On Wednesday at the 2014 World Series of Poker, two more bracelets were handed out to well-deserving champions. In Event #45, Will Givens was able to grasp the golden bracelet that eluded him only a week earlier while, in Event #47, Jesse McEuen earned the championship of the unique Ante Only tournament.
Event #45 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em – Final Day
Givens, who came to the final day of play as the leader over Duy Ho, was looking for redemption in this tournament. He also came to the final table as the leader in Event #33 (another $1000 NLHE tournament), but would eventually finish that tournament in fourth place. He made his statement early as, following the elimination of Terik Brown in 11th place, he would send Kim Ng to the rail in 10th place after his pocket Aces stood strong against Ng’s pocket Kings.
With the official final table now set, Givens would suddenly give up his hard-earned lead to a surprising newcomer. Angela Prada-Moed was able to get Givens to fold what he commented was pocket Kings on Hand 8 after Prada-Moed pushed her stack pre-flop to the center (to potentially add insult to injury, Prada-Moed stated she had the other two Kings in her hand). That pushed Givens to second as Prada-Moed went on a rampage.
Prada-Moed would continue to catch some cards, using Big Slick to top Dmitri Shchepkin’s 9♥ 8♥ to put him on the rail in seventh, then she would take out Ho in sixth after catching him in a bluff to top the two million chip mark. Givens stayed in the mix by knocking off Patrick Curzio in fifth, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the active Prada-Moed as she took down David Hass in fourth.
Three handed play saw Prada-Moed holding court with her 2.9 million in chips over Givens (2.065 million) and Paul Sokoloff (570K), but it was at this time the tournament took an interesting turn. Sokoloff suddenly awoke and doubled up twice, once each through Prada-Moed and Givens, to actually take over the chip lead as the final table reached its 100th hand. He would maintain that lead for a bit until a flurry of activity changed everything.
Givens, the short stack of the three remaining players, came out of a level up firing. He earned a double through Sokoloff when the duo got their chips to the center pre-flop. Givens’ A♠ J♠ was in tough shape against Sokoloff’s pocket Kings, but the poker gods decided to make it interesting. A 6♠ K♠ 5♣ flop gave Sokoloff a set but it opened doors for Givens to make the nut flush. That happened on the 8♠ turn and, looking for the board to pair, Sokoloff instead saw a 10♣ to send him plummeting down to the basement as Givens retook the lead.
It would take more than 20 hands to do it, but Givens would eventually knock out Sokoloff in third place as Givens’ pocket sevens held up against Sokoloff’s A♥ 9♥ to send Givens up against Prada-Moed with over a 3:1 chip lead. Prada-Moed fought valiantly over the next 30 hands but never could cut into Givens’ lead. On the final hand, the duo saw a J♦ A♣ 8♣ flop, upon which Prada-Moed hitched her final chips and Givens called. His K-J held a tenuous lead over Prada-Moed’s Q♣ 4♣ for a flush draw, but that draw never came as an A♦ and 6♥ hit the turn and river to end the tournament in favor of Will Givens.
1. Will Givens (United States), $306,634
2. Angela Prada-Moed (United States), $189,632
3. Paul Sokoloff (Canada), $131,110
4. David Hass (United States), $94,559
5. Patrick Curzio (United States), $69,125
6. Duy Ho (United States), $51,198
7. Dmitri Shchepkin (Russia), $38,423
8. Ivan Saul (Argentina), $29,211
9. Loren Klein (United States), $22,484
Event #47 – $1500 Ante-Only No Limit Hold’em – Final Day
The final table was set on Wednesday after as Event #47 looked to crown a champion. The tournament – in which all players put in a specified ante and used that to kick-start the action instead of the traditional blind structure – had already seen several players making adjustments to their games to strategize and these nine did the best in making those changes. Jeremy Joseph held the lead as he attempted to hold off Ryan D’Angelo and Simeon Naydenov as the cards hit the air.
Only six hands in, Rhys Jones ended the day for Arthur Pro in ninth place to open the floodgates on eliminations. Joseph (surprisingly), Herbert Yarbrough and D’Angelo (another surprise) would follow Pro to the cashier’s cage only about 90 minutes into play as Naydenov and Jonas Lauck surged over the million chip mark. Jones, Jesse McEuen and Adam Levy were sitting on six figure stacks and only a double up from getting out of the lower level of the leaderboard.
Jones climbed from the basement in eliminating Levy in fifth place after Jones made a four flush against Levy’s flopped Aces and Queens, then would use those chips to cut down Naydenov to take over the chip lead. Jones couldn’t sustain the drive, though, as his stack dwindled after Lauck hit quad eights against him and McEuen rivered a straight to bring him down to earth. When Jones committed his final chips with an off suit A-9, a bolstered McEuen finished him off with a 10-8 that turned into two pair on a K-8-10-K-9 board.
Lauck held the lead by over 700K against McEuen at the start of heads-up, but McEuen would explode over the next 25 hands to reverse the situation by the end of Level 24. On the 26th hand of heads-up, McEuen would call off a Lauck all-in three-bet with pocket Aces (against Lauck’s A-10 off suit) and, once the flop and turn fell 2-2-2-3 to leave Lauck drawing dead, captured the title of the Ante-Only event.
1. Jesse McEuen (United States), $212,093
2. Jonas Lauck (Germany), $130,955
3. Rhys Jones (United Kingdom), $85,131
4. Simeon Naydenov (Bulgaria), $62,528
5. Adam Levy (United States), $46,575
6. Ryan D’Angelo (United States), $35,143
7. Herbert Yarbrough (United States), $26,825
8. Jeremy Joseph (United States), $20,704
9. Arthur Pro (United States), $16,145
