2009 WSOP: Traply Takes Down Bracelet in Shootout #41
Only five players out of the original 300 runners made it to the final table of Event #41, $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. And it only took about five hours of play for young Hungarian Peter Traply to take down the WSOP gold bracelet and the $348,728 top prize after besting Andrew Lichtenberger heads up.
The final five made it to Day 3 by surviving a series of no-limit hold’em shootouts, where the players started off by winning a ten-handed single-table tournament. The 30 Day 1 winners then returned to the Rio for Day 2 to play one of five six-handed single-table tournaments. Those five winners made the final table, where everyone began with equal chip stacks.
[Removed:197] started off like a house on fire, raising and reraising with abandon. [Removed:198] put himself in position to dominate the final table with his aggression, but then he got unlucky in a key hand with Andrew Lichtenberger and ended up being the first player bounced from the final table. [Removed:198] three-bet Lichtenberger preflop with A♥A♦, and then snap-called when Lichtenberger shoved with 10♦9♥. The flop helped Lichtenberger a little, pairing his nine and giving him outs to a straight on the 6♦7♦9♥ board. The dagger came on the turn, when the 10♣ gave Lichtenberger two pair to crack [Removed:198]’s aces. The river was a less-than-helpful J♣, and [Removed:198] was crippled. He got the last of his chips in a few hands later with pocket threes, but Peter Traply called with pocket eights, which held up to send [Removed:198] packing in fifth place ($82,697).
Danny Wong was next to fall when he ran afoul of Andrew Lichtenberger to finish in fourth place ($105,609). Wong raised preflop with A♦10♣, and Lichtenberger made the call. The flop of 10♦2♠2♣ looked good to Wong, and he led out. Lichtenberger called once again to see the 7♣ come on the turn. He then checked to Wong, who moved all in. Lichtenberger called with A♣A♠ for a better two pair, and Wong needed a ten on the river to stay alive. The river was the 2♥ instead, and then there were three.
Three-handed play continued for quite awhile before the big stacks of Lichtenberger and Traply finally wore down Maxim Lykov. In his final hand, Lykov moved all in preflop with A♥10♠, and Lichtenberger looked him up with J♦J♣. The board ran out an altogether unremarkable 3♣6♣6♦2♥9♥, and Lykov was done in third place ($145,063).
It looked like the heads-up duel would only last a few hands after Andrew Lichtenberger lost most of his chips in a huge pot just after Lykov busted. All the chips went in preflop, with Lichtenberger's A♦Q♦ in a classic race against Traply's 6♥6♣. Lichtenberger vaulted into the lead on the A♥9♣8♥ flop, but the 6♠ on the turn put Traply back in front and left Lictenberger drawing dead. The river was an inconsequential 2♣, and for a moment it looked like the tournament might be over, but a countdown of the stacks revealed that Lichtenberger still had 250,000 left.
Nearly crippled, Lichtenberger struggled back into contention and he made a nearly two-hour heads-up match out of it. But finally he couldn’t stand up to the chip stack of Peter Traply any longer, and all the chips went in one last time. A preflop raising war led to Lichtenberger shoving the last of his chips with A♦J♥. Traply called with a dominating A♠K♦, and when the board came down 5♥3♣A♣Q♠Q♥, Traply’s king kicker played. After a valiant comeback, Lichtenberger finally made his exit in second place ($215,403).
Andrew Lichtenberger put on a great heads-up match, but in the end Peter Traply would not be denied and he took home $348,728 and his first ever WSOP gold bracelet.
