Working its way into its third weekend of the schedule, the 2015 World Series of Poker had arguably one of its busiest days yet in the series. There were four bracelets awarded throughout Saturday – three from scheduled events and one that had been suspended from Friday – as the tournament schedule drew closer to the halfway mark of its run.
Event #24 – $1500 H.O.R.S.E.
In the carryover event from early Saturday morning, Robert Campbell came back as the chip leader over Arash Ghaneian and David Levi to complete the crowning of a champion on Saturday afternoon. Campbell and Ghaneian both held over two million in chips and Levi, with his paltry 800K, was in trouble virtually from the start of action. Although he was able to double up on a couple of occasions, Levi was unable to string them together to get anything going and was eliminated from the tournament during Razz in third place at the hands of Ghaneian.
Ghaneian, who took over a slim chip lead (approximately one million chips) over Campbell in eliminating Levi, suffered in the first few hands of heads up play. Through both Hold’em and Omaha Hi/Lo, Ghaneian would lose the lead to Campbell before regaining it in a stunning hand of Stud Hi/Lo that would decide the tournament.
Campbell brought in showing a 10♠ against Ghaneian’s Q♦ and would make it two bets after Ghaneian completed, drawing a call from Ghaneian. Ghaneian check-called another Campbell bet after getting a 10♥ against Campbell’s 7♦ and both men slowed down on Sixth Street after Ghaneian pulled an 8♥ and Campbell paired with a 10♣. Once both men received their down cards, Campbell fired a bet and Ghaneian called, saying succinctly, “I have a flush” in showing an A♥ 6♥ 5♥ rolled in the hole, good enough for the Seventh Street nut flush. Campbell could only muster a 10-6-x in his hole cards for a set of tens that weren’t good enough as Ghaneian took a sizeable lead.
Although Campbell wouldn’t go easily, Ghaneian’s path to the championship was set. During Omaha Hi/Lo, Ghaneian limped in to see Campbell shove all in over the top, which Ghaneian called. Ghaneian’s K-Q-3-2 was behind Campbell’s A-9-7-5 pre-flop, but the 7-2-K flop nailed Ghaneian squarely for two pair and Campbell drawing at a seven-five low. A Jack on the turn helped neither player, but the King on the river sealed the deal for Ghaneian with a full house and no low draw available.
1. Arash Ghaneian, $239,750
2. Robert Campbell, $148,096
3. David Levi, $100,676
4. Ronald Schiffman, $70,067*
5. Michael Trivett, $49,775*
6. Mike Watson, $36,080*
7. Jonathan Pineda, $26,669*
8. Jeffrey Mitseff, $20,093*
* – eliminated on Friday
Event #25 – $5000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em
Defeating some of the best young poker professionals in the game, high school teacher and football coach Jeff Tomlinson emerged as the champion of Event #25 early Sunday morning.
Tomlinson came to the final table in the middle of the pack, fourth place with his 1.363 million in chips. Dangers lurked all around him as Jonathan Jaffe, Jonathan Little, Dan O’Brien, Anthony Zinno and Dominik Nitsche were arranged against him. If that wasn’t enough, the chip leader Pierre Milan (3.031 million) had more than two times Tomlinson’s chip stack.
Little took over the chip lead only eight hands into the final table when he took out O’Brien in eighth place, but Tomlinson brought him back to the pack when Tomlinson made a flush against Little. Tomlinson would get even healthier when he doubled up through Jaffe, moving into second place in the tournament. Once Tomlinson took down Jaffe in fourth place, he solidified his second place status behind Milan and ahead of Nitsche.
Milan seemed to be destined to win the tournament when he took out Nitsche in third to go to heads up against Tomlinson with more than a 2:1 lead. Tomlinson would steadily chip up, however, taking over the lead after 40 hands of heads up play. The duo would joust with each other for another 90 hands, swapping the lead back and forth, before Tomlinson would finish off Milan with pocket Aces on Hand #231.
1. Jeff Tomlinson, $567,724
2. Pierre Milan, $350,994
3. Dominik Nitsche, $220,657
4. Jonathan Jaffe, $158,373
5. Andrius Bielskis, $115,507
6. Jonathan Little, $85,616
7. Anthony Zinno, $64,484
8. Dan O’Brien, $49,331
Event #26 – $1000 Pot Limit Omaha
Defeating a field of talented newcomers, Aaron Wallace took down his first major championship – also his virgin WSOP cash and final table – in winning Event #26 after a lengthy battle that stretched into Sunday.
The final nine men weren’t exactly household names to the casual poker fan, but each man had a solid background in either online or live poker in outlasting the 1293 player field. Wallace was in second place behind Marko Neumann when the final table started but his stack would yo-yo throughout the final table. While he eliminated Thomas Kearney in ninth, he would donate chips to several other players to never mount much of an early charge. Meanwhile, Neumann would run over the remainder of the field, eliminating Noah Merritt in third to go to heads up against Wallace with over four million of the 6.5 million chips in play.
On the very first hand of heads up, Wallace switched the script in taking over the chip lead, but Neumann came back on the next hand to earn a double of his own to retake the lead. This continued for several hands until Wallace was able to win two hands in a row to earn all the chips and the championship of the event.
1. Aaron Wallace, $226,985
2. Marko Neumann, $140,353
3. Noah Merritt, $88,801
4. Jeroen Choiner, $64,457
5. Daniel Zack, $47,548
6. Chase Steely, $35,609
7. Balazs Somodi, $27,056
8. Curtis Krushelniski, $20,830
9. Thomas Kearney, $16,245
Event #27 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship
Maintaining the lead he brought into the final table, Brian Hastings earned his second WSOP bracelet in defeating 91 of the toughest Stud players in the game today in rather rapid fashion on Saturday.
Hastings ran roughshod over a final table that included such notables as 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Max Pescatori, two-time WSOP bracelet holders Dan Kelly and Scott Clements and the only lady left in the event, Oxana Cummings. Hastings would eliminate Pescatori in eighth place before taking a huge hand against Kelly to crack the million chip mark. Hastings would seize half of the chips in play on the table when he nearly took every chip off Harley Thrower in one hand and finished the job in eliminating Thrower in sixth moments later.
Hastings would continue to steamroll the table, eliminating Cummings in fifth in building up a stack that threatened the 2.5 million mark. Clements was the only one who seemed to have any momentum at the table (other than Hastings) but, by the time he joined Hastings for heads up action, Clements was still facing more than a 2:1 deficit. As such, the heads up battle never materialized as Hastings nailed a flush in five streets to vanquish Clements’ multitude of missed draws (only one, a better flush, would have won him the hand) and win the championship.
1. Brian Hastings, $239,518
2. Scott Clements, $148,001
3. Dan Kelly, $92,691
4. Chris George, $67,114
5. Oxana Cummings, $52,453
6. Harley Thrower, $41,829
7. Mikhail Semin, $33,967
8. Max Pescatori, $28,031
