On Friday, the 2014 World Series of Poker welcomed two more players to the all-exclusive WSOP bracelet club. In one event, it was a first timer who would take the trophy while in the other it was someone who had already tasted victory at this year’s Series.
Event #37 – $1500 Pot Limit Omaha
After sitting atop the standings through much of the tournament, Brandon Paster was able to complete his virtually wire-to-wire run and take down the WSOP bracelet in Event #37.
Paster, who led the chip counts at the end of Day Two and wasn’t out of the Top Five for much of the tournament, was behind only Marcel Vonk (who also had an outstanding tournament) as they entered the final day of action. Nine other men would join them, with the particular challenges being Galen Hall, Kevin Saul and Gabriel Nassif. As the day began, they were still at two tables until the first elimination of the day.
The first elimination would come only about a half-hour into the proceedings as Vonk extended his lead. Battling against the short-stacked A. P. Phahurat, Vonk would make a flush to knock Phahurat out in eleventh and bring the ten men to the unofficial final table. Only 20 minutes later, the official final table was set with the elimination of Dapreesch Scates in tenth at the hands of Saul.
Vonk would crack the one million chip mark as the first level of the day came to a close, but Paster was right on his heels with over 900K in chips. Vonk would lose the lead, however, in doubling up Millard Hale when Hale’s A-Q-10-9 worked on a 3-Q-K-J-10 board to eclipse Vonk’s A-A-9-5. Suddenly the new leader, Paster extended that lead in knocking Hall out of the tournament in ninth place.
Although he would stumble at some points, Paster never lost that lead. He eliminated half the field in driving to heads up play against Vonk with a nearly insurmountable 10:1 chip lead after eliminating Nassif. After only three hands of heads-up action, Paster saw Vonk move all in over a pre-flop bet and snapped him off, showing an A-A-K-8 that was leading Vonk’s A-Q-3-2. Dramatically, the flop came 2-4-Q to momentarily put Vonk in the lead but, after an eight on the turn and an Ace on the river, Paster came back to take the hand and the tournament championship with a rivered set.
1. Brandon Paster (United States), $264,400
2. Marcel Vonk (Netherlands), $163,625
3. Gabriel Nassif (France), $103,373
4. Matt Humphrey (United States), $74,306
5. Matthew Dames (United States), $54,855
6. Millard Hale (United States), $41,121
7. Dmitri Valouev (United States), $31,278
8. Kevin Saul (United States), $24,111
9. Galen Hall (United States), $18,837
Event #38 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Low Split-8 or Better
It’s turning into quite the summer for George Danzer as he joined countryman Dominik Nitsche as the only double bracelet winners of this year’s WSOP after Danzer captured the title of Event #38.
13 players came back on Friday looking to determine the champion of this event, with the field very tightly bunched together. Danzer held the lead at this point but such notables as Ted Forrest, Calvin Anderson, Jeff Lisandro, John Monnette, Todd Brunson and ESPN poker announcer Norman Chad were looking to take him down. Everyone was ensured of a $25,569 payday but all eyes were on the WSOP bracelet and the $352,696 first place prize.
Danzer controlled the felt as Brunson, Alexander Jung, Forrest and Chad fell in thirteenth through tenth places, respectively, bringing it down to the unofficial final table. Once Danzer pulled a double knockout of Richard Sklar (9th) and Monnette (8th), he ruled over the table as the only player over the million chip mark. Trying to make it a battle was Anderson, who had built a respectable 863K chip stack, and Brian Hastings (671K). Lisandro, David Singer, Racener and Chris George rounded out the final seven as the battle raged on.
Counting the knockout of Monnette, Danzer would eliminate half the table on the way to meeting Racener for the title with an 800K chip lead. It would be a lead that would hold up as Danzer meticulously cut chips from Racener’s stack into his own before they would all end up there on the final hand. After the first upcard was dealt, Racener would get his stack into the center with an (A-10) Q, holding a slight edge over Danzer’s (K♦ 8♦) 9♦. While Danzer wouldn’t find the flush, he did pick up a King on Fifth Street and, although Racener would pair his Queen on Sixth Street, there wasn’t another pairing card for Racener on Seventh, giving the championship to Danzer.
1. George Danzer (Germany), $352,696
2. John Racener (United States), $217,935
3. Calvin Anderson (United States), $136,490
4. Brian Hastings (United States), $98,828
5. Jeff Lisandro (Australia), $77,238
6. Chris George (United States), $61,594
7. David Singer (United States), $50,018
8. John Monnette (United States), $41,277
With his second victory, Danzer moves into firm command of the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year race. He has earned 726.20 points to this point in the schedule, vastly outpacing second place Justin Bonomo (413.63 points). For the 2014 WSOP, Danzer has already earned $772,374 to go along with his two WSOP bracelets (a total of five cashes), which could make it difficult for anyone to catch him even with the remainder of the 2014 WSOP still running and the WSOP Asia/Pacific (APAC) coming later this year.
