It may not be the most lucrative score someone will have at the Rio in Las Vegas this summer. It may not be the most prestigious event. But it’s the first gold bracelet awarded at the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the $70,859 that Chiab “Chip” Saechao won along with it in the Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em event will spend just fine.
Saechao went into Day 2 of the Casino Employees event with the most chips of any of the 46 remaining players of the 732 that began the tournament. And for a while it looked like smooth sailing, as both he and James Routos, who was just behind him to start the day, were the top two stacks with just 27 players still alive. But as the final table drew near, Saechao’s road got rocky as he took hit after hit. By the time the tournament had reached its final nine players, Saechao was just barely hanging on, sitting behind 99,000 chips, good for the second lowest stack at the final table. With blinds and antes at 5,000/10,000/1,000, our eventual champ had some work to do and work to do quickly.
About 15 minutes in, Saechao began his ascent, doubling up through Georgi Ivanov to grow his stack to 190,000. He then held steady for the better part of an hour before taking another big leap. He called a 25,000 pre-flop raise by Routos and the two saw a flop of J♠-5♦-J♦. Saechao bet 35,000, Routos called, and the dealer put down the K♥ on the turn. Saechao then check-called a 60,000 chip bet before the river card of K♣. Both players checked the river, though with K♠-Q♥, Saechao was hoping Routos would bet. Nevertheless, he was up to 320,000 chips after that hand while Routos fell to 190,000.
After falling back to around 200,000 during the next couple hours, Saechao bounced back with a double through Ray Pulford, flopping a Queen with his Q♠-J♥ to best Pulford’s 6♣-6♥. He almost immediately doubled-up again, this time at the expense of Patricia Baker, out-racing her A♦-Q♠ with his T♦-T♠ (she flopped a Queen, but he turned a set and rivered a full house for good measure).
He continued his run, using pocket Aces to eliminate Nicolas Vaca-Rondon in 5th place and then taking a quarter-million chip pot from Baker to lift himself over the 1 million chip mark. When Chiab Saechao finally knocked out Routos in 3rd place at about quarter to two in the morning, he went into heads-up play against Baker with a 1.6 million to 600,000 chip lead.
It didn’t take long, maybe 20 minutes, for Saechao to seal the victory. After taking a bite out of Baker’s chip stack to send her down to 360,000, Saechao opened the final hand by limping from the button. Baker called and flop came down T♦-2♦-7♥. Baker checked, Saechao bet 35,000, and Baker called. Baker then checked in the dark before the turn card of 6♠ and Saechao obliged with a check of his own. When the 6♦ was dealt on the river, Baker moved all-in for 200,000. Saechao insta-called, though he wasn’t totally confident that his flush with J♦-4♦ was good. It was, as Baker held 8♣-9♣ for a turned straight, only to be victimized on the river.
With that, Chiab Saechao, the 35-year old blackjack dealer at the Tachi Casino in Lemoore, CA had his first live cash and first ever World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
2012 WSOP Event #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Chiab Saechao – $70,859
2. Patricia Baker – $43,754
3. James Routos – $28,206
4. Ray Pulford – $20,663
5. Nicolas Vaca-Rondon – $15,359
6. Jay Pinkussohn – $11,571
7. Steven Phan – $8,824
8. Matthew Wilmot – $6,808
9. Georgi Ivanov – $5,309
