Instead of having only two bracelets awarded on Thursday, the 2012 World Series of Poker had three handed out due to the delayed finale of Event #24. The tournament rooms at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino were popping with action as these events winded up and two others saw their preliminary action.
Event #24 – $5000 Omaha Hi/Lo
After playing until 3AM Thursday morning, the final two survivors from the 256 player field, Joe Cassidy and Scotty Nguyen, couldn’t come to a decision as to whether to finish the tournament then or come back later yesterday to determine a champion. As a result of their inability to come to a decision, WSOP officials pushed the event off until yesterday afternoon, and probably for the best. While some may look at it as a tactical decision by the veteran Nguyen (who was down by a 3 million to 845K count), it turned out to be the best one as the players took another two hours to determine the victor after the tournament resumed at 2PM.
A rested Nguyen came out of the gates quickly, chopping Cassidy’s edge down within the first half hour to less than a million chips. After a break, Cassidy would reestablish his dominant lead over the next half hour, pushing the five time WSOP bracelet winner virtually down to the felt. The experience of Nguyen would show, however, as he staved off elimination at several points during the heads up fight.
In the end, however, the cavernous chip differential was too much for the 1998 World Champion to overcome. After Nguyen narrowed the gap to 400K in chips, Cassidy finally found a run in which he was able to put Nguyen away. On the final hand, Cassidy made a button raise and Nguyen responded with his final bits of ammunition. Cassidy called, tabling his A-K-5-2 against Nguyen’s J-8-5-2. The A-Q-8 flop furthered Cassidy’s lead, but a Jack on the turn switched it back to Nguyen with two pair (both had the same low draw). Looking for a ten to scoop the pot outright, Cassidy got just that on the river to make a Broadway straight and win his first WSOP bracelet.
1. Joe Cassidy (Las Vegas, NV), $294,777
2. Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, NV), $182,213
3. Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV), $136,046
4. Meng La (Torrance, CA), $102,260
5. Gregory Jamison (Las Vegas, NV), $77,342
6. Elie Doft (New York, NY), $58,873
7. Bart Hanson (West Hollywood, CA), $45,084
8. Mike Matusow (Henderson, NV), $34,748
9. Ryan Lenaghan (New Orleans, LA), $26,940
Event #25 – $1500 Limit Hold’em Shootout
Coming to the felt on Thursday, the ten men who won two tables to reach the finale of the Limit Hold’em Shootout were packed closely together (any chip disparities were because of playing on short tables at previous points in the tournament) and Victor Ramdin was in the lead. Two time WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker was his closest competitor (only 1000 chips behind), but it would be a difficult drive for both of the pros on the final table.
Ramdin almost immediately went in reverse from the start of the final table, going from the penthouse to the basement in the first hour of play. Ramdin would reverse his fortunes as the tournament wore on, but Parker, after a good start that saw him sit atop the field after that first hour, would also fall from the top of the ladder and eventually be knocked out by Brian Meinders in fifth place. Meinders would also be responsible for the elimination of Ramdin in fourth place, putting him in second behind Christopher Vitch and ahead of Darin Thomas when three handed play commenced.
Riding his rush, Meinders continued to march up the leaderboard, eventually taking a 650K chip lead over both Vitch and Thomas as the dinner break arrived. Following that break for food, Vitch came back to fall at the hands of Thomas and the heads up match would begin with Meinders holding an approximate 800K chip lead over Thomas. Meinders would never seriously let Thomas back in the match, ending the tournament after an hour of heads up play when Meinders rivered a flush against Thomas’ flopped pair of sixes to take home the championship.
1. Brian Meinders (Jackson, NJ), $116,118
2. Darin Thomas (Las Vegas, NV), $71,704
3. Christopher Vitch (La Jolla, CA), $51,861
4. Victor Ramdin (Las Vegas, NV), $37,897
5. Brock Parker (Silver Spring, MD), $27,986
6. Preston Derden (Houston, TX), $20,886
7. Matthew Schreiber (Laguna Niguel, CA), $15,747
8. Sean Rice (Cherry Hill, NJ), $11,992
9. Ian Johns (Newcastle, WA), $9225
10. Christopher Hartman (Fairbanks, AK), $7164
Event #26 – $3000 Pot Limit Omaha
18 men returned on Thursday to determine the winner of Event #26, with European Poker Tour champion Vadzim Kursevich leading the way with his 741,000 in chips. There were plenty of challenges for Kursevich, including Omaha specialist Robert Williamson III, Dutch Boyd and Oleksii Kovalchuk. Down the leaderboard – and needing to do some work – were John Racener, Raul Paez and Erik Seidel.
Seidel would be the first departure, knocked out when Khiem Nguyen turned a flush against Seidel’s flopped straight. Williamson would suffer a huge loss to Austin Scott after Scott rivered a full house against Williamson’s two pair, leaving Williamson to fight with a limited arsenal for much of the afternoon’s play, while Paez and Racener were dispatched in fifteenth and thirteenth places, respectively.
While this carnage was going on, Kursevich continued to add to his chip stack. He was responsible for the elimination of Racener, but it wasn’t enough to deny Scott the chip lead after an hour of play. Kursevich would rectify this situation, though, in eliminating Kovalchuk and Williamson in twelfth and eleventh, pushing his stack well over the million chip mark. By the time the official WSOP nine handed final table was determined, Kursevich held more than double the chips of Scott.
Kursevich would be the leader of the final table for the first several hours of final table play, his chip stack hovering around the two million mark, but it was a huge clash nearly six hours into action that would eventually determine the champion of the event. After Scott Stanko limped in and was called by Scott on the button, Kursevich and Brett Richey. After a 9-5-4 flop, everyone checked (surprising for Omaha) and a ten came on the turn. Stanko put out a bet, only to see Scott pop it up to 400K and Kursevich make a pot bet. After Richey and Stanko folded, Scott called all in for his last chips and the cards were revealed.
Kursevich hit a set with his 10-9-9-5, but Scott had gone him one better by hitting the case ten on the turn for his better set. A five on the river would give both a boat, but Scott’s was better to give him the hand and the 3.7 million chip pot. Kursevich would be eliminated in third a short time later by Scott.
In heads up play, Scott held over a 4:1 lead over Richey and, although Richey fought valiantly, it seemed it was Scott’s night. On the last hand, the chips went to the center on an 8-6-2-Q flop and turn, with Richey (K-Q-7-2) surprisingly in the lead with his pair of deuces but with Scott (10-7-6-4) holding a multitude of draws. The draw to the straight would be the one to come home for Scott when a five hit the river, eliminating Richey in second place and awarding Austin Scott the championship.
1. Austin Scott (Norman, OK), $361,797
2. Brett Richey (New York, NY), $223,492
3. Vadzim Kursevich (Belarus), $158,530
4. Scott Stanko (Scottsbluff, NE), $114,037
5. Khiem Nguyen (Pommernstrabe, Germany), $83,180
6. Tom Chambers (Chicago, IL), $61,521
7. Romik Vartzar (Glendale, CA), $46,117
8. Dutch Boyd (Las Vegas, NV), 435,038
9. Thomas Pettersson (Sweden), $26,966