On the eve of the 2013 World Series of Poker $10,000 Championship Event, two top pros were able to capture their second bracelet each in defeating some equally talented opposition.
Event #57 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em
In one of the quicker final tables of the 2013 WSOP, the United Kingdom’s Matt Perrins started the day as the chip leader and never looked back in earning his second WSOP bracelet over a talented final table.
Perrins, sitting on a chip stack of 1.946 million, wasn’t in firm hold on the top slot when the day’s play began on Friday. Sitting close behind him were Matt Berkey (1.585 million), Seth Berger (1.698 million) and Arthur Pro (1.61 million). On down the leaderboard was lurking Joe Serock (sitting on 1.211 million) and Randal Flowers (on a short stack with 619K), whose tournament existence was nearly extinguished on Thursday; by doubling three times, however, he was able to reach the final table.
Serock would run into some trouble early after he couldn’t call a river bet from Pro to see his stack drop under the million chip mark. Flowers, however, went in the opposite direction, knocking out Kent Roed in ninth place when his A-Q held up over Roed’s A-J. Perrins, meanwhile, extended his lead by beating up a bit on Serock also only 25 hands into final table play.
The Perrins Express would only continue to charge onward as the afternoon wore on. He would eliminate Serock in eighth place, his A-K needlessly flopping a King against Serock’s A-9, then eliminate Flowers in seventh place when his Big Slick caught on the turn Ace to top Flowers’ pocket Kings. When he was fortunate enough to flop trip sevens against Berkey’s A-K to eliminate Berkey in fifth place, Perrins had nearly half the chips in play and a stranglehold on the lead.
Perrins wouldn’t be stopped for the rest of the tournament. He was responsible for the knockouts of Antonio Buonanno in fourth and Berger in third place (particularly cruel in that Perrins’ K-Q caught a King on the flop against Berger’s A-Q), he held over a 10:1 lead over Pro going to heads up play. It would take eleven hands, however, for Perrins to finish the deed against Pro, who was ahead with his pre-flop all in move with an A-J over Perrins’ K-Q on the final hand. A Jack kept Pro in the lead, but a King on the turn flipped the advantage to Perrins. Once an innocent nine peeled on the river, Perrins was the champion of the $5000 No Limit Hold’em event.
1. Matt Perrins (Manchester, the United Kingdom), $792,275
2. Arthur Pro (Frisco, TX), $489,451
3. Seth Berger (Los Angeles, CA), $315,529
4. Antonio Buonanno (Marzano Appio, Italy), $231,147
5. Matt Berkey (Las Vegas, NV), $171,822
6. Thomas Muehloecker (Wien, Austria), $129,447
7. Randal Flowers (Winterville, NC), $98,715
8. Joe Serock (Las Vegas, NV), $76,164
9. Kent Roed (Bergen, Norway), $59,398
Event #59 – $2500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
Against arguably the most difficult final day field of this year’s WSOP, veteran pro Eli Elezra was able to outlast the multitude of bracelet winners amassed against him to take down the 2-7 Triple Draw event around midnight last night in the Amazon Room.
Coming to the baize on Friday afternoon, David “ODB” Baker was at the helm of the final ten men in contention for the title. Along with Elezra (the short stack at the start of the day) were other WSOP bracelet winners such as David Chiu, Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and Scott Seiver. If that wasn’t enough, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Brian Brubaker, Alexander Condon and Eric Wasserson (all looking for their first bracelet win) were poised to strike if Baker faltered.
Negreanu made the first significant moves of the day, topping Wasserson with an 8-6 low that Wasserson couldn’t best and cutting some chips from Baker and Mizrachi when his 8-7 hit on the third draw to edge Mizrachi’s pat-standing 9-7. Watson would be the first elimination of the day, never gaining any traction as he fell at the hands of Brubaker when he couldn’t catch a low hand on the third draw. With one more player to eliminate to get to the official final table, Baker’s lead had dropped to only 30K over Negreanu.
The trio of Baker, Negreanu and Mizrachi would clash again and, this time, it would result in the departure of one of the combatants. Mizrachi came along with Baker and Negreanu with a short stack and needing some help. He would draw two cards on each of the three draws without improving, sending his chips to Negreanu’s surprisingly good 10-8 low to put him in the lead and send Mizrachi home in ninth place.
Condon would fall at the hands of Elezra (muddling along in the lower half of the standings) in eighth which seemed to get the veteran high stakes pro going. After taking another hand from Negreanu, he was suddenly in position (and with enough ammunition) to take on the larger stacks of Negreanu and Baker. After Wasserson left the felt in seventh place, his 8-6 falling short against Seiver’s 7-6 (the second best hand in 2-7 Lowball), the final six men came to the final table to determine the champion.
A total of 13 WSOP bracelets were among the six men left for the title, with Brubaker the only one still looking for his first. Seiver would be the first to fall at the hands of Chiu, who then used those chips to take over the lead from Negreanu. Elezra then went on a nice run that, after he bested Chiu, catapulted him into the lead. Baker’s chips would slowly slip away from him, culminating in his departure in fifth place as Chiu’s 7-6 topped (or lowered?) Baker’s 8-6 on his final hand.
Negreanu, the winner of the inaugural WSOP Asia/Pacific back in February, would storm back as the dinner hour approached. He would crack the million chip mark in taking a big hand against Brubaker and, once he eliminated Chiu in fourth place, held more chips than both Elezra and Brubaker combined. After coming back from dinner, Negreanu would eliminate Brubaker in third to set up a showdown with Elezra for the WSOP bracelet.
Holding a roughly 400K lead, Negreanu and Elezra tentatively battled over the first ten hands with Elezra closing the gap to almost even after that span. He slowly eked out the lead over another five before taking three consecutive hands to seize a 4:1 lead. The two men would battle over another fifteen hands before the championship was decided.
On the final hand, Elezra got Negreanu’s final chips to the center and drew one on the first pass while Negreanu took two. With all the chips in the center, the duo moved onto the second draw, with Elezra standing pat and Negreanu only picking one this time. On the final draw, Elezra patted and Negreanu picked one more. Elezra would turn up a 9-8-6-5-2 and Negreanu showed an 8-6-4-3 to need a nine, five or deuce to double up. As he sweat the final card, Negreanu could only turn up a useless King to finish in second place and crown Elezra the champion.
1. Eli Elezra (Las Vegas, NV), $173,236
2. Daniel Negreanu (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), $107,055
3. Brian Brubaker (Manhattan Beach, CA), $70,743
4. David Chiu (Las Vegas, NV), $48,077
5. David Baker (Katy, TX), $33,399
6. Scott Seiver (Las Vegas, NV), $23,698