In what was a grueling eight hour final table, Allen Carter – a player with only two previous cashes in his tournament poker career – outlasted two veterans of the game to become the champion of the World Poker Tour’s Southern Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, MS.
The action started on Thursday with 283 runners coming to the line for the only WPT event to be held in the southern United States. The field represented almost a 10% increase over last year’s field and is the first tournament in the current WPT season to have more players that the year before. By the end of Day One, there was a surprise for those in store as two women, Esther Taylor and Jacquelyn Scott, held the top two spots on the leader board.
Day Two would not be kind to those ladies or to another 145 people, as they were eliminated in what was a day of carnage for those on the felt on the Mississippi coast. Joining the Day One leaders on the rail were such notable pros as “Miami John” Cernuto, Scott Clements, T. J. Cloutier, Hoyt Corkins and 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren. With only 27 players taking any prize money home – and a $1 million first place bounty for the winner – there were some notable players who lived through Day Two to take their shot at the title.
Day Three saw the field whittled down to the final six who would take part in the television taping of the WPT event. Poker News Daily guest columnist Bernard Lee was one of those who fell short of making the final table, but his 23rd place finish earned him a slight return on his investment. He was joined by other notable names such as Ted Lawson and Hevad “Rain” Khan on the rail as the final table was determined. With the eliminations of Tony Cousineau (8th) and Vanessa Rousso (7th), the final table was set for action:
Seat 1: Three time WSOP bracelet winner Hilbert Shirey – 1.353 million in chips
Seat 2: California poker veteran Bobby Suer – 651K
Seat 3: WSOPC New Orleans ring winner Tyler “Tydean” Smith – 1.271M
Seat 4: Day Two leader Allen Carter – 1.673M
Seat 5: Dominating chip leader Soheil Shamseddin – 3.091M
Seat 6: Newcomer Hyong “Chuck” Kim – 486K
Shamseddin had been extremely aggressive as the players dropped away, but there was little action as the final table started Saturday afternoon. It took nearly 100 hands for the first elimination to take place as the players were cautions with their chips. When the first elimination came, it was Chuck Kim. The Las Vegas resident had played his short stack extremely well and was in great position to double up through chip leader Shamseddin with Big Slick on Hand 94, but Shamseddin rivered a nine with his A-9 to brutally eliminate Kim from the proceedings in sixth place.
After Kim’s elimination, the table loosened up and the eliminations began to flow. Barely ten hands after Kim’s departure from the final table, Tyler Smith tried his luck with A-K, only to get the same results. After Smith reraised Hilbert Shirey, Bobby Suer got into the mix by moving his stack all in as well. Shirey dropped out and Smith was behind Suer’s pocket Queens. When the board brought no help for him, Tyler Smith was done in fifth place.
Shirey was simply unlucky during the final table. He could never find a hand and, when he did, someone normally had a better one to push him out of the pot. On Hand 109, the three-time WSOP bracelet winner pushed the remainder of his stack in with J-10 suited, only to get snap called by Suer with only an A-8. An Ace on the flop gave Suer the lead and he added a second pair with an eight on the river, eliminating Shirey in fourth place.
While Shamseddin led the early action at the table, he slowly bled away chips as the night wore on at the Beau Rivage. He had used a highly aggressive style all through the tournament and kept up that aggression, sometimes to his detriment. Shamseddin went to war against Carter on Hand 123 and, on a board of K-10-5-10-A, moved all his chips in on the river. Carter immediately called and showed Q-10 for trips. Shamseddin went to muck his cards, but was told he had to show them; all he could produce was J-7 for Jack high and Shamseddin bluffed his way out of the tournament in third place.
Carter held a slight lead over Suer as heads up action began, but he increased that lead as heads up action wore on. After twenty hands of play, Suer was able to stay alive by doubling up through Carter, but it would only take another ten hands for the champion to be determined.
After staying alive with a double up on Hand 153, Suer moved his chips to the center again on the very next hand. Carter called and showed an A-4 against Suer’s A-K. After an innocuous flop of J-5-3, Suer was now in danger of losing the hand to Carter’s wheel draw. A deuce came on the turn, completing the wheel for Carter and, once the river didn’t bring a four to chop the pot, eliminated Bobby Suer in second place.
The 2009 Southern Poker Championship finished up like this:
1. Allen Carter $1,000,000
2. Bobby Suer 501,028
3. Soheil Shamseddin 263,725
4. Hilbert Shirey 184,607
5. Tyler Smith 134,500
6. Chuck Kim 105,490
With the win, Carter also received a seat into the WPT Championship, which will be held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in April. The WPT players now head to one of the crown jewels of the tour in the L. A. Poker Classic as Allen Carter enjoys the fruits of victory as the champion of the 2009 Southern Poker Championship.