With the Championship Event on the horizon at the 2014 World Series of Poker, several preliminary events have either wrapped up or are on their final days of action. In three of the tournaments champions were determined, while the “Little One for One Drop” still has a sizeable field to contend with.
Event #58 – $1500 Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em
Finishing the second leg of poker’s Triple Crown (a WSOP bracelet and championships on the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour), Jared Jaffee emerged as the victor in Event #58, the $1500 Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em tournament.
Jaffee held the lead at the start of the final day of action but, with the players battling it out on four handed tables, it was a volatile situation. Jaffe also had to contend with the likes of Mike Watson, Brandon Cantu, Jeff Gross and Anton Smirnov as the play began.
Watson would knock off Michael Coleman in tenth place to rise up the leaderboard, but it was Cantu who made the most noise in the early going. Cantu’s elimination of Gustavo Kamei in ninth place brought the tournament to two tables and would put Cantu right behind Jaffee for the lead. Cantu would take that lead when he took down Smirnov in eighth place as Jaffee slipped a bit in sending some of his chips to Xiao Peng.
A huge clash between Cantu and Jaffee would essentially decide the tournament. With six players left, Jaffee five-bet all in and Cantu called only to see his pocket Queens dominated by Jaffee’s pocket Kings. The dealer fanned an A-A-Q flop, sending an ecstatic Cantu into the lead and devastating Jaffee. A deuce would come on the turn, but the river dramatically delivered a King to allow Jaffee to seize the hand as Cantu hurled his water bottle across the Amazon Room. Jaffee’s double up put him at 3.15 million chips and, moments later, Cantu was eliminated in sixth place.
After Peng was eliminated in fifth, Jaffee (4.07 million chips) squared off against Joseph Alban (283K) and took care of him in one hand. Watson (1.295 million) took a bit longer to knock off Mark Herm (1.003 million), finishing him off after a two hour fight. When Jaffee (4.353 million) and Watson (2.298 million) resumed the championship battle, Jaffee would control the action.
After two hours of play, Watson was able to take over a slight (640K) chip lead, but it disappeared within five hands following a break. After another hour of tussling, Jaffee was able to vanquish Watson when, on a 10-8-5-7-4 board, Jaffee made an improbable straight with his A-6 to eclipse Watson’s pocket Jacks and take the championship.
1. Jared Jaffee (United States), $405,428
2. Mike Watson (Canada), $246,068
3. Mark Herm (United States), $126,882
4. Joseph Alban (United States), $126,882
5. Xiao Peng (Canada), $53,614
6. Brandon Cantu (United States), $53,614
7. Jeff Gross (United States), $53,614
8. Anton Smirnov (Russia), $53,614
Event #59 – $3000 Omaha Hi/Low Split-8 or Better
After watching his girlfriend, Loni Harwood, win a WSOP bracelet a year ago, Phillip Hui joined her in the exclusive WSOP bracelet club by taking down Event #59.
David Williams led the 20 players who returned to the felt to determine the champion, but there were plenty of other stories around the tables. Matt Glantz, Ismael Bojang, John D’Agostino, Justin Bonomo, Melissa Burr (continuing her strong 2014 WSOP showing) and Mike Leah were all mobilized to take Williams down. With the split-pot nature of the game, everyone was prepared for a long day of work ahead of them.
Surprisingly, it would only take 20 minutes to get to two tables with the eliminations of Tony Merksick and Leah in 20th and 19th places, respectively. The parade would continue once the redraw was complete as Bonomo, Marvin Rosen and Brendan Taylor would head to the cashier’s cage for their compensation. Burr would head home in 13th place after battling Jordan Morgan and, once Bojang knocked off Steve Lustig in 12th place and Williams ended the day for Scott Abrams in 11th, the unofficial final table was set with Bojang now in the lead.
At the start of the unofficial final table, Hui was down to scraps with his 23,000 in chips. At the final table, though, he would triple up through Don Zewin and Glantz and then double through Williams to return his stack to relative health. Those chips would disappear, though, when Morgan made a wheel to scoop a sizeable pot against Hui as Zewin headed to the rail as the final table bubble boy.
Hui wasn’t discouraged as he doubled back up against Michael Bees and eliminated Joe Mitchell in ninth place, cutting a sizeable stack of chips from Bojang in the process. Hui used those chips to offer up a double knockout of Morgan (8th) and Glantz (7th) to suddenly be in contention for the championship. The heater would continue to run for Hui as he eliminated D’Agostino in fifth place to put him just behind Bojang in the standings.
Now it was time for the other two men left in the tournament to make their plays. Bojang and Hui would get knocked down by Bees and Zack Milchman, with Bees performing the elimination of Bojang as the clock cracked midnight. Down to three players, Bees held slightly more than two million chips and Milchman was right behind him with 1.765 million. Hui was once again battling from the short stack with only 325K in ammunition.
Hui would get a double up each from Bees and Milchman to pull out of the basement, but it was Milchman who would best Bees to eliminate him in third place and take a huge lead (3.45 million to 865K) to heads up action against Hui. In a stunning hour of play, it would be Hui who would eventually win the championship, however.
Milchman would have Hui down to only 215K in chips at one point, but a flurry of doubles would bring him back from the brink. In a span of two hands (one of which he made quads to scoop the pot), Hui would move into a 300K chip lead before finishing off the tournament. On the final hand, Milchman would move all in with a K-Q-J-3 against Hui’s J-10-9-7 and not find anything on the A-10-2-4-8 board to beat Hui’s flopped pair.
1. Phillip Hui (United States), $286,976
2. Zach Milchman (United States), $177,609
3. Michael Bees (United States), $118,036
4. Ismael Bojang (Germany), $87,594
5. John D’Agostino (United States), $65,736
6. David Williams (United States), $49,817
7. Matt Glantz (United States), $38,089
8. Jordan Morgan (United States), $29,356
9. Joe Mitchell (United States), $22,793
Event #61 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud
Battling against one of the toughest players in the poker world, Matt Grapenthien was able to defeat Todd Brunson to take the championship of Seven Card Stud on Thursday night.
Brunson held the lead at the start of the unofficial final table that also included Phil Hellmuth and 90-year old “hole card” camera creator Henry Orenstein. Grapenthien was among the pack with James Obst, Jesse Martin, Steve Landfish, Henrik Hecklen and Ben Yu when the cards hit the air, but he slowly ground his way up as Martin, Orenstein and Hecklen fell in ninth through seventh places. Down to six handed, Grapenthien still had his work cut out for him as he stared up at Brunson, Obst and Hellmuth.
The big hand for Grapenthien was against Obst. After a flurry of betting on each street, Grapenthien revealed quads to crush Obst and move up to 740K in chips. Grapenthien would then eliminate Landfish and Yu to move over the million chip mark and, once he teamed with Brunson to knock off Obst in third, Grapenthien held a slim lead going to heads up play.
The battle between Grapenthien and Brunson would arguably be one of the more exciting ones of the 2014 WSOP. Over a four hour fight, both men would hold the lead and even have their opponent nearly to the felt. Over the final hour, however, Grapenthien would make hand after hand in whittling Brunson’s stack down until, on the final hand, Grapenthien made a lowly pair of eights that were better than Brunson’s pair of fives to capture the WSOP bracelet.
1. Matt Grapenthien (United States), $268,473
2. Todd Brunson (United States), $165,891
3. James Obst (Australia), $103,895
4. Ben Yu (United States), $75,227
5. Steve Landfish (United States), $58,793
6. Phil Hellmuth (United States), $46,885
7. Henrik Hecklen (Denmark), $38,073
8. Henry Orenstein (United States), $31,419
