Isaac Haxton will take a comfortable chip lead into Sunday’s $40,000 Special 40th Annual No Limit Hold’em event final table at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The table is loaded with twenty-something pros that will each attempt to earn legendary status by defeating one of the most skilled fields ever put together.
Twenty-three players took their seats Saturday as an enthusiastic crowd filed into the Amazon Room to catch the action. It was truly a mixed bag of players battling for the nine spots at the final table; several high-stakes online ring game grinders, a couple of Bobby’s Room regulars, and a former WSOP Main Event Champion were still in contention as play began.
It took just six hands lose the first four players. Andrew “good2cu” Robl (23rd place), Frank Kassela (22nd place), David Chiu (21st place), and Neil Channing (20th place) were each sent to the rail with $71,858. Andy Black followed in 19th place after coming up short in a wild hand against Daniel “ansky” Stern. Black moved all-in for his last 245,000 and Stern made the call from the small blind:
Black: [Ad][Jc]
Stern: [Ah][Kc]
Black let out a roar when the flop brought an ace and a jack, but the king of spades landed on the turn and Black was sent home. Clark Hamagami and Doshi Suresh were the next to leave, each earning $96,171, and Lex “RasZi” Veldhuis took over the chip lead by eliminating online poker pro David “WhooooKidd” Baker in 15th place.
The most dramatic hand of the day came when Brian Townsend moved all-in from the button and Alec “traheho” Torelli pushed from the small blind. Noah Schwartz, having both covered, called from the big blind and the room erupted as the three hands were revealed:
Townsend: [7s][6h]
Torelli: [Ts][Td]
Schwartz: [Qs][Qc]
One ten spiked on the flop and another landed on the turn, giving Torelli quads. Townsend was eliminated in 13th place and Schwartz took a big hit to his stack.
Isaac Haxton took out Matthew Marafioti in 12th place ($172,120) and Team PokerStars Pro member Greg Raymer busted Keith Lehr in 11th place ($172,120). The final ten players merged to form one table and Tony G was the unfortunate bubble boy, eliminated by Vitaly Lunkin, who moved into second in chips on the final hand.
The final table will kick off at 2:00pm local time Sunday. Here are what the chip counts and seating assignments looked like at the end of Day 3 in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold ’em event:
Seat 1 – Ted Forrest: 560,000
Seat 2 – Noah Schwartz: 660,000
Seat 3 – Alec Torelli: 2,340,000
Seat 4 – Isaac Haxton: 5,955,000
Seat 5 – Greg Raymer: 3,345,000
Seat 6 – Justin Bonomo: 1,685,000
Seat 7 – Lex Veldhuis: 3,805,000
Seat 8 – Dani Stern: 1,300,000
Seat 9 – Vitaly Lunkin: 4,565,000
The eventual winner will receive $1.9 million and the honor of earning a gold bracelet in arguably the most prestigious No Limit Hold’em event in WSOP history.
The $1,500 Omaha High-Low Split event has a special story going into Day 3. Defending champion Thang Luu finished Day 2 second in chips with 410,000, trailing Ed Smith’s 433,000, and is on a miraculous quest to earn his second gold bracelet. The Las Vegas native known as “Tiger Luu” made a charge late into the night to become one of the favorites to win the tournament, which began with a record-setting 918 participants.
Full Tilt Poker pro Eli Elezra was the final elimination of Day 2, taking 20th place for $7,869. The remaining 19 players will return Sunday at 2:00pm local time and play down until a gold bracelet and first place prize of $263,000 are awarded.
The top 10 chip counts heading into the final day look like this:
1. Ed Smith – 433,000
2. Thang Luu – 410,000
3. Robert Price – 387,000
4. Lee Mougous – 337,000
5. Jim Geary – 300,000
6. Richard Toth – 292,000
7. Senovio Ramirez – 270,000
8. Freddy Deeb – 266,000
9. Micah Brooks – 233,000
10. Sebastian Ruthenberg – 185,000
The WSOP accomplished its goal of hosting the largest live tournament field outside of the Main Event, as 6,000 eager players registered for the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Stimulus Special event, which got underway Saturday. The field was broken down into two days, with just under 3,000 runners filling four separate rooms at the Rio Saturday and the other half set to play Sunday.
Jeremiah DeGreef was the overwhelming chip leader at the conclusion of Day 1A, sitting with 132,200 chips. Jonathan Tamayo was the only other player to eclipse 100,000, as he bagged up 107,500 at the end of the night; Jonathan Aguiar (93,500) and David Jones (90,700) aren’t far behind. Other notables advancing to Day 2 on Monday were Will “The Thrill” Failla (76,100), “Captain” Tom Franklin (60,100), Corwin Cole (28,100), and Brett “gank” Jungblut (20,400).
Day 1B of the “Stimulus Special” will get underway today at Noon local time. The winner of the event will receive a payday of $777,777.
