After not awarding a bracelet on Monday for the first time at the 2014 World Series of Poker, the players got back into the act as a trio of them were handed out on Tuesday. Among the tournaments that wrapped up on Tuesday was one that would award the first seven-figure payout of this year’s WSOP, the “Millionaire Maker.”
Event #8 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em “Millionaire Maker” – Final Day
The massive 7977 entry field for the “Millionaire Maker” had been whittled down to just the final nine contenders for Tuesday’s final table action. Dominating the way to the final table was Stephen Graner, who had amassed a monstrous 12.005 million stack that was more than the second place player, James Duke (4.645 million), by almost a 3:1 margin. Andrew Teng (4.375 million), Andrew Dick (4.185 million), Bradley Anderson (3.85 million), Jonathan Dimmig (2.87 million), Maurice Hawkins (1.96 million), Jeff Coburn (1.66 million) and Jason Johnson (1.245 million) also were lying in wait should Graner stumble.
Surprisingly, Graner’s chip lead would last all of three hands. Attempting to play “sheriff” against Duke, Graner would open the betting pre-flop and, after Duke three-bet him, made the call to see an 8-3-2 rainbow flop. Graner pushed out another bet and, after some deliberation, Duke popped his own three-bet in the pot. Graner immediately moved all in and, likewise, Duke made the call in about the same time. Graner had attempted to steal the pot from Duke with his A-5, but Duke’s pocket Kings were quite healthy. Looking for a four or an Ace, Graner instead saw a Jack and a six as he slid the chip lead over to Duke.
Graner would get some of those chips back in knocking out Hawkins in ninth while Dick headed to the rail in eighth at the hands of Dimmig to push him up the leaderboard. When Johnson was taken down in seventh place at the hands of Coburn, the table was six-handed after only about an hour and a half of play as Dimmig had taken over the lead.
After the break, Dimmig seemed to get his game cranked up. In eliminating Graner in sixth place, Dimmig cracked the 16 million chip mark when he turned a higher straight against Graner’s rivered bottom end straight. That momentum was stalled, however, when Dimmig doubled up Anderson and then handed the lead to him on a subsequent hand. Anderson couldn’t hold the lead either as he slowly let that chip lead slip away, eventually departing in fifth place at the hands of Duke.
With four players left, Duke held a 15 million stack as Coburn, Teng and Dimmig struggled to keep up with him. After the frantic early hours of play, the quartet of men slowed the pace down a bit with only Dimmig earning a double through Duke prior to the dinner break. After some food, the players continued with that slower pace, although Dimmig made some moves to inch his way up the leaderboard.
Perhaps the pivotal moment of the tournament came when Dimmig clashed with Teng. On Hand 139 in a blind versus blind battle, Teng moved all in and Dimmig, slightly covering him, made the call. Teng was looking to steal with his Q-9 that was behind Dimmig’s pocket deuces and that steal initially looked to work on a Q-J-4 flop. A deuce on the turn, however, gave Dimmig a set and left Teng drawing dead. Following a meaningless river card, Dimmig scooped up Teng’s chips and sent Teng from the Rio in fourth place.
It was now Coburn’s time to come alive as, more than 40 hands after Teng’s departure, he would take a huge hand against Duke to power up to 21 million in chips. After Dimmig completed the takeout of Duke in third place, Coburn and Dimmig went to heads-up play with Coburn holding a 22.85 million/13.05 million lead over Dimmig.
That heads-up battle would last all of four hands. Dimmig doubled on the very first hand of heads-up play after his 9-8 flopped two pair to take over the lead and, on Hand 188, Dimmig would earn the championship. After calling a Coburn pre-flop raise, the duo saw an innocuous 3-3-2 flop that Dimmig moved all in on. Coburn made the call, tabling a K-Q, but he was behind Dimmig’s 6-2 with two cards to go. Looking for paint, Coburn instead saw a ten on the turn and a four on the river, “making a millionaire” out of Dimmig in winning the championship.
1. Jonathan Dimmig (United States), $1,319,587
2. Jeff Coburn (United States), $815,963
3. James Duke (United States), $614,368
4. Andrew Teng (United Kingdom), $465,972
5. Bradley Anderson (United States), $355,913
6. Stephen Graner (United States), $273,854
7. Jason Johnson (United States), $211,394
8. Andrew Dick (United States), $164,118
9. Maurice Hawkins (United States), $128,150
Event #9 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em – Final Day
Coming into the final day of this $1000 event, 12 men were still in the fight for this WSOP bracelet. The leaderboard was packed fairly closely together as the men on top, Frank Patti and Jorge Vergara, were only separated by 40K in chips as action began on Tuesday. Only three men would need to be eliminated to reach the official final table and, within about an hour of play, that goal was achieved.
Chris Hunichen was the beneficiary of those eliminations, taking down two of the three as he headed to the final table. Hunichen would knock out Vinny Pahuja and Dylan Linde and, following Danny Nguyen’s takedown of Cornel Medes in tenth, the final table was set with Hunichen holding the lead over Patti and Vergara.
The play didn’t slow down as one of the first hands of action saw an elimination in the upper reaches of the table. Patti and Vergara decided to clash on Hand 2 and, with Patti’s pocket Queens holding the upper hand over Vergara’s pocket tens, a J-2-9-J-4 changed nothing. In that one hand, Vergara (who might have been dreaming of that WSOP bracelet) was gone in ninth and Patti took back the lead.
Patti continued to do well as Hunichen tumbled down the ladder. Hunichen would double up John Fontana and send a bigger side pot stack to Chris Haugo in a three way all-in that saw Hunichen’s stack drop to 415K. Meanwhile, Patti stretched his lead in knocking off David Inselberg in eighth place.
Now it was time for Nguyen to play some power poker. He was responsible for the next two knockouts, Brad Lisbon in seventh and a dejected Hunichen in sixth, to move into the lead by the time the first break arrived. His situation got even better when he was able to eliminate Haugo in fifth place as Nguyen’s stack now towered 2.5 million chips high.
Down to four handed play, Jeff Smith now decided to get in on the action. He eliminated Fontana in fourth, Smith’s pocket Jacks holding up to Fontana’s pocket nines, and would take over the lead from Nguyen as the second break of the day arrived. Nguyen would tighten up that race, however, in taking down Patti in third place to set up the final showdown.
Over the next 85 hands, the twosome would trade bombs on each other but couldn’t take their opponent out. Nguyen moved into the lead on Hand 224 by a dominant margin (4.02 million to 1.8 million), but Smith fought right back, retaking the lead only three hands later. Ten hands later (and just before dinner), Nguyen doubled back through Smith to reestablish that previous chip margin.
Following the dinner break, the men would continue to trade the lead back and forth but, slowly, Smith began to grind Nguyen down. On the final hand, Smith called off a Nguyen all-in bet and was ahead with his A-9 against Nguyen’s Q-6. A nine on the flop reasserted his lead and, with another nine on the river, Smith was able to vanquish Nguyen after a three-hour heads-up battle that lasted well over 150 hands.
1. Jeff Smith (United States), $323,125
2. Danny Nguyen (United States), $199,829
3. Frank Patti (United States), $138,160
4. John Fontana (United States), $99,644
5. Chris Haugo (United States), $72,843
6. Chris Hunichen (United States), $53,951
7. Brad Lisbon (United States), $40,489
8. David Inselberg (United States), $30,781
9. Jorge Vergara (United States), $23,693
Event #10 – $10,000 Limit Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better – Final Day
The 178 player field that started this tournament on Sunday were down to the final 18 contenders on Tuesday as they looked to determine the “World Champion” of Omaha Hi/Low. It was a star packed leaderboard that included Eli Elezra, Richard Ashby, Tom Koral, Doug Polk, Brock Parker and Jeff Lisandro, but Viatcheslav Ortynskiy was the man at the head of the pack, holding 862K of the chips in play.
With high blinds and some severely short stacks in the mix, the action was expected to be blistering and the players didn’t disappoint. Perry Friedman and Lisandro quickly headed to the exits, but Parker seemed to thrive in his tough situation. He was able to double through Dan Kelly and outlast Ismael Bojang (15th) and Koral (13th) while building his way to the middle of the pack. When Elezra left the felt in tenth place at the hands of Ofir Mor (high) and Kelly (low), the final table was set with Ashby in the lead.
Ashby’s lead would last all of one hand as one of the two women to make the Event #10 final table, Shirley Rosario, scooped him to take over the chip lead (Rosario was joined by Melissa Burr, who also made this final table). Rosario, a tough and accomplished Omaha player, would extend that lead in dispatching Kelly in ninth place but would fall to the variances of Omaha in giving that lead right back to Ortynskiy on the next hand.
Ashby got back into the action in eliminating Burr from the tournament in eighth place and recapture his lead in ending Steve Lustig’s run at the final table in seventh. The blinds began to take their toll on the shorter stacks as Parker scooped a huge pot against Ortynskiy and Rosario to pop to the 1.25 million mark. Parker kept the momentum going in eliminating Jason McPherson in sixth as Rosario bested Ortynskiy to send the Russian out in fifth place.
Even with that elimination, Rosario lacked the ammunition to keep up with the top three. After Parker scooped her with a 5-3-3-2 on a 7-10-A-3-10 board, the California pro was left with crumbs for a stack. Those would head over to Ashby as Rosario ended her day in fourth place and Parker moved into the lead for the first time on the final day.
Parker would maintain that lead even though Ashby eliminated Mor in third place, but it was a tenuous one. Parker’s 2.79 million in chips barely eked out the lead over Ashby’s 2.55 million as the twosome battled it out for the title. Ashby would move into the lead prior to a level up, but Parker would fight back to reclaim his edge once the blinds moved to 60K/120K.
It would prove to be a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. On the final hand, Ashby got his final chips in on a 9-8-7 flop holding A-A-A-10 against Parker’s 6-5-4-2 for the flopped straight and a stranglehold on the hand. Another nine would open up the possibility of Ashby catching the case Ace or another nine for a full house, but a trey on the river let Parker scoop the hand (nine high straight high, 8-7-4-3-2 low) and take down his third career WSOP bracelet.
1. Brock Parker (United States), $443,407
2. Richard Ashby (United Kingdom), $274,019
3. Ofir Mor (United States), $198,508
4. Shirley Rosario (United States), $146,522
5. Viatcheslav Ortynskiy (Russia), $110,113
6. Jason McPherson (United States), $84,195
7. Steve Lustig (United States), $65,472
8. Melissa Burr (United States), $51,768
9. Dan Kelly (United States), $41,595