By early Tuesday morning at the 2016 World Series of Poker, the latest two bracelets had been awarded to their fortunate winners. The “Colossus II” finally came to a conclusion and awarded its million dollar first place prize, while the Dealer’s Choice tournament came to a close just after dinner was completed on Monday night.
Event #2 – $65 “Colossus II” No Limit Hold’em
With $1 million out there for the eventual champion of the tournament, the nine players who vied for the Colossus II championship were extremely motivated, to say the least. Jiri Horak was perhaps in best position to take the tournament, amassing over 25 million chips to reach the final table as the chip leader, but Benjamin Keeline was close by with almost 20 million chips. There wasn’t a real “name” player amongst the survivors (Keeline, a WSOP Circuit ring winner, was arguably the most notable), meaning that a new poker “hero” would be crowned on this day.
Coming in with six million chips on the second shortest stack, Xiu Deng had her work cut out for her. When she saw Horak raise and Keeline call in front of her on Hand 6 and stared down at an A-J off suit, Deng felt she’d found a good spot to push and proceeded to put the chips in the center. While Horak let it go, Keeline wasn’t so willing to drop his cards and made the call. It was a race, Keeline’s pocket nines against Deng’s holdings, and there was paint on the flop. It was a Queen, however, and after the board completed without an Ace or a Jack, Deng was out in ninth place and Keeline took over the lead.
Over 45 hands later, the next elimination would take place. This time Horak did the honors, taking down Jonathan Borenstein who chose the wrong moment for an all-in against a Horak raise. Horak’s pocket Aces dominated Borenstein’s K-J off suit and, although a King came on the flop, there was no additional help as Borenstein finished in eighth place. Only five hands later, Keeline got back in the knockout game in taking down Alex Benjamen after Benjamen made a questionable all in move off the button with J-9 off suit and Keeline called from the big blind with an equally questionable A-7 off suit; the King high board didn’t connect, giving Keeline the hand.
Keeline would continue to be active and fortunate. He cruelly beat Christopher Renaudette’s A-J with a 9-7 when the board gave Keeline a straight, sending him home in sixth place, and would take care of Richard Carr’s pocket Queens when Keeline’s pocket Kings ruled supreme after both flopped sets. Not to be left out, Horak also jumped in the action, taking out Marek Ohnisco in fifth place and Farhad Davoudzadeh in third place to reach heads up play against Keeline.
Horak had pulled into the lead with the elimination of Davoudzadeh, 63 million chips to Keeline’s 45 million, but the battle was far from over. The duo would play more hands heads up (123) than it took to reach that point (111) and the lead would flow back and forth between the twosome. For almost a half hour, they fought it out with only a few million chips between them before the final dramatic hand came down.
After a raise from Horak (slightly behind in chips at this point), Keeline pushed all in and Horak made the call. Keeline’s black pocket Jacks were racing against Horak’s A-9 off suit and a nine on the flop opened some more doors for Horak. A third spade came on the turn with a six and a fourth spade came with the Ace of spades. Thinking he had the hand won, Horak leapt in celebration, but then the realization hit him; the fourth spade had given Keeline a flush, knocking off his Aces up and earning Benjamin Keeline the “Colossus II” title.
1. Benjamin Keeline, $1,000,000
2. Jiri Horak, $618,000
3. Farhad Davoudzadeh, $462,749
4. Richard Carr, $348,462
5. Marek Ohnisko, $263,962
6. Christopher Renaudette, $201,151
7. Alex Benjamen, $154,208
8. Jonathan Borenstein, $118,937
9. Xiu Deng, $92,291
Event #3 – $1500 Six Handed Dealer’s Choice
Nine men came back on Tuesday to determine the champion of the Dealer’s Choice, but they weren’t at the final table just yet. Because of the six-handed requirement, the nine players were still split between two tables when action commenced, with Lawrence Berg looking to keep the wolves at bay. His closest challenger when the cards hit the air was WSOP bracelet winner Paul Volpe, who was poised to strike with his 674,500 in chips.
Playing like they had a plane to catch, the official final table was determined within the first hour of play. Ryan Himes went down in ninth place at the hands of Joey Couden in Limit Hold’em, Randy Ohel walked away in eighth at the hands of Volpe in Omaha Hold’em and, after a redraw for the final seven on one table, Daniel Habl was dismissed by Yuequi Zhu in seventh place playing Five Card Draw. The pace didn’t slow down after the determination of the official final table when Andrew Brown knocked off John Templeton in sixth while playing Seven Card Stud.
Berg had maintained his lead through all the carnage, but he was about to suffer some adversity. After getting a big stack of chips from Volpe in Razz, Brown would scoop Berg in Badeucey and Couden would double through him in Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. That double wasn’t enough for Couden, however, as Brown would take him out in fifth place playing Omaha Hi/Lo.
Brown now became the table captain, cracking the million chip mark in besting Volpe in Razz and shooting up to 1.35 million against Volpe and Zhu playing No Limit Deuce to Seven Single Draw. When he took more chips from Volpe in Badugi, Brown went to the break with 1.45 million in chips.
It seemed every player got a chance to hold the top slot on the leaderboard, but none of the remaining four could really get control of the table. Just as one player captured the lead, he would give it up to another as the cards buzzed around the tables. It wasn’t until the sun started fading in the west that Berg seized control of the event, eliminating Volpe in fourth just before the dinner break. After that time out, Berg came back to eliminate Brown while playing Badeucey to go to heads up with a nice lead over Zhu.
That end would come in a three-hand winning streak for Berg in Omaha Hi/Lo. On the third and final hand, Zhu moved all in pre-flop and Berg called, his 10-7-6-2 going up against Zhu’s 9-7-4-2. An A-Q-4 flop gave Zhu a pair to hold a tenuous lead, but an eight on the turn gave a gut shot straight draw to Berg. When a five hit the river, Berg looked to the dealer and asked, “Scoop?” Sure enough, the 7-6 in Berg’s hand gave him the scoop and the WSOP bracelet.
1. Lawrence Berg, $125,466
2. Yueqi Zhu, $77,526
3. Andrew Brown, $50,250
4. Paul Volpe, $33,393
5. Joseph Couden, $22,765
6. John Templeton, $15,932
