As the 2013 World Series of Poker makes its preparations for the start of the $10,000 Championship Event this weekend, there are still a few preliminary events that are left on the schedule. One of those tournaments, the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, has worked its way to the final table while the second is down to heads up action to determine a champion later today.
Event #55 – $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship
The tournament that most of the eyes in the Amazon Room have been on is one of the most coveted titles at the World Series, the Poker Players’ Championship. Because of its mixture of poker disciplines, the champion of the tournament is often thought of as “the best poker player in the world” – at least for a year! On Wednesday, 26 players came back for battle in the pursuit of the WSOP bracelet and the coveted Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
Leading the way on Wednesday was Don Nguyen, who was the only player over the two million chip mark after Tuesday’s action. The remainder of the leaderboard was stacked with excellent players including former World Champions Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Hachem and Huck Seed, 2013 WSOP bracelet winner Erick Lindgren, popular Canadian pro and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Mueller and 2009 $50K H.O.R.S.E. (the predecessor of the PPC) victor David Bach. With the notoriety of winning this particular event weighing on the minds of all (as well as the factor that ten players would walk away with no payout from the tournament), the players got to business fairly quickly.
A short-stacked John Juanda was able to find a double on the first hand of action, but he would be the first casualty of the day also as that double wasn’t enough to bolster his stack. Hachem was next to go during the Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo segment, never getting the right cards to prevent his chip stack from slipping away. Down to 24 players, the tables redrew and continued to send professionals to the rail.
Stephen Chidwick, Mueller, Lindgren, Bach and Justin Smith would all be gone before the first break of the day was taken, bringing the field to 18 players and intensifying the pressure as the money bubble approached. When Tommy Hang sent Max Pescatori to the rail in Razz around 6PM, the bubble was upon the men on the baize. After almost an hour and a half of play, the double eliminations of Australian poker legend Gary Benson (by George Danzer) and Joe Cassidy (by Seed) popped the bubble, with both men earning a $55,947 piece of the 16th place prize.
Down to 15 players, Nguyen was still in the lead, but Danzer had closed to less than 200K in chips behind him. Still in the mix also were John Hennigan, Bryn Kenney, David Benyamine, Duhamel, Minh Ly, Matthew Ashton, Mike Wattel, Kevin Song and Seed.
Over the next four hours, the players would work their way down to the eight handed final table that will contest the Poker Players’ Championship this afternoon. Song was an early elimination in 14th place, dropping to Michael Glick in Limit Hold’em, as Nguyen improved his lead by knocking off Hang in 13th place by the time the dinner bell rang. After dinner and with six-figure paydays awaiting all the players, the play predictably would slow down.
Kenney would find his way to the rail in 12th place just after 11PM, his 10♠ 6♠ flopping a couple of spades (but not finding a third) to fall to Hennigan’s pocket sevens during a round of No Limit Hold’em. Once Seed fell at the hands of Ashton (his A-J failing to catch against Ashton’s Big Slick) and Glick dropped out in tenth place (Ly got him during Omaha Hi/Lo), the unofficial final table of nine convened with one more knockout remaining on the agenda.
Ashton would make the first big move during nine-handed play, scooping an Omaha Hi/Lo pot against Nguyen to push his stack near the three million mark (Nguyen was still over five million after the hand). After a short stacked Mike Gorodinsky’s A-9-8-7 fell to Benyamine’s A-10-6-2 in Pot Limit Omaha (the final board read 6-4-10-J-J), the prestigious final table for the Poker Players’ Championship was set:
1. Don Nguyen, 5.068 million
2. Matthew Ashton, 2.996 million
3. George Danzer, 2.868 million
4. David Benyamine, 2.709 million
5. Minh Ly, 2.307 million
6. Jonathan Duhamel, 1.627 million
7. John Hennigan, 1.412 million
8. Mike Wattel, 810,000
While it looks like Nguyen is cruising to the title, Ashton and Danzer are both men that will have to be reckoned with. They have both had outstanding 2013 WSOP runs and it isn’t out of the question that they could rise up to challenge Nguyen. Benyamine, Ly, Duhamel and Hennigan could also present a roadblock to Nguyen, while Wattel has his work cut out for him if he is to come back to take the championship.
Event #56 – $2500 No Limit Hold’em
The 23 players who came back on Wednesday for the finale of Event #56 were unable to work down to a champion early this morning, with two men returning on Thursday to complete their work a crown a victor.
The unknown starting the day was O. J. Ojiri, who led the final 23 despite not having even one tournament cash to his credit. Some notables that were looking to take him down were Nicolas Levi, Josh Arieh and Owen Crowe and, with a long day’s work ahead of them, the players wasted little time putting their chips in play.
Sebastien Comel would knock Ojiri out of the lead, picking off an ill-timed bluff from the chip leader when his A-7 played on a 2-10-Q-A-8 board (Ojiri could only muster K-4 for air) and the bad news would continue for Ojiri. Chris Karambinis used an A-Q to defeat Ojiri’s pocket tens to knock Ojiri down to only 75K and, moments later, he would depart in 19th place at the hands of Crowe when his K-J failed to catch up with Crowe’s A-J.
Down to two tables, the carnage would continue as it became possible for the players to complete the tournament on Wednesday. Crowe would fall victim to Vincent Maglio in a hand where the lead shifted three times. Crowe’s A-J was behind Maglio’s A-K pre-flop, but the A-J-10 flop gave him Aces up and the lead. A Queen on the turn flipped the script, however, giving Maglio Broadway and leaving Crowe drawing to a King to split the pot. The five river wasn’t the card he needed, though, sending Crowe to the rail in 11th and setting the unofficial final table.
After Alex Dovzhenko’s elimination in tenth place, the final table was set with Comel in the lead over Maglio. Arieh lurked in the middle of the pack, while Levi was on a short stack. Levi would depart in ninth place 22 hands into the final table, his A-3 crushed by Nikolaus Teichert’s A-Q, but Arieh would stunningly knock out Comel (who had started to bleed chips) to get his name to the top of the ladder. As the midnight hour approached, five men were still in contention for the championship only separated by 1.8 million chips.
Maglio would make his play for the championship when, on an A-K-10 flop, he would knock off Arieh in fifth place with his Q-J for a flopped Broadway (Arieh’s A-9 never found any help on the turn or river). Maglio would continue his rampage, eliminating Sergey Lebedev in fourth and, after Teichert eliminated Dan Owen in third, heads up action was set.
Although Maglio started the heads up match with the lead, Teichert would flip the table over an hour of action. After completing the tenth level of the day (the WSOP “ten level rule” being put into effect), the players bagged their chips and will come back on Thursday to determine the champion:
Nickolaus Teichert, 7.62 million
Vincent Maglio, 5.415 million
