Battling back from the short stack at the start of the day’s play, Australia’s Jarred Graham outlasted a strong field in Event #31, the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha Hold’em Hi/Lo tournament, to take down his first ever World Series of Poker bracelet.
The leaderboard was packed with strong players as the final fourteen competitors moved into Day Three action on Wednesday. Leading the way was veteran poker professional and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Perry Green, whose 491,000 in chips just barely outpaced the 475,000 stack of Marco Johnson. Two other bracelet champions, Barry Greenstein and Eric Rodawig, lurked down the leaderboard while Graham only held 129,000 in chips, bringing up the rear of the field.
Graham would start the day off right with a double up. In the small blind, he called off his remaining chips against Grzegorz Derkowski, holding an A-K-10-6 against Derkowski’s A-8-4-2, and things looked bleak on the flop. Coming down J-3-2, Derkowski flopped a pair to take the lead, but a King on the turn changed the hand back to Graham. Looking for a five to take the low half, Derkowski instead saw a nine to seal the hand and the double for Graham (Derkowski would depart soon after that hand).
That hand propelled Graham upwards and, by the time the unofficial final table of ten players was decided, he found himself in second place behind Greenstein. The “official” final table was decided when Gabriel Blumenthal eliminated Stephen Johnson in tenth place after his dominated A-K-K-3 found Broadway against Johnson’s A-A-10-6 on a 10-Q-J flop. With the hand, Blumenthal moved into third place when the action resumed.
Green began to move to the upper echelon of the leaderboard with a big double through Simao, but he would then turn around and hand most of those chips to Greenstein after getting quartered. Down to only 306K in chips, Green would be finished off in ninth place by Greenstein a few hands later after his flush draw failed to come home.
At this point, Greenstein was in dominant control of the table with over 1.5 million in chips. He would stretch that out to 1.8 million in quartering Rodawig, then sat back for a bit as the rest of the table decimated itself. Johnson would take out Simao in eighth place, Noomis Jones sent Rodawig out in seventh place and Loni Harwood in sixth to set up five handed play with Greenstein still holding a healthy lead.
Johnson began to move upwards when he was able to catch two pair and the nut low against Blumenthal to eliminate him in fifth place, but he still couldn’t catch Greenstein’s mountain of chips. Graham also began to move at this point, quartering Jones on one hand and, on the very next deal, eliminating him in fourth. With the three stacks quite close, the play began to ramp up as each man looked to take the WSOP gold.
Graham put his claim in on the championship in doubling through Johnson after his A-A-5-2 nailed a boat and a five-two low against Johnson’s A-9-7-4 on a 7-6-10-A-7 board. Facing two stacks northwards of 1.75 million chips, Johnson fought back admirably as he worked back over the million chip mark. Meanwhile, Greenstein saw his stack slowly drift away until Graham ended his night after his A-Q-7-3 found two pair on the K-Q-3 flop against Greenstein’s A-A-6-4, sending the three time WSOP bracelet winner packing in third place.
Down to heads up, Graham held a 4:1 lead over Johnson and the conclusion was all but in the books. On the final hand, Johnson opened up the betting and Graham three bet the pot to 480K, which Johnson called. The 9-10-3 flop seemed innocent, but Graham fired a pot bet to put Johnson all in. Reluctantly making the call, Johnson showed an A-7-4-3 for the bottom pair, but Graham led with his A-K-K-5 for a pair of kings. When another King came on the turn, Johnson was drawing dead and the championship was in the hands of Graham.
1. Jarred Graham (Southbank, Australia), $255,942
2. Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, CA), $158,379
3. Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA), $99,091
4. Noomis Jones (Denver, CO), $71,924
5. Gabriel Blumenthal (Mercer Island, WA), $53,096
6. Loni Harwood (Staten Island, NY), $39,803
7. Eric Rodawig (Omaha, NE), $30,275
8. Joao Simao (Brazil), $23,338
9. Perry Green (Anchorage, AK), $18,233
