It has been a busy weekend at the 2014 World Series of Poker as the schedule heads to the end of its second full week of play. Over the past few days, four bracelets have been handed out and one more had to extend to an unscheduled Day Four to determine its champion today.
Event #12 – $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em
After coming into the final table with the chip lead, Gregory Kolo had to withstand the assault of an aggressive Kazu Oshima to earn the WSOP in Event #12.
In a final table that only took about two hours to conclude, Oshima was the early aggressor as he attacked the table. Oshima would take out Ryan Schoonbaert, Dan Goldman and Tom McCormick to burst past the 1.35 million mark but, even after eliminating David Martirosyan in fourth place, Oshima was still looking up at Kolo, who had slowly added to his chip stack to maintain the lead. When Kolo knocked off Dean Bui in third place, he had a 500K chip lead over Oshima going to heads-up play.
The two men spent all of six hands in deciding the championship. Kolo won three of the first five hands of heads up and, on the final hand, Kolo and Oshima would see a 3-2-J flop. Oshima check-raised a flop bet out of Kolo and, on a ten turn, Oshima bet out 200K that Kolo called. The river four set off the fireworks as Oshima continued his aggression in moving all in. Kolo calmly made the call and tabled a J-3 for a flopped two pair, leaving Oshima to spike his cards on the felt and walk away. The dealer turned up a Q-9 for Oshima (air), sending the chips and the championship to Gregory Kolo.
1. Gregory Kolo (United States), $169,225
2. Kazu Oshima (United States), $104,513
3. Dean Bui (United States), $74,134
4. David Martirosyan (United States), $53,328
5. Tom McCormick (United States), $38,898
6. Dan Goldman (United States), $28,769
7. Ahmed Amin (United States), $21,565
8. Ryan Schoonbaert (Canada), $16,384
9. Phil Collins (United States), $12,610
Event #13 – $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
In what was another rapid tournament, Paul Volpe was able to overcome a spirited attack from Daniel Negreanu to take down the World Championship of Lowball.
Volpe held the lead as the final seven men took their places to determine the champion. Unlike the six men he was battling – Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, Larry Wright, John Monnette and Abe Mosseri – Volpe was the only one without WSOP gold as the tournament began. He would rectify that over the five hours of final table play.
11 hands into the final table, Wright would knock off Mosseri in seventh place as Volpe maintained his lead. The first serious attack would on Volpe would come from Mercier as he eliminated Monnette in sixth to take over the lead and then blast his stack past the million chip mark as the remaining five men battled it out. When Volpe bested Wright and Negreanu sent Rast out in fourth place, however, the remaining three players were within 200K chips of each other.
Volpe would work back into the lead on Hand 66 when he was able to make a seven-six low to pick up a nice sized pot from Mercier and he wouldn’t look back. Although it would take roughly fifty hands to do so, Volpe knocked off Mercier in third in making an 8-7-6-4-2 low after Mercier paired with his final draw. Going to heads-up play, Volpe held an 800K chip lead over Negreanu that he would never relinquish.
It wasn’t as if Negreanu didn’t fight, though. It would take more than 80 hands for Volpe to complete the deal but, on the final hand, Volpe’s J-10-7-6-3 – while not great – was enough to defeat Negreanu’s Q-J-6-5-4 to end the tournament.
1. Paul Volpe (United States), $253,524
2. Daniel Negreanu (Canada), $156,674
3. Jason Mercier (United States), $99,313
4. Brian Rast (United States), $67,264
5. Larry Wright (United States), $47,792
6. John Monnette (United States), $35,549
7. Abe Mosseri (United States), $27,633
8. Rep Porter (United States), $22,399
Event #14 – $1500 Limit Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better
After 26 players returned on Friday – ensuring a long day of work – Nick Kost was able to best some of the most notable names in the game of poker to earn his first WSOP bracelet.
James Bucci sat at the helm of the final 26, with competition such as Konstantin Puchkov, Dan Heimiller, Greg Raymer and the defending champion of the tournament, Calen McNeil, in hot pursuit. The players wasted little time in whittling the field down, with Guillaume Rivet (23rd place), Chris Tryba (19th), Heimiller (17th), Frankie O’Dell (16th), Maria Ho (13th) and Michael Stewart (10th) coming up just short in their final table efforts. Bucci had slipped down to one of the short stacks, ahead of only Kost and Raymer at the start of the final table as Kal Raichura took over the lead.
Kost would begin to climb the leaderboard after taking a hand off the defending champion McNeil before putting himself in position for the title. He would eliminate Adam Coats in eighth before taking another pot from McNeil that saw Kost crack the two million mark in chips. Raichura and Kost would be the two dominant players at the final table, each taking their turn knocking out the competition to meet up and decide the title.
Raichura held a two million chip lead over Kost at the start of heads-up action, but Kost was able to flip that scenario within only 30 minutes of action. Raichura couldn’t muster anything against Kost’s attack as, on the final hand, Raichura would get his chips to the center on a Q♥ 10♦ 5♦ 8♣ 3♦ board, with his turned two pair (K-J-Q-x) getting caught on the river flush by Kost’s A♠ K♥ Q♦ 9♦ to end the tournament.
1. Nick Kost (United States), $283,275
2. Kal Raichura (Canada), $175,300
3. James Bucci (United States), $109,678
4. Calen McNeil (Canada), $79,608
5. Alex Luneau (United Kingdom), $58,769
6. Steve Chanthabouasy (United States), $44,055
7. Greg Raymer (United States), $33,510
8. Adam Coats (United States), $25,832
9. Konstantin Puchkov (Russia), $20,181
Event #15 – $3000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em
Instead of determining a champion in this event on Saturday, another day will be needed before either Gordon Vayo or Davidi Kitai will take home the WSOP bracelet this afternoon.
Fifteen men – including Vladimir Geshkenbein, Pratyush Buddiga, Tony Ruberto and Phil Hellmuth alongside Vayo and Kitai – were still in contention at the start, but Heinz Kamutzki held the overall chip lead. That lead disappeared in the early action, though, as Kamutzki bluffed off some chips to Vayo to drop back to the pack. Bill Burford, on the other hand, surged up to take the lead after knocking off Artem Metalidi in 14th place.
Kitai staked his claim to the final table in eliminating Buddiga as the final two tables headed to a redrew, but it would be a long slog to get to the final table. Geshkenbein left in tenth place at the hands of John Andress and, following Hellmuth’s knockout in eighth place by Vayo, there was only one more elimination to set the official final table. That would come after almost five hours following Buddiga’s elimination when Kitai’s pocket Aces bested Kamutzki’s K-Q sent the start of day chip leader to the rail in seventh place.
Kitai, now holding a 1.3 million chip lead over Vayo in second place, extended that lead in taking almost a 500K chip pot off of Ruberto as Vayo treaded water in eliminating Zachary Korik in sixth and Andress in fifth. Ruberto would regain some chips in defeating Mark Darner in fourth and, with three handed action set, Kitai was in control with 5.5 million of the chips in play. Even after Vayo dispatched Ruberto in third place, Kitai’s lead was still dominating Vayo’s.
Over 40 hands of heads-up play, Vayo would grind out his stack to slowly mount a charge against Kitai. As the WSOP curfew came, the players were offered the option of one more level of play or coming back on Sunday to finish it off. The duo decided to come back this afternoon at 1PM (Las Vegas time) for action with Vayo having eked out a slim lead:
Gordon Vayo, 3.75 million
Davidi Kitai, 3.545 million
Event #16 – $1500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
In a rapidly paced final table, Todd Bui was able to defeat veteran poker pro “Captain” Tom Franklin to take home the championship of Event #16.
Franklin held the lead as eight men came back on Saturday for battle and he would keep that lead through most of the final table action. Down to three handed following Franklin’s elimination of Vladimir Shchemelev in fourth, Bui went on a run that saw him pass both Franklin and David Bell to ascend to the top of the leaderboard. Once Franklin bumped Bell from the final table in third, he faced a 2:1 chip disadvantage in battling against Bui.
Bui would never let Franklin get any traction in the heads-up match. Over the span of an hour, Bui kept his foot on Franklin as Franklin’s chips slowly leaked through his fingers. On the final hand, both would draw one card and, following a betting session that saw Franklin’s last chips hit the pot, Franklin drew one while Bui stood pat and showed his 10-8-5-4-2. Franklin, with an 8-6-5-3 low building, drew one more card on his third draw and got another five, earning Bui the WSOP bracelet.
1. Todd Bui (United States), $124,510
2. Tom Franklin (United States), $76,943
3. David Bell (United States), $49,944
4. Vladimir Shchemelev (Russia), $33,388
5. Aaron Steury (United States), $22,935
6. David Gee (United States), $16,170
