The action at the 2012 World Series of Poker heated up on Wednesday with the determination of the eight men who will take part in the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship. While this tournament will not play out until this afternoon, another tournament awarded a bracelet in a hard fought battle that lasted until the wee hours of Thursday morning.
Event #45 – $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship – Day Four
26 men returned to determine the players who would battle not only for the money from the $3.655 million prize pool (only 16 of them would do that) but also for the right to have a shot at the overall championship today. Using a late evening knockout on Tuesday, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom sat atop the standings by a slim 100K in chips over David Oppenheim.
One of the early departures from the Day Four action was last year’s runner-up in the tournament, Phil Hellmuth. Holding only 28K in chips after a devastating beat on Tuesday, Hellmuth was able to double up once but couldn’t maintain the momentum, dropping to Oppenheim in Pot Limit Omaha after turning a straight. Oppenheim, with his 7-6-5-2 against Hellmuth’s A-K-9-8 on a 7-6-4-5 flop and turn, would river another seven to win with a boat and eliminate the 12-time WSOP bracelet winner.
With Hellmuth’s elimination, the remaining 24 players split into three tables and the carnage continued. David Chiu, Lyle Berman, Robert Mizrachi, Phil Ivey and John Monnette were some of the unfortunate individuals who wouldn’t get a piece of the prize pool and, with the elimination of Ben Yu by Roland Israelashvili during Stud Hi/Lo, the final sixteen were set within five hours of play.
Chris Klodnicki had pulled out to a 57K chip lead over Stephen Chidwick by this point, but lurking in third was a former champion of this event. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who has been tremendously active in this tournament, won the 2010 version of this event (the last year it was strictly a H.O.R.S.E. event) and is looking to become the first-ever repeat champion of the $50K.
Following a break for dinner, the remaining eight players to be eliminated were determined. Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz knocked off Blom in fourteenth during Stud Hi/Lo, then took out Jeff Lisandro in thirteenth to break the million chip mark. Meanwhile, Klodnicki and Mizrachi continued to march to the final table, with both eclipsing the three million mark by 10PM.
Mizrachi went on the attack even more (if that’s possible for “The Grinder”) as the players continued to fall. He would cripple Oppenheim to take over the lead and then take some more chips from Klodnicki and Bill Chen to extend that lead. Keeping his name in contention was 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Andy Bloch, who knocked off David “ODB” Baker to bring the final nine players to the unofficial final table. Once Mizrachi eliminated Oppenheim during NLHE, the final eight players were set:
1. Michael Mizrachi, 3.648 million
2. Andy Bloch, 3.598 million
3. Chris Klodnicki, 3.276 million
4. Stephen Chidwick, 2.026 million
5. Luke Schwartz, 1.494 million
6. Bill Chen, 1.293 million
7. Roland Israelashvili, 694K
8. Bruno Fitoussi, 188K
The drama will be heavy when this final table reconvenes at 2PM (Pacific Time) this afternoon. With the top three so closely bunched – and with dangerous players such as Chidwick, Schwartz and Chen holding plenty of ammunition – it truly is anyone’s tournament to take (Israelashvili and Fitoussi are going to need some divine intervention, though). Can Mizrachi make WSOP history by becoming the first repeat champion of the $50K? Can Bloch (who was the runner-up to the late Chip Reese in the first ever $50K) become the first person to win two bracelets during the 2012 WSOP? Or will one of the other contenders make a stunning run to the championship? It will be appointment viewing when the live stream of this tournament appears on the WSOP website this afternoon!
Event #46 – $2500 No Limit Hold’em
While the $50K worked its way down to the final eight rather quickly (just before midnight), Event #46 decided that they would provide their own excitement by playing until the wee hours of Thursday to determine a champion.
Fifteen players stepped up on Wednesday to continue the battle for this latest bracelet with Joey Weissman heading the pack. There were some notable challengers in the field, most notably European Poker Tour Season 7 Player of the Year Fernando Brito and Vanessa Selbst, but one of those players wouldn’t be around by the end of the night.
Within a half hour of the beginning of the day, Selbst and Weissman would clash twice, with Selbst taking the worst of it both times. The first time, Weissman was able to cut some chips from Selbst when he turned Jacks up for a sizeable pot and the second time brought about Selbst’s elimination. After a raise from Weissman, Selbst three bet the action only to have Weissman fire right back. Selbst moved all in and was immediately called by Weissman, tabling his pocket Queens against Selbst’s pocket deuces and, after a Queen on the flop, Selbst was all but eliminated. Once a blank appeared on the turn, Selbst was drawing dead and out of the tournament in 24th place.
Weissman would continue his rampage in taking the chip lead to the final table by over 3.5 million against Brad Lipsey. Although he would offer some of chips back to his opponents early at the final table, he would be responsible for five of the seven eliminations in getting to heads up play against Jeremy Quehen with over a 2:1 lead.
Quehen would prove to be a formidable opponent, though. The duo would play for three hours, in which time Quehen would reverse the advantage in taking his own lead. Weissman would grind his way back into the match during the final hour, getting a key double up when his pocket treys stood up to Quehen’s A-7 of diamonds, to take the lead back. On the final hand, Weissman was able to get Quehen to commit his final chips on a Q-5-3-7-J (three heart) board and Weissman held the nuts (A-Q of hearts) to eliminate Quehen in second place.
1. Joey Weissman (Boca Raton, FL), $694,609
2. Jeremy Quehen (Nice, France), $429,535
3. Fernando Brito (Lauro De Freitas, Brazil), $282,676
4. Philip Meulyzer (Antwerp, Belgium), $203,781
5. Bradley Lipsey (Franklin, TN), $149,162
6. Joe Gualtieri (Woodbridge, Ontario), $110,775
7. Michael Gagliano (Rockaway, NJ), $83,428
8. Joshua Pedraza (San Angelo, TX), $63,686
9. Konstantin Puchkov (Moscow, Russia), $49,245
