As the schedule steams toward the start of its $10,000 Championship Event next weekend, the 2015 World Series of Poker crowned two more champions. In one event a longtime Limit expert was able to defeat a strong field of contenders while an amateur became the first woman to take down a bracelet at this year’s event.
Event #50 – $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship
Battling into the early morning hours on Saturday, Ben Yu was able to outlast Jesse Martin to capture the WSOP bracelet in Limit Hold’em.
Only 117 players came out for the tournament (compared with 122 in 2014), but it was a quality field. Coming to the final day of the event, Justin Bonomo held the lead with such players as Aleksandr Denisov, Gabriel Nassif and Yu in pursuit of him. With two knockouts to the official final table, Bonomo didn’t sit back and relax, instead taking out Brian Tate in 11th place to bring the final ten men together albeit unofficially. After Martin eliminated Ian Johns in tenth place, the official final table was set with Bonomo still in the lead.
Bonomo and Yu were the dominant players in the early going, taking turns knocking off players as the afternoon wore on. Yu was responsible for eliminating Terrence Chan in ninth and Gabriel Nassif in seventh place, while Bonomo knocked off Marco Johnson in eighth and Kenny Shei in sixth place to bring the table to five players. After Martin took down Anthony Zinno in fifth place, the tournament ground to a halt as players jousted for position on the leaderboard.
After an hour of play, Bonomo became the first player to crack the two million chip mark in eliminating Denisov in fourth place when his 7-6 caught against Denisov’s K-5 on a 9-7-7-6-8 board. Now down to three handed play, Martin and Yu had their work cut out for them as their stacks added together barely eclipsed the mountain of chips that sat in front of Bonomo. Over the next 55 hands, however, Yu and Martin eroded the stack of Bonomo until Yu was able to eliminate the WSOP bracelet winner in third place.
At the start of heads up, Yu held a million chip lead over Martin and slowly grinded Martin down to the felt. Yu would never let Martin get within that million chip separation as, over the span of 81 hands, Martin saw his chips slide across the table to his opponent. On the final hand, Martin’s final chips would go in after an A-J-10 flop and he showed a Q-3 for a gut shot straight draw. Yu, meanwhile, had the pre-flop lead and crushed it on the flop with his A-J for two pair. Needing to only dodge a King twice, Yu saw a six on the turn and a Jack on the river to improve him to an unnecessary boat and crown him Limit Hold’em king.
1. Ben Yu, $291,456
2. Jesse Martin, $180,114
3. Justin Bonomo, $130,480
4. Aleksandr Denisov, $96,309
5. Anthony Zinno, $72,377
6. Kenny Shei, $55,341
7. Gabriel Nassif, $43,035
8. Marco Johnson, $34,027
9. Terrence Chan, $27,341
Event #52 – $1500 Dealer’s Choice
Stunning many in attendance in the Amazon Room, self-admitted amateur Carol Fuchs became the first woman to win a WSOP bracelet in 2015 as she vanquished a tough field in an even tougher discipline of poker, the Dealer’s Choice event.
11 players returned on Saturday from the 357 starters to work down to the champion and there were familiar names all around the room. The event’s defending champion, Robert Mizrachi (already a bracelet winner during the 2015 schedule), was in second behind Matt Szymaszek, while Chris Klodnicki, Yuval Bronshtein and Scott Clements were arranged on two tables. Fuchs was a contender, hanging in third place behind Mizrachi.
With 18 different games to choose from, the players could sit on their favorites and make big moves in the field. Klodnicki rocketed to the lead on the very first hand of play, scooping a pot against Clements and Jens Lakemeier in Omaha Hi/Lo to move over the 400K mark (433,000, to be exact). Szymaszek fought back, retaking the lead in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo by chopping some chips out of Viktor Celikovsky’s stack.
After Clements was ousted in eighth place by Klodnicki, there was only one more player to be eliminated before the final table was determined. Celikovsky looked as if he would be that unfortunate player after seeing most of his chips slide to Bronshtein in Badacey (a Razz/Badugi split pot draw game), but Celikovsky fought back in doubling up four different times. Szymaszek meanwhile drifted down the leaderboard, eventually seeing his final chips go to Klodnicki in a classic No Limit Hold’em race. Szymaszek’s pocket threes went up against Klodnicki’s Big Slick, but it immediately fell behind on a K-8-Q flop. When neither of his two outs appeared on the turn or river, Szymaszek was gone from the tournament as the final table “bubble boy.”
Now it was time for Mizrachi to make a charge. Primarily using Omaha Hi/Lo, Mizrachi was able to storm to the lead with 800,000 chips, but he would make a critical mistake that is extremely possible in this type of playing format. Going against Ilya Krupin in A-5 Draw, Mizrachi went all the way to the end of the third draw before realizing that the game being played wasn’t Badacey. As such, the hand he held was inferior to Krupin’s offerings (an outstanding 7-6-5-2-A low) and saw a sizeable chunk of his stack slide to Krupin.
Krupin, Bronshtein and Fuchs took over the upper reaches of the leaderboard after Mizrachi’s mistake, but Mizrachi was still viable as the foursome was separated by only about 100K in chips. The first crack in the quartet was with Bronshtein, who saw Krupin pick up a big pot in Omaha Hi/Lo against him to send his stack plummeting to less than a big bet. After the dinner break, Fuchs would take out Bronshtein in fifth place to join Krupin as the only players over the million chip mark.
Klodnicki would be the next to go in fourth place at the hands of Krupin, leaving Fuchs, Krupin and Mizrachi to decide the champion. Mizrachi’s run at a repeat championship would stall at this point as both of his opponents took his chips over an hour span. Mizrachi was officially eliminated when, in Omaha Hi/Lo, Mizrachi committed the remainder of his chips holding K-Q-Q-10 against Krupin’s 8-6-3-2 on a 2-3-10-J-7 board.
Down to heads-up, Fuchs held a healthy 2:1 lead over Krupin and kept her foot on the gas. In No Limit Hold’em, Krupin pushed all in from the button and Fuchs made the call, tabling a K-J against Krupin’s A-8 that held the pre-flop lead. The flop wouldn’t agree, however, coming down 10-K-4 to push Fuchs into the lead and leave Krupin looking for an Ace or running cards for a straight. A trey on the turn left only the Aces good and, after a seven came on the river, Krupin was eliminated in second place as Fuchs became the first female player to prevail at this year’s WSOP.
“It’s encouraging when someone like me who is an amateur, and a woman, and – let’s just say someone ‘older than 30’ – wins something big like this,” Fuchs said to WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla following the tournament. “I respect what the pros do, but for a non-pro to come out here and win, (it) is encouraging for all players and especially for amateurs and women.”
1. Carol Fuchs, $127,735
2. Ilya Krupin, $78,933
3. Robert Mizrachi, $51,236
4. Chris Klodnicki, $34,252
5. Yuval Bronshtein, $23,528
6. Viktor Celikovsky, $16,588
