Play on the final table was pretty tight the entire night and it took much longer than anticipated for the champion to be decided. Our pick for the championship, Greg Raymer, played exceptionally well, but went out in third place trying to make a huge move. With the way he had been playing, I am still baffled at why he chose the hand that he did to get all of his chips in the middle. It just goes to show that one wrong move can end an otherwise perfect day.



Raymer was on the button and made a pre-flop raise to 400,000. Lunkin got out of the way and the Haxton came over the top to make it 1,250,000. Raymer then made a very questionable move by pushing all in for 8,105,000 and Haxton immediately called. Raymer and his 55 were way behind Haxton and his 99. The play comes into question as Raymer had to know that his best possible scenario only had him at about 60-40% to win the hand and he was very likely up against a better pair. The board never improved either player and Raymer was sent to the rail with a standing ovation from the room.

The moment everyone had been waiting for all night was about to take place. The first major event of the 40th WSOP was about to go into heads up. The money was brought out to the table and Haxton and Lunkin settled in with Haxton holding a better than 2:1 chip edge.

The first big h and of heads up play happened about a half hour in. Lunkin ended up pushing all in on the river and Haxton gave up the hand. The pot improved Lunkin to 13,900,000 in chips. The players traded small hands back and forth and while Lunkin had captured the lead for a bit, the bulk of the small hands were going Haxton’s way. Over the next hour and a half, he would regain his 2:1 edge. Unfortunately, his house of cards was about to blown down.

Haxton took a devastating blow to his stack on hand #154 of the night. Haxton made a pre-flop raise to 400,000 and Lunkin came over the top for 1,400,000. Haxton then pushed with his K3c. Again, a foolish move after playing strong poker all night long. Lunkin immediately called and flipped over 1010. With a flop of 10-4-2 and no clubs, Lunkin doubled up and was now holding the huge chip lead.

Haxton came right back at him 7 hands later on a horrible beat. With a flop of K53, Lunkin check-raised a bet of 525,000 and made it 1,450,000. Haxton made the call and watched the turn show a 6s. Lunkin fired another 1,500,000 at the pot and Lunkin made the call. Lunkin was sitting on AA to Haxton’s K10. Lunkin was absolutely shattered when a 10c hit the river and cheated him from snagging the championship. However, this was only a prelude of things to come as both of these players now appeared to be ready to mix it up. Haxton – 13,970,000, Lunkin – 10,125,000.

Just two hands later, all of the chips would be back in the middle of the table, and Lunkin would once again have a huge chip lead. Haxton called Lunkin’s preflop raise of 1,400,00 and aw a flop of A54c hit the board. Lunkin fired out with 2,000,000 and Haxton pushed his stack in the middle. Lunkin called and the players flipped their cards. Lunkin turned over Qc10s and Haxton had Qs8c. Haxton hit a miracle 8 on the turn, but a river 2c brought him back down to earth. At his point, Haxton was left with only 5,505,000 in chips and had to be mentally devastated.

It all came to an end about 3 hours and 20 minutes after they started playing heads up and was a part of this massive flurry of action that came out of nowhere. The final hand of the tournament started with Lunkin on the button and making the call from the SB. The board hit Q-10-8, all diamonds. Haxton took a shot at the pot for 1,200,00 and Lunkin them moved all in and was called. The cards where flipped and Haxton showed 3d8c to Lunkin’s AsAh. Amazingly, all Haxton needed to crack his AA was a diamond. However, none of his 14 outs would show up and Lunkin had finally taken down what will be one of the most important titles of the season. Both players are now millionaire’s, but Lunkin gets the jewelry and the honor of having his national anthem played at the second bracelet ceremony of the year.

The two major stories of the day have to be Tony G and Isaac Haxton. Somehow, Tony G had managed to hang on despite being short stacked just about the whole way. When his luck ran out and he was eliminated in 10th place, you had to feel for the guy. He had fought so hard to get to the final table and had his dreams squashed when he only had a little over $200,000 left in front of him. He pushed with A7h and was called by Torelli who was holding onto J10h. Both players hit the board, unfortunately for Tony G., he only hit his 7 and was sent to the rail.

As incredible as Tony G.’s staying power had been, the run of Haxton has been even more incredible. He started the day off with only a little over 500,000 in chips and has managed to climb his way up to the top spot of the leader board with 5,520,000 in chips.

While Raymer has not had the climb that we anticipated, he has continued to play solid poker. Unfortunately for him, his cards have not held up as well as they did in prior sessions, but somehow he is managing to dodge some major bullets and has remained right around the count that he started the day off at.

Shocking or not is a decision that you will have to make, but Bonomo crashed and burned all day. As well as his young, aggressive style worked over the last couple of days, it came back to bite him in Day 3. He continued to dump chips and finds himself at the bottom tier of the final table with a huge target on his stack.

The final table has shaped up very nicely with a great mix of the new and the old, the amateurs and the pros. Tomorrow should be a great session, but my money is still on Raymer to hoist the bracelet and scoop the cash.

Here is your final table and chips counts:
1) Isaac Haxton 5,520,000
2) Vitaly Lunkin 4,565,000
3) Lex Veldhuis 3,805,000
4) Greg Raymer 3,345,000
5) Alec Torelli 2,340,000
6) Justin Bonomo 1,685,000
7) Dani Stern 1,300,000
8) Noah Schwartz 660,000
9) Ted Forrest 560,000

In other tournaments….
The Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better (Event #30 continues to move fast and furious. The top 10 is a definitive who’s who of the poker world. As of this posting, Eli Elezra continues to lead the way and looks absolutely unbeatable so far in this tournament. Other pros that are on top are Freddy Deeb, Layne Flack, Toto Leonidis, Chip Jett and the infamous Annie Duke. With only 90 players remaining, the remaining amateurs are going to have a tough time getting through to the final table.

Event #4 ($1,000 Stimulus NL Hold’em Event) stole the headlines early in the day as it was sold out (6,000 players) well before the tournament started. Players went flying out the door early and often and as of this posting, over 65% of the field was already gone. There were no chips counts posted as of yet, but we will have them for you as soon as they are available.

Sundays action should feature two final tables. The 40K event will be on its fourth and final day and the 3 day scheduled event #3 is also scheduled to finish up tomorrow. The question remains if they will be able to get the tournament down to that point in enough time to actually have the final table on Sunday. Day 2 of the 4 day Stimulus event will take place as well as Day 1 of the Champions Invitational. Monday is the beginning of the two a days with events 5 and 6 kicking off.