In one of the longest final table battles in World Poker Tour history, top online grinder Justin “BoostedJ” Smith vanquished a top notch final table early Monday morning to win the WPT London’s High Rollers tournament.
A light field of 20 players stepped up to offer their £15,000 (roughly $22,000 U. S. dollars) for a shot at one of three paying spots. The first three places paid out £141,000 for first, £84,600 for second, and £56,400 for third, meaning that most everyone on the tables would walk away with just a story for their efforts. Among those taking their shot at the WPT High Rollers crown were 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, British bad boy Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz, French poker legend Bruno Fitoussi, and former World Champion Huck Seed.
With stacks starting at 100,000, there were thoughts that the early action would be mild. That wasn’t to be the case, however, with Schwartz tormenting his opponents with his play. He caused consternation among the players with his early activity, mostly started by min-raising pots. He did show great skills against Fitoussi, however, picking off the Frenchman’s bluff attempt with four spades on the board and winning an early hand.
It was inevitable that Schwartz would run into another one of the “bad boys” of poker, PartyPoker sponsored pro Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, before the end of the evening. In what would prove to be the swan song for Schwartz, the duo saw a rainbow flop of Q-7-6 and Guoga called a raise from Schwartz to head to the turn. Another 7 joined the board, with Guoga calling a 15,000-chip bet from “Full Flush” after checking. On the river, the fireworks came out.
After the board finished out with a 5, Guoga once again checked his option to Schwartz, who deliberated a bit before announcing all-in for his last 50,000. Guoga immediately made the call and tabled pocket Kings, defeating Schwartz’ top pair/top kicker of A-Q. The defeat of Schwartz catapulted Guoga into the chip lead at the end of the day.
Twelve players returned for Day 2 action and quickly got to work. With only four eliminations needed to set up the final table, it only took two hours for the players to determine the eight who would survive. Those eliminated short of the final table included 2010 WSOP Player of the Year leader Frank Kassela, Andrew Robl, Igor Kurganov, and Wayne Boich.
The final table for the WPT High Rollers event would be one of the longest in the history of the tour. Coming to the final table, Philip Gruissem held the chip lead, but Fitoussi and Guoga were within shooting distance. Rounding out the final table were Emeline Boich, Jason Lester, Jason Grey, Freddy Deeb, and Smith.
For the first eight hours of the final table, the players were content to shuffle chips between each other, unwilling to leave short of the money. Four quick eliminations then occurred, with Lester, Boich, Gray, and Gruissem taking the table down to the money bubble. Gruissem’s defeat was particularly painful, as he watched his A-K fall to Smith’s A-10 when “BoostedJ” made a Queen-high straight.
With four players remaining, Deeb had moved out to a 366,000 chip lead over Smith, but there was still one player to eliminate before anyone could claim the bounty. All four players held the lead at one point on the bubble. It was Fitoussi who would be the unfortunate bubble boy when his pocket Queens were cracked by the K-9 of Guoga.
Smith (holding the chip lead), Guoga, and Deeb played for nearly an hour before Guoga and Deeb went to battle against each other. Guoga’s pocket fours held the lead pre-flop against the all-in Deeb’s A-10, but an Ace on the turn put Deeb ahead in the hand. Just as the crowd calmed from the draw-out, it erupted again as a four spiked on the river, giving the hand to Guoga and eliminating Deeb in third place.
Once heads-up play started, Smith held an almost 3-1 lead over Guoga. The twosome played for almost an hour, with Guoga attempting to cut into Smith’s lead before the penultimate hand came down. After seeing a Q-4-2 flop, Guoga saw enough value to put his tournament life on the line with a 5-3. Smith looked him up with Q-9 for top pair, but he had to dodge several outs twice. Once a King fell on the turn and a second Queen capped the river, Smith was crowned the champion of the WPT London High Rollers tournament.
1st – Justin “BoostedJ” Smith – £141,000
2nd- Antanas “Tony G” Guoga – £84,600
3rd – Freddy Deeb – £56,400
With the WPT London completed, the tour now heads back Stateside until November. The Borgata Poker Open is next up for tournament pros, running from September 18th to 23rd.