The 2014 World Series of Poker moved on its action on Friday as one bracelet was awarded in a tournament. In another event, the players battled late into the night before pausing action with two players remaining.
Event #48 – $1500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better
In what turned out to be a rapid day of play, Tyler Patterson would deny start-of-day chip leader Scott Clements his third WSOP bracelet by taking down his first.
Clements was the leader of the 11 players who returned on Friday, but the field was a tightly bunched one. Jeff Madsen was only 55K behind Clements and players such as Dylan Wilkerson, Tom Schneider and Patterson were also within striking distance. The players would have to cut two players from the equation before the official final table was set and, within an hour, that goal was accomplished in Brian Brubaker (11th place) and Philip Sternheimer’s (10th) departures.
By the start of the final table, Patterson had emerged as the man in charge as the only one over 1 million chips. Those chips would disappear quickly, however, as Cody Crawford and Schneider brought him back to earth. Clements stated his intentions of returning to the top in eliminating Wilkerson in ninth, but Madsen would join them very quickly as he knocked off J. R. Flournoy in eighth and Derek Raymond in seventh to ascend to the top.
Madsen became even more of a force after scooping Schneider to send the four-time WSOP bracelet winner to the rail in sixth, but Patterson didn’t let him get too far away in taking chips from Clements and Crawford. After taking down Gary Kosakowski in fifth place, Patterson would be at the helm with Clements, Crawford and Madsen in pursuit.
Clements and Madsen would clash frequently, with Clements always coming out on the winning end, before Patterson send Madsen to the rail in fourth place. Patterson and Clements would then knock heads before Clements eliminated Crawford in third to set up a nearly-even chip count with Patterson heading to heads up play. That resulting battle would last all of an hour.
Clements couldn’t find any answers for Patterson’s game, seeing his chip stack slowly drop as the fight went on. On the final hand, Clements would call a pot bet pre-flop to see a K♣ 10♦ 2♥ flop that both he and Patterson would check. A 7♣ on the turn brought a check from Patterson, but Clements would bet out 250K and Patterson check-raised him the pot. Clements reraised for his remaining 1.5 million chips and, following a call from Patterson, the cards were turned up.
Both were drawing at a baby flush, with Clements’ K-7-6♣ 3♣ holding the lead on the turn with two pair, but Patterson’s A-9♣ 8♣-3 (nut low, open-ended straight draw) had several redraws for the win outright or the high/low chop. That redraw came home on the 2♣ on the river, giving Patterson the better flush (and no low draw to be concerned with) and the title of Event #48.
1. Tyler Patterson (United States), $270,992
2. Scott Clements (United States), $167,686
3. Cody Crawford (United States), $104,914
4. Jeff Madsen (United States), $76,150
5. Gary Kosakowski (United States), $56,216
6. Tom Schneider (United States), $42,142
7. Derek Raymond (United States), $32,054
8. J. R. Flournoy (United States), $24,710
9. Dylan Wilkerson (United States), $19,305
Event #49 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em
Over 12 hours of play wasn’t enough to determine a champion in Event #49 on Friday night. Saturday afternoon the final two players – David Miscikowski (5.525 million) and Norbert Szecsi (4.92 million) – will continue to fight until only one man is left standing.
It was going to be a tough road to determining a champion anyway as 23 players came back on Friday for the festivities. Margareta Morris was the chip leader at this time with plenty of notables behind her looking to take her down. Those contenders became fewer as, only an hour into play, such names as Anthony Spinella (22nd place), Melanie Weisner (21st) and Dan Colman (19th) brought the tournament to the final two tables.
Josh Arieh made a big move once the two-table redraw was complete, knocking off Tom Bedell in 17th place to move close to the 1.5 million chip mark and passing it in taking down Tony Gargano in 16th. Blake Bohn would prove to be a thorn in Arieh’s side, though, in stealing a pot pre-flop to get more chips that Arieh before eliminating him. Bohn, using Big Slick, would turn an Ace on a J-2-Q-A flop and turn to best Arieh’s J-10 (flopped pair) before a meaningless deuce on the river ended Arieh’s tournament in 12th place.
After watching all the action around her, Morris now got back in the game by topping John Dolan’s straight with a flush to get back in contention. Miscikowski, though, would pass them both in crippling Jeremy Wien in a cooler situation (Miscikowski’s Kings over Wien’s Queens) and Szecsi got into the act in knocking off Timu Margolin in tenth place to bring the action to the final table.
Miscikowski and Szecsi would prove to be the class of the final table in reaching heads up play virtually even in chips just after midnight. Over the span of three hours, the two men couldn’t decide on an eventual victor as the chip counts stayed within 500K of each other. When WSOP officials called the curfew on the table, Miscikowski will have a slim lead when he and Szecsi come back Saturday afternoon at 2PM to (eventually) determine the
champion.
