WSOP Bracelets for Paur and Kitai
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
All eyes were on Phil Ivey heading into the final stages of Event #18 at the Rio overnight. With just 14 players left in the $1,000 event, Ivey was well placed to make it WSOP bracelet number 10 but he'll after wait a little longer to add to his collection after busting out early in yesterday's proceedings.
He lost a chunk of change after calling Ryan Austin's A10 shove with A9 and lost the rest two hands later when his A4 couldn't outrun Taylor Paur's pocket 7s.
Despite Ivey's early exit there was plenty of class on show with the likes of Daniel Idema and Kyle Cartwright amongst the final nine. None could match Paur though who turned his start of day chip lead into a well earned bracelet. Paur, who finished in 33rd place in last year's WSOP Main Event, sealed victory after a strange heads up encounter with Roy Weiss.
The opening exchanges were pretty standard with Weiss pegging back Paur's initial chip lead then Paur extending it. The whole atmosphere of the contest changed after the dinner break though with Weiss moving all in on virtually every hand. Luck seemed to be with him too, doubling up with J8 against A10 and Q5 against A9.
Sanity was finally restored when Paur's A5 held against Weiss' K8 to finally give him the title. The winner was unimpressed with his opponent's tactics though.
“I’ve never seen anything like it and I don’t imagine anyone has ever gone all in every hand while heads-up for a bracelet,” Paur told Bluff.com. “I even said walking back from dinner that someone would tell him to move all in every single hand and I couldn’t actually believe anyone would do it.”
“I honestly think he disrespected the game, it’s not poker,” he added. “It’s not everyday that you get to play heads-up for a bracelet. I’m trying to play for a bracelet not flip coins for a bracelet. I feel it was disrespectful to everyone else that played in the event. They were trying to win, not to see who can get the luckiest.”
Event 18 Final Table Payouts
1 Taylor Paur $340,260
2 Roy Weiss $211,794
3 Tai Nguyen $147,220
4 Kevin Barlow $106,027
5 DJ MacKinnon $77,491
6 Phillip Hui $57,324
7 Daniel Idema $42,962
8 Ryan Austin $32,608
9 Kyle Cartwright $25,041
The other bracelet awarded on Day 14 went to Davidi Kitai in the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event. The Belgian secured his second WSOP title after working his way through a 195-runner field and a final table that included such notable names as Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Dario Minieri and Eugene Katchalov.
Kitai went into heads up play with a hefty chip lead but despite a spirited comeback from Cary Katz took the honours, eventually prevailing when his pocket kings held against the American's pocket jacks.
1 Davidi Kitai $224,560
2 Cary Katz $138,794
3 Vincent Bartello $103,628
4 Dimitar Danchev $77,893
5 Eugene Katchalov $58,912
6 Kristina Holst $44,844
7 Bertrand Grospellier $34,341
8 Dario Minieri $26,468
9 Chris Johnson $20,520