At the 2016 World Series of Poker on Saturday, two events reached their conclusions and awarded the prestigious gold bracelet. On tournament would end stunningly with a conclusion that is rarely seen in tournament poker, while the second was a reward for a player who had come agonizingly close previously.
Event #39 – $10,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em World Championship
21 players came back to the felt on Saturday, looking to claim the title in the latest $10,000 event at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino. Nick Petrangelo was atop the table holding nearly two million in chips (1.946 million, to be exact) and the list of challengers was plentiful and looking to add to their bracelet collections. Vanessa Selbst was nipping at Petrangelo’s heels with her 1.942 million stack, while Jonathan Little, Paul Volpe, Frank Kassela and Scott Seiver were all in the mix. But there was one player who captured the attention of many on the rail.
Chris Ferguson, who has played in many of the events at this year’s WSOP after a six-year absence (and cashed in six, counting this tournament), was on the short stack to start the day, but he would quickly rectify that situation. He doubled up through Eric Worre within 30 minutes of the start of the day’s action and, by the time the redraw for the final three tables took place, had put himself in contention with a 1.1 million stack. By the midpoint of the afternoon, Ferguson had 1.37 million after picking off a bluff from Kassela.
By the time 12 players were left (two tables), Ferguson had pulled himself into second place behind Justin Bonomo, while players like Volpe, Petrangelo, Selbst, Kassela, Davidi Kitai, Martin Kozlov, Jack Salter and Steve Gross battled behind them. Petrangelo ended Kassela’s run in 12th place while Kitai knocked off Volpe in 10th place and Selbst in ninth to take over the chip lead. After Ferguson ended Worre’s run short of the final table on the bubble, a powerful sextet of players settled in at the official final table to determine this event’s champion.
To say the table was stacked might be the biggest understatement of the 2016 WSOP. There were 10 bracelets represented at the final table (Ferguson with 5, Kitai with 3 and Bonomo and Petrangelo each holding one), while Salter held over $3 million and Kozlov had just short of $1 million in career tournament poker earnings. Kitai held the edge as the final table began, but the fireworks were just starting.
Kitai continued to power his way through the final table, cutting chips from both Ferguson and Bonomo to push his way past 4.5 million in chips, and burst past the five million mark in another hand against Bonomo. Nobody would put themselves at risk, however, as the men demonstrated their varied skills on the felt. By the time the dinner break rolled around all six were still alive, with Petrangelo perhaps the only one in imminent danger with his 635K chip stack.
Petrangelo came back from the dinner break with a vengeance, however. He would double up through Kozlov and build up a decent stack, but another battle with Kozlov – in which Kozlov’s pocket Queens flopped a full house against Petrangelo’s pocket Aces – left him on fumes. He would triple up on Hand 46 when Kozlov eliminated Salter in sixth place, but Petrangelo couldn’t keep the wolves at bay. He would depart in fifth place when Bonomo flopped a nut flush against his pocket Jacks
Ferguson would also find difficulties after dinner. Kozlov was on a rampage at this point and, after Ferguson pushed all in on Hand 74, Kozlov looked him up and was in the lead with pocket treys against Ferguson’s Q-9 off suit. A trey on the flop brought Kozlov a set, but Ferguson still was alive with a flush draw. Once that flush failed to materialize, Ferguson’s thoughts of a sixth WSOP bracelet were gone in fourth place.
Kozlov now held a dominant lead over Kitai and Bonomo, but there was still plenty of working room with the stacks’ relation to the blinds. Kitai and Bonomo looked to determine a survivor between them on Hand 83, but they would end up chopping the pot when a six-high straight came down on the baize and neither had playable hole cards (Bonomo had actually turned a Wheel but lost out when the river six hit). The drama was building and it would pop like a pressure cooker on what would prove to be the penultimate hand.
On Hand 97, Kozlov opened the action with an innocent bet, but Bonomo decided to make his stand and push all-in from the small blind. In the big blind many thought Kitai would fold and let Kozlov try to take Bonomo out, but he stunned many by moving all in himself. With the two short stacks pushing in front of him, Kozlov made the call to put both his opponents at risk. When the cards were turned up, it was a hand that played itself:
Kozlov: Q♣ Q♦
Bonomo: 9♥ 9♣
Kitai: 6♦ 6♠
What came next was an instance that almost never happens in a poker tournament, let alone the final table AND at the WSOP. The Q-Q-7 flop ended any discussion on who would win the hand as Kozlov flopped unbeatable quads to leave both his opponents completely shocked. After the ceremonial dealing of the turn and river (a King and an eight, for the record), Bonomo had fewer chips than Kitai to take third, Kitai was the runner up and Martin Kozlov was the champion.
1. Martin Kozlov, $655,709
2. Davidi Kitai, $411,441
3. Justin Bonomo, $271,856
4. Chris Ferguson, $183,989
5. Nick Petrangelo, $127,622
6. Jack Salter, $90,783
Event #40 – $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw Lowball
After coming close four times in the past eight years, including a third place run in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. event earlier this schedule, Christopher Vitch finally shook the monkey off his back and captured his first WSOP bracelet in a dominant fashion.
The tournament, a combination of three different forms of Triple Draw Lowball (Ace to Five, Deuce to Seven and Badugi), brought in a decent field of 236, with the final seven men led by David Gee’s 803,000 chip stack. Australian poker legend Gary Benson was also in the mix, but it was going to be a rough road for him with only 344,000 chips (and in the fifth place slot). Still, everyone was close enough together that there was no clear consensus as to who would win the title.
Gee would top the million chip mark in taking out Anthony Lazer in seventh, but that would be the high water mark for him for the day. Vitch, on the other hand, started as the fourth place stack and slowly worked his way up the ladder. When Vitch was able to knock off Michael Schiffman in fifth place during a Badugi round, he suddenly found himself over a million chips and in the lead.
Vitch kept his foot on the gas, eliminating Gee in third place to go to heads up action against a significantly short stacked Sigi Stockinger. It would take all of 14 minutes for Vitch to complete the task at hand, demonstrating just how much dominance Vitch had going into heads up play. Once he was able to make an Ace low in Deuce to Seven Triple Draw against Stockinger’s pair of fours, the dream of winning a WSOP bracelet became a reality for Christopher Vitch.
1. Christopher Vitch, $136,854
2. Sigi Stockinger, $84,572
3. David Gee, $55,511
4. Damjan Radanov, $37,375
5. Michael Schiffman, $25,830
6. Gary Benson, $18,336
7. Anthony Lazar, $13,380