Saturday’s action at the 2012 World Series of Poker was supposed to only feature one final table, but the delay of the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. event (after it hit the 10 level limit early Saturday morning) required that the players come back yesterday afternoon to close the deal. These two tournaments, as well as the other events in play, provided a plethora of poker for the railbirds around the Rio.
Event #27 – $1500 H.O.R.S.E.
After spending three days to get down to the final table, a fourth was required after Stephen Chidwick, David Chiu and Ylon Schwartz couldn’t close the tournament out in its required time. Thus, the three men came back yesterday afternoon to finish up what they had started, with Chiu ahead of Schwartz by around 600K in chips and over Chidwick by well over a million.
Sitting on his short stack, Chidwick needed to find something to push his name up the leaderboard, but he would unfortunately go the opposite direction. In Omaha Hi/Lo, Chidwick would raise the bet and Schwartz would come along with him. On a 7-9-8 rainbow flop, Schwartz seized control of the action with a bet and Chidwick obliged with a call. A five on the turn brought another bet from Schwartz and another call from Chidwick, leaving him very low on ammunition. When the Queen peeled off on the river, Schwartz put out another bet (expected since Chidwick was so low) and, after agonizing over it for a few moments, Chidwick committed his final chips.
Once the cards were up, Chidwick saw the ugly story. His A-Q-10-10 had several draw options, but he could only improve to a pair of Queens by the river. Schwartz, however, had 7-6-6-4 and had sewn the hand up on the turn with a straight to eliminate Chidwick in third place.
Schwartz would take command of the heads up play with Chiu almost immediately. Still playing Omaha Hi/Lo, Schwartz cut a huge chunk of chips from Chiu to take a nearly 5:1 lead over the veteran Chiu and, over the span of the next hour, would push onward to the bracelet. On the final hand in Stud Hi/Lo, Chiu had straight draws as well as pair options to defeat Schwartz’ hidden Queens, but couldn’t find any of those cards from the deck. With that, Ylon Schwartz (who was a member of the 2008 “November Nine”) captured his first ever WSOP bracelet.
1. Ylon Schwartz (Austin, TX), $267,081
2. David Chiu (Las Vegas, NV), $164,960
3. Stephen Chadwick (Deal, the United Kingdom), $112,106
4. Robert Rasmussen (Niles, IL), $78,021
5. Eloir Sion (London, the United Kingdom), $55,422
6. John Rogers (Darien, CT), $40,169
7. Jason Brown (Missoula, MT), $29,679
8. Marlon Milne (Las Vegas, NV), $22,358
Event #28 – $2500 Four Handed No Limit Hold’em
Eight men came back for action on Saturday for the unique Four Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, looking to crown a champion by night’s end. Brendon Rubie was at the top of the table with 1.682 million chips when the day started, dominating his table (his closest competition was Greg Merson with 870K in chips), while James Schaaf held an similar edge at his table with his 1.126 million chip stack (Anthony Gregg “only” held 406K in chips).
From the start, the gambling nature of the four-handed game was evident. Schaaf and Rubie would go in opposite directions, with Schaaf doubling up Torrey Reily and Rubie eliminating Andrey Gulyy in eighth place. Schaaf would get some back by knocking out Toan Trinh in seventh and Torrey Reily in sixth. Down to five players, they redrew for the final table, looking for one more elimination to reach the “official” final table.
The unfortunate fifth place finisher would be Merson, eliminated by Rubie via a bad beat. The money went in pre-flop and Merson turned up Big Slick; Rubie had a good hand in Big Chick (A-Q), but it was dominated in this case. That changed when a Queen hit on the turn to give him the lead; once a King failed to come on the river, Merson was out in fifth place.
For the official final table, Rubie held a one million chip lead over Schaaf, while Timothy Adams and Anthony Gregg were seemingly quietly watching. That would change quickly as Adams found a double up through Schaaf to move into second place. Rubie kept his foot on the gas, knocking out Gregg in fourth, before a huge hand that saw the course of the tournament change abruptly.
After Adams put out a 48K pre-flop raise, Rubie three bet it to 112K and Schaaf got out of the way. Undaunted, Adams put out a fourth bet, worth 243K, and Rubie would make the call. An innocent 7-6-2 (two diamond) flop saw Rubie check his option to Adams, who put out a nice sized 201K chip bet. Rubie went with the check-raise, plopping 976K into the center of the felt and Adams responded with an all-in move. Rubie called, showing his 10-9 of diamonds for a straight and flush draw, while Adams only could show A-K, good for the lead but in serious danger.
A red Queen came on the turn, but it was a heart, keeping Adams out in front. An innocuous deuce on the river sealed the hand and the over 1.8 million chip pot for Adams and pushed Rubie out of the lead.
Over the span of the next three hours, Adams wouldn’t let his opponents back into the game. He would eliminate Schaaf – after some strong short stack play from Schaaf – to get the match with Rubie to heads up with an almost 7:1 lead in chips, then would administer the coup de grace when, on the final hand, Adams was able to get Rubie to commit his final chips on an 8-Q-10-5 flop and turn. When the hands turned up, Adams was in the lead with his A-Q over Rubie’s K-Q, a tough cooler for Rubie. Looking to avoid a King, Adams instead hit his Ace, sealing the championship for him in this unique tournament.
1. Timothy Adams (Burlington, Ontario), $392,476
2. Brendon Rubie (Sydney, Australia), $242,458
3. James Schaaf (Culver City, CA), $164,823
4. Anthony Gregg (Columbia, MD), $114,711
