As the 2016 World Series of Poker nears its halfway mark, three more bracelets were awarded at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. One was a tournament that needed some overtime to take care of business, while the other two events played out as scheduled on Saturday.
Event #23 – $2000 No Limit Hold’em
Two men, Bulgaria’s Viliyan Petleshkov (8.175 million) and Spain’s Cesar Garcia (5.48 million) were the final two men left standing on Friday evening when the WSOP curfew sounded its bell. While they both may have wanted to continue the fight, it was necessary for both men to take the benefit of an extra day of play. Having played for 12 hours on Friday, the men came back at 1PM on Saturday afternoon, refreshed and ready to take care of the remaining business.
As to whom the rest benefitted the most, it had to have been Garcia. Garcia doubled up through Petleshkov when, on an 8♥ 5♣ 3♥ flop, the money went to the center with Garcia holding bottom two pair and Petleshkov holding J♥ 9♥ for the flush draw. The J♣ on the turn gave Petleshkov a few more outs to the championship, but none of them would come home; a 10♦ on the river gave the double to Garcia and the chip lead.
From that point on, Garcia could do no wrong. It would take another half-hour of play, but Garcia would eventually get Petleshkov’s chips in the center. On the penultimate hand, Garcia limped the button and, after Petleshkov fired a bet over him, decided to put the Bulgarian to the test with an all-in move. Petleshkov was up to the task, making the call and showing a live K-J off suit against Garcia’s A-6 off suit. Once the eight high board rolled off, Garcia had captured his first WSOP championship in strong fashion.
1. Cesar Garcia, $447,739
2. Viliyan Petleshkov, $276,660
3. Yuriy Boyko, $198,185*
4. Adrian Buckley, $143,598*
5. Kamel Mokhammad, $105,253*
6. Craig McCorkell, $78,053*
7. Craig Varnell, $58,569*
8. Thiago Nishijima, $44,478*
9. Anthony Spinella, $34,188*
(* – eliminated on Friday night, at official final table)
As a side note, this tournament was the most international one of the WSOP to date. Spain, Bulgaria, Ireland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the United States all fielded at least one member of the final table (the U. S. had three).
Event #25 – $2500 No Limit Hold’em
In the first of two tournaments that would stretch the boundaries of the WSOP curfew system. Michael Gagliano was able to withstand 1045 players to take down his first ever WSOP bracelet early on Sunday morning.
24 players were still alive on Saturday afternoon when the tournament resumed and they wasted little time in getting down to the final table. When start of day chip leader Michael Scarborough was eliminated by Zu Zhou in 10th place, the final nine men came together with everyone packed tightly together on the leaderboard. Zhou held the chips lead with 2.38 million markers, but Darryll Fish was right on his tail and Michael Laake wasn’t far behind him. Gagliano wasn’t threatening anyone at this time, holding only 955K in chips and in the bottom half of the standings.
Gagliano got into the mix when he doubled up through Gavin O’Rourke when his pocket sixes were able to find a four-flush against O’Rourke’s pocket nines that had actually flopped a set. Gagliano stayed out of the way of much of the action between that point and the dinner break, which enabled him to work into third position behind Laake and Zhou. Still, with eight men left, it was anyone’s tournament.
After the sustenance, Gagliano slowly began to build an empire. He would crack the three million chip mark by Hand #90 of the final table, but it would take him nearly the same amount of hands to move over four million in eliminating Remi Castaignon in fourth place. By the time Gagliano took out Shankar Pillai in third place, Gagliano had built a two million chip lead over Daniel Cooke.
The twosome jousted for a bit until Gagliano seized the tournament by the throat. Having lost the lead to Cooke, Gagliano got his chips in on a K-8-7-9 flop and turn. Cooke’s K-3 off suit was crushed by Gagliano’s 6-5 for the turned straight and, after the river Queen was ceremoniously dealt, Gagliano grabbed a 10:1 lead over Cooke with the double up.
It would take another 24 hands of battle against the valiant Cooke before Gagliano could take down the championship, however. On the final hand, Cooke would move all in and, after Gagliano called, saw his K-Q off suit was live but behind Gagliano’s A-9. A 9-8-7 flop pushed Gagliano into the lead further and, after no paint came on the turn or rive, Cooke was vanquished in second place and Gagliano took down the prize.
1. Michael Gagliano, $448,463
2. Daniel Cooke, $277,128
3. Shankar Pillai, $196,119
4. Remi Castaignon, $140,596
5. Zu Zhou, $102,120
6. Niall Farrell, $75,164
7. Michael Laake, $56,073
8. Darryll Fish, $42,405
9. Gavin O’Rourke, $32,514
Event #26 – $1500 Omaha Hold’em Hi/Lo Eights or Better
As Event #25 was coming to its conclusion, Event #26, the $1500 Omaha Hold’em Hi/Lo Eights or Better tournament found its end. Benny Glaser would emerge victorious in this event, the sole survivor from the 934 player field.
27 players came back for the restart on Saturday and they wasted no time getting to business. 10 players departed within the first couple hours of action and, after another two and a half hours, the unofficial final table of 10 had been determined. By the time that Joe Ford was eliminated by Phillip Hui in tenth place after the dinner break, Glaser was at the helm of the ship holding a monstrous stack of chips (2.4 million) with such notables as Max Pescatori and Brandon Shack-Harris looking to take him down.
That didn’t happen, however. Glaser would top the three million chip mark in eliminating Zachary Milchman in sixth place as the night owls watched the final table at 1AM, then would bump Shack-Harris out in fifth to move past four million. After Hui (fourth) and Motohiro Kondo (third) fell at the hands of Glaser, Benjamin Gold was the last man left and he had a significant four million chip disadvantage to Glaser. Within 15 minutes of heads up play, Glaser would finish off the job in rivering a better two pair (Queens up) to Gold (tens up) to capture his second WSOP bracelet as the vacuums sounded in the Amazon Room.
1. Benny Glaser, $244,103
2. Benjamin Gold, $150,828
3. Motohiro Kondo, $106,070
4. Phillip Hui, $75,627
5. Brandon Shack-Harris, $54,680
6. Zachary Milchman, $40,098
7. Ilya Krupin, $29,830
8. Max Pescatori, $22,517
9. Scott Packer, $17,250