The history books have been rewritten in just the first week of the 2014 World Series of Poker on Friday as Vanessa Selbst defeated Jason Mo to capture her third WSOP bracelet while Brandon Shack-Harris was able to weave his way through a difficult Pot Limit Omaha final table to take down his first career win at the WSOP.
Event #2 – $25,000 Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em – Championship Final
When Selbst and Mo came together on the baize for the Championship Final on Friday in Event #2, both had overcome disadvantages to get there. Selbst had perhaps the toughest road on Thursday as she was a huge underdog against Al Decarolis, while Mo was a little closer to J. C. Tran when their match started. Both Selbst and Mo would be able to knock off their higher seeded opponents to set up what was expected to be an outstanding match.
Mo held the lead with his 5.86 million in chips over Selbst’s 3.96 million and, from the start, the twosome played tentatively as they looked for an edge. Mo would actually extend his lead over the first ten hands of play but, on Hand 24, Selbst would take down a hand without a showdown to pull within a million chips of Mo. That didn’t slow down Mo as, on Hand 45, he actually put Selbst to the test by moving all in on a 7♥ 10♥ 6♥ 4♣ flop and turn, but Selbst didn’t take the bait. In winning the hand, however, Mo moved his lead over Selbst back to a 3:1 advantage.
It got worse for Selbst only four hands later when, after another Mo all-in move, Selbst once again couldn’t make the call as she saw her stack dwindle to 1.78 million and Mo’s balloon up to 8.04 million. That would be the highlight of the day for Mo, however, as Selbst began to mount her charge to the bracelet.
After a level up, Selbst limped in and, after Mo pushed his stack, Selbst made the call to put her tournament life on the line. Selbst held the edge with her J♠ 10♠ as Mo had been caught in a move with just a 6♦ 3♦ to go to battle. Ever the dramatist that the game of poker is, however, the flop came J♦ 10♦ 8♠, giving Selbst top two pair but setting Mo up with a flush draw. A 4♥ teased Mo and he was tantalized again on an 8♥ river, but he dropped the hand to Selbst as she got a key double up to spring back into the match.
The double by Selbst seemed to light her fires as, from thereon, she was unstoppable. On Hand 63, Selbst made a raise from the button and Mo pushed back with a three-bet. Selbst made the call in position and, following a 10-J-5 flop, had her 580K bet called by Mo. On a Queen turn, both players would check their options and, following a deuce on the river, Mo awakened with a sizeable 1.315 million bet of his own. Selbst quietly made the call and, after Mo flashed an A-Q for top pair/top kicker, Selbst calmly showed her trap of pocket Queens that rivered an unnecessary set to take the nearly 5 million chip pot and the chip lead.
Although he would battle valiantly, Mo would never see the lead again. On the final hand of the tournament, Mo would move all-in pre-flop and Selbst looked him up. Mo’s 9-7 was in difficult shape against Selbst’s K-J off suit, but his cards were live. The board, though, didn’t do him any favors in coming down 10-A-2-A-J to seal the historic win (and Mo’s second runner-up finish at the WSOP) for Vanessa Selbst.
1. Vanessa Selbst (United States), $871,148
2. Jason Mo (United States), $538,308
3. Al Decarolis (United States), $290,622
4. J. C. Tran (United States), $290,622
5. Matt Giannetti (United States), $171,461
6. Robert Tepper (United States), $171,461
7. Ryan Fee (United States), $112,752
8. Aaron Jones (United States), $112,752
With the victory, it is time to start talking about Selbst as one of the best players in the game regardless of her gender. The victory gives her three WSOP bracelets in open events to her career resume, tying her with Poker Hall of Famer Barbara Enright for the most among women and something that only 62 other people can claim in their poker careers. The win also pushed Selbst over the $10 million mark in career earnings ($10,548,896, to be exact, according to the Hendon Mob database), 21st in poker history. With this one in the books, it is highly probably that we’ll see Selbst make another run to add some more pages to WSOP history.
Event #3 – $1000 Pot Limit Omaha – Final Day
Although he came into the Event #3 final day with the second largest stack, it was still a battle as Brandon Shack-Harris outlasted a talented final table to capture his first WSOP bracelet on Friday.
The only player that Shack-Harris was looking up at on Friday was a formidable one in two-time WSOP bracelet winner Steve Billirakis, who held 961,000 chips for the lead over Shack-Harris (695,000). Matthew Ryan (604K), Iori Yogo (575K), Morgan Popham (303K) and Robert Paddock (250K) rounded out the field in what would prove to be a wild affair.
Billirakis, who had commanded the nine-handed final table when it started on Thursday, continued his domination in eliminating Paddock from the proceedings. After seeing a Q♥ 4♠ K♥ flop, the two men would repeatedly pot each other until Paddock’s stack was in the center. With his A♥ J♥ 10♠ 3♥, Paddock had a world of draws that could catch up with Billirakis’ K-Q-9-4 (flopped two pair, slim redraw options). Those redraws wouldn’t come home for Paddock, however, as a couple of clubs – the six and the seven – came on the turn and river to ship Paddock out of the tournament in sixth place.
That was Billirakis’ only highlight of the day as things went south for him in a hurry. He would lose the lead to Shack-Harris only twelve hands after eliminating Paddock and watch as Ryan was eliminated by Popham to push Popham into second position. Billirakis would actually find his way to the basement after losing Hand 86 to Shack-Harris before his departure from the felt.
After opening up the betting, Billirakis saw Shack-Harris again hit him with a pot-sized three-bet and Billirakis made the call to see an A-5-9 rainbow flop. Shack-Harris fired another bullet, this one enough to put Billirakis all in, and the two-time champion made the call. Billirakis had some options with his 8-7-6-4 (multiple straight draws), but Shack-Harris was dominant with his A-A-K-10 for top set. A three on the turn opened up some more doors for Billirakis, but those doors slammed when another trey came on the river to send him out of the Rio in fourth place.
Now with a monstrous lead (2.190 million versus the 1.2 million combined between his two opponents), Shack-Harris continued to dominate. After Popham crippled Yogo, Shack-Harris administered the coup fatal to Yogo to send him out in third place and go to heads-up play with what would prove to be an insurmountable 5:1 lead. Popham was never able to get anything rolling against Shack-Harris, losing out on the last hand when his A-A-10-5 was run down by Shack-Harris’ A-K-K-5 on an 8-6-Q-J-10 board.
1. Brandon Shack-Harris (United States), $205,634
2. Morgan Popham (United States), $127,245
3. Iori Yogo (Japan), $79,611
4. Steve Billirakis (United States), $57,785
5. Matthew Ryan (United States), $42,658
6. Robert Paddock (United States), $31,978
7. Patrick Arena (United States), $24,324*
8. Loren Klein (United States), $18,750*
9. Nick Guagenti (United States), $14,649*
* – eliminated during Thursday’s play
