After almost 2 full weeks of poker, the Final Table for the 2009 WSOP has been set. Darvin Moon as jumped out to a massive chip lead, but he now has about 4 months to start to think about how he can avoid blowing it. There is still plenty of talent left on the table, most notably Phil Ivey, and he is going to have to keep his head and not let the down time affect how he approached the last session.
The last elimination was a heartbreaker as Jordan Smith was positive he had the best and got slapped right in the teeth when the cards were flipped. Buchman opened for 650,000 and Moon made a smooth call from the button. The next to act was Jordan Smith on the small blind and he fired out a huge raise to make it 2,600,000 to go. Buchman immediately folded and Moon once again made the call. The flop came out all babies, 8c4d2d. Smith probably put Moon and a mid pair and checked to set up a check-raise. Moon bit and fired out 4,000,000 at which point Smith moved all in. The read was right, but unfortunately the mid pair that Moon has was 88 and he had flopped a set.
The turn card made things interesting as a 5h hit and now gave Smith 4 additional outs as he could hit an inside straight. 7 cards stood in the way of the final table being named. The river cards fell harmlessly as a 10h was turned and Smith was shown to the rail. He has $896,730 to console him, but even that may not be enough as he has the dubious pleasure of being bubbled on the final table of a WSOP Main Event.
The pace of play was actually a rather large surprise. 27 players started the day and with what was at stake, you would have thought that the players would have slowed things down a bit. That was hardly the case as it took only 20 minutes to get the first casualty of the day. One of the disappointments for the fans was when Anotonio Esfandiari went out early. He has a rather large television fan base and is great for the table when he is playing. At this point, the only true super star remaining was Phil Ivey.
Ivey never seemed to get going on the day, in fact he dropped about 2,000,000 from his starting total, but he did manage to avoid elimination and we all know anything can happen on a final table. You can bet he will try and find out everything he can about his 8 opponents before they all sit down for a friendly SNG tournament from November 7th – 10th.
Here are the final table chip counts for the November Nine:
Jeffrey Carris has only cashed in the WSOP on two occasions, but he made his second one count. The winner of the No Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament outlasted 9 other players in what amounted to be a 12 hour SNG tournament. With all players starting out with the same amount, this final table is like nothing you will see in any other format. Play usually drags out and it is a true test of grit and talent.
It all came down to Somerville and Carris, but the two players did not waste any time in settling this one. After only a few hands of heads up play, Somerville threw all his chips into the middle of the table with Qs6d. Carris took a few seconds to think about it but then decided correctly that his Kc6d was a big enough hand to make the call. The board fell harmlessly and totally missed both players’ hands and Carris got the jewelry and $313,913 to go with it.
In other tournaments…
The story of the day on Saturday so for is easily Phil Ivey. He has been dominating the Omaha/ Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or better tournament from close to the beginning and is still not letting up. At this point, they are down to only 3 players and he has a huge chip lead of almost a half million chips over second place. As impressive as that is, he is also about to make the money in the Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or better tournament as well.
The truly amazing thing is that he has barely played a hand in the second tournament. As chip leader of the other mixed tournament, he has been unwilling to leave the table and risk his position in the second tournament. He has only been over there when he is on break. Once he reached the final table, he was barely noticeable, but on every break he seemed to win a key hand that kept him alive. There currently 22 players remaining with only 18 getting paid and while he is one of the short stacks, he continues to make an appearance at precisely the right time to stay alive. This will be a huge accomplishment if he somehow stays alive in that tournament long enough for his final table to be over and then make a run here as well. More to come on this one as soon as it is available.
Event 24 is also on its final table, but it would appear to have quite some time left to go as the chips are pretty event. Panayote Vilandros is the current leader with 5 players remaining. Event 26 is now down to 34 players and should be able to get down to the final table tonight as well as Event 27 with only 22 players remaining. Event 28 has already lost about 75% of the starting field and Event 29 is just getting underway. No chip counts or leader information is available as they are both on Day 1.
The heads up action did not last long as Tschirch got a little aggressive with his A5 and ended up shipping his chips over to Kelly. This table had been playing quickly all night long so it was no surprise at how fast these two got the championship settled. Tschirch will get $120,102 for 3 days work, but that is little comfort for getting to heads up and coming up short at the WSOP.
The final hand had Tschirch on the button and raising to 55,000. Kelly came over the top and made it 150,000 to go. Tschirch made the call to a flop of 8c5d4s. Kelly put out another 155,000 and Tschirch again made the call. Kelly upped the ante when a Qc hit the turn and made it 300,000 to go. Tschirch pushed all in and Kelly could not get his chips in there fast enough. When the cards were turned, we saw the reason why, he was sitting on AQ in the hole. This had to be a heart breaker for Tschirch as he had actually hit the flop holding A5 in his hand. The river was a harmless 2c and that was all she wrote. In addition to the bracelet, Kelly takes home $193,434.
In other tournaments…
Event 21 is still motoring along, but it is going to be quite a while before we have a winner in this one. 8 players are still left and James Van Alsytne has almost half of the chips in play with 1,059,000. While he has never won a bracelet, he does have 11 WSOP cashed under his belt and over $500,000 in earnings. It is unlikely the pressure will make him buckle and he should finally get his first WSOP championship.
Event 22 is only about halfway through this round. The No Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament is a SNG masters dream and at the end of the round we will only have 10 players remaining. At this point, there are still about 50 players seated at the table and play is moving along fairly slowly for this type of tournament.
Event 23, the 2-7 Lowball Draw tournament is the buzz saw of the day. They are already down to just 27 players with a lot of short stacks hanging around. Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow still has chips in front of him, but he is way down on the leader board. The name to be feared at this point is John Juanda as he can be absolutely deadly with a stack. He is currently sitting at 181,000 and very close to the overall leader.
Another name that is way up on the board that has not been around for some time is Jean-Robert Bellande. You may remember him from a circuit event in 2005 as he was giving Jennifer Harmon the business at the table and he eventually came away with third. He does have a few cashes since, but the closest he has come to winning anything is last year with a second place finish in the Limit Hold’em Shootout.
