After battling his way back from an 8:1 chip disadvantage during heads-up action, professional poker player and 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event final table member Michael Binger was able to come back to capture the title at the World Series of Poker Circuit’s latest stop at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe.
While the final table provided some exciting play, the action on Saturday for Day Two was almost as exciting. Day One chip leader Chris Dombrowski was able to make it to the money with the lead and eventually left the tournament in 16th place ($7,042). It was the play of defending champion and Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson that had the Harvey’s crowd abuzz, however.
Ferguson waded his way through the 132 player field and, with 11 other combatants left, had a shot at making it to the final table to attempt to retain his crown. If he was able to win again at Harvey’s, he would have become the first player to defend a major poker championship since Stu Ungar’s back to back wins at the Super Bowl of Poker, the WSOP Main Event, in 1980 and 1981. Alas, it wasn’t to be, as Ferguson was eliminated in 11th place ($9,603).
After Jason Sanders left the table on Saturday night in tenth place, play was suspended until Sunday afternoon, with the final nine players lining up as such:
Seat 1: Poker professional Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, 196,500
Seat 2: Online poker legend Scott Clements, 66,500
Seat 3: Chip leader Michael Binger, 403,500
Seat 4: Bill Bostick, 100,500
Seat 5: Sacramento, California’s Tay Nguyen, 132,000
Seat 6: Veteran poker player Mike McClain, 283,000
Seat 7: Salesman Jake Solis, 302,000
Seat 8: Cash Game Player Ty Stewart, 275,500
Seat 9: Three-time WSOPC Lake Tahoe final table member Travis Erdman, 224,500
After the quick eliminations of the two shortest stacks at the table in Clements (ninth for 13,444) and Bostick (eighth for $18,566), play settled in for around an hour and brought little changes to the leader board. On an all spade flop, though, Travis Erdman got his chips into the center with pocket kings including the spade; Ty Stewart, however, had out-flopped him with two spades in the hole and, once the turn and river ran dry, Erdman was busted in seventh place. He has now cashed in three straight Harvey’s Circuit Event Championships.
At this point in the tournament, the chips began to fly. Allen Kessler was cruelly defeated when his pocket aces were all in against Stewart’s pocket sevens. All was right on the flop and turn, but once the river brought the two-outer home for Stewart, Kessler was ousted in sixth place and Stewart took over the chip lead.
Tay Nguyen was short-stacked and left in fifth place after a flush draw failed to come home for him against McClain. Then, Stewart outdrew Mike McClain’s pocket Queens with 8-9 suited when he hit a straight. Once Binger was able to defeat Jake Solis, heads-up action was set between the red-hot Stewart and the experienced Binger.
To this point, the table was on pace to be the fastest final table in the history of the WSOPC. Over the next two hours, the twosome would slow the action down and battle back and forth, with Stewart expanding his lead to nearly 8:1 over Binger, the 2006 WSOP Main Event third place finisher. Stewart could not find a way to vanquish Binger, however and, once the ever patient Binger started on a hot streak of his own, it spelled the end for his competition.
Binger gradually built back up to take over the chip lead. The end came when Stewart, after pairing his eight on the board, moved in for the remainder of his chips. Much like he had done throughout the heads-up action, Binger made the correct decision and called with his paired nine for the lead. After there were no miracles on the turn and river, Michael Binger had captured the title of the WSOPC Harvey’s Lake Tahoe:
1st – Michael Binger, $181,379
2nd – Ty Stewart, $112,675
3rd – Jake Solis, $77,464
4th – Mike McClain, $53,777
5th – Tay Nguyen, $40,653
6th – Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, $31,370
7th – Travis Erdman, $24,968
8th – Bill Bostick, $18,566
9th – Scott Clements, $13,444
Binger admitted that he had predicted that he would win the Harvey’s championship. “I told (a friend) that the next time I see him I would be wearing WSOP Circuit ring. And that’s exactly what happened here,” Binger said. Perhaps more important than the WSOPC gold and diamond ring and the $181,00 that he received will be the seat to the 2009 WSOP Championship Event, which he has consistently done well at. Congratulations to Michael Binger, the latest World Series of Poker Circuit Event champion.
