After a quick seven hour session on Friday, the World Poker Tour World Championship final table has been set. Going to play on Saturday afternoon at the Borgata in Atlantic City Keven Stammen, the current leader of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race, holds a big chip lead over a talented field of contenders.
Of the 18 men who came back on Friday for Day 4, most of the eyes were on chip leader Eric Afriat and his potential to make history. Afriat, the winner of the stop prior to the WPT World Championship (the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown), was looking to become only the second player in WPT history to win back-to-back titles. As the only player over two million chips, Afriat still faced challenges from fellow WPT Champions’ Cup titleholders Anthony Gregg and Bobby Oboodi as well as Justin Young and Brock Parker (and that was just on his table).
Afriat watched as players began to mount their charges towards his position atop the field. Abe Korotki was one of the first to do that, moving up to just under two million in chips after clashing with Stammen in an early hand, while Gregg would pass him for the chip lead after clashing with Byron Kaverman on two different occasions. After only slightly more than a level of play (action was stopped on Thursday with some time on the clock), only three players – David Grandieri, Glenn Lafaye and Hanz Winzeler (18th through 16th places, respectively) – had been whittled from the field.
Gregg would be able to accumulate more chips to solidify his lead over the second full level of play on Friday. He picked up pocket Aces to take a hand over Afriat to approach the three million mark, then would blast over that level to 3.3 million in taking some chips from Curt Kohlberg. Two players, Tony Dunst and Chris O’Rourke, would stave off elimination by doubling up twice during the level, with Dunst able to push over a million as O’Rourke came back after a crippling defeat at the hands of Ryan D’Angelo.
After Young was knocked out by Parker in fifteenth place, O’Rourke’s remarkable recovery would come to a close. In one of those “bad timing” cases, O’Rourke would push his stack to the center with pocket nines and, sitting right next to him, Stammen woke up with pocket Queens and moved all in over him to isolate. After the board came down 7-7-5-10-7, both men had made full houses but Stammen’s was better, sending O’Rourke out in 14th place.
Stammen now went on the offensive, picking off a bluff from Dunst to crack the two million chip level, but Kohlberg was also making some noise. He took a 300K chip pot off of Afriat to approach the one million mark, but it was a double up through chip leader Gregg that got him healthy. On an A♥ 5♥ 2♦ flop, Kohlberg would get his chips in against Gregg, showing down an A♣ Q♣ (top pair) as Gregg mustered a K♥ 8♥ (flush draw) to go to battle. The deuce on the turn and the unnecessary Queen on the river only improved Kohlberg as he moved up over 1.8 million in chips and Gregg came back to the pack a bit at 2.4 million.
Stammen continued a “slow and steady” approach, picking off Oboodi in 12th place after catching up with an A-Q against Oboodi’s pocket sixes on a J-3-3-A-3 board. As he rested, Kaverman ended Afriat’s run at back-to-back titles when he dismissed Afriat in 11th place. As the final ten men came to the unofficial final table, Kaverman held the lead over Stammen and the remainder of the field was playing catch up.
Only three hands into the final table, Parker got his chips in with pocket nines, but they were no match for Kohlberg’s pocket Kings, which resulted in Parker’s departure in 10th place. Five hands later, Stammen would retake the lead in eliminating Corey Hochman in ninth place when his Big Slick faded Hochman’s A-J and move to 3.6 million chips. The final eight men then settled in for a spell as, for over 20 hands, they were content to shuffle chips.
Kaverman once again made his statement for the lead in eliminating Tom Dobrilovic in eighth place on Hand 29 as Kaverman’s pocket tens bested Dobrilovic’s pocket threes. Sitting on over four million chips, you might have thought that Kaverman would sit back and cruise to the final table, but he didn’t. Kaverman instead went on the attack, eventually crossing the five million chip threshold in bullying Dunst out of a pot on Hand 35.
Stunningly, however, Kaverman didn’t maintain that chip lead. In a battle between two men who had been fighting each other most of the day – Gregg and Stammen – Hand 45 would lead to the conclusion of Day 4 play. On a Q-9-8 rainbow flop, Stammen bet out and both Kaverman and Gregg would come along. Another nine on the turn brought checks to Kaverman, who popped the pot for 325K, but Gregg now went for the raise to one million in chips. Stammen didn’t even slow down, immediately three-betting to 1.6 million and, after Kaverman folded, Gregg suddenly moved all in for his remaining stack, which Stammen called.
Gregg felt triumphant in showing down his K-9 off suit for turned trip nines, but Stammen displayed J-10 for the flopped nut straight and the lead in the hand. Looking to fade a host of outs (three eights, the case nine, three Queens and three Kings), the board brought the hand to Stammen in coming down as the A♣, eliminating Gregg in seventh place ending the day’s play and setting up this final table for the WPT World Championship:
1. Keven Stammen, 5.65 million
2. Byron Kaverman, 4.07 million
3. Abe Korotki, 2.56 million
4. Curt Kohlberg, 1.58 million
5. Tony Dunst, 1.33 million
6. Ryan D’Angelo, 1.22 million
Overall, it is a quality final table that will vie for the WPT World Championship. Dunst is already a member of the WPT Champions’ Club, while Korotki, Kohlberg and D’Angelo are fixtures on the tournament circuit. It will be tough for any of these men, however, to rise to the levels of Kaverman and Stammen, who should duke it out for the championship.
The final table begins at 4PM (Eastern Time) and will be streamed live with a host of characters taking Dunst’s place in the booth. Dave Farra, Rich Ryan, Team partypoker Pros Jamie Kerstetter, Scott Baumstein and Kara Scott will all take turns on the mike as they look to close out Season XII of the World Poker Tour in crowning their World Champion.
