WSOP Event #28, $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/Rebuys: Galfond Beats Them
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008
The table was packed with some of the best ever poker players. Phil
Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and David
Benyamine circled around each other, titans of the live poker scene
for the last decade.
The table was packed with some of the best ever poker players. Phil
Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and David
Benyamine circled around each other, titans of the live poker scene
for the last decade. In the end, it came down to two online players
to tackle each other in one of the most gruelling heads-up battles
at the Series so far.
The chip counts at the start of play were as follows:
Phil Galfond - 1,393,000
Brian Rast - 1,176,000
David Benyamine - 1,041,000
John Juanda - 694,000
Johnny Chan - 624,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 558,000
Daniel Negreanu - 460,000
Adam Hourani - 300,000
Phil Hellmuth - 119,000
Seeking out his historic twelfth WSOP title, Phil Hellmuth began
with a much-needed double up courtesy of Benyamine. The Frenchman
flopped two pair, but by the time the chips went in on the turn,
Hellmuth had hit a better two pair, which held for a boost to the
chip stack.
While the players all dreamt of the gold, one player whose
dreams turned into something of a nightmare was Brian Rast. One of
the most respected PLO cash game players on the net, Rast lost a
massive pot against Johnny Chan. Both got the money in preflop,
with virtually identical hands, A-A-5-4 against A-A-9-2 for Chan.
Rast flopped the nut flush draw though, while Chan hit bottom pair.
No spade came for Rast, and the second deuce on the river gave The
Orient Express the 1.2 million chip pot.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Rast had been mercilessly needled for
his play by Hellmuth, so must have felt relieved when he got the
Poker Brat to commit his stack with K-K-5-4 against his A-A-2-2
double suited. Hellmuth caught one of his four outs on the turn
though when a King arrived to send Rast reeling.
Rast eventually got his remaining chips in against Chan with top
pair, a flush draw, a back door flush draw and a gutshot straight
draw, while Johnny showed a lower pair, a better flush draw and not
much else. Chan hit an ace on the river to make just a single pair,
but enough to know Rast out of the tournament.
The elimination of the short stacks came next, with Hellmuth out
in eighth and Negreanu in seventh. Chan continued to run good on
this final table, eliminating Juanda in sixth. Juanda tabled top
pair, an open ended straight draw and a flush draw against the top
two pair of Chan, making Juanda a 55% favourite. Chan faded all of
the outs as he had against Rast, allowing him to rake in another
monster pot.
When someone runs that good in a tournament, you simply put it
down to it ‘being their day’. The remaining players dug deep
though, and derailed Chan just as it looked as if he was
unstoppable. Firstly Benyamine doubled through him after his set
outdrew the straight of Chan on the river, before Galfond crippled
the last man to win back-to-back Main Events. Chan managed to
outlast Kirill Gerasimov, who was eliminated in fifth, but the
fourth place and opportunity to tie with Hellmuth’s eleven
bracelets must have disappointed him.
With Benyamine and two of the biggest online cash game players
left, perhaps this was the moment where many expected the more
experienced player to thrive. It wasn’t the case though, as Hourani
pressurised Benyamine into making some big folds, and then
eventually finished the job off, flopping top set against the
overpair.
The heads-up battle between Galfond and Hourani raged on for
over 100 hands. Galfond had begun with a 2-1 chip lead on his
adversary, and had whittled him down to just under half a million
in chips. The final hand saw Galfond strike a piece of luck of his
own, after his hand improved on the turn to overtake Hourani and
give him the WSOP bracelet so many had expected him to win – just
perhaps not at this final table.
Congratulations to Phil Galfond, winner of perhaps the toughest
final table the World Series will ever see.
Tags:
Poker News, WSOP, Event, #28, , $5, 000, Pot, Limit, Omaha, w/Rebuys:, Galfond, Beats, Them
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