The 2016 World Series of Poker rolled along on Wednesday, crowning two more champions during its action. In one tournament, a player who has done a great deal in only five years captured an elusive goal and, in the other tournament, a popular pro was denied his second bracelet of the 2016 WSOP.
Event #19 – $1000 Pot Limit Omaha
After battling through a 1,106 player field, high stakes pro Sam Soverel added to his poker resume by picking up his first WSOP bracelet on Wednesday night at the Rio.
Taking on a mostly unheralded field, Soverel would start the day’s play looking way up the leaderboard. When the final ten were determined, Soverel was behind Garrett Garvin, Henri Ojala, Jeff Landherr, Zachary Hench and Bruno Borges on the leaderboard. Garvin would only extend his lead when, after about an hour of action on Wednesday, he would eliminate Josh Gibson in tenth place to set up the official WSOP final table.
The magic would begin for Soverel once the final nine men were seated. Soverel would eliminate Juuso Leppanen in ninth, his A-A-9-7 finding an unnecessary Ace on the flop against Leppanen’s Q-Q-6-2. Soverel would then double through Ojala, once again with an Aces hand (A-A-7-7) that actually rivered a flush unnecessarily against Ojala’s A-K-10-7. Soverel would then administer the coup de grace to Ojala in eighth place, catching a King on the turn with his A-K-K-J to run down Ojala’s A-A-10-3.
Now with well over a million chips, Soverel sat back and watched. Hench would emerge as a challenger, defeating Jared Koppel when he out-pipped him when both held trip queens (Hench’s Ace played over Koppel’s King). Also rising up the leaderboard was Kirby Lowery, whose elimination of Landherr in sixth place pushed him into the millionaire’s club (as far as chips, anyway). This only seemed to inspire Soverel, however.
Taking down Hench (fourth) and Garvin (third), Soverel would enter heads up play against Lowery with more than a 3:1 lead. After a dinner break, the twosome came back and Soverel made quick work of the remainder of Lowery’s stack. Only 20 minutes after returning, Lowery would three-bet a Soverel raise and, after Soverel called, saw a Q♣ 8♦ 4♣ flop. Lowery continued the pressure, firing a continuation bet out, but Soverel came back with a repot that would take the remainder of Lowery’s chips. Lowery made the call and had some hope:
Lowery: Q♠ 10♥ 9♣ 6♣ (top pair, gut shot straight draw, baby flush draw) Soverel: A♣ K♠ 3♣ 2♣ (two over cards, nut flush draw, backdoor straight/straight flush draw)
But those hopes were crushed on the 10♣ turn. Drawing dead, Lowery wasn’t interested in the 8♥ that completed the board and gave Soverel the WSOP bracelet.
1. Sam Soverel, $185,317
2. Kirby Lowery, $114,486
3. Garrett Garvin, $81,080
4. Zachary Hench, $58,164
5. Bruno Borges, $42,270
6. Jeff Landherr, $31,126
7. Jared Koppel, $23,228
8. Henri Ojala, $17,570
9. Juuso Leppanen, $13,474
It’s been a rapid ascent for Soverel in a short five years. In 2011, Soverel was playing on the Heartland Poker Tour (taking a 13th place finish in an HPT event in Daytona Beach) before making an impact on the World Poker Tour in finishing in second place at the 2011 bestbet Jacksonville WPT event. In 2014, Soverel made the leap to High Roller tournaments, winning the Aria $50,000 Super High Roller 4 for a $480,200 score. He has become a staple on the High Roller circuit, but this is the first time that he has been able to pick up a major tour victory. It makes you wonder what the next five years might have in store for Soverel.
Event #20 – $10,000 Seven Card Razz World Championship
Despite Soverel’s notoriety in the high stakes world, many eyes were on the Event #20 final table, the $10,000 Seven Card Razz World Championship. Replete with some of the biggest names in the game, it also was putting a buzz through the Rio because of one of the players sitting at the felt.
Jason Mercier was the player causing the buzz and not just because of his final table leading chip stack of 1.595 million. Of more interest to some around the Rio was the prop bet that Mercier has with fellow pro Vanessa Selbst as to whether he could win three bracelets during the run of the WSOP (for the record, Selbst also has the same bet with European wunderkind Dmitry Urbanovich). If Mercier does win three bracelets, he stands to collect $1.8 million (180-1 odds on a $10,000 bet) from Selbst, but the bet has also caused its share of heated rhetoric.
After picking up his fourth WSOP bracelet earlier this week, Selbst allegedly tried to buy out of the bet for $100,000. Mercier refused the offer, however, sending Selbst off to report on the “facts” of the bet to the poker community (that she had been drunk when making it and Mercier refused to let her off the hook). Thus, there was some tension as the eight men came to the felt to determine a champion on Wednesday.
Mercier came out of the gates fast on Wednesday, taking pots from what seemed to be every other member of the final table (Brian Hastings, John Racener, Bart Hanson and Yueqi Zhu). Only Ray Dehkharghani seemed to avoid the rampage of Mercier, while Jyri Merivirta only avoided it by being eliminated in eighth place before Mercier got his engines warmed up. Once Mercier eliminated Robert Campbell in fifth place, he was the only player over the two million chip mark.
After Mercier left him running on fumes, Hastings left the event in fourth place at the hands of Zhu. A break ensued following Hastings’ departure, with the final three players – Mercier (2.49 million), Dehkharghani (1.375 million) and Zhu (1.135 million) – priming themselves for the battle ahead. Once again Mercier came out of the gate fast, but Dehkharghani proved to be a formidable opponent as he hurt Mercier’s stack in taking the lead and crippling Zhu to only 113K in chips; Zhu’s chips would end up in Mercier’s stack once he was eliminated in third place.
With a 900K chip lead, Dehkharghani wasn’t a shoo-in to beat a motivated Mercier for the WSOP bracelet. In fact, within the first couple of hands, Mercier completely reversed the standings, holding over three million chips while Dehkharghani was just under two million. Over a two-and-a-half-hour battle, however, Dehkharghani was able to frustrate Mercier, whittling down his stack until the penultimate hand.
On that last battle, Dehkharghani brought in and, after Mercier completed, called to pick up a pair of nines on Fourth Street, not the most advantageous hand in the game of Razz. Dehkharghani would call a bet out of Mercier, however, and saw a ten to go against Mercier’s 4-J-5 up cards. When Mercier fired a bet on Fifth Street, Dehkharghani decided to strike, pushing a raise out for the remainder of Mercier’s chips. Mercier called and showed a (7-5) 4-J-5 for an unwanted pair, but he was ahead of Dehkharghani’s unwanted (8-6) 9-9-10 that did hold some potential. On Sixth Street, Mercier received a King to make a King-low, but Dehkharghani picked up a seven to make his ten-low (remember, straights don’t matter in Razz) to leave Mercier drawing dead and earn the title for Dehkharghani.
1. Ray Dehkharghani, $273,338
2. Jason Mercier, $168,936
3. Yueqi Zhu, $116,128
4. Brian Hastings, $82,078
5. Robert Campbell, $59,694
6. John Racener, $44,712
7. Bart Hanson, $34,521
8. Jyri Merivirta, $27,499
