Coming to the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship at the 2019 World Series of Poker on Friday, there were plenty of eyes on the “stars” of the show. Josh Arieh, who had been hovering around the top of the leaderboard since the start of the tournament; Shaun Deeb, the defending WSOP Player of the Year; even sexagenarian John Esposito had his fans in the stands. But it was a stunner when Phillip Hui, barely a year removed from $150 buy-in tournaments, emerged as the champion of arguably the truest test of poker skill in the game today.
Arieh Continues Domination Early
There wasn’t much of a feeling out process before Arieh extended his lead over the six players left in the tournament. In Pot Limit Omaha, Esposito fired from the hijack and found action from Arieh in the cutoff and Cates in the big blind. A 7♣ Q♣ 6♥ flop saw Cates pot the action and, after Esposito dropped his cards in the muck, Arieh went with a pot raise to 1.3 million. Cates, with only about 3000 more chips than that, moved in and Arieh called.
Cates had flopped a pair of sevens, a gut shot straight draw and a flush draw with his J♣ 9♣ 7♥ 5♠, but he was drawing thin against Arieh’s A♣ 10♣ 8♠ 4♦ (two over cards, nut flush draw, double gut shot straight draw). Although technically Cates had the lead, Arieh was the statistical leader and the stats proved right when the 2♣ hit the turn to end all discussion. Once a meaningless seven hit the river, Cates’ chips were in Arieh’s 7.4 million stack and Cates was out in sixth place.
Arieh continued to torment the table as his stack ratcheted up. He took chips liberally from the rest of his opponents at the table until his chip stack was within sight of the 10 million chip mark (the other five players had 12.6 million amongst themselves). Arieh would crack that mark in a round of PLO that saw Esposito check-fold a 700K pot to the chip leader to reach 10.1 million
It wasn’t like the other players sat around. Esposito took out Deeb in fifth place in Omaha Hi/Lo after he scooped with a wheel and a six-high straight against Deeb’s turned two pair. But when Arieh reestablished control by knocking out Bryce Yockey in fourth place in Deuce to Seven Triple Draw (hitting the lowball equivalent of the wheel – 7-5-4-3-2), he was looking good for the title with his 12.1 million chips.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Championship…
Holding more chips (12.1 million) than both Esposito and Hui (6.8 million) and Hui (4.3 million) combined, it seemed everything was going Arieh’s way. After Arieh knocked out Esposito in third place in Pot Limit Omaha, Arieh held almost a 3:1 lead over Hui (16.2 million to six million). But the battle was only beginning between Arieh and Hui.
As soon as heads up play began, it seemed the tide turned in favor of Hui. He meticulously worked through the games and gradually picked up chips in each discipline. Hui earned a 1.7 million pot in Limit Hold’em when he four-flushed Arieh’s inferior flush, then grabbed another million in Stud Hi/Lo and Deuce to Seven Triple Draw. Even in No Limit Hold’em and Omaha Hi/Lo Hui came out on the positive end. After about an hour of play, Hui pulled even with Arieh and it was anyone’s tournament.
The lead would see-saw between the men, each demonstrating the skills it takes to play mixed game poker at an extremely high level, before Hui took command. After more than four hours of heads up play, Arieh was down to fumes as he put all his chips to the center in Deuce to Seven. Both he and Hui drew two cards on the first draw and, on the second, Hui only took one while Arieh took two. On the final draw, Hui stood pat and Arieh again took two cards and the hands were revealed.
Hui would show a nine-five (9-5-4-3-2), but Arieh started in outstanding shape by showing a 6-5-2. He squeezed the first of his final two cards and revealed a magical trey to make his hand 6-5-3-2. Needing a seven or an eight to win the hand, Arieh would dejectedly show an Ace on his final card (in Deuce to Seven, Aces count high) to end the tournament and award Phillip Hui the WSOP bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and the $1,099,311 first place prize.
1. Phillip Hui, $1,099,311
2. Josh Arieh, $679,246
3. John Esposito, $466,407
4. Bryce Yockey, $325,989
5. Shaun Deeb, $232,058
6. Dan Cates, $168,305
