The action at the 2012 World Series of Poker has been intense of late and Wednesday’s slate of tournaments didn’t fail to live up to previous events. Two tournaments awarded bracelets yesterday, with Japan pulling down its first ever bracelet victory and a stunning final hand in the other tournament leading to the crowning of a champion.
Event #34 – $5000 Six Handed Pot Limit Omaha
The eleven players who came back yesterday to determine the champion of Event #34 featured a host of notables among the survivors from the 419 player field. Leading the way was Naoya Kihara, who held a dominant 600K chip lead over second place Tommy Le, but also in the mix were Joseph Cheong, Kevin MacPhee, Jason DeWitt, Dimitar Danchev, Davidi Kitai and last year’s runner-up in the tournament, Hans Winzeler. With such talent in the field – and the rapid-fire pace of PLO – the players came out of the gate ready for action.
Cheong would double up in the early going against Daniel Hindin to get some breathing room, while Kihara kept his foot on the gas in taking chips from both Chris De Maci and DeWitt. MacPhee, who was delayed in getting to the tables due to a fender-bender in the Rio parking lot, probably wished he had been held up a bit longer as he was the first elimination of the day in eleventh place by Cheong.
The eliminations continued to flood the payout booth at the Rio as Hindin dispatched Danchev in tenth, Cheong left in ninth at the hands of Kitai and DeWitt in eighth (by Winzeler) within the first two hours of play. The remaining seven players combined for an unofficial final table with both Kitai and Kihara holding identical stacks of 1.31 million to jointly hold the lead. After another hour, they were joined in the million chip club when Winzeler eliminated Scott Bohlman in seventh to set the official final table.
Kitai had eked out to a slim lead over Kihara at the start of the final table, but that changed on the first hand of final table play. After a raise from Kihara and a Kitai call, the A-8-7 flop brought a continuation bet from Kihara of 155K, which Kitai called. The six on the turn slowed Kihara down a bit as he check-called a 165K bet from Kitai. The river brought a nine and, surprisingly, both players would check. When the cards were fanned, Kihara’s A-A-10-8 (flopped set, rivered ten high straight), was able to out pip Kitai’s 9-7-6-5 (flopped open ended straight draw, turned nine high straight) to take the hand and the lead.
From that point onward, Kihara steamrolled the table. He eliminated Kitai in fifth place (once again beating Kitai in a straight versus straight situation) and decimated Winzeler in a three hand span in fourth to push his mountainous stack to 4.4 million. After Kihara’s elimination of Hindin in third, De Maci was the final hurdle left, although Kihara held more than a 2.5:1 lead for heads up play.
It took less than an hour for Kihara to seize the gold. On the final hand, the duo saw a 2-A-J flop and both players got their chips to the center. Kihara’s K-J-6-Q (pair of jacks) was in the figurative lead, but De Maci had the better draw with his 5-4-3-2 (pair of deuces, wheel draw with wrap). It wasn’t to be for De Maci, however, as the turn six and river seven didn’t improve him and gave Naoya Kihara a well-deserved victory in PLO.
1. Naoya Kihara (Tokyo, Japan), $512,029
2. Chris De Maci (San Jose, CA), $316,308
3. Daniel Hindin (Danbury, CT), $203,369
4. Hans Winzeler (Miami, FL), $134,857
5. Davidi Kitai (Huntington, MA), $92,064
6. Tommy Le (Tustin, CA), $64,671
Kihara’s victory is historic in that it is the first time a Japanese player has ever taken a bracelet in the 43-year history of the WSOP. A quick bit of research shows that the highest finish by a Japanese player previously was by two men. Maeda Azusa was runner up at last year’s WSOP Europe in the €2500 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em event, while Masayoshi Tanaka achieved the same feat in 2009 in the $2500 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball event in Las Vegas.
Event #35 – $2500 Mixed Hold’em
Nine men came back to the green baize for the determination of a champion in Event #35, but many eyes on the rail were on a particular short stack on the table. Phil Ivey, making his fifth final table of the 2012 WSOP (tying a record), was getting the attention, but the leaders – Joep van den Bijgaart, Samuel Golbuff and WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy – were more concerned with taking the big prize than the “honor” of battling Ivey.
The Mixed Hold’em format (alternating between Limit and No Limit) allowed for the players to clash on regular intervals. On the second hand, in fact, Erik Cajelais (who had increased his chip stack by about 200% on Day Two to contend for this title), knocked off Michael Foti in ninth place in NLHE before chopping some more chips from van den Bijgaart to assume the chip lead. Ivey, meanwhile, saw his chip stack fluctuate up and down as he attempted to get in the fight.
After a round of LHE saw no eliminations, Ivey would try to bring his stack into play but went the wrong direction. Back to NLHE, Golbuff nailed a straight on the river against Ivey’s pocket eights to knock the eight time WSOP bracelet winner down to a scant few chips and, a few hands later, Ivey stuck his final chips in a four way pot that was won by Cajelais to eliminate him in eighth place. The finish wasn’t what Ivey (or any player, for that matter) would want, but the points earned will move him up the WSOP Player of the Year race.
Following Ivey’s elimination, a new name would stake his place atop the leaderboard. Salman Behbehani, using the elimination of Brent Wheeler (seventh) and Gathy (fifth), became the first player to crack 900K, but Chris Tryba would cut some of those chips from him to knock him off the top pedestal and install himself. Eventually, Tryba would eliminate Behbehani in third to enter heads up against Cajelais with a 2:1 lead.
There was only one hand in heads up, but it was a big one. After a raise from Cajelais on the button and a Tryba call, the twosome saw a Q-9-4 flop. Tryba would check-call a bet from Cajelais to see a Jack of diamonds join the Queen on the turn, with Cajelais firing again and another check-call from Tryba. The river eight of diamonds set off the fireworks as Tryba now put out 250K; seemingly puzzled, Cajelais paused before announcing a raise. As he set out the calling chips, Cajelais announced “all-in,” and Tryba called just as “in” rolled off Cajelais lips. Turning up his 10-9 of diamonds for the absolute nuts (straight flush), Tryba leapt from the table in exultation as a stunned Cajelais looked forlornly at his K-10 (turned king high straight) that he thought was the best hand.
1. Chris Tryba (Las Vegas, NV), $210,107
2. Erik Cajelais (Terrebonne, Quebec), $129,766
3. Salman Behbehani (United Kingdom), $93,842
4. Joep van den Bijgaart (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), $68,576
5. Michael Gathy (Brussels, Belgium), $50,640
6. Samuel Golbuff (Albuquerque, NM), $37,793
7. Brent Wheeler (St. Charles, IL), $28,494
8. Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV), $21,699
9. Michael Foti (Salem, OR), $16,692