Last year Kenny Tran took home the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads Up title by defeating Alec Torelli in a memorable duel that had the poker world talking. While this year’s version doesn’t pack quite as much big-name muscle, it certainly won’t be lacking in talent.
PokerStars Team pro John Duthie and law student Leo Wolpert battled through seven rounds of a 256-player field to advance to the championship late Monday night. Duthie breezed through most of his matches during the three days, including the semifinal round against Nathan Doudney. He grinded away at the Dallas, TX, native before sending him to the rail when his pocket queens got the best of Doudney’s Ace-Jack.
Wolpert’s road to the final round was far more taxing. He matched wits against three of the biggest names in poker during the first three rounds and eventually found himself up against Jamin Stokes in the Final 4. Stokes shocked those in attendance when he eliminated Johnny Chan in the quarterfinals but Wolpert was able to escape after a lengthy contest. The final hand was a fortunate one for Wolpert, as the two players got all of their chips in on an 8-6-3 flop with two hearts:
Wolpert: [Ah][Jh]
Stokes: [Qh][9h]
The turn and river were no help to Stokes and he was sent home in third place with $214,289.
The tournament was originally supposed to wrap up Monday but tournament officials decided to move the championship back as they hadn’t anticipated the event running so deep into the night. Therefore Duthie and Wolpert will clash on Tuesday at noon local time in a best-of-three final round. They will begin each match with 3,840,000 in chips and blinds of 15,000/30,000. The winner will receive $625,682.
Duthie became a name on the poker circuit when he won the inaugural televised Poker Million 2000 tournament, earning $1,426,330. He later used his television background to begin the European Poker Tour in 2004, which has since become very popular among players around the world. Duthie also does commentary for the television broadcasts.
Wolpert put his professional poker career on hold go back to law school at the University of Virginia, which is the opposite route most aspiring young poker pros take this day in age. His biggest moment on the felt came at last year’s World Series of Poker, where he took third place in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout for $187,812. He cashed five times in the 2008 WSOP.
Here’s a look at the path each of the finalists took to the championship round:
John Duthie
Round 1: Robert Starkey
Round 2: Stuart Marshak
Round 3: Terrance Chan
Round 4: Andrew Lichtenberger
Round 5: Benjamin Sprengers
Quarterfinals: Steve O’Dwyer
Semifinals: Nathan Doudney
Leo Wolpert
Round 1: Michael Mizrachi
Round 2: John Juanda
Round 3: David Pham
Round 4: Matt Woodward
Round 5: Mathieu Clavet
Quarterfinals: Dustin Woolf
Semifinals: Jamin Stokes
Two more events will crown winners Tuesday. The $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha (Event 30) final table is jam-packed with stars, including J.C. Tran, John Juanda, Theo Jorgensen and recent bracelet winner Rami Boukai. They will all be chasing chip leader Ross Boatman for the rights to the gold bracelet and $235,685. The final table will get underway at 2:00 p.m. Las Vegas time.
The other tournament heading into its final day is the $1,500 HORSE (Event 31). Play was halted at 3:00 a.m. early Tuesday morning with 23 players still vying for the title and $ 247,033. Fabrice Soulier and Shannon Shorr are the chip leaders going into Day 3, while Vanessa Rousso, James Van Alstyne, Paul Darden and Bryan Micon are in shadows
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on all of today’s events at the World Series of Poker.
