The 2014 World Series of Poker is reaching the top of the stretch run, but that didn’t stop two more bracelets from finding deserving owners on Saturday. In an overtime match, David Miscikowski was able to outlast Norbert Szecsi to take the title while, in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship, David Olson emerged as the winner.
Event #49 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em
After battling into the wee hours of Saturday morning, Miscikowski and Szecsi were unable to determine a champion. In fact, the duo were only approximately 300K in chips apart from each other when play resumed on Saturday afternoon. With both men’s appetite whetted for what would be their first WSOP bracelet, it would only take two hours to decide who would be the victor.
Szecsi started off well, working his way out to a nearly 4 million chip lead within minutes of the opening gun, but Miscikowski would reel him back to only a 700K lead as the duo took a break from the action. After that break, Miscikowski would only take two hands to determine the tournament. On the first, Miscikowski would flop two pair on a 10-2-2-J-9 board with his Q-10 off suit against Szecsi and then, on the final hand. Szecsi would commit his nearly 4 million chip stack to the center with pocket fours. The only problem was that Miscikowski woke up in the big blind with pocket sevens and made the call. An uneventful Q-8-5-5-3 board brought no help for Szecsi and made David Miscikowski a WSOP champion.
1. David Miscikowski (United States), $719,707
2. Norbert Szecsi (Hungary), $444,425
3. Manig Loeser (Germany), $288,912
4. Margareta Morris (United States), $212,202
5. Oliver Price (United Kingdom), $158,064
6. Kevin MacPhee (United States), $119,267
7. Jean Gaspard (United States), $91,037
8. John Dolan (United States), $70,265
9. Blake Bohn (United States), $54,792
Event #52 – $10,000 Limit Hold’em
The unofficial final table of ten players came back on Saturday to determine the champion of Limit Hold’em. In the best position to do that was Greg Debora, who held the chip lead over two-time WSOP bracelet winner Bill Chen, top European pro Jan Sjavik and Gabriel Nassif (among others). With the glacial nature of Limit, it was thought it was going to be a long night and that turned out to be true.
Debora would establish himself as the table captain on the first hand in moving his stack over 850K and David Olson would bring the table to its official capacity in knocking Nassif down to only 30K and eliminating Robert Como in tenth place on only the third hand of play. With but scraps left, Nassif would be the next to leave at the hands of Mikail Tulchinskiy when his A-J was unable to withstand Tulchinskiy’s K-Q on an 8-6-2-Q-Q board.
It would be nearly two and a half hours before the next elimination would be made. Coming off having his Kings cracked by Samuel Golbuff, Sjavik lacked the ammunition to wait for a big hand and committed his chips to the center with only a 5-4. Brian Tate’s pocket Jacks were more than enough to best that – especially after flopping a set – as the play moved to seven-handed with Debora still at the helm.
Even with those chips, Tate was still short stacked and it would cost him. Getting it in with A-J, Tate was behind Golbuff’s Big Slick and it only got worse as Golbuff would make Broadway on the Q-10-6-7-J board. With the hand, Golbuff emerged as a new contender to take on Debora and they were joined by Paul Mannoni once he eliminated Chen in sixth place.
Mannoni was unable to utilize Chen’s chips as he was the next to go. On an A♣ J♣ 5♣ monochrome flop, Mannoni would get his chips all in against Golbuff holding a K-J for second pair. Problem was Golbuff held a Q♣ 9♥ that left him looking for any club or a Queen to take back the hand. That club, the K♣, would come on the turn to leave Mannoni drawing to any King or Jack. Once they didn’t come on the river, Mannoni was out of the tournament in fifth place.
As the final four men headed to dinner, Olson was in the worst shape as the short stack. Golbuff and Tulchinskiy were both over the million chip mark and Debora wasn’t far back with his 870K in chips. After the sustenance, it was Olson who seemed reenergized as he came out firing.
After Debora snagged some of Golbuff’s stack, Olson would make a flush against Golbuff to shoot him down to the bottom of the ladder. Olson continued to pound Golbuff, taking another hand to crack the million chip mark, and continued to charge in attacking the other members of the table to eventually grow his stack over 2.3 million. Although Tulchinskiy would knock off Golbuff in fourth and Debora in third, he never would see the lead against Olson.
On the final hand, Tulchinskiy would eventually get his remaining chips to the center with a K-6 against Olson’s pocket nines. A nine on the 9-7-5 flop brought Olson a set but left the door open for Tulchinskiy to make a gut shot straight draw. A Queen on the turn didn’t help either man and the deuce on the river was useless as well, sending Tulchinskiy to the rail and David Olson to the championship.
1. David Olson (United States), $303,909
2. Mikhail Tulchinskiy (Russia), $187,811
3. Greg Debora (Canada), $136,056
4. Samuel Golbuff (United States), $100,425
5. Paul Mannoni (United States), $75,470
6. Bill Chen (United States), $57,706
7. Brian Tate (United States), $44,874
8. Jan Sjavik (Norway), $35,481
9. Gabriel Nassif (France), $28,509
