Wednesday evening saw the latest champions at the 2013 World Series of Poker crowned. In one event, the champion would be taking his second trip to the winner’s circle and the other would face down a talented field (and a long night of work) in earning his first.
Event #9 – $3000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout
Considered one of the “easier” bracelets to win because of its format – win three straight tables and the gold is yours – the $3000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout final table was instead fraught with peril. Consider that four of the competitors – David “Bakes” Baker, Ryan Hughes, Cliff Josephy and Max Steinberg – held a total of six bracelets between each other and add in the strong professionals Chris Klodnicki, Tim West and Alessandro Longobardi, and there was nothing that was “easy” about this final table.
With everyone stacked roughly the same in chips (Klodnicki had 429,000, while Josephy started as the “short stack” with 419,000), the players felt the table out for approximately the first 20 hands. Simeon Naydenov, who had been able to pull out to a slight lead by this point, would immediately plummet to the basement when he doubled up Baker after his A-Q couldn’t catch Baker’s pocket Queens. Soon following that hand, the aggressive Naydenov was eliminated as his Big Chick once again wasn’t good enough to catch Evan Silverstein’s pocket Jacks.
Baker would hold the lead for much of the afternoon play, eliminating Hughes in ninth place to crack the one million mark in chips. He would lose that lead in a clash with Josephy, however, who would double up with his 10♠ 9♠ after hitting a straight on the turn (with a redraw to a flush) that crushed Baker’s pocket Kings. That seemed to be enough to get Josephy’s engines going.
Josephy would knock out Klodnicki in eighth place, his A-Q running down Klodnicki’s pocket Jacks, then ended the night of Steinberg when his pocket sixes held up with a flopped set over Steinberg’s A-J. After Steven Silverman (who had been tremendously quiet to this point) dumped Baker from the tournament in sixth, Josephy would take out Longobardi in fifth (his 10-8 miraculously catching a boat against Longobardi’s Big Slick) and West in fourth (his pocket Jacks standing tall over West’s pocket sixes). By the time dinner came, Josephy had a hammerlock on the final table, holding 2.776 million chips to Silverman’s 886K and Silverstein’s 595K.
Although Silverstein would get a double up soon after the dinner break, the writing was pretty much on the wall how this tournament was going to end. Silverstein would draw a bit closer in eliminating Silverman in third place, but he was slowly ground down by Josephy over a 45 hand run that never saw Silverstein even hold the lead. On the final hand, Josephy called a three bet all in from Silverstein with an A-2 that held the lead over Silverstein’s K-10. An all heart flop of 5-Q-J was good for Silverstein (holding the K♥), but no other hearts would come on the turn or river to eliminate him in second and earn Cliff Josephy (a 2005 WSOP bracelet winner) his second WSOP bracelet.
1. Cliff Josephy (Muttontown, NY), $299,486
2. Evan Silverstein (Upper Holland, PA), $185,487
3. Steven Silverman (Washington, D. C.), $123,202
4. Tim West (Los Altos, CA), $91,428
5. Alessandro Longobardi (Napoli, Italy), $68,613
6. David “Bakes” Baker (Rochester Hills, MI), $51,997
7. Max Steinberg (Oakland, CA), $39,756
8. Chris Klondike (Philadelphia, PA), $30,641
9. Ryan Hughes (Phoenix, AZ), $23,791
10. Simeon Naydenov (Sofia, Bulgaria), $18,609
Event #10 – $1500 Limit Hold’em
19 players came back for battle on Wednesday to determine a champion in Limit Hold’em. Heading the field was two-time WSOP bracelet winner Eric Froehlich, but it would prove to be a long grind for the players before a victor was determined in this event.
After Froehlich eliminated a short-stacked Jeff Shulman minutes into the day, the final 18 redrew for two table action. That would be about all the good news that Froehlich would have during the day. He slowly bled chips off and lost the lead as it would take an agonizing five and a half hours before Malissia Zapata eliminated Ahmed Mohamed in tenth place, setting up the official final table.
When the final table started, Froehlich was still in decent shape in holding third place, but the wheels were fixing to come off. He lost a big hand against Brent Wheeler after his turned Kings up were run down by a rivered straight by Wheeler and then lost most of the remainder of his chips after he check-called every street on a 2-5-Q-10-3 board against Chiduziem Obi. When Obi showed a rivered wheel, Froehlich mucked his cards (his response on Twitter was a bit more adamant: “Are you F*****G kidding me?”). On the next hand, Wheeler would end Froehlich’s misery in ninth place.
From that point Wheeler, along with Mark Mierkalns, would dominate the action. The duo would swap the lead (and take turns eliminating players) as they came to heads up play following Wheeler’s elimination of Zapata (the deepest finishing lady to date at the 2013 WSOP) in third place. The lead was a slight one, only 275K, and Wheeler and Mierkalns would embark on a long fight for the gold.
Over 120 heads up hands were played and, while Wheeler held the lead for much of the time, Mierkalns would prove to be a worthy adversary. As Wednesday night turned into Thursday morning, Mierkalns was actually able to have Wheeler close to the felt before a furious comeback by Wheeler after 2AM would seal the tournament in his favor.
On the final hand, Wheeler raised his button and Mierkalns three bet the action, which Wheeler called. The 9-9-3 flop looked innocent, but the dynamic duo would put the chips in play with Mierkalns eventually getting his remaining chips to the center. Sitting on an A-10, Mierkalns felt good until he saw the A-3 of Wheeler for two pair. After the board failed to hit his ten or counterfeit Wheeler’s threes, Mierkalns was out in second place and Brent Wheeler became a WSOP champion.
1. Brent Wheeler (Saint Charles, IL), $191,605
2. Mark Mierkalns (Ancaster, Ontario, Canada), $118,300
3. Malissia Zapata (Greenville, TX), $76,904
4. Chiduziem Obi (Campbell, CA), $56,485
5. Grayson Scoggin (El Paso, TX), $42,074
6. William James (Marietta, GA), $31,747
7. Brian Nichols (Hoboken, NJ), $24,232
8. Alexander Queen (Bethlehem, PA), $18,703
9. Eric Froehlich (Las Vegas, NV), $11,467
