The 2013 World Series of Poker wrapped up its first weekend of action by crowning two new champions on Sunday, while the remainder of the tournament rooms around the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino continued to rumble with the preliminary play for other events.
Event #4 – $1500 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em
Seven men returned on Sunday afternoon from the 1069 player field not quite at the “official” final table for the event. Mike Mustafa was at the helm of the ship when the day started while European poker professional Manig Loeser was holding down the second place slot. Many of the eyes on the rail were on 2009 WSOP World Champion Joe Cada as he looked to put another bracelet on his wrist as Eric Blair, John Beauprez, Zohar Spivack and Keven Stammen were looking to get in the mix to take their shot at the championship.
The seven men quickly became six after only a dozen hands of play. After a raise from Beauprez, Spivack would three bet the action from the small blind that brought a four bet from Beauprez. This continued until both men were all in, with Spivack’s tournament life on the line with his A-J against Beauprez’ pocket Jacks. The flop came J-9-3, giving Beauprez the flopped straight and a virtual lock on the hand. An Ace came on the turn to offer some hope for Spivack, but those hopes were dashed on the King river to eliminate Spivack in seventh place, one slot off the official final table.
That hand pushed Beauprez into second place behind Mustafa, but he wouldn’t stay there long. He eliminated the short stacked Stammen in sixth while Mustafa went in the opposite direction, doubling up Blair twice before falling in fifth place after another confrontation with Blair. With those three hands, Blair was able to eclipse Beauprez with four men left.
For the next 60 hands, the men jousted as Blair found himself the target of several attacks. In a particularly dramatic hand, Loeser and Blair went on a pre-flop raising war which ended when Loeser was all in. His pocket sevens were racing with Blair’s A-Q and, after a Queen came on the flop, it looked as if Blair would claim another scalp at the final table. A seven on the turn flipped that, however, and after an innocent four on the river, Loeser found a double and Blair sunk to the bottom of the chip count.
Loeser would continue to add to his stack, knocking off Cada in fourth place when his leading A♦ 9♦ would flop a flush to leave Cada drawing dead with his A-7 off suit. Beauprez would keep pace with Loeser by eliminating Blair in third place and, at the start of heads up play, held an ever so slight 165,000 chip lead.
For the first 40 hands, the duo shuffled chips back and forth between each other before the first significant hand of the battle. After calling a 220K three bet from Loeser pre-flop, Beauprez would see an A-6-7 flop. Loeser fired from the big blind, but was met with a raise from Beauprez that he called. The twosome checked a Jack on the turn and saw a five complete the board. Loeser bet out 390K and a befuddled Beauprez made the call after a moment of contemplation, When Loeser showed pocket Queens, Beauprez could only muck his cards and move to the next hand.
A mere eight hands later, Beauprez got back to even with Loeser after four-flushing with his pocket sixes against the flopped two pair of Loeser. From that point, Beauprez was able to pull away from Loeser, locking up the championship when his A-8 paired the eight high flop against Loeser’s Big Slick on the final hand.
1. John Beauprez (Arvada, CO), $324,764
2. Manig Loeser (Bad Homburg, Germany), $200,698
3. Eric Blair (Las Vegas, NV), $127,300
4. Joe Cada (Shelby Township, MI), $83,558
5. Mike Mustafa (Orland Park, IL), $56,499
6. Keven Stammen (Celina, OH), $39,325
Event #5 – $2500 Omaha Hold’em/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
It might have taken a long twelve hours of play, but Mike Gorodinsky started off the final day of Event #5 as the chip leader of the 19 remaining players and that is where he would finish, defeating a pro-laden final day field to take down the championship.
The day got off to a quick start with the elimination of David “Bakes” Baker in 19th place, James Van Alstyne in 18th place and David Levi in 17th. After seeing his chip stack dwindle during the early action, Mike Matusow was able to rally a bit before he would be eliminated in 14th place. Finally, Daniel Negreanu would fall in twelfth place at the hands of Gorodinsky (who would also drop Alexander Lakhov in 11th place).
It would take over an hour to get to the official eight handed final table but, after Kristopher Tong bumped off Dustin Leary in ninth place, the table was set with Gorodinsky still in the lead. Owais Ahmed, who was quietly lurking through the early part of the action, suddenly awoke and took some chips off of Tong and George Danzer to challenge Gorodinsky for the lead. After the first lady to make a final table at the 2013 WSOP, Julie Schneider, was dropped in eighth place, Ahmed would take over the lead by getting Danzer to fold on Seventh Street, moving up to 823K in the process.
It was inevitable that the two big stacks clash and, when they did, a new chip leader emerged. During Omaha Hi/Lo, Gorodinsky from the button called a raise from Ahmed and the two saw an A-9-8 flop. Ahmed would check-call a flop bet from Gorodinsky, do the same on the Queen turn and finish off by check-calling on the Jack river. When Gorodinsky unveiled a K-10-9-7 for the rivered straight, Ahmed sent his cards to the muck and the lead to Gorodinsky.
Gorodinsky maintained that lead after a short dinner break, but a new challenge would emerge after the sustenance. Gorodinsky would bleed off some chips and, after a confrontation with Tong over a huge pot in Omaha Hi/Lo, saw Tong take over the lead while Gorodinsky sunk into the basement. Gorodinsky hung on, however, and after Tong eliminated Matthew Ashton in third place, found himself heads up for the title at a 3:1 disadvantage.
Gradually, Gorodinsky began to chip away at the Tong advantage, scooping one pot in Omaha Hi/Lo and getting Tong to fold another to eke his way back into the lead. Tong fought back, reestablishing his chip lead to the point that Gorodinsky was on the ropes. He couldn’t put him away, though.
Gorodinsky would dominate a session of Stud Hi/Lo, flipping the table back in his favor before administering a vicious blow on the first hand of Omaha Hi/Lo. Gorodinsky’s A-10-10-4 found gold on an A-10-7-Q-4 board against Tong’s double suited A-K-Q-2 to drop Tong down to only 200K in chips. After a game shift back to Stud Hi/Lo, Gorodinsky would put Tong away when he rolled out a King high straight after only six cards to defeat Tong’s pair of nines and win the championship.
1. Mike Gorodinsky (St. Louis, MO), $216,988
2. Kristopher Tong (Costa Mesa, CA), $134,017
3. Matthew Ashton (Liverpool, the United Kingdom), $86,437
4. Owais Ahmed (Anaheim, CA), $62,631
5. George Fotiadis (New Windsor, NY), $46,048
6. George Danzer (Munich, Germany), $34,348
7. Mack Lee (Los Angeles, CA), $25,993
8. Julie Schneider (Scottsdale, AZ), $19,952
