), but Ivey would not be much of a player after getting crippled early in final table action and eliminated by Brunson in seventh place.
Brunson was the dominant force of this table, taking huge chunks of chips off of players before Friedman would end their tournaments. They would be the two men who would determine the title, with Brunson holding more than a 2:1 edge when the heads up action started. As the three hour fight played out, Friedman was able to reverse this disadvantage through some skillful play – and some good fortune – to take down the championship.
1. Adam Friedman (Gahanna, OH), $269,037
2. Todd Brunson (Las Vegas, NV), $166,269
3. John Monnette (Palmdale, CA), $109,444
4. Nikolai Yakovenko (College Park, MD), $79,831
5. Sven Arntzen (Oslo, Norway), $59,395
6. Zimnan Ziyard (Eastbourne, the United Kingdom), $44,967
7. Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV), $34,595
8. Bryn Kenney (Long Beach, NY), $27,012
