After more than six hours of competition, the third shortest stack to start the day, Eric Afriat, completed an unlikely comeback to outduel World Poker Tour Player of the Year leader Mukul Pahuja and take down the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown late last night.
Afriat came to the final table with only 6.76 million in chips, beating only two player at the time in Chance Kornuth (5.315 million) and Matt Stout (3.665 million). All eyes were on top of the leaderboard, where the current leader of the WPT POY race, Pahuja, dominated the field with 18.985 million in chips. It was quite a distance back to James Mackey (11.68 million) and Jacob Bazeley (7.305 million) if you were looking for a challenger to Pahuja’s dominance.
The men wasted little time in getting their chips into action. On Hand 14, Mackey would make a min-raise of the 75K/150K blinds (with a 25K ante) to 300K, which Kornuth took as an invitation to plop his remaining stack in the center. Mackey debated a bit but, with the opportunity to take down a dangerous opponent, made the call and tabled an A-10. It was the correct decision as Kornuth put a K-Q on the felt.
The flop changed the course of the hand but for a moment. Coming down Q-4-3, Kornuth moved into the lead and only had to dodge an Ace on the turn and river to get a key double up. That was crushed, however, when an Ace came on the turn to completely switch the fates. Looking for a saving Queen, Kornuth instead saw an eight on the river and headed to the exits of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in sixth place.
Although Mackey jumped up a bit with the elimination, Pahuja was still in the lead and more than content to sit and watch the remaining players decimate themselves. Only 16 hands following Kornuth’s departure, Stout would make a play for the blinds by moving all in from the button. Pahuja, much in the same spot as Mackey against Kornuth, debated about his opportunity to knock out a powerful opponent before he made the call out of the small blind. Stout could only unveil a Q-10 off suit once the cards were turned up, a dog against Pahuja’s A-8 off suit, and the J-8-2-4-6 board wouldn’t bring Stout any help, sending him home in fifth place.
Pahuja held almost a 9 million chip lead at this point and the remaining four players seemed to be more calculating following Stout’s elimination. Bazeley attempted to get back in the game by taking a large pot against Afriat, dropping Afriat into the danger zone as the short stack. Although it looked as if he would be the next out, Afriat continued to battle over the next 32 hands before he would be the one doing the eliminating.
On Hand 62, Bazeley bet out 525K under the gun and only Afriat came along from the big blind. On an innocuous J-8-4 flop, Afriat fired out a smallish 300K bet that Bazeley read for weakness. Pushing his stack to the center, Bazeley was stunned when Afriat immediately made the call and tabled J-8 (flopped two pair) against Bazeley’s pocket Aces. A turn nine didn’t change anything, but it brought Bazeley some more outs to a four, a nine or one of the two remaining Aces. The river was dry for Bazeley, however, coming with a Queen and knocking Bazeley out in fourth place.
With his defeat of Bazeley, Afriat now moved into second place behind Pahuja, but it was a slim 2 million advantage over Mackey. With each man holding sizeable stacks, though, it would be a long fight before the next participant would take the walk away from the table.
On Hand 90, Mackey would get back into the mix with a big double through Pahuja to take over the chip lead, but it would be short lived. Two hands later, Pahuja would do the same through Afriat to retake the lead. Afriat fought back also, taking the lead on Hand 114 for the first time in the three-man battle and, on Hand 121, put Mackey on life support after capturing a huge pot with the nut flush on a J♣ 5♠ 3♠ 8♠ 6♥ board. Mackey would also fight back, getting a double from Afriat on Hand 124, but that previous hand had crippled him too much.
On Hand 148, Mackey responded to a Pahuja min-raise by moving all in and Pahuja immediately called, tabling pocket nines for the fight. Mackey held a K♣ 7♣ to have some hope, but the 10-6-2-Q-J board didn’t bring him the required combination to defeat pocket nines. Walking out in third place, Mackey left the battle to Afriat and Pahuja, with Afriat more than doubling Pahuja’s stack (38.575 million to 15.05 million).
With such an advantage, it would only take seven hands for Afriat to take down the crown. On the last hand, Afriat used the min-raise and Pahuja made his stand, pushing over 10 million chips to the center. Afriat snapped off the call, showing pocket eights against Pahuja’s K-9, and the ten high board never came close to helping Pahuja in his comeback in crowning Eric Afriat the champion.
1. Eric Afriat, $1,081,184
2. Mukul Pahuja, $691,965
3. James Mackey, $441,128
4. Jacob Bazeley, $371,931
5. Matt Stout, $308,501
6. Chance Kornuth, $247,954
With his second place finish, Pahuja goes to the 2014 WPT World Championship next week with a virtual hammerlock on the POY race. Only Shaun Suller and Dylan Wilkerson have the chance to catch Pahuja and both would have to win the WPT World Championship (and Pahuja would have to not finish in the money) for them to be able to catch him. The night belonged to Eric Afriat, however, as he became the latest champion on the World Poker Tour.