Travis Johnson Wins Event #7 and $666,853

Posted by pokerguru on June 6, 2009

One common theme throughout these multi-day tournaments is the frustration that you see start to show on players that are not mentally ready for the grind. Most players are used to their home games or the single day tournaments that they play at their local casinos. When they get into this kind of a field and have to play for 3 or 4 days, it starts to wear on them. The last day of Event #7 was proof positive of how that frustration can cost someone a tournament.

Steve Karp was in this poker tournament the whole way until the last few hours. Travis Johnson literally bullied his way to the bracelet as his aggressive play frustrated and wore down Karp. It became more noticeable in the last hour as Karp had seemed to have about enough of it and looked like he just wanted to go to bed. He got his wish and Johnson got the bracelet. Here is the final hand recap.

Karp had the button and limped in and Johnson immediately applied more pressure and pushed all in. Karp took no time at all to make the call. The cards were rolled and Karp had 55 to Johnson’s AQ. Karp managed to dodge the flop with K-10-4, but more outs had been added for Johnson. The Q in the turn but him behind to a 2 outer and the river J buried him.

In other tournaments….

We had already mentioned Phil Ivey’s win in our last post, but it definitely deserves another blurb. Ivey play phenomenally all night long and against a very good player and showed why always feared at a table. The only shame of it all was that he had already bought in for the $10,000 mixed event and did not get over there until very late and ended up busting out on the first day. I am sure the bracelet and the 7 figure side bet winning will help him get over that though. He said that he plans on taking a couple of days to get himself back together and then will be right back at it. Ivey seems poised to have a great series.

Event #9, the Six Handed $1,500 NL Hold’em event did not get to the final table, but they are pretty close. There are only 8 players left and play will resume today through to the bracelet winner. We think the two players to watch out for here are Peter Gould and Praz Bansi. They are both hurting a bit for chips here, but one good run and they can start to put some pressure on. Here is your chip count and standing for the day:

1) Charles Furey (1,690,000)
2) Bryce Yockey (1,489,000)
3) Carmen Cavella (1,059,000)
4) Peter Gould (780,000)
5) Bryn Kenney (656,000)
6) Praz Bansi (630,000)
7) Ken Aldridge (411,000)
8) Manny Minaya (339,000)

Event #10 concluded its second day with only 29 players remaining. The ever annoying Hevad Khan still has chips and we all know how lucky this guy can get. Daniel Makowsky has the chip lead and also some WSOP experience with a second place finish under his belt. Hopefully we will not have to endure the little rain dance that Khan has become so infamous for.

Event #11 finished day one in much the way the other tournaments have, by railing over 85% of field on the first day of play. This one started out a little slow and then it just took off as player after player was sent packing. The name to look out for here is the always dangerous Phil Hellmuth. He has chips and the money is sneaking up on the players. Chip counts were still up in the air on this one, but it would appear that one of the wonder kids is leading the pack as Scott Hall as about 140,000 in his stack.

All eyes are now on Event #12, the$10,000 World Championship Mixed Event. Play was a little slow as there is still about 60% of the field standing, but this was a late starting tournament and they did not have the full day to play. Already out are Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer and Mike Matusow. However, the story is the players that are atop the leader board. We are still loaded with some significant pros and Kid Poker leads the pack. Negreanu has a grip on the overall chip lead and it is hard to imagine him giving it up. It has been a while since he has had a strong showing in the WSOP and hopefully this can get him turned around. There is nothing better in poker than watching Kid Poker on a final table.

Two more events get kicked off today and all in all, we will have 6 tournaments going and hopefully 2 more bracelets getting awarded.