A trio of bracelets were awarded on Tuesday at the 2013 World Series of Poker, with one player becoming a millionaire in a moment, a second player battling into the wee hours of Wednesday to grab his and the third fighting through a difficult field to capture his title.
Event #6 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em “Millionaire Maker”
Not quite at the “official” final table when play closed on Monday, the ten men who would vie for the “Millionaire Maker” championship came back to the felt on Tuesday to determine a champion. Ben Chen held a slight lead over a rampaging Dan Kelly at the start of the day and online pro Chris Hunichen lurked down the leaderboard. Once the cards were in the air, the men wasted little time in getting to business.
Only a few hands into the start of day action, Kelly would eliminate Joe Kuether in tenth place after Kelly’s pocket Aces were able to stand up to a potential Broadway draw of Kuether’s A-K. With Kuether off to the cage to collect his $82,205 payday, the remaining nine men continued the fight for the championship.
Kelly kept the pressure on the table, knocking out Theron Eichenberger when his 5♦ 4♦ were able to hit a runner-runner flush to best Eichenberger’s A-8 off suit. With the hand, Kelly was able to move into the lead but his aggression would lead to him bleeding off chips, dropping into third place after a particularly nasty three-hand losing streak. After doubling up Upeshka DeSilva, Kelly suddenly found himself in the middle of the pack and Michael Bennington holding a slight edge over Jonathan Gray.
DeSilva would use Kelly’s chips well, eliminating Robert McVeigh in eighth place, while Kelly continued to slide downward. He reversed the trend by doubling through Bennington, but his stack would continue to yo-yo throughout the day’s play. DeSilva would fall victim to Justin Liberto in particularly cruel fashion, his pocket Jacks hitting on a K-J-9 flop but then seeing Liberto hit running cards with his 8-7 to nail an eight high straight. The elimination of DeSilva by Liberto would push him well into the lead by more than two million chips over Chen.
Liberto continued to find fortune, ending Hunichen’s run at the title when his A-3 was able to turn an Ace against Hunichen’s pocket sixes. The will of the “poker gods” continued to side with Liberto as he would also end Kelly’s run at the title in fifth place when his K-Q was able to find a King on the river against Kelly’s pocket eights. After that hand, Liberto had opened up almost a five million chip lead over Chen.
At this point, Chen began to ramp up his aggression as, over the span of two hands, he was able to not only close the lead of Liberto but take it away. Liberto and Chen would continue to swap the lead and, by the dinner break, Liberto had reestablished himself as the leader, with Bennington, Chen and Gray arranged behind him.
It would take over 60 hands after dinner before the next elimination occurred but, during that time, Liberto had drifted down to the basement of the table. Chen, who had worked his way to the lead over those 60 hands, was the beneficiary of knocking off Liberto in fourth and Gray in third to set up the heads up battle against Bennington holding a 3:1 lead.
It was too much of a lead for Bennington to overcome. Seven hands into heads up, Bennington would call an all-in from Chen and table pocket threes, a solid hand in heads up play. Chen, however, turned up pocket nines for the lead and, once neither of Bennington’s two outs came on the board, Ben Chen became the champion of the “Millionaire Maker.”
1. Ben Chen (Stratford, Prince Edward Island, Canada), $1,199,104
2. Michael Bennington (Richardson, TX), $741,902
3. Jonathan Gray (Abington, MA), $534,505
4. Justin Liberto (Fallston, MD), $400,408
5. Dan Kelly (Potomac, MD), $302,104
6. Christopher Hunichen (Columbia, SC), $229,575
7. Upeshka DeSilva (Katy, TX), $175,713
8. Robert McVeigh (Huntington Beach, CA), $135,467
9. Theron Lichtenberger (Clyde Hill, WA), $105,154
Event #7 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em
The final ten men who came back for the battle in Event #7 would prove to put on the best show for the railbirds in attendance at the Rio on Tuesday. Amit Makhija was atop a star-studded field that included such notables as Matt Waxman, Brent Hanks and Eric Baldwin but the field was fairly close together in chips.
As with the “Millionaire Maker,” the Event #7 competitors had to eliminate one player to get to the official final table and that would happen quickly. A short stacked Scott Yelton was eliminated by Jess Dioquino within moments of the opening bell, but it was Waxman who made the first significant move in getting Dioquino to lay down a hand in a big pot to rocket up to 1.4 million in chips. Over the first 35 hands or so, however, the players seemed to be happy in feeling out their competition.
That changed after the first break of the day. Waxman eliminated Tuu Ho in eighth place and Robert Dreyfuss in seventh to surge over the three million mark in chips. After Dioquino knocked off Jacob Jung in sixth and Baldwin dumped Hanks in fifth (Baldwin’s pocket threes hitting a set on the flop against Hanks’ better pocket eights), the table was suddenly at four players remaining.
Waxman continued to assault the table, ending the run of Makhija in fourth with a cooler of pocket Aces over Makhija’s pocket Queens, while Baldwin took care of Dioquino in third over a two hand span. Down to heads up, Waxman held a 700K chip lead as what would prove to be an epic heads up battle began.
For two hours, the duo would joust back and forth, swapping the lead between each other on several occasions. They even decided to forego the dinner break in an attempt to end the tournament but, after another two hours of play, the tournament hadn’t been decided. As the 100th hand of heads up play completed, Baldwin was in the lead as the competitors continued to fight for the WSOP bracelet.
After five hours of action, Waxman was able to get back into the lead, although it was a slim one of only 100,000 in chips. Baldwin fought back once again, moving out to a 2:1 advantage, but Waxman exhibited the same resilience in doubling back and taking over the lead. Still, after seven hours of play, neither competitor looked as if they were ready to call it a night.
Baldwin got back into the lead when his K-2 found a King on the flop to best Waxman, but he would double Waxman back up a few hands later to set up the final showdown after 187 hands of heads up play over an eight hour period. After Baldwin moved all in, Waxman made the call and tabled a leading A-5 off suit over Baldwin’s 7-4 off. An Ace on the flop moved Waxman further into the lead, but a six on the turn (with a three on the flop) gave Baldwin some outs to the gunshot straight. Instead, another six on the river ended an outstanding battle and crowned Matt Waxman the champion.
1. Matt Waxman (Parkland, FL), $305,952
2. Eric Baldwin (Henderson, NV), $189,220
3. Jess Diegueno (San Francisco, CA), $130,825
4. Amit Makhija (Brookfield, WI), $94,353
5. Brent Hanks (Las Vegas, NV), $68,975
6. Jacob Jung (Los Angeles, CA), $51,086
7. Robert Dreyfuss (Carrollton, TX), $38,340
8. Tuu Ho (San Jose, CA), $29,147
9. Jason Koon (Las Vegas, NV), $22,435
Event #8 – $2500 Eight Game Mixed
19 players came back on Tuesday for the finale of the Eight Game Mixed tournament, with a host of notable names in contention that would come up a bit short of the final table.
Over the span of the first five hours of play, Josh Arieh (15th), Robert Mizrachi (14th), Benjamin Pollak (13th), Chris Reslock (12th) and Chris Tryba (10th) were eliminated before Eric Crain set up the official final table with his knockout of Travis Pearson in ninth place. After the remaining eight men gathered at the final table, Greg Mueller (who was the runner-up in this event in 2012), went on a rampage in eliminating Marco Johnson and Mike Wattel to attempt to do last year’s performance one spot better.
Once Crain defeated Dario Alioto to send Alioto home in sixth, he found himself in a decent lead over the other four men (Michael Malm, Steven Wolansky, Mueller and Michael Hurey). Wolansky would emerge as a contender with his elimination of Hurey in fifth and, after taking a pot against Crain in 2-7 Triple Draw, was suddenly in the lead. Crain continued to drop down the ladder as he cut another stack of chips away to Wolansky in Seven Card Stud.
Wolansky would eventually end Crain’s day after his Big Slick stood tall against Crain’s A-4 in Limit Hold’em and, when he was able to defeat Mueller a few hands later to send “FBT” out in third, he held a nice lead over Malm going to heads up action. Malm was able to reverse the stacks during No Limit Hold’em, his pocket Kings hitting a set on the flop and fading a club draw from Wolansky, but Wolansky would come back to get Malm almost down to the felt. In a stirring comeback, however, Malm would end up as the champion.
Malm doubled up twice to get back to even as the curfew hit for the event. Instead of stopping (as Malm wanted), a coin was flipped and the outcome was one more round for the night. As the clock approached 4AM in the Amazon Room, Malm would eliminate Wolansky when he rivered the nut flush against Wolansky’s two pair in Pot Limit Omaha, ending a long day for the two men.
1. Michael Malm (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), $225,104
2. Steven Wolansky (Cooper City, FL), $139,034
3. Greg Mueller (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), $89,673
4. Eric Crain (Murphysboro, IL), $64,975
5. Michael Hurey (Stevenson Ranch, CA), $47,771
6. Dario Alioto (Palermo, Italy), $35,634
7. Mike Wattel (Chandler, AZ), $26,966
8. Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, CA), $20,699
