It’s been a busy first week of the 2015 World Series of Poker. In total, nine events have crowned champions, including the largest ever live tournament victor and a feat that hasn’t been done since 2009 in another tournament.
Event #5 – “The Colossus”
In a rapid five hour blast, the champion of “The Colossus” – the finale of the world’s largest live poker tournament – was crowned on Wednesday night. From 22,374 entries, nine men had the opportunity to say they were the best (or had the best luck) at a historic moment in poker. With the $638,880 first place prize on the line (as well as six-digit paydays for seven of the nine men), the players determined the winner very quickly.
Adi Prasetyo held a monstrous lead of 39.3 million chips as the cards went in the air, but Kenny Hallaert (18.575 million and Brad McFarland (14.25 million) were looking to reel Prasetyo back to the pack. McFarland would make the first big noise of the tournament only six hands into play, eliminating Anthony Blanda in ninth place, to move over 19 million in chips. A mere four hands later, David Farber would head to the exits in eighth place courtesy of Paul Lentz, whose Big Slick dominated Farber’s A-9 off suit pre-flop, fell behind when Farber hit on a 10-9-3 flop and came back to take the hand when a King fell on the turn. Prasetyo wasn’t quiet either, taking out Garry Simms in seventh place to move up to 52 million chips (almost half of what was in play).
It was at this point that the wheels came off for Prasetyo, however. He would double up Ray Henson and then fold to an all-in five-bet out of Hallaert to see his stack drop to 30 million, but it was another hand against Henson that saw Prasetyo lose his once-humongous lead. Prasetyo and Henson got it in pre-flop, with Prasetyo’s pocket tens getting coolered by Henson’s pocket Kings, and after a Queen high board Henson had taken the lead and Prasetyo was left with “only” 21 million.
The news would only get worse for Prasetyo. He doubled up Lentz when the duo pushed their stacks to the center and Lentz’ pocket fives went up against Pratseyo’s A-K. A five showed on the flop, but Pratseyo had outs as it was joined by a Queen and a ten. Running sevens on the turn and river weren’t what Prasetyo needed, though, as more of his hard-earned chips slid across the felt. Left with 6 million in front of him, Prasetyo’s move with A-9 was ill-timed as he ran into not only McFarland’s pocket Kings but also Henson’s pocket Queens, eliminating him in sixth place and putting McFarland in the lead.
From there, the pace of the tournament surprisingly only increased. In just 60 minutes, the champion would be determined. Henson was able to knock off Hallaert in fifth place, but gave up a big stack of those chips when Cord Garcia’s pocket Aces held in a three-way all-in with Henson (A-K) and Lentz (A-2), pushing Garcia into the lead with almost 60 million chips and knocking Henson down and Lentz out in fourth. McFarland would administer the coup de grace to Henson, sending him home in third place and setting up a heads-up battle between the virtually even stacks of McFarland (55.425 million) and Garcia (57.1 million).
In slightly more than 15 hands, “The Colossus” was complete. Basically shuttling chips back and forth to each other over the previous hands, Garcia raised the one million big blind to three million and, after a call from McFarland, saw a 4♥ Q♦ 2♦ flop. Garcia threw out a continuation bet that was check-called by McFarland and, after another deuce on the turn, fired a second bullet. McFarland slowed at this point but once again check-called and the 7♦ finished the board. McFarland, still not sure where he was in the hand, checked again and Garcia blasted a third shot across McFarland’s bow. As soon as McFarland got the words “all in” across his lips, Garcia made the call and tabled pocket fours for the full house; McFarland, holding air with his A-8 off suit, was out of the tournament and Cord Garcia was the champion of “The Colossus.”
Cord Garcia, $638,880
Brad McFarland, $386,253
Ray Henson, $308,761
Paul Lentz, $234,927
Kenny Hallaert, $182,348
Adi Prasetyo, $140,956
Garry Simms, $109,632
David Farber, $87,817
Anthony Blanda, $67,681
Event #7 – $10,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship
Seven men (one more than the “official” WSOP final table in this discipline of poker) returned on Tuesday to crown the champion in this tournament, but only one had history facing him. Tuan Le, coming to the final table with a sizeable 1.1 million chip stack, was the defending champion of this particular tournament that is very popular with the professionals. Facing a table with such opposition as Calvin Anderson, Phil Galfond, Rep Porter and Ismael Bojang (from the 109 who started the tournament), Le would face little difficulty in mowing them down.
After Anderson was the final table “bubble boy,” Le opened up his arsenal and destroyed his tablemates. Le extended his lead by knocking off Porter in sixth place while a new challenger, Max Casal, emerged as a potential challenger in sending Obst to the rail in fifth. Galfond challenged Le on several occasions, only to come out on the losing end virtually every time before leaving in fourth place. Once Casal ended the day for Bojang in third, the heads up battle was set.
Both players, Le (2.57 million chips) and Casal (715,000), were familiar with each other from playing at their home casino in Los Angeles (the Commerce Casino). This familiarity enabled Casal to have a bit of a read on the former World Poker Tour World Champion and saw Casal use that knowledge to draw to nearly even with Le at one point of the heads-up match. Unfortunately for Casal, his comeback drive would come up short as Le regained his footing and closed out Casal on the final hand when his Jack-low survived against Casal’s paired hand to win the championship.
Tuan Le, $322,756
Max Casal, $199,438
Ismael Bojang, $130,851
Phil Galfond, $89,939
James Obst, $63,863
Rep Porter, $46,813
With the victory, Le becomes the first player to win the same tournament “back-to-back” at the WSOP since Thang Luu. Luu won the $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo Eights or Better bracelets in both 2008 and 2009 but has been barred (justifiably) from WSOP competition since that time after allegedly breaking a dealer’s hand at the tables in 2010. Le, now with two WSOP bracelets to go along with his two WPT titles, isn’t prone to such mood swings and will most certainly be back in 2016 for this event as he goes for the “three-peat” against the world’s best players.
