After the buzz over Antonio Esfandiari’s historic win in “The Big One For One Drop” on Tuesday – and the news of runner-up Sam Trickett’s brutal attack following the completion of that tournament – the play at the 2012 World Series of Poker might have seemed tame in comparison. Two tournaments crowned their victors on Wednesday and, in both cases, the gentlemen taking down the events were quite happy with their six figure paydays!
Event #54 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em
Although it was supposed to have concluded on Tuesday night, the final two players – Will Jaffe and Luis Campelo – couldn’t get the job done and decided to come back on Wednesday to determine the champion. Jaffe, starting off with about a 2:1 lead over Campelo, was in position to take the bracelet down for his ardent followers on the rail and he didn’t disappoint those who returned to watch him on Wednesday.
After playing much of the heads up battle cautiously (the twosome jousted for over two hours Tuesday night with the chip stacks virtually remaining the same), Jaffe came out on the attack from the very first hand of play on Wednesday. On the very first deal, Campelo made a raise to 350K from the button only to see Jaffe pop him up to 775K from the big blind. Campelo would dump his hand into the muck rather quickly and Jaffe would continue to amp up the aggression.
Campelo, utilizing his steady pace that had gotten him to heads up play, was waiting for the right moment to spring forward, but it was almost a mistake. After a raise by Jaffe, Campelo responded by moving all in and was immediately called by Jaffe. When the cards were turned up, Campelo’s K♦ 2♥ was way behind the A♣ Q♣ of Jaffe. A deuce would appear on the flop for Campelo, but there was also an Ace for Jaffe. The turn Queen knocked Campelo down to only two outs (the remaining deuces) for a shot at continuing the battle against Jaffe and, sure enough, the river would deliver. Another deuce on Fifth Street brought the Brazilian rail of Campelo to its feet, with his miraculous trips taking down Jaffe’s Aces up, to give Campelo the chip lead.
Although stunned by Campelo’s survival, Jaffe did not let that affect his play. Within 20 minutes of that big hand, Jaffe had worked his way back into the lead in the tournament and he wouldn’t look back. On the final hand, Campelo would move all in from the button and Jaffe wasted little time in making the call. It was a similar hand to Campelo’s comeback moment – Campelo held K♦ 3♠ against Jaffe’s A♣ 2♠ – but this time the outcome was different. A Q-2-2 flop pushed Jaffe further to the lead with flopped trips and, once an Ace fell on the turn to give Jaffe a boat, Campelo was drawing dead and out in second place.
1. Will Jaffe (Bridgehampton, NY), $500,075
2. Luis Campelo (Brazil), $309,429
3. Joseph Kuether (Elm Grove, WI), $218,983
4. Nghi Van Tran (Vaughn, Ontario), $158,512
5. Ken Fishman (Lutz, FL), $116,072
6. Jason Tompkins (County Kildare, Ireland), $85,981
7. Perati Muhamet (Cervo, Italy), $64,414
8. Benjamin Grise (Muncie, IN), $48,788
9. Jeffrey Fielder (Des Moines, IA), $37,367
Event #56 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em
As the Event #54 champion was being determined (and rather quickly, for that matter), there were 22 players who came back on Wednesday to find their champion. Donald Vogel was in the lead (as he had been on Day One as well), but many eyes in the Amazon Room were on 2008 World Champion Peter Eastgate, looking to add a second WSOP bracelet to his collection. Also joining the fight were World Poker Tour Season X Player of the Year runner-up Will “The Thrill” Failla and one of the members of last year’s “November Nine,” Sam Holden.
As Vogel enhanced his chip stack with the knockout of Matthieu Auclair, Failla and Holden would be dropped from the tournament. A late-arriving Failla (who claimed that he was told play would begin at 2PM instead of 1PM) got to the tables just in time to personally put his short stack in the center against Steven Goldberg and Randolph Lanosga. Goldberg and Lanosga would check down a Q-7-3-4-8 board and Lanosga showed A♦ 7♦; all Failla could muster was an A-5 and he was out of the tournament.
Soon after that, Holden would be dumped from Event #56. After a raise from Gianluca Mattia, Holden made his stand holding A♠ Q♣. Mattia made the call with his pocket eights and, once the board ran Jack high, Holden would head for the cash out cage at the Rio in sixteenth place, good for a $23,608 payday.
The players would get to the final table in a rather rapid fashion, using only three and a half hours to dump off 13 players. Tomas Junek had assumed the lead at this point, but Vogel and Eastgate were lurking in third and fourth places, respectively. By the time the dinner bell rang, only five players were left with Eliyahu Levy atop the table, Vogel a distant second and Eastgate sitting on the short stack.
Following the dinner break, the players ramped up the pace of play and determined the champion within three hours. Stunningly, Levy would be the first to go, crippled at the hands of Junek before falling to the same man on the next hand to push Junek to the lead. Eastgate faced a similar fate, seeing his stack cut to about one million against David Borg (no Star Trek jokes here, folks) and then falling on the very next hand in fourth. Once Junek eliminated Vogel in third, he held a more than 2:1 lead over Borg as heads up play began.
The very first hand, Junek was able to force Borg out of a big pot that pushed his advantage to a 10:1 level. From there, it was simply a matter of time; on the final hand, Borg raised the stakes to 250K and Junek three bet him to 700K. Borg quickly moved all in but Junek wasn’t impressed, calling and tabling his pocket tens against the K♠ 5♠ of Borg. The board ran 2-5-4-A-6 to assimilate Borg into the defeated (OK, ONE Star Trek joke) members of the field and crown Junek the champion.
1. Tomas Junek (Vysoke Myto, the Czech Republic), $661,022
2. David Borg (Sydney, Australia), $410,517
3. Donald Vogel (Walnut, CA), $289,530
4. Peter Eastgate (Odense, Denmark), $209,111
5. Eliyahu Levy (Dania, FL), $152,867
6. Andrew Taylor (San Clemente, CA), $113,092
7. Steven Goldberg (Las Vegas, NV), $84,649
8. Tomas Trampota (Allentown, WI), $64,101
9. Bassel Moussa (Beirut, Lebanon), $49,105
