The $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Tournament, Event 15, ended with Lemke outlasting Fabian Quoss in one of the more entertaining tournaments of this young WSOP. This group of players proved to be one of the toughest and Lemke earned every penny of his $692, 658. For his Quoss takes home a healthy paycheck of $427,912. Here is the recap of the final hand.
Lemke was on the button with Ad8c and limped in. Quoss, AsQd, made it 360,000 and Lemke immediately made a move on the pot by pushing all in. Quoss made the instacall and the cards were turned over. Lemke was a huge dog, but things got very interesting with a flop of 9hJs10h. If either of the player hit their kicker card, the other one would hit a straight. The turn card was exactly what Quoss did not want to see as a Qc hit, pairing him up but also giving Lemke the straight. A harmless Jd fell on the river and Lemke scooped up the pot and the championship.
Event 16, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Tournament, was packed with big names throughout, but one rose to the top in Jeff Lissandro. He had been putting on a clinic the entire tournament and managed to ride the wave through to the end. He bested a field of 359 players to earn his second bracelet (both coming in 7 Stud events) and $124,959. Here is a recap of the final hand.
Lisandro had the force bet with a 5d showing and Pardey completed the wager with a Kh showing. Lisandro immediately came over the top and got the call from Pardey. Lisandro got a Ks on 4th street to Pardey’s 8s. Lisandro bet after a check from Pardey. Pardey check raised to go all in and LIsandro called. Lisandro was holding a AK which made Pardey turn ghost white. The hand was meant to go Lisandro’s way as he ended up with a flush when all 7 cards were dealt out. Pardey walked with $77,230 for second place.
In other tournaments…
Event 17, Ladies NL Hold’em World Championship, has reached its final table and there will be no movie stars or big names getting the jewelry this year. Lisa Parsons would seem to be the player with the most experience with two previous cashes. When all is said and done, we are going to have yet another first time bracelet winner. Lori Bender leads the way with 643,000 in chips.
The World Championship Omaha HL/8 or Better, Event 18, fell a little short of a final table, but will play through to a winner on Tuesday Night. John Monnette has a significant chip lead with 1,141,000 in his stack, almost double that of the rest of the field. However, he has his work cut out for him as he still has a hungry Daniel Negreanu in the field along with Annie Duke, Daniel Alaei and Toto Leonidas to name a few. This definitely ranks as one of the stronger fields that we have seen get this far in a tournament.
Events 19 and 20 had just gotten underway on Monday and a now familiar name is at the top of one of the leader boards. Brock Parker has taken the momentum from upsetting Daniel Negreanu in the Limit Hold’em event Sunday night. He is currently at 138,900 and in 6th place. There are still plenty of monsters left in the field and with almost 200 players remaining, anything can happen here.
It took over 12 hours to finish the deed, but Freddie Ellis won the first World Championship Event of the 2009 WSOP by besting Eric Drache in Event #6. Ellis was perfect from day one and he had quite a few obstacles to get by in the process. If you play cards in Atlantic City and New York, you know the name. Now the world knows how Freddie Ellis is.
The final hand of the tournament, Drache found himself very short stacked and in deep trouble. The 100,000/200,000 blinds had all but gobbled up his stack and it was time for an all in. Drache raised on the river for his final couple of chips and that was all she wrote. Ellis finished the hand by hitting a flush and Ellis was sent to the rail. Ellis walks away with $373,751, a bracelet and the respect of every player that sat down at his tables. Other notable finishes were Max Pescatori (4th), Greg Mueller (7th), Jeffrey Lisandro (9th) and Daniel Negreanu (10th).
Event #8, the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball No Limit Event, was about as entertaining as it gets. In all likelihood, Ivey had more on side bets than he would win by taking down the bracelet, but he can’t collect unless he gets the jewelry. It was rumored that he stood to win more than $1,000,000 if he took down a tournament.
John Monnette was equal to the task and the two players went head to head for over three hours. At one point, Ivey was all but out and then made a huge run and it looked like the tournament was over as Ivey had over 900,000 of the 1,100,000 in chips. Then with two quick double ups, Monnette had Ivey on the ropes. It was Ground Hog Day all over again as within a few minutes, the situation was reversed and Ivey was back on top. After a few hands, the chip stacks evened back out and the player started trading blinds again for a bit.
The final hand finally happened about 3 and a half hours into heads up play. Monnette was on the button and made a raise when Ivey pushed everything into the middle of the table. Monnette never hesitated and everyone stood up in anticipation. Each player would be taking only one card on the draw. Ivey has holding 7-6-4-2 and Monnette held 9-7-5-2. Monnette was unlucky and drew a 7 to give him a pair and was now officially dead in the hand. Ivey turned over his 5 and the tournament was over.
Ivey now has 6 WSOP bracelets and not one of them is for a NL event. While Ivey is taking down $96,367 for his win, the real payday will come when he walks around the room and collects the money from all the side bets that are out there for a player to win a WSOP event. The will all more than likely ante up again, but Ivey has to feel good about this one.
In other tournaments…
Event #7 is at the final table, but we are still quite a ways from a winner. As of this posting, there are still 7 players remaining in the $1,500 No Limit Event. Craig McConville is currently the chip leader with 3,100,000.
Event #9, the 6 Handed $1,500 NL Hold’em Event is now down to 42 players. This one still has a long way to go with barely a recognizable name left in the field. There has been plenty of action and the number by the end of play today should have us pretty close to a final table.
Event #10, the $2,500 Pot Limit Mixed Game has players dropping like flies. As of this posting, there were only 36 player remaining in what appears to be one of the better fields for this deep in the tourney. A name we have not heard much from in recent times, David Sklansky is still hanging in but times are getting dire with only 32,000 left in his stack.
Event #11 started today and we have seen about half of the field walk away from the tables. The $2,000 NL Hold’em event is moving a bit slower than the bulk of the other tournaments, but the pace is still okay to hit the final table as scheduled. The story of the day in this tournament is Jason Mercier who is making an early bid for his second bracelet of the season.
The second World Championship event kicked off late tonight with the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event. Negreanu, who has already gone deep in the 7 Stud World Championship Event is playing great poker and catching cards. This is not good news for the rest of the field as there are few better when he is on his game. He is already at the top of the leader board and seems like he is a man possessed. We all know how aggressive he is and he is just as likely to continue his run as he is to be broke by the time the blinds get back to him. However, after last year’s showing, you would have to think he will play a little more conservative when he gets a big chip lead this time around. Forget that, its Kid Poker, full steam ahead!
In what was the largest field ever in a non-championship event, Steve Sung outlasted everyone else and came out on top of the 6012 person field. The tournament had been extended an extra day as the final table was reached late Tuesday Night. It turned out to be a smart move as the final table took over 9 more hours to settle the winner. Steve Sung took over the table and used his aggressive style to bully his way to a bracelet. His opponent had no chance on the last hand as his 88 only had two outs against Sung’s KK. Sung took home $771,106 as the champion and of course the distinction of winning one of the largest field WSOP Events ever.
Jason Mercier won his first WSOP bracelet in Event #5, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event. He did what he was supposed to do as the most talented player on the final table, win! With all of the other professionals coming up short, he finally took one down in a large field. In all, 809 players entered and Jason will take home $237,462 for his efforts. Jason Mercier is a young player, but you would never know it from his demeanor at the tables. Calm, cool and collected is an understatement. This is a name that we are going to hear a lot about in future.
Event #6, the World Championship 7 Card Stud event was also supposed to crown a champion by the end of the evening, but last report still had 2 people remaining. Look for the final results of this tournament in the next report. All we can really say is that Eric Drache and Freddie Ellis are still alive.
Event #7, the $1,500 NL Hold’em event wrapped up day two with only 59 players remaining. This was another huge field with 2791 players starting the tournament. There are very few big names left in this tournament and an unknown by the name of Jason Kalb is currently leading the way with 680,000. Plenty of short stacks in play here and we can expect some fast and furious eliminations when play resumes.
Event #8, the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball wrapped up play with only 7 people remaining. The one name that sticks out like a sore thumb on the leader board is Phil Ivey. While the chip leader has a better than 2:1 advantage on him, we all know his aggressive style could have him up there in a heartbeat. This is the table to watch today! Here are the rankings and chip counts for the remaining players:
1) John Monnette – 259,000 2) Raphael Zimmerman – 238,000 3) Yan Chen – 159,000 4) Elia Ahmadian – 139,900 5) Eric Kesselman – 119,400 6) Phil Ivey – 106,300 7) Rodeen Talebi – 94,500
Wednesday was a busy day as there were also 2 new tournaments starting off. Event #9, the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 6 Handed event got started with a field of 1459 players. It was an absolute massacre with 1354 players going to the rail on day one. This year’s series has proven the effect that both television and the internet have had on poker. Play is aggressive and fearless. It is tough to recall so many players going out so early in tournaments. As play wrapped up, Doug Lee was leading the way with 200,000 in chips.
The last event of the day was the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha game. 455 players entered the tournament and almost 300 of them were shown the door. Seidel’s tournament was all but ended when he flopped middle pair on an all in, but it could not hold up against a flush draw that hit on the river. He was left with a mere 125 in chips and they quickly found their way into the center of the table. Day two will resume on Thursday.
So far, this is a pretty interesting WSOP. The early going seems to be fast and furious and then they all slam on the brakes once the final two tables or so are reached. You can see a dramatic change in the way people are playing from that point forward. The pros continue to have a tough time of it, but they are starting to break through. Mercier is an up and coming young player who made his mark and Ivey is still alive on the final table. Two more tournaments get kicked off on Thursday as the craziness continues.
