WORLD
SERIES OF POKER - FINAL REPORT
By Dave Welch
and 'Smokin' Steve Vladar
DAY FIVE REPORT
The final table of the World Series
$10,000 no-limit hold-em event was played on Saturday after four gruelling days had
seen the starting line-up of 631 reduced to just nine players.
The final started with England's
John Shipley holding the chip lead with over $2,000,000, more than double his nearest
rival. Julian Gardner was also there in seventh position with $394,000.
With no limit to the betting, chips
can move quickly and this was proven when Julian found pocket Aces in the very first
hand and moved all-in. He is called by Robert Varkonyi who has 99 and with no help
for Robert from the board, Julian doubles his stack. A good start for Julian.
It was one hour into the final before
the first player was knocked out. Minh Ly makes a small raise and Rafael Perry moves
all-in. Minh calls all-in for less chips and shows 88. Rafael has AK and when a King
flops it spells the end for Minh who finishes in 9th place and $85,000.
Another two hours pass during which
the smaller stacks repeatedly survive when going all-in. A cruical hand for John now
occurs where he raises an opening bet of $60,000 from Robert Varkonyi a further $90,000.
Robert now moves all-in for a further $750,000 and John has to make a decision. He
finally calls and shows AJ. Robert turns over JJ and when there is no Ace on the board
John loses the $2,000,000 pot to Robert and leaves himself one of the lower stacks.
Over four hours into the final we
lose the next player when Tony D goes all-in with QJ and gets called by Robert with
AK. With no help from the board, Tony goes out in 8th place and $100,000.
Soon after this John Shipley goes
all-in with 77 and Robert calls again, this time with A 10. No help for Robert on
the flop but fourth street brings an Ace and spells the end for John who finishes
in 7th place and $120,000.
Another thirty minutes and Julian
finds AA behind an all-in bet from Russell Rosenblum. Julian calls all-in for slightly
fewer chips and when the Aces hold up, doubles his chips. This leaves Russell almost
out and he does go out shortly after in 6th place and $150,000.
Twenty minutes later we are down
to four when Julian knocks out Harley Hall in 5th place for $195,000.
Robert is now the chip leader with
$3.7 million, Julian and Rafael have about $1 million and Scott Gray is hanging in
with $500,000. The prize money goes up rapidly now and the game is getting very cagey
with no-one really willing to risk their stacks against the chip leader. Finally,
Scott moves all-in against Robert with A9. Robert shows Q 10 and when the flop comes
Q Q 8 it is all over for Scott who finishes 4th and picks up $281,000.
After a break the players return
and the first hand sees the final go to heads-up. Ralph raises Julian's opening raise
of $60,000 by a further $200,000. Robert then moves all-in for $4,000,000. Julian
passes but Ralph calls and shows JJ. Robert turns over AA and with the board helping
no-one, Ralph goes out in third and $550,000.
This has left Robert Varkonyi with
a big chip lead over Julian and there were no real changes for over 40 minutes. Robert
then wins the first significant pot, taking about $400,000 from Julian. The final
hand came shortly after when Julian called Robert's pre-flop raise and the flop came
Q 4 4 with two clubs. Julian checks, Robert bets and Julian raises for $750,000 all-in.
Robert calls and the hands are turned over - Julian has J 8 of clubs and Robert has
Q 10. Fourth street comes a 10 and the river comes a club - but it is the ten of clubs!
So, Julian makes his flush but Robert wins the hand with a full-house.
Congratulations to Julian for a fantastic
effort and 2nd place for a payday of $1,100,000.
The new World Champion is Robert
Varkonyi who wins the much coveted Bracelet and the not-inconsiderable amount of $2,000,000.
Well done!
Here's to next year...
Dave & Steve.
DAY FOUR REPORT
The final table of the World Series
$10,000 no-limit event is where every poker player in the World would love to be.
Today, the fourth day of the tournament, 45 players returned to the fray with the
sole aim of getting a seat around that very table.
The consolation for those that did
not get there was that they were guaranteed a healthy payout, but no place prize money
would be able to make up for the disappointment of having come so far without getting
into the final nine.
The last surviving member from our
ten to follow was one of the casualties. Randy Holland was finally knocked out from
the tournament in 35th place, picking up prize money of $30,000 for his efforts.
Going into today there were still
six English based players vying for their places. The first of these to fall was Tristan
McDonald who bowed out in 44th place, picking up $20,000.
The next to go was Ross Boatman in
34th place and $30,000.
Rameen Sai managed to get to 30th
before going out and also received $30,000.
Stephen Wilsdon was able to reach
the last 20 before he too went out, receiving $40,000.
Honourable mention must also go here
to Owen Mullen from Ireland who almost made the final table but finally went out in
12th place for a payday of $70,000.
There were some hair-raising moments
along the way for Julian Gardner, who was able to come from behind on a couple of
occasions to stay in the game. Julian's tenacity along with a little bit of magic
has seen him reach the final table with $394,000 in chips, putting him in 7th position.
The jewel in the British crown is,
in no uncertain terms, John Shipley. John has powered his way into the final after
surviving with AK vs 33 when the flop came A 4 3. All-in against a bigger stack, John
watched with amazement as the next two cards came over A A to give him four Aces and
a doubled stack. John did not look back and has made the final table with $2,033,000
in chips, more than double his closest rival.
The full line-up for the final, none
of which have won a World Series event before, is:
John Shipley $2,033,000
Russell Rosenblum $927,000
Rafael Perry $766,000
Robert Varkonyi $640,000
Minh Ly $614,000
Scott Gray $545,000
Julian Gardner $394,000
Tony D $231,000
Harley Hall $161,000
The winner tomorrow will pick up
$2,000,000 plus the coveted Gold Bracelet, with $1,100,000 for the runner-up and $550,000
for third. Fourth to ninth step down from $281,000 for fourth to $85,000 for ninth.
Good luck to all but especially to
John and Julian - go for it boys!
Dave & Steve.
DAY THREE REPORT
At the start of Day 3, the 130 players
who had so far survived from the original field of 631 came to the tables knowing
that by the end of the day's play there would only be 45 left. Today would be the
day that really counts - today would decide who was going to get in the money.
As the day progressed, players dropped
one by one as they either got unlucky with a big hand or as the merciless pressure
of the blinds forced them to commit their chips. One of the most notable fallers was
the last remaining former winner of this event, Phil Helmuth Jr. Having had his stack
crippled earlier in a massive pot against Robert Varkonyi, Phil was finally put out
of the tournament by Ross Boatman, one of the British players still in the event.
When the tournament was down to the
last 46 players, the tension was almost unbearable. Going out in this position is
unthinkable, but of course there has to be one unfortunate player every year and this
year the player who finished on the bubble was Austrian Marcus Golser. He moved all-in
for about $40,000 with pocket Jacks only to find another of our British players, John
Shipley, sitting behind him with pocket Queens. John called the all-in bet and when
the flop was of no help to Marcus, he was out of the tournament. To the great relief
of everyone left, especially lowest stacked David Sklansky who had just $9,500 they
had all made the money.
From the two survivors of our original
ten to follow, Ben Roberts has also gone out today. This just leaves us with Randy
Holland, who has battled his way through and will start tomorrow with $68,000 in chips.
The average stack for Day 4 now that
we are down to 45 players is just over $140,000. There are three players heading the
field - chip leader is Robert Varkonyi with $551,500, second is Tony D from Australia
who has $464,500 and England's John Shipley will start the day in third with $446,000.
A group of six players follows these
three with between $200,000 - $300,000 in chips. This group includes today's earlier
chip leader Julian Gardner who will start tomorrow in 6th position with $274,000.
Other British based players who are
still in the tournament include:
Rameen Sai $102,500
Ross Boatman $100,000
Steve Wilsden $50,000
Tristan McDonald $37,500
Tomorrow the players will play down
to the final table of nine, with the following prize money for those that do not make
it:
37th 45th $20,000
28th 36th $30,000
19th 27th $40,000
16th 18th $50,000
13th 15th $60,000
10th 12th $70,000
The final table prize money starts
at $85,000 for ninth going up to $2,000,000 for the winner.
Well done to everyone who has made
it this far and the best of luck for tomorrow, especially the Brits!
Dave & Steve
DAY TWO REPORT
Day 2 of the main event meant another
eight hours of high pressure play for the 357 players who have made it this far. Just
one mistake at no-limit poker and your entire stack can be lost, sending you to the
rail where you can only watch as the field inexorably reduces toward the last 45 and
the money.
Thirteen former champions of this
event started on day one - by the end of today there would be only one remaining,
Phil Helmuth Jr. Phil, the highest money winner of all time in World Series events,
is in excellent shape with $126,900 in chips.
Phil is just one of the 130 players
who have managed to fight their way through to the third day. There were 227 bad luck
stories and 227 dreams shattered as one by one the field was whittled down. After
two days of battle, the 130 who have made it will be desperately trying to get a good
night's sleep before returning to the arena again tomorrow.
The average stack size for day three
is a touch over $48,500. The chip leader is England's Julian Gardner who has amassed
almost $200,000. There are another eight players who have in excess of $100,000.
Only two players from our ten to
follow have made it into the third day, one from the USA and one from England. From
the USA, Randy Holland is through with $45,700 and from England, Ben Roberts is still
there with $30,500.
The first two days have been tough,
but Day 3 sees the pressure really build as the tournament plays down to the last
45 and the money. Our report will be here tomorrow.
Good luck to all.
Dave & Steve.
DAY ONE REPORT
The high expectations of the tournament
organisers at Binions were confirmed today when a record 631 players sat down to start
the $10,000 no-limit hold-em event. The winner was guaranteed to take home $2,000,000
with the runner-up making $1,100,000. The prize money will stretch down to 45th who
will pick up a consolation $20,000. The player who goes out in 46th place, "on the
bubble" in poker parlance, will feel that they are the unluckiest player in Las Vegas.
Day one saw eight hours of play.
The target for the players on day one is to double their stacks from their starting
$10,000 to $20,000 - if they can achieve this they will be satisfied when they retire
to their rooms for the night. Anything over this amount is a bonus.
As is usually the case, the field
was almost halved by the end of the day, with 357 players set to return for day two.
The average stack size is now $17,675 with the chip leaders holding over $60,000.
Some of the more notable casualties so far are TJ Cloutier, Daniel Negreanu, David
"Devilfish" Ulliott and last year's winner Carlos Mortensen.
From our ten
to follow we have lost three, Kathy Liebert,
Eric Seidel and Chris Bjorin. The remaining seven have a range of stack sizes:
Ram Vaswani $50,075
Layne Flack $47,525
"Miami" John Cernuto $31,400
Ben Roberts $20,650
Randy Holland $18,725
Simon "Aces" Trumper $12,550
John Juanda $3,950
We are looking forward to the action
on Day 2 - good luck to all the remaining players.
Dave & Steve
Copyright © 2001 CheeseyPoker.co.uk
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