Defeating a final table that included the reigning World Champion and a master of the Limit game who holds three World Series of Poker bracelets himself, relative unknown Rafael Lebron came through the forest to capture the WSOP gold at Event #38, the $3000 Six-Handed Limit Hold’em tournament.
One of the men alluded to at the start was the chip leader when the cards went in the air on Friday. Triple-bracelet holder Matt Matros was on the top of the world at the start of the day with 978,000 chips, but there was a major threat right on his heels. Perhaps just warming up for the defense of his World Championship, Joe McKeehen made his first final table of the 2016 WSOP stacked well with 825,000 chips of his own. When the day started, Lebron was in the middle of the pack and not considered a threat.
Eight men came back on Friday, but only six would get an official WSOP final table on their poker resume. The table would take care of those two knockouts fairly quickly, with Georgios Zisimopoulos taking down Mikhail Semin in eighth and Matros dismissing Andrey Zhigalov in seventh with a rivered Broadway straight within the first hour of play. The final six then settled in for a bit of a slog, as Limit tournaments will tend to do.
Within the first 50 hands of final table play, only one player took the walk away from the Amazon Room. Alex Queen, Brad Libson and McKeehen started out in a hand together, but McKeehen would release his cards after a flop and turn of K-6-3-8. Queen’s final chips went in at this point against Libson, who showed a 6-5 for a less-than spectacular third pair. It was leading against Queen, however, as his A-Q hadn’t connected with the board as of yet. With one card to come, Queen had six outs…none of which were a second eight on the river, eliminating him in sixth place.
Other than getting the final table official, Matros had a difficult day on the felt. He never increased his stack on the final day of play and would fall at the hands of Zisimopoulos in fifth place when he caught a ten with his Q-10 when he was all in on a J-5-10 flop. Unfortunately for Matros, Zisimopoulos also caught with his A-J on that board. When no further help came for the triple-bracelet winner (a six and a trey on the turn and river), Matros was out of the tournament.
The day also wasn’t good for the defending World Champion. McKeehen suffered the same fate as Matros – the inability to get any offense going – and saw his final chips hit the center with an off suit K-8 against Lebron’s pocket Queens. After the Jack high board ran dry for McKeehen, he was out of the event in fourth place.
The surviving trio would battle for well over an hour before the next departure. On Hand 120, Zisimopoulos limped in pre-flop, only to see Libson fire over him. Undaunted, Zisimopoulos three-bet the action and, after a Libson call, saw a J-9-7 flop. Zisimopoulos bet and called a raise out of Libson to see a King on the turn, which is where it got exciting. Libson deposited the remainder of his chips in the center and, after Zisimopoulos made the call, proudly showed his K-10 for a solid pair of kings. Zisimopoulos had the goods, however, turning up pocket Jacks for an outstanding set that could only be caught by a Queen on the river (would have given Libson a King-high straight). The river card would have normally been a good one for Libson, but the ten only gave him two pair against Zisimopoulos’ set and sent him home in third place.
At the start of heads up play, Zisimopoulos held a 3:1 lead over Lebron, but Lebron would work his way into the lead within 10 hands of action. With the blinds climbing and the stacks being stressed, the duo would switch the lead back and forth over another before Lebron began to meticulously chip up. After more than 35 hands of action, Lebron stretched the lead to a million chips and, within another five hands, had Zisimopoulos on the ropes with only eight big bets left.
Zisimopoulos would scrap for nearly another 20 hands, but the end was nigh. On the final hand, Hand #202, a pre-flop raising battle saw Zisimopoulos’ final chips hit the center and he was in relatively good shape, his K-7 off suit up against Lebron’s 6-5 off suit. The Q-8-3 flop was good for Zisimopoulos, but the six on the turn was a disaster as it gave Lebron a pair. Still, with six outs to his over cards, Zisimopoulos had a puncher’s chance of coming back. The deuce on the river ended that chance, though, giving Lebron the championship.
1. Rafael Lebron, $169,337
2. Georgios Zisimopoulos, $104,646
3. Brad Libson, $68,896
4. Joe McKeehen, $46,489
5. Matt Matros, $32,172
6. Alex Queen, $22,848
