Taylor Paur was already a star in the online poker world. Now he has the hardware from the live tournament circuit to go along with his internet millions after winning the 2013 World Series of Poker Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: obviously Phil Ivey did not win. Though Paur had a huge chip lead going into yesterday’s action with just 14 players left, Ivey was the one most people were watching. He had recently won his ninth career bracelet at WSOP Asia Pacific and was looking to become just the fourth player in World Series of Poker history to reach double-digit victories. A tenth bracelet would have tied him with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson and would have brought him to within three of Phil Hellmuth and his record thirteen bracelets.
But it wasn’t to be. Ivey entered the day near the bottom of the chip counts with just 285,000 and was the first one to go, busted by Paur in 14th place.
For his part, Paur cruised most of the way. He began the day with 1.318 million chips, over half a million more than the next closest player, Alexander Barlow. He was the chip leader going into the final table and just kept extending his lead from there. When play was down to three-handed, Paur had 5 million chips, compared to just 745,000 for Roy Weiss and 475,000 for Tai Nguyen. The two short stacks held on for a long time, though, doubling-up, falling back, and doubling-up again.
When Nguyen finally went out in 3rd place, Paur went into heads-up play with 4.8 million chips, versus Weiss’ 1.43 million. But then a funny thing happened: Weiss would not give in. He battled and battled, eventually pulling slightly ahead. By the dinner break, though, Paur was way ahead again. He actually wanted to keep playing, but Weiss was hungry, so they took a break.
There must have been something in Weiss’ food. After grinding through small pots in the 40+ hands before dinner, he completely switched up his tactics and open-shoved every single hand. Every hand. Every. Hand. It was obviously frustrating Paur, who doubted Weiss was even looking at his cards, but Paur stayed the course. Weiss took the lead again after a double-up, but Paur returned the favor when he found a hand, pocket Sixes, that could go up against a random Weiss hand (5-7).
The open shoves kept right on going and finally, finally, Paur was able to snap Weiss off while holding the chip lead. Weiss moved all-in with K-8, both clubs, and Paur called him with A-5, both diamonds. Both players paired their top card on the flop and it looked like Paur had it made in the shade with another Ace on the turn, but that Ace gave Weiss a flush draw, so there was some sweating to do. The river bricked, though, and Taylor Paur won his first WSOP bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Taylor Paur – $340,260
2. Roy Weiss – $211,794
3. Tai Nguyen – $147,220
4. Alexander Barlow – $106,027
5. DJ MacKinnon – $77,491
6. Phillip Hui – $57,324
7. Daniel Idema – $42,962
8. Ryan Austin – $32,608
9. Kyle Cartwright – $25,041
