The 2016 World Series of Poker is steaming into July, but not before awarding several important championships. The first woman to win an open WSOP event has been determined for 2016, while a trio of top professionals emerged victorious from their particular events.
Event #46 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em Bounty Tournament
Battling through a 2158 player field, Kristen Bicknell beat away all of the boys to become the first woman to take a bracelet at the 2016 WSOP.
The final table took two days to complete, with a solid array of talent going down on Wednesday. Such players as Steven Gee, Will Failla and Ryan Leng were already gone when Bicknell (7.08 million), Norbert Szecsi (5.6 million) and John Myung (3.55 million) played to the WSOP curfew. Coming back on Thursday, the trio decided to make a quick play of the remainder of the event.
Bicknell didn’t sit back on her stack waiting for Szecsi and Myung to figure out who would face her in heads up play. She moved her stack upwards to 9 million chips before knocking off Myung in third place, her pocket Jacks winning the race against Myung’s A♦ J♦, to pop Bicknell’s stack to 12.75 million. During heads up action, she kept her foot on the gas and, within nine hands of eliminating Myung, took down Szecsi.
On that final hand, Bicknell pushed out a raise and Szecsi called from the big blind to see a J-9-6 flop. Szecsi would check-call a Bicknell continuation bet and, after an Ace came on the turn, Szecsi would employ the tactic again after Bicknell fired a third bullet at the stack. When an innocent trey appeared on the river, Szecsi checked for a third time, which an aggressive Bicknell read for weakness. She moved all in, forcing Szecsi to a decision and, after he made the call, Bicknell turned up an A-4 for a turned pair of Aces. All Szecsi could muster was a 9-7 for a flopped middle pair, not good enough to prevent Kristen Bicknell from claiming the bracelet.
1. Kristen Bicknell, $290,768
2. Norbert Szecsi, $179,625
3. John Myung, $130,588
4. Ryan Leng, $95,857*
5. Will Failla, $71,049*
6. Sebastien Comel, $53,181*
7. Steven Gee, $40,203*
8. Fadi Hamad, $30,697*
9. Jason Singleton, $23,678*
(* – eliminated on Wednesday, part of official WSOP final table)
Event #47 – $10,000 Limit Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship
Going up against a talented final table, John “World” Hennigan further burnished his poker resume in defeating 2016 WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy in the latest $10,000 World Championship event, this one the $10,000 Limit Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball tournament.
Of the 125 players that started the tournament, nine remained on Wednesday with Chris Klodnicki holding down the top slot. Gathy was in prime position to attack Klodnicki as the only other player over a million chips, while Hennigan was slotted in third at the start. Other players such as J. C. Tran, Abe Mosseri and Russia’s Viacheslav Zhukov also were a part of the mix.
Mosseri would take down Andrey Zhigalov in ninth place soon after the start of the final day as Hennigan began to make his moves upwards. Hennigan was responsible for bringing the players to the bubble of the final table together after eliminating Scott Abrams in eighth place, making an 8-5 low against Abrams’ 8-7 low, but he still had his work cut out for him. That job got a bit more difficult after he battled against Zhukov in a hand that eliminated Brant Hale on the final table bubble and saw Zhukov nearly double up.
For the next three hours, the pros would throw haymakers at each other with the only casualty being Mosseri (eliminated in sixth by Tran) and the chips would get more spread out. Hennigan would take over the lead about this time and maintained it throughout the play of the final table. Hennigan would eliminate Tran in third and, going to heads up play, held a 4:1 lead over Gathy. Although he would eke out a slim lead at one point, but it would be only a brief flashing moment.
On the final hand, Gathy was down to one bet and Hennigan forced him to put it in the center of the table. The first draw saw both men draw three cards and, on the second draw, Gathy only took one while Hennigan took two. The final draw saw Gathy once again draw one, but Hennigan would stand pat on his five cards. Hennigan would turn up a rather big J-6 low and looked as Gathy squeezed his final card that would go with his 7-6-4-2. With a boatload of cards that would keep him alive, Gathy would reluctantly show a second four in his squeeze, earning Hennigan his fourth WSOP bracelet.
1. John Hennigan, $320,103
2. Michael Gathy, $197,838
3. J. C. Tran, $142,547
4. Chris Klodnicki, $102,910
5. Viacheslav Zhukov, $74,439
6. Abe Mosseri, $53,951
Event #48 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em (30 minute levels)
In one of the more unique events at the WSOP – not a Turbo tournament but faster than the usual WSOP tournament – Ankush Mandavia emerged as the champion over a 524 player field.
Once the final table was determined on Wednesday, all eyes were on the potential for WSOP history to be rewritten. 14-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth was a part of the final table action but, even though he held 1.13 million in chips, he was in sixth place on the leaderboard. Daniel Strelitz was at the helm of the ship, but Mandavia was only about 160,000 chips behind him.
Hellmuth had to deal with Mandavia on his left after the redraw and Mandavia was not scared to mix it up with the “Poker Brat.” On the very first hand, Hellmuth would raise the stakes and Mandavia popped out a three bet, leaving Hellmuth to grumble, “You’ve been doing this to me all day, buddy.” Hellmuth would fold his hand – an A-Q off suit – as he fell under the million chip mark.
Perhaps still steaming a bit from this clash, Hellmuth wouldn’t last much longer. He would get his final chips in against Sean Getzwiller with an A-4 that was crushed by Getzwiller’s A-K. After a ten-high board ran out, Hellmuth hit the rail in eighth place as the tournament went forward.
Mandavia was not really challenged during the final table, especially after doubling through Strelitz. On Hand 32, Mandavia’s pocket nines held over Strelitz’s pocket sevens to shoot Mandavia over the five million chip mark and push Strelitz into the basement. After Mandavia took out Getzwiller in sixth, he would eclipse the seven million mark before settling in at 6.5 million by the dinner break (still more than his three competitors held).
After the dinner break, Mandavia simply decimated his remaining opponents. First was Thiago Macedo, then Christian Nilles (in fourth and third places respectively) to come to heads up play at a slight disadvantage against Strelitz (who had crippled Nilles in doubling to take the lead). With the stacks even, it was expected to be a long battle, but it would actually be completed in less than 10 minutes.
Mandavia would hit a big flush draw to take all but 1.35 million of Strelitz’s chips and the end would come exactly two hands later. After Strelitz pushed his stack, Mandavia called and showed pocket Jacks to go against Strelitz’s 10-7 off suit. A seven on the flop opened some doors for Strelitz, but the Jack on the turn slammed them shut to leave Strelitz drawing dead. After the ceremonial river card (a deuce, for the record), Mandavia had earned his first WSOP bracelet.
1. Ankush Mandavia, $548,139
2. Daniel Strelitz, $338,774
3. Christian Nilles, $232,934
4. Thiago Macedo, $162,924
5. Pedro Oliveira, $115,957
6, Sean Getzwiller, $84,004
7. Sergey Lebedev, $61,964
8. Phil Hellmuth, $46,553
9. Kyle Julius, $35,636
Event #49 – $1500 Seven Card Stud
Blasting through a final table that normally takes a good deal of time, Shaun Deeb took down his second WSOP bracelet on Thursday night.
Eugene Katchalov was the leader of the eight players who came to the table on Thursday afternoon, but the lead was a tenuous one. Deeb was only 36K behind Katchalov and other threats, such as Max Pescatori, John Monnette and Cory Zeidman, were lurking in the bushes. Thus, it was anyone’s tournament to win as the top six were separated by only about 200K in chips (Monnette and Zeidman were the only players not holding six-figure stacks).
Deeb was a wrecking ball as he tore through his opponents, knocking out Zeidman in eighth place and Yaniv Birman in sixth to break the million chip mark. Katchalov was the next victim of Deeb, falling in fifth place when he couldn’t even pair against Deeb’s gated pair of sixes. Once he took down Pescatori in third place, Deeb entered heads up play against Adam Friedman holding more than a million chip advantage.
In a brisk 12 minutes, Deeb would take down his final challenger. On Fourth Street, the chips went to the center with Deeb behind with his (10-10) 8-7 against Friedman’s (Q-J) A-Q. Nothing happened on Fifth or Sixth Street, but Seventh Street would be the killer. Deeb found a five on Seventh that paired with his Sixth Street five to make two pair, while Friedman couldn’t come up with another pair to go with his Queens, giving the championship to Deeb.
1. Shaun Deeb, $111,101
2. Adam Friedman, $68,666
3. Max Pescatori, $46,312
4. Katherine Fleck, $31,899
5. Eugene Katchalov, $22,448
6. Yaniv Birman, $16,147
7. John Monnette, $11,878
8. Cory Zeidman, $8941
