Top 10 Moments at the WSOP
As the World Series of Poker winds its way down to the finish line, we once again have seen how what happens in Vegas over the course of two months in the summer doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas. In fact, it’s these events that shape and mold the way the poker world will remember 2009. And while the main storyline (the Main Event) has yet to be written, there is surely no disappointment when it comes to fantastic 2009 WSOP subplots. Here are a few of our favorites.
10. Vitaly Lunkin Wins Commemorative $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Event
At a final table comprised of some of the best young talent in poker with the likes of Alec Torelli, Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton, and Dani Stern and seasoned veterans like 2004 Main Event champion Greg Raymer and Ted Forrest, a somewhat unknown Russian player broke through to win this special bracelet and $1.9 million dollars. The event was a who’s who in poker, with 201 of the biggest names going toe to toe at table draws normally saved for pre-produced television programming. The win for Lunkin was not a bad way to start the summer, taking home his second bracelet in as many years, with the first coming in one of last year’s $1,500 NL events. The win proved to be just the start for Lunkin, who took his early success and the padding that a $1.9 million score gives to your bankroll and parlayed it into a second final table, the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship, where he fell just short of the bracelet, finishing second for $419,832. Lunkin also finished fourth in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Had he won, it would have surely been one of the greates poker feats of all time, winning a $40,000 and a $50,000 event in the same WSOP.
9. Brandon Cantu’s Good Week
It’s been just about a year since Brandon Cantu’s infamous Main Event blow up, in which he called off a huge amount of his stack with 10-5 off-suit. Cantu is defi - nitely making a case for the incident to be a blip on the radar on his lifetime accomplishments more so than a defining moment. Coming into the Series, Cantu’s year has been anything but good, with a few small cashes and then a 98th-place finish in one of the first $1,500 events of the WSOP for a whopping $4,038 bucks. That all changed during one week late in June in which Cantu came painfully close to his second bracelet in Event 39, a $1,500 NL event. Cantu had his opponent down and out holding A-Q to his opponent’s A-7 before the board paired twice giving both players a chop. Later on in the match Cantu got it in with K-9 versus his opponent’s pocket tens and hit his king on the flop, a card that looked to cinch his second WSOP win, before the ten peeled off on the turn, stealing Cantu’s thunder and most of his stack. Coming so close seemed to motivate Cantu, as he steamrolled through the first two days of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 8/B, amassing a million chip stack that seemed impenetrable to his opponents sitting at around $300k to $400k. All the work was almost for naught, as the final table saw Brandon give away the lead more than once, and then face off against fellow bracelet winner, Omaha specialist Lee Watkinson, who had him out-chipped by over a three to one margin. Cantu would refuse to break though, surging to his second WSOP bracelet victory and his second six-fi gure score of the week, erasing the infamous 10-5 and proving he is certainly a player to be feared and respected at any tournament table.
8. Bach Wins $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event
The $50,000 HORSE World Championship started with 95 players but in the end it was all about two players going head-to-head for over seven hours with neither player giving up an inch until David Bach fi nally got John Hanson to tap out just after 10am PT.
Bach likes to call himself the Gunslinger and early Wednesday morning he left 94 of the world’s best poker players dead in the streets by winning one of poker’s most prestigous titles.
“I just had to remind myself to keep fighting and play well,” said Bach. “I could live with losing if I played my best, but of course I wanted to win.”
He also scored a $1,276,802 cash to add to his resume, a gold bracelet and the Chip Reese Trophy — awarded annually to the winner of this event. Prior to this win Bach’s best result was a $257,425 payday from a sixthplace fi nish at the LA Poker Classic championship event in 2007. Hanson earned $789,199 for his runner-up performance.
"Especially this tournament being the Chip Reese tournament,” said Bach, “and being, I think, the best tournament of the year. It just means the world.”
The final table included some of the game’s most respected mixed game players including Erik Seidel, Chau Giang, and Huck Seed. Also at the final table were 2009 WSOP all-stars Vitaly Lunkin and Ville Wahlbeck. But the real story was the marathon heads-up battle between Bach and Hanson. The former professional bowler and the options trader from New York City went back and forth for over seven hours with Hanson fighting back from multiple 4-1 chip deficits.
The heads-up battle saw each player hold the chip lead four times. After a particularly brutal round of Omaha 8-or-Better Hanson finally decided to make a stand during the sixth hand of Razz in the rotation. Hanson eventually made a 9-8 but when Bach turned over his river card he had made a 9-7 and sent Hanson home in second place. With heads-up lasting so long Bach drew inspiration from the name on the trophy.
“I just said to myself ‘be a professional,’” said Bach. “I was looking at Chip Reese’s name on that trophy and that’s what he would do.”
7. Daniel and Barry Cash In
While neither of these poker legends have snapped off a bracelet to date, they have both gone to work grinding it out; Greenstein with seven cashes, and Negreanu with eight. Negreanu made two final tables; a runner-up finish to Brock Parker in the six-handed $2,500 Limit Hold’em event, and a fourth in the $10,000 Omaha 8/B Championship. Barry made two as well, with a ninth-place finish in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha and a fifth place finish in the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em. While they both would surely like to get their hands on some wrist wear, seven cashes is still pretty dang impressive. On the brighter side of things, Barry looks to win a nice chunk of change off of Daniel in a prop bet they had against each other. Each player had a teammate and Barry chose wisely with Jeffrey Lisandro who could not be stopped this WSOP and is a shoe-in for WSOP Player of the Year. Daniel’s teammate, the reigning 2008 WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren, has had a sub-par Series compared to last year.
6. Ville Wahlbeck Wants to be a World Champion
Considering his biggest cash prior to this year’s WSOP was for $8,528 in a 2006 WSOP event, Wahlbeck’s WSOP has been nothing less than amazing. Wahlbeck has taken aim at the $10,000 World Championship events at the WSOP this year, and has emphatically blown his target to smithereens with a thirteenthplace finish in the $10k Omaha 8/B, a third place in the Stud Hi, a second place in the 2-7 Draw Lowball, a bracelet victory in the 8-Game Mixed event, and another cash in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E, bringing his total earnings up to over $800,000 for the Series. Throw his performance into last year’s WSOP and he walks away with the WSOP Player of the Year title. However, this year he sits second behind triple bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro leading into the Main Event.
5. A Crown to Call His Own
London-born Roland De Wolfe accomplished what a lot of us here at BLUFF headquarters wouldn’t mind doing; turning a poker journalism career into a career as a poker superstar. In 2006, the former editor for Inside Edge Magazine became the first man to own both an EPT championship (Dublin 2006), and a WPT title (Grand Prix de Paris 2005), an accomplishment that has been overlooked since Gavin Griffin won a WPT, a WSOP bracelet, and EPT championship, and became the first man to have all three prestigious circuit wins under his belt. Roland came to Vegas this year with a mission and put up three quick cashes in the early goings before becoming the second person ever to have won the Triple Crown of poker with his WSOP bracelet victory in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8/B event. This year seems to be “The Year of the Multiple Bracelet Winner” and Roland just missed out on joining that fraternity with a second final table in a $1,500 NL Hold’em event where he finished fifth. We think it’s safe to say Roland wont be knocking on our doors for a job any time soon.
4. Greg “FBT” Mueller Kisses the Stanley Cup
The past two years have been bittersweet for Mueller. With two runner-up finishes in WSOP events, it must have felt like getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and losing a seven-game series. Well, in a story as fitting as the Penguins winning the cup after faltering last year, Mueller, a former professional hockey player, would have his chance again for WSOP glory with none other than Lord Stanley’s Cup just feet away, thanks to the NHL awards being in town. Not only did Mueller seize the day by winning the bracelet and kissing the cup after doing so, he came back triumphantly a week or so later to win the $1,500 Limit Shootout event for his second bracelet of the Series. Sometimes, it’s all about the timing.
3. Back-to-Back Brock
Playing heads-up for a WSOP bracelet is a special occasion for any poker player. It becomes even more special, and daunting for that matter, when you have to beat an opponent like Daniel Negreanu to finish off the feat. That was the scenario that Brock Parker, better known as “TSoprano” online, faced in the $2,500 Six-Handed Limit Hold’em event, where he eventually topped Daniel to win the bling. Deciding rest was for the weak, Parker jumped back into action the next day, playing the $2,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event, and amazingly winning that too. As Tony Soprano would say: “Fugetaboutit.”
2. Phil. Ivey.
The most intimidating and dominating player in the game today has once again proven why he is to be feared as he put on two final table clinics in the $2,500 2-7 Lowball $2,500 Stud/ Omaha 8/B to win his sixth and seventh WSOP bracelets. It’s been well documented that Phil enjoys the side action, and last year he lost millions by not winning a bracelet. This year, Ivey was back at it, and his competitors must not have taken much heed to the fact the Ivey is the best and booked side bets this year that were bigger than ever, with Ivey having anywhere between $3 million to $12 million on the line for him to win a WSOP bracelet this year. It’s pretty safe to say that nobody should bet against Ivey ever again. His wining one bracelet probably juiced up the action from those saying he couldn’t win two. Well, he did, and scooped enough money to make the boys in Bobby’s room feel a little nervous with Phil coming in to collect.
1. Jeffrey Lisandro Wins Three Bracelets...
