The 2012 World Series of Poker is nearing its figurative halfway mark with the slate of play yesterday. Two tournaments would be in their final day of play, with one bracelet being awarded and the second being suspended at the point of heads up action due to the late hour.
Event #23 – $3000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em
Eighteen players returned on Wednesday to play down to a champion in Event #23, the field replete with big name players. Although Artem Metalidi started the day with the chip lead, he faced the likes of Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Freddy Deeb, Andrew Lichetenberger and Scott Montgomery looming behind him. The players wasted little time in getting busy on the tables, with six players eliminated within the first half hour of the day’s play.
Down to two six-handed tables, Metalidi drew Montgomery and Event #11 final tablist Damien Lhommeau to his table and Lichtenberger was joined by Grospellier, Deeb and Simon Charette on his patch of felt. The pace of play slowed down at this point, with the players willing to shuffle chips between each other. Over the span of the next three hours, the official six handed final table was determined when an active Charette knocked off Montgomery in sixth place to take over the chip lead.
Metalidi attempted to get back in the match at this point, taking out Grospellier in a classic race situation. After a raise from Luis Rodriguez Cruz, Grospellier moved all in and Metalidi, after careful deliberation, simply called the bet. Cruz decided to sit the hand out and Grospellier (holding pocket sevens) and Metalidi (holding A-K) went to battle. It was a quick one, with a King on the flop to give Metalidi the edge. The turn and river didn’t bring one of the two sevens that would save him and Grospellier was out in sixth place.
After eliminating Foster Hays in fifth place, Metalidi continued to push his way up the leaderboard. He would reassume the chip lead after a big hand against Charette, but Charette would prove to be a force on the baize. He would take a huge stack of chips in eliminating Eddie Blumenthal in fourth and continued to charge when he dispatched Cruz in third. At this point, the Canadian held a dominant lead over Metalidi and would end the heads up match rather quickly.
On the final hand, Charette made a raise to 125K and Metalidi slid out a three bet of 350K. Undeterred, Charette made a four bet and Metalidi moved all in. Charette made the call, tabling pocket sixes, while Metalidi could only muster an A-2 for battle. Once the board came with no Ace or other strange occurrences, Simon Charette had seized the second bracelet for Canada in winning Event #23.
1. Simon Charette (Toronto, Ontario), $567,624
2. Artem Metalidi (Kyiv, the Ukraine), $350,806
3. Luis Rodriguez Cruz (Madrid, Spain), $222,511
4. Eddie Blumenthal (Verona, WI), $146,053
5. Foster Hays (Dallas, TX), $98,756
6. Bertrand Propeller (Vandoeuvre, France), $68,736
Event #24 – $5000 Omaha Hi/Lo
With 27 players returning on Wednesday from the 256 player field that started the tournament on Monday, it was going to be a long night of work to determine a champion. When all was said and done, however, there wasn’t a winner crowned, with that task left for action today.
The defending champion of the tournament, Viacheslav Zhukov, was looking to repeat as champion of this event, but that dream would end with his elimination in seventeenth place. 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Brian Hastings, Dan Kelly and Mike Wattel also would depart the event prior to the final table, but there would be some faces to watch as the battle raged on.
Phil Ivey, after his self-imposed exile from the WSOP last year, has been tossing his name into pretty much every event on this year’s schedule with some impressive results. He would come up just short of winning his ninth bracelet earlier this week, finishing as runner-up to Andy Frankenberger in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship. When Event #24’s final table was set, Ivey was once again atop the heap, with Joe Cassidy, Meng La, Scotty Nguyen and Mike Matusow (among others) ready to deny Ivey his quest for Bracelet #9.
As is the nature of Omaha Hi/Lo, there were plenty of pots that were split between the contestants, dragging out the proceedings late into the Wednesday night action. Cassidy and Ivey would swap the lead on several occasions but, as the dinner bell rang, Ivey had pulled out to a 260K chip lead over Cassidy, with La and Nguyen in the middle of the pack and Matusow on the short stack.
Following the dinner break, the pace of play picked up tremendously. Matusow left on the first hand post-dinner and Bart Hanson dropped out in seventh at the hands of Ivey. Ivey would continue to drive upward, getting chips off his main rival Cassidy, to hold a nearly 400K chip lead as the midnight hour drew near.
Cassidy wasn’t content to sit and wait, even after his confrontations with Ivey, instead knocking off Elie Doft and Gregory Jamison in sixth and fifth places, respectively, to get his stack back over the million chip mark. When he knocked off La in fourth place, he was atop the table with Ivey over 300K behind and nearly doubling Nguyen’s stack.
The three-handed play would be an outstanding fight as Ivey and Cassidy continued to trade the lead and Nguyen began to climb back into contention. As the triumvirate reached the two hour mark of play, Ivey began to bleed chips to both Nguyen and Cassidy before fighting back with a miraculous rivered full house to stay in the game. As the clock passed 3AM this morning, Ivey would be knocked off by Cassidy, ending his run at his ninth bracelet in third place for his second top three finish this week.
Once Ivey was out, Cassidy held a huge edge over Nguyen (3 million to 845K), but Nguyen wanted play to end for the night, claiming exhaustion. Although Cassidy wanted to continue, WSOP officials decided that play would be suspended. The move by Nguyen may have been a tactical one, as Cassidy was rolling at this point and the suspension of play would benefit Nguyen the most.
Action will take up at 2PM (Pacific Time) this afternoon between Cassidy and Nguyen, with the blinds at 50K/100K, and play until a champion is determined.