The 2013 World Series of Poker is steaming along well past the halfway mark of the tournament schedule, awarding another bracelet in a No Limit Hold’em event that ended in a stunning fashion.
Event #44 – $3000 No Limit Hold’em
1072 players started out the tournament on Monday but, by the time Day Three was reached yesterday, only 22 players were remaining. All eyes in the Amazon Room at the Rio were on Jason Mercier, who began the day in the top five with a nice stack of 566,000 chips, but the lead was held by Niall Farrell, who sat on a 792,000 stack. With the WSOP bracelet and a nice payday on the horizon, the players wasted little time getting to work.
Marco Johnson, who has already made two final tables at this year’s WSOP, was the first player to hit the door during Day Three play, only a few hands into action. His A-5 was dominated by Evan Schwartz’ A-J and, once the turn brought a Jack, all hope for a deeper run for Johnson was over in 22nd place. Within the first hour, Johnson would be joined by Joel Seewald, Jeff Tims and Giang Hoang on the rail to bring the tournament down to the last two tables with Zohair Karim (the beneficiary of the double knockout of Tims and Hoang) the only player over the million chip mark with 1.29 million.
Mercier would get a bit healthier once the redraw was complete, knocking off Larry Quang in 18th place to get to the 900K mark. That would be his high mark, however, as he stunningly went out a couple of places later in 16th after clashing with Michael Rocco.
On a 9-7-3 flop, Mercier would check the action to Rocco, who plopped a 130K bet in the center. Mercier check-raised the action to 260K, which Rocco called, and the twosome saw a seven on the turn. Mercier checked again and Rocco moved all in, which Mercier immediately called and turned up his pocket nines for the flopped set and turned boat. All Rocco could muster was pocket Aces, but that would be enough as the river brought a thunderbolt in an Ace, defeating Mercier’s full house and sending his massive stack into that of Rocco, who took over the chip lead.
Rocco continued to dominate the field as the final table was reached around 7PM. Only Martin Hanowski was within shouting distance of Rocco (his one million chips dominated by Rocco’s 2.868 million) and the rest of the field – including pros Nam Le and Mark Teltscher – were looking to catch up. Hanowski would close the gap a bit in eliminating Philippe Vert in ninth place in a fashion similar to the Mercier-Rocco clash (Vert flopped a set and turned a boat, only to see Hanowski’s pocket Aces hit another Ace on the river) as the dinner bell rang.
Hanowski would continue to be aggressive after the dinner break, taking out Pedro Rios in eighth to take over the chip lead from Rocco. Farrell would also get into the act, eliminating both Le and Teltscher in seventh and sixth places (respectively) to reach the upper levels of the leaderboard. Hanowski, however, extended his lead in taking down Karim in fifth place to move over the three million chip mark.
It seemed inevitable that the aggressive Hanowski and the equally active Farrell would clash and, when they did, it brought a new leader to the forefront. In what would eventually be a five-bet pot, Farrell was all in with only Hanowski coming along for the ride. Farrell’s Big Slick was racing against Hanowski’s pocket Jacks, but that race ended when an Ace came on the flop. Once no Jack came on the turn or river, Farrell was sitting on 6.3 million chips (almost two-thirds of those in play) while Hanowski was dropped to only 545K. Farrell would finish off Hanowski a few hands later in fourth place.
Down to three handed, it looked to be Farrell’s tournament to lose as Rocco and a very quiet Sandeep Pulusani appeared to not have the ammunition to attack Farrell’s stack. After Farrell knocked out Rocco in third place, his pocket Kings standing up to Rocco’s pocket sixes, Farrell had a dominant 8.12 million chips, leaving Pulusani only 1.48 million for heads up play.
It can often be said that poker is a fickle game; when you appear to have all the edges in the world, it can strike back and make a big stack fall. That was the case in the heads up battle between Farrell and Pulusani. Pulusani meticulously worked the short stack, gradually pulling his stack upwards as the tenth level of the evening was completed. The duo would decide to play one more level in an attempt to end the tournament and it would come quickly.
Pulusani would eventually find what he was looking for – a double up – when his A-2 was able to stay in front of Farrell’s K-Q with his tournament life on the line. Only seven hands later, he was the one sitting on the 8:1 lead and, on the final hand, saw his A-3 stave off the A-2 of Farrell to take down the championship of the event.
1. Sandeep Pulusani (Huntsville, AL), $592,684
2. Niall Farrell (Lugar Agrshin, the United Kingdom), $366,815
3. Michael Rocco (Stevenson Ranch, CA), $229,500
4. Martin Hanowski (Frankfurt, Germany), $166,579
5. Zohair Karim (Orlando, FL), $122,974
6. Mark Teltscher (London, the United Kingdom), $92,186
7. Nam Le (Tustin, CA), $70,120
8. Pedro Rios (Houston, TX), $54,053
9. Philippe Vert, $42,230
