As the throngs head off to the 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event, other players are finishing up the preliminary events leading to it. Three bracelets have been awarded in the final preliminaries while the “Little One for One Drop” has reached its penultimate day.
Event #60 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em
Coming out of a 2563 player field, Salman Jaddi picked up his first WSOP bracelet on Friday for a massive six-figure score.
The tournament would need an extra day as Jaddi and Brandon Hall couldn’t decide on a champion on Thursday. Friday afternoon Jaddi held a slightly more than two million chip lead over Hall and would never let him back into the match. Only fifteen hands into the overtime matchup, Jaddi had pushed out to 9.25 million in chips while Hall could only muster 2.295 million. Hall would shove for several hands until the final hand played out.
Hall would once again shove all in pre-flop and, this time, Jaddi would look him up. It was a pretty even fight, with Hall’s A-2 off suit holding a slight edge over Jaddi’s Q♥ 10♥ and the K♥ A♣ 9♠ flop hit both players (Hall held top pair, Jaddi held a gut shot straight draw and a backdoor flush option). A 2♥ on the turn improved Hall to two pair, but it also improved Jaddi to a full flush draw along with the straight option. The river 6♥ nailed Jaddi perfectly, completing his runner-runner flush to eliminate Hall in second place.
1. Salman Jaddi (United States), $614,248
2. Brandon Hall (United States), $381,885
3. Zachary Gruenberg (United States), $270,299
4. Guillaume Marechal (France), $194,939
5. Cherish Andrews (United States), $142,346
6. David Bravin (Italy), $105,185
7. Thomas Dietl (Germany), $78,681
8. Steve Sung (United States), $59,327
9. Kurt Jewell (United States), $45,603
Event #63 – $1500 Six Handed 10-Game Mixed
Poker professional Bryn Kenney earned his first major championship in defeating a 445 player field to take the WSOP bracelet for the $1500 Six Handed 10-Game Mixed event.
Kenney, who dominated play through the first two days of the tournament, would come to the final table behind only Jan Suchanek and came out of the gates fast. He would eliminate Michael Mixer in seventh place to bring the official final table to the forefront, then make his move in Badugi and Seven Card Stud to move into the chip lead. Although Fabio Coppola would eliminated Andrey Zaichenko in fifth and Suchanek dismissed Daniel Zack in fourth, they would never acquire enough chips to really challenge Kenney at the final table. Once Kenney sent Coppola to the rail in third, he entered heads-up play against Suchanek with nearly a 3:1 lead.
Suchanek would make some moves in Seven Card Stud to pull within 200K in chips of Kenney, but it wouldn’t be enough. On the final hand, Suchanek limped the button in No Limit Hold’em and Kenney popped him up. After Suchanek called, a Q-9-2 flop saw Kenney check-call a bet out of Suchanek. A four came on the turn and Kenney would check-call once again to see a nine on the river. Another check ensued from Kenney, who immediately called once Suchanek pushed his remaining stack to the center. Suchanek showed a K-2 for two pair (nines and deuces), but Kenney triumphantly showed 10-9 for rivered trips, taking down the championship and the WSOP bracelet.
1. Bryn Kenney (United States), $153,220
2. Jan Suchanek (New Zealand), $94,618
3. Fabio Coppola (United States), $61,396
4. Daniel Zack (United States), $40,550
5. Andrey Zaichenko (Russia), $27,033
6. Randy Ohel (United States), $18,923
Event #64 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha
The final “big” buy-in event of the 2014 WSOP concluded early on Sunday morning, with Pat Walsh walking away with the WSOP bracelet after more than 12 hours of play.
The 418 entries had been whittled to 23 players on Saturday, meaning that it would be a long day to crown the eventual champion. European poker pro Marko Neumann was at the helm of the pack, but he was closely pursued by U. S. pro Isaac Baron as the day’s festivities kicked off.
Walsh would make his first statement of the day in eliminating J. C. Tran in 21st place and he never looked back. Walsh cracked the two million chip mark in ending Daniel Hood’s day in 15th place and used a double elimination of Tom Marchese (11th place) and Alexander Kravchenko (10th place) to bring the final table to action and in firm hold of the lead.
Walsh kept that spot on the top of the ladder, save for a few hands after Miltiadis Kyriakides eliminated Matt Marafioti in sixth. Walsh would reclaim the top spot in sending Neumann to the cashier’s cage in fifth and, following his elimination of Kyriakides in third, Walsh held a five million chip lead over Javed Abrahams going to heads up play.
The first hour and a half of heads up actually saw Abrahams work out to a slim lead, but Walsh would erase that in one hand. On a 9-7-5 two-diamond flop, the chips went to the center with Walsh’s flopped straight (K-8-6-4) a statistical underdog to Abrahams diamond flush draw (J-10♦ 8-7♦). Black cards, a 5♠ and an A♠, completed the board to give Walsh the hand and a 7-million chip lead over Abrahams.
It still took Walsh sixteen hands to defeat Abrahams. On the final hand, a J-4-3 rainbow flop would see the chips get to the center with Walsh’s J-10-4-3 flopping two pair against Abrahams’ 10-7-6-5 (open ended straight draw). Walsh sweat out an eight on both the turn and river before realizing that he had captured his first WSOP bracelet and congratulating Abrahams on a well-fought match.
1. Pat Walsh (United States), $923,379
2. Javed Abrahams (United Kingdom), $570,284
3. Miltiadis Kyriakides (Cyprus), $412,408
4. Isaac Baron (United States), $301,369
5. Marko Neumann (Germany), $222,549
6. Matt Marafioti (Canada), $166,087
7. Michael Shklover (United States), $125,253
8. Michal Maryska (Czech Republic), $95,361
9. Jonas Entin (United States), $73,358
Event #62 – $1111 “Little One for One Drop” No Limit Hold’em
In what will be the final tournament to conclude on the preliminary WSOP schedule, the “Little One for One Drop” will see Jackduyph Duong head to the final table with the chip lead.
Duong, with over three million chips, will face a challenge from poker professional Eric Baldwin, who is only 40K in chips behind Duong. Vimy Ha, who brought the numbers down to the final nine in eliminating 2014 WSOP bracelet winner Kevin Eyster in tenth place on the last hand early this morning, sits in third place well within striking distance of both Duong and Baldwin. The rest of the final table lines up as such:
1. Jackduyph Duong, 3.18 million
2. Eric Baldwin, 3.14 million
3. Vimy Ha, 2.825 million
4. Shai Zurr, 2.265 million
5. Brandon Eisen, 2.155 million
6. Matthew Lapossie, 1.96 million
7. Theodore Driscoll, 1.1 million
8. Igor Dubinskyy, 770,000
9. Bao Nguyen, 585,000
The final table of the “Little One for One Drop” kicks off at 1PM Las Vegas time, with the eventual champion taking down the WSOP bracelet and a $637,539 payday.
