|
John “Razor” Phan is having one helluva ride in 2008. Earlier this summer Phan won his first two bracelets at the World Series of Poker and then followed that up with a fifth place finish at the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup IV.
And early Friday morning Phan continued his amazing run by capturing the WPT’s Legends of Poker championship event, defeating Amit “Amak316” Makhija in one of the longest and most dramatic heads-up duels in WPT history.
Phan’s win netted him $1,116,428 and pushed his career tournament earnings past the $5 million mark. Although unofficial, Phan should also take the lead in the Bluff Magazine Player-of-the-Year race with the victory when standings are updated early next week.
Phan started the night second in chips behind Makhija, but as the final table progressed his experience paid huge dividends and he began to chip away at Makhija’s chip lead. The first player to hit the rail was Kyle Wilson, who was eliminated when Zachary Clark’s A-J outflopped Wilson’s pocket kings on only the 19th hand of play.
Makhija eliminated Trong Nguyen in fifth place and at that point held more than 50% of the chips in play. Phan then took his turn in the role of executioner taking out Paul Smith in fourth. When three-handed play began Makhija still had a majority of the chips with over 6 million to Phan’s 2.6 million and Clark’s 2.5 million.
The three players played for over three hours before Makhija sent Clark home in third place. When heads-up play began, just before 10 pm PT, Phan was trailing Makhija by 1,680,000 chips. Heads-up play consisted of 63 hands and took nearly 3.5 hours to play. Phan’s rise to the title was the result of a couple of key hands.
On the 12th hand of heads-up play Phan doubled up on an all-in preflop confrontation. Phan held A-K and Makhija was ahead with pocket twos. When Phan paired his king on the river it doubled up to nearly 9 million chips and appeared to be in full control.
Makhija refused to go away quietly and doubled up a few hands later to get close to 4 million and just after midnight he recaptured the chip lead. Phan however had other ideas and soon took the chip lead back for the final time.
The final hand of the night saw Makhija move all-in for just over 2 million with K-7 and Phan call with pocket threes. When the board brought no help for Makhija he was eliminated in second place and Phan captured his first WPT title after coming up short in three previous final table appearances.
Makhija’s runner-up finish earned him $563,320.
|
