In a tournament ripe with history, Germany’s Moritz Kranich took down the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bellagio Cup VI title. Kranich earned $875,000 and tasted victory on the first U.S. stop of the 2010-2011 WPT season.
Eric Afriat was the first casualty of the WPT Bellagio Cup VI final table. After an ace was inadvertently flipped up during the deal, Afriat shoved with pocket fives before the flop and Justin “Boosted J” Smith, who finished third in this tournament last year, made the call with pocket jacks. Neither player improved when the five community cards were dealt and Afriat earned $118,000 for his efforts.
Four hands later, it was Rob Akery’s witching hour. Akery pushed all-in pre-flop with A-J, but ran into the buzz saw that is Phil Ivey, who turned over A-Q. Neither player improved and Akery banked $169,000. Ivey made an appearance at a record-setting ninth WPT final table. The 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Niner and 2010 bracelet winner has a dozen in the money finishes in WPT tournaments; nine are for final tables.
John Caridad was the WPT Bellagio Cup’s fourth place finisher. After doubling up Kranich when his A-Q could not withstand A-9, Caridad shipped his four big blind stack with J-6. However, his timing was far from stellar, as Smith made the call with pocket queens. Caridad hit a six on the river, but it was still not enough to scoop the pot and he found the rail with a $237,000 bankroll boost.
On the 149th hand of final table play, Ivey hit the skids in third place. The crowd favorite and hometown poker pro dropped a 3.3 million chip pot to Kranich after being out-kicked only to commit his chips pre-flop with Q-4 offsuit. Smith made the call with K-8 and promptly flopped an eight to retain the lead in the hand. Kranich took better than a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Smith, 9.2 million to 4.9 million.
It took 10 hands for Smith to scoop his first pot of heads-up action against Kranich. The German was up 4:1 at that point and it seemed to be only a matter of time before he’d close it out. However, Smith brought a wealth of heads-up expertise to the table after dominating the poker format in the online world coming up in the game. Smith doubled with K-10 against A-4 to make matters interesting, drawing to within 2:1 in chips.
On the 186th hand of the final table, Smith called all-in pre-flop with a wired pair of jacks. Kranich turned over K-10, but flopped a gutshot straight draw. Then, he hit lightning in a bottle on the turn, as the king of diamonds hit the board to send him into the lead for good with a pair. No help came on the river and Kranich was crowed the champion of the WPT Bellagio Cup VI.
Here’s how the final six cashed out in the $10,000 buy-in tournament:
1. Moritz Kranich – $875,150
2. Justin “Boosted J” Smith – $594,755
3. Phil Ivey – $363,650
4. John Caridad – $237,902
5. Robert Akery – $169,930
6. Eric Afriat – $118,950
Kranich caught up with our very own Sean Gibson following his big win and talked about facing off against Smith and Ivey three-handed: “I think they respect me also. We didn’t have a lot of fights with three of us until we had to.” On the final hand of the tournament, Kranich candidly admitted, “He trapped me. He played it well. I sucked out.”
