With the €10,000 Championship Event of the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe looming on the horizon, Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis etched his name into the annals of WSOP history on Wednesday by taking down his second gold bracelet, while a stacked final table is set for play in the €3000 Shootout event today.
Billirakis came to the final table of the €5000 Pot Limit Omaha Wednesday afternoon (Cannes time) in second place behind the United Kingdom’s Sam Trickett. The table held several strong challengers, including 2011 November Niner Eoghan O’Dea and Canadian pro Sam Chartier. As usual with the game of Omaha Hold’em, the gentlemen went to battle immediately and the casualties quickly mounted.
Within the first three hours of play, O’Dea, Chartier, Erich Kollmann and Konstantin Uspenskiy had been eliminated from the tournament. With five players remaining, Trickett still held the lead, but it had shrunk to only a 25K advantage over Ramzi Jelassi. Michele Di Lauro sat in third, while Billirakis and Jerome Bradpiece brought up the rear of the pack. Just before the dinner break, however, Billirakis began his ascent up the leaderboard by winning a key hand against Trickett.
Just before the players stepped off for dinner, Bradpiece and Billirakis called a raise from Trickett to 20,000 to see a dangerous flop of 5-4-2 rainbow. Trickett made a continuation bet, only to see Bradpiece get out of the way and Billirakis come along. After a Queen was checked by the two men, a six on the river woke up Billirakis, who bet 25,000. That was enough for Trickett to release his hand, with the pot pushed to Billirakis moving him up to second on the leaderboard.
Following the dinner break, Billirakis ended the night for Bradpiece. With a gut shot straight and flush draw, Billirakis called the all-in of Bradpiece, who caught two pair with a gut shot straight redraw. Although the Ace on the turn kept Bradpiece in the lead, the Ace on the river completed Billirakis’ flush, eliminating Jerome Bradpiece in fifth place.
After winning the hand, Billirakis was only 20K behind Jelassi for the chip lead and he continued to mount the offensive. He was the first player to surpass the million chip mark as the rest of the table tried to keep pace with him. After Di Lauro dispatched of Trickett in fourth and Billirakis took out Jelassi in third to get to heads up play, it only took two more hands for the tournament to conclude.
Billirakis took a million chip pot from Di Lauro to move to over a 4:1 lead against the Italian, then ended it the next hand. After a raise from Di Lauro, Billirakis three bet the hand to 130,000 and Di Lauro called. On the A-K-7 flop, Billirakis put out a smallish 70K bet and Di Lauro made his stand. After Billirakis called and showed A-K-Q-3 (flopped two pair), Di Lauro was left looking for his redraw to hit with A-J-10-4 (gut shot straight). Once the turn and river didn’t bring the saving Queen for Di Lauro, the tournament was over and Steve Billirakis had captured his second career WSOP bracelet.
1. Steve Bilirakis (United States) €238,140
2. Michele Di Lauro (Italy) €147,171
3. Ramzi Jelassi (Sweden) €105,937
4. Sam Trickett (United Kingdom) €77,642
5. Jerome Brad piece (United Kingdom) €57,912
6. Konstantin Uspenskiy (Russia) €43,950
7. Erich Kollmann (Austria) €33,922
8. Sam Chartier (Canada) €26,610
9. Eoghan O’Dea (Ireland) €21,221
For play on Thursday, all eyes will be on the stacked final table that is the €3000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event. The U. K.’s Max Silver holds a slim lead over Canada’s Michael “SirWatts” Watson (chip stacks aren’t equal in this shootout due to different table sizes during Day One of the tournament) and the rest of the field includes such names as James “Flushy” Dempsey, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Richard Toth, EPT London runner-up Steve O’Dwyer and Emil Patel.
It should be a battle for the ages as Grospellier looks for his second bracelet of the 2011 WSOP (remember, he won one during the Las Vegas segment of the race), Dempsey looks for his second bracelet in as many years and the remainder of the table looks to deny them that right!
Other events going on today include Day Two action in the €10,000 Split Format No Limit Hold’em tournament (or the “Mixed-Max,” as the players have come to call it) and Day One play in the €1500 Six Handed Pot Limit Omaha tournament (plenty of action for the adrenaline junkies!) kicks off. It all leads up to the start of the €10,000 Championship Event, which begins on Saturday.
