After a heads-up battle that lasted longer than the four eliminations leading to it, the United States’ Scott Davies outlasted the United Kingdom’s Jack Salter to take home the Championship Event bracelet at the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific (WSOP-APAC) Saturday night (early morning U. S. time) at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
Salter was the chip leader as the six players came to the felt, holding more than a million chip lead over Davies as the festivities began. Henry Wang (1.7 million), Frank Kassela (1.25 million), Kyle Montgomery (950K) and Ang Italiano (510K) were poised to take their shot at getting back in the tournament but, from the start, it appeared that the true contenders for the WSOP gold were Salter and Davies.
With the cameras rolling and broadcasting “live” (30 minute delay) to a worldwide audience over ESPN2, the first few hands were a “feeling out” process for the six players involved. During this time there was very little movement of the chips around the table, but that would change on Hand 14 of play. After Kassela (who had been a bit active in the early going) pushed out an opening bet from under the gun, Italiano (who had waited patiently with her short stack) decided to look him up from the small blind with a call. On a Q-4-2 flop, the fireworks erupted.
Kassela wasted little time in moving all-in after the flop and Italiano didn’t believe him. She made the call, showing an A-10 (and probably a hand that she should have pushed pre-flop) to go against Kassela’s Q-10 that hit on the flop. A King on the turn opened up some more outs for Italiano in straight and flush draws but, once another King came on the river, Italiano was out in sixth place (still a good finish after getting into the tournament through a $100 satellite).
The knockout moved Kassela into the chip lead but that would be short lived in a stunning two hand span. After a raise from Davies pre-flop and a Wang call, Kassela went for the squeeze play in three-betting the action to 180K. Davies didn’t back down, dropping a four-bet on the felt and, after Wang deposited his cards in the muck, Kassela continued the aggression with a five-bet. Davies agonized over his decision, “Hollywooding” for the ESPN2 cameras, before pushing all in, which Kassela called. The hands were what you might expect: Big Slick for Kassela, pocket Aces for Davies. Once the board ran Queen-high, Davies had taken over the chip lead and Kassela was left with slightly more than 1.2 million chips.
On the very next hand, it was Salter who made an opening raise that Kassela three-bet. Another raising war broke out and, after a 7-6-5 flop, Kassela’s chips found their way to the center of the felt. Amazingly, it was a similar situation to the previous hand: Salter had pocket Aces this time and Kassela brought out Big Chick (A-Q) for his tournament life. Once a seven and a ten completed the board, Kassela had gone “from the penthouse to the outhouse” (as Norm Chad put it) and was out in fifth place.
Salter was now back in the lead as the level ended with four players remaining. As soon as the table reconvened after a break, Davies would retake the lead in eliminating Montgomery in fourth place. Davies then knocked off Wang in third place (after picking up pocket Aces again) and, after only 38 hands of action at the final table, the heads up match was set between the leader Davies and Salter for the WSOP-APAC Championship Event.
The two men would play more hands between them than it took to reach that point. After almost 50 hands of play, Salter opened the betting and called a three-bet out of Davies to see a flop of 6-10-10. Davies fired out against and Salter simply made the call to head to an eight on the turn. Davies loaded up another bullet but, this time, Salter sprung to life with by moving the action up to 930K. Davies responded with a three-bet of 1.8 million and, after some deliberation, Salter moved all in and was immediately called by Davies.
Salter thought he had been trapping with his Q-10 for flopped trips, but Davies pounded the flop with his pocket sixes for a flopped boat. With only the case ten or a Queen that would save him, Salter and Davies (and the ESPN2 cameras) captured the final card, a trey, as Davies emerged as the WSOP-APAC Championship Event winner.
1. Scott Davies, $850,136
2. Jack Salter, $516,960
3. Henry Wang, $343,805
4. Kyle Montgomery, $231,287
5. Frank Kassela, $164,089
6. Ang Italiano, $118,769
With the close of the WSOP-APAC, there is still one piece of business before the overall 2014 WSOP goes into the record books. The 2014 “November Nine” will gather together in Las Vegas in three weeks to determine poker’s next World Champion. For now, however, it is time for Scott Davies to celebrate as the second-ever champion of the World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific Championship Event.
