The 2014 World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific (WSOP-APAC) has blown by the halfway point of the festival, awarding two more WSOP bracelets over the past couple of days to very worthy champions.
Event #5 – $5000 Pot Limit Omaha
After coming to the final table with a huge chip lead (his 667,000 in chips was more than the rest of the table combined), Sam Higgs was still faced with a table of formidable challenges. Jonathan Duhamel and Mike Watson also had triple digit stacks, while Jamie Pickering, Jeff Rossiter and Ismael Bojang rounded out the six handed final table. The six men were the survivors of the 80 player field that built a prize pool of $376,000 (Australian).
Watson drew first blood at the final table only three hands into the day’s play. After Watson raised the pot from the small blind, Bojang would put out a pot three-bet from the big blind. Watson responded with a pot raise that would require the remainder of Bojang’s chips to call and, after Bojang did, the cards were revealed. Watson’s A-Q-Q-9 held the pre-flop edge over Bojang’s A-K-J-10 and the 9-6-4 rainbow flop did little to change that situation. A seven on the turn opened up a gut shot straight draw and backdoor flush opportunities for Bojang, but a four on the river was a blank, sending Bojang to the rail in sixth place.
Watson continued to increase his stack over the next 30 hands, cutting into Higgs’ lead even more by eliminating Rossiter in fifth place. Higgs, however, would draw in some chips in knocking off Pickering and Duhamel in fourth and third places, respectively. Going to heads up play, Higgs held 804,500 of the chips in play and Watson faced a tough road with his 395,500 in chips.
Within three hands of heads up action, Watson was able to pull into a slight lead over Higgs but eventually Higgs was able to pull back to even with ‘SirWatts.’ With the stacks even, Higgs now went on the attack, reestablishing his previous advantage (and then some) before the final hand fell. After a 5-J-Q-4 flop and turn on that penultimate hand, Watson would push out his final chips and Higgs made the call, stating he was ready to “gamble.” Watson’s K-K-7-6 was in the lead (pair of Kings, straight draw) over Higgs’ 9-8-6-4 (pair of fours, double gut shot straight draws), but a 10♠ came on the river, giving Higgs one of his gut shot outs and crowning him the champion of Event #5.
1. Sam Higgs, $127,843
2. Mike Watson, $79,099
3. Jonathan Duhamel, $52,068
4. Jamie Pickering, $36,449
5. Jeff Rossiter, $27,011
6. Ismael Bojang, $21,123
(All figures in Australian dollars)
Event #6 – $1500 Dealers’ Choice Eight Game Mixed
The final six men in the $1500 Dealers’ Choice event featured several strong players. Looking to stake his claim to the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year award, George Danzer was a member of the party while Brian Rast, David Zhao, Jason Gray and Sam Khouiss joined him in the pursuit of Rory Young’s leading chip stack of 102,300.
Khouiss would make a statement as to his intentions by taking the chip lead from Young early in the final table play. Making #2 in Deuce to Seven Triple Draw (7-6-4-3-2), he would cut a stack of chips out of Young’s stack to become the leader. Danzer, however, found some misfortune that might derail his trek to the WSOP POY award.
In Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Zhao was able to get action on every street against Danzer in a hand that demonstrated the problems with only going for one half of a split pot. Zhao, showing a 2-6-8-5 in his up cards, held a strong low draw against Danzer’s 7-3-10-4 and their Zhao’s hole cards only pushed him further into the lead. Zhao’s A-Q-6 gave him a pair of sixes for a high and an eight-six low, both of which were good enough to scoop the pot over Danzer’s 8-4-2 (eight-seven low, ten high) to leave the German pro with only 700 chips (Danzer would be eliminated soon afterwards in sixth place.
Young would retake the lead by the end of Level 16 and never look back. He knocked out Gray in fifth and Rast in third (Khouiss dropped Zhao out in fourth) to move to heads up play against Khouiss with nearly a 2:1 chip lead. In 2-7 Triple Draw (Khouiss’ pet game), Young dominated in pushing his lead to a 315,500-85,000 lead before taking the tournament down in Pot Limit Omaha.
On the final hand, Young limped in and Khouiss potted, which was called by Young. On a 5-6-8 flop, Khouiss would check-call a bet out of Young and, on a Queen turn, Khouiss would check-call for the remainder of his stack. Khouiss held an A-10-9-8 for second pair and a couple of straight draws while Young’s Q-10-10-4 held top pair with a flush draw, but the ten river only bettered Young’s hand to a set to seal the victory in Event #6.
1. Rory Young, $42,720
2. Sam Khouiss, $26,402
3. Brian Rast, $18,482
4. David Zhao, $13,462
5. Jason Gray, $9904
6. George Danzer, $7399