WPT: Bellagio Cup IV - Elementary, My Dear Watson
Friday, 18 July 2008
They’ve gone and done something at the Bellagio Cup which the WPT
might have suffered from in the past. The final table here was
stacked with players, all fresh from their exploits at the World
Series, and it left us with one of the most anticipated
They’ve gone and done something at the Bellagio Cup which the WPT
might have suffered from in the past. The final table here was
stacked with players, all fresh from their exploits at the World
Series, and it left us with one of the most anticipated final
tables in recent WPT history.
So here were the final six who made it to the televised stages:
Seat 1 - Ralph Perry - 1,635,000
Seat 2 - Luke Staudenmaier - 3,495,000
Seat 3 - John Phan - 3,495,000
Seat 4 - David Benyamine - 4,860,000
Seat 5 - Gabriel Thaler - 1,550,000
Seat 6 - Mike Watson - 5,060,000
Thaler, Phan, Benyamine and Perry are all players who have enjoyed
their share of television exposure over the past few years, but it
was Luke Staudenmaier who got off to a good start, taking a 1.3
million chip pot from Benyamine.
Gabe Thaler then began his bid to work his short stack into
something more manageable. With a series of all-in moves, Thaler
seemed to be on the right track, until he was eventually chased
down by Mike Watson. Thaler’s pocket tens were ahead to begin with,
but the flush draw of Watson finally caught Thaler and eliminated
him in sixth place for a little under $130,000.
While Thaler made a conscious decision to put his foot to the
floor, one player who rarely takes his foot off the gas is John
‘The Razor’ Phan. His super-aggressive style of poker often finds
him either out early or chipped up at the later stages of
tournaments, but here he found pace wasn’t the key. After suffering
some bad beats at the hands of Ralph Perry, it eventually fell to
Benyamine to eliminate Phan in fifth. Of course, when you run bad,
you run bad, so it should come as no surprise to hear that The
Razor was taken out on a runner-runner.
It then began heating up for Watson, eliminating Perry and
Staudenmaier in turn, before turning his attention to the
high-stakes pro in heads-up play. Benyamine took an 11-8 chip
advantage into the heads-up battle, but that all turned wildly on
it’s head when Benyamine put Watson all in pre flop with pocket
queens. Watson woke up with A-K, and when he spiked a dramatic ace
on the river, the Frenchman was left crippled.
The misery didn’t go on for long though, but there was another
break for Watson on the last hand. All of the money went in with
Watson’s Q-9 dominated by the K-9 of Benyamine. The flop came with
a queen, and well… when you run good, you run good. No king or
runner-runners for Benyamine meant that Watson cashed a cool
$1,673,770, while David took home $840,295 – probably enough for a
few buy-ins on the Pot Limit Omaha games he plays online.
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Poker News, WPT:, Bellagio, Cup, IV, -, Elementary, , My, Dear, Watson