2013 World Series of Poker Day 27: Hamby and Gross Emerge Victorious
The 2013 World Series of Poker wrapped up an exciting Day 27 that included the completion of two events and two well known, young superstars that originally emerged from the online realm claim gold bracelets.
In Event #40: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, Jared Hamby earned his first WSOP gold bracelet and $525,272 in prize money. This was Hamby's second final table of the Series. In Event #41: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (Six Handed), Steve Gross took down the title for $488,817.
Event #40: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
After three full days of poker, Hamby took down Event #40 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em by overcoming a big chip deficit heads up. Hamby beat out 2,160 other poker players on route to winning his first gold bracelet, and $525,272 for first place.
On the final day of play, 22 players came back for action, and it did not take long to get to the mothership. Along the way, Kara Scott fell in 17th place, Peter Hengsakul sucked out on Griffin Benger in a huge hand on the river that saw Hengsakul take 25% of the chips in play with 12 players to go, and Garry Gates busted in 11th.
When play reached the unofficial final table, Allen Cunningham was still in contention for a sixth gold bracelet, but that run ended in 10th place.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jared Hamby | $525,272 |
| 2 | Peter Hengsakul | $325,780 |
| 3 | Allan Vrooman | $230,178 |
| 4 | Nicolas Fierro | $165,501 |
| 5 | Joao Dorneles Neto | $120,574 |
| 6 | Matt Berkey | $89,008 |
| 7 | Richard Dubini | $66,544 |
| 8 | Fred Berger | $50,382 |
| 9 | David Nicholson | $38,625 |
Notables David Nicholson, Matt Berkey and Nicolas Fierro all reached the final table, but fell in ninth, sixth and fourth place, respectively. Like Hamby, Berkey was also making his second final table appearance of the summer.
Hamby started the heads-up match at a severe chip disadvantage to Hengsakul, and he had to get lucky twice to stay in the tournament. In the first hand, Hamby got it in good with K♦10♦, and after Hengsakul paired the flop, he rivered a better pair. On the second one, Hamby got it in with top pair against the bottom two pair of Hengsakul, only to counterfeit his opponent with running deuces. On the final hand, it was Kx10x again that hit for Hamby, as he outran the pocket fives of Hengsakul.
For more information on Hamby's win, head over and read through the completed live blog.
Event #41: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (Six Handed)
For many years, Gross was better known by his online poker handle — "gboro780" — than by his actual name, his successes at the online tables earning him copious notice as he consistently ranked as one of the best players on the virtual felt. He'd added some live scores to those successes, too, over the years, but the one breakthrough win had eluded him. Until Monday night, that is, as Gross has become a WSOP bracelet winner after topping a field of exactly 400 to win Event #41.
Gross entered the third and final day of play as the chip leader, although he'd relinquish that lead early on as the field was quickly whittled from 22 down to 12 within the first two hours of play. Roland Israelashvili (21st), Sorel Mizzi (16th), and Event #2: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (Eight-Handed) winner Trevor Pope (13th) were among the fallen during the afternoon on Monday.
Down to two tables, play slowed as players dropped one-by-one, with Timo Pfutzenreuter ultimately grabbing the chip lead away from Lee Goldman and maintaining it as the reached the dinner break with seven left. Then on the first hand back from the break, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was eliminated in seventh to bubble the final table, and just six remained with Pfutzenreuter still in front.
But by the time Nader Arfai (6th), Goldman (5th), and Joseph Leung (4th) had been eliminated, Gross had pulled back into the top spot three-handed. That battle saw Salman Behbehani come back from a short stack to take the lead briefly, but then Gross took out Pfutzenreuter in third to take a chip advantage to heads-up play. Behbehani battled gamely against Gross for more than 40 hands, but could never grab the lead away, then down to a short stack lost his first all-in to finish runner-up.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Gross | $488,817 |
| 2 | Salman Behbehani | $301,965 |
| 3 | Timo Pfutzenreuter | $194,147 |
| 4 | Joseph Leung | $128,742 |
| 5 | Lee Goldman | $87,890 |
| 6 | Nader Arfai | $61,739 |
To read more about Gross' win, head over to the live blog of the event.
Event #42: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
The field for Event #42 has been whittled down to just 11 players for Tuesday's Day 3, and leading the way is Rory Mathews with 898,000 in chips. Mathews will be joined by notables Chris DeMaci (591,000), Ariel Celestino (450,000) and Daniel Neilson (243,000) for the final day.
Mathews held a solid stack for most of Day 2, and his biggest pot came late, when he eliminated Sergey Tikhonov in a four-bet pot with jacks. Mathews nearly doubled his stack in that hand, and he continued chipping up in small and medium pots until the end of the day.
Action started fast and furious today, as roughly half of the starting field was eliminated by the first break. Notables Isaac Baron and Tony Dunst busted early on, and Matt Matros, who entered the day as chipleader, wasn't far behind when he busted 51st. The last big name to fall was David Chiu, who bowed out in 30th.
Action resumes Tuesday at 1 p.m., so don't forget to tune in for the conclusion of this tournament and the crowning of a bracelet winner.
Event #43: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
The start-studded affair that is Event #43 has reached its final table, and none other than Layne Flack leads the way into Tuesday's third and final day of play. Flack will be chasing down his seventh WSOP gold bracelet, and looking to join a very, very elite group of players with seven or more bracelets. Of those who have already achieved that status are Phil Hellmuth (13), Doyle Brunson (10), Johnny Chan (10), Phil Ivey (9), Johnny Moss (9), Erik Seidel (8), Billy Baxter (7) and Men "The Master" Nguyen (7).
Final Table Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Martin | 536,500 |
| 2 | Layne Flack | 574,000 |
| 3 | Jeff Lisandro | 361,000 |
| 4 | David "Bakes" Baker | 379,500 |
| 5 | John Hennigan | 317,000 |
| 6 | Jon Turner | 246,000 |
| 7 | Konstantin Puchkov | 196,000 |
David "Bakes" Baker is also seated at this final table, and it's a familiar seat at that. Baker will be making his fourth final table appearance at the 2013 WSOP, having already recorded sixth-, fourth- and eighth-place finishes. Jesse Martin popped his final table cherry for this year after finishing 10th twice already. Then there's Jeff Lisandro, who is looking for his sixth piece of WSOP hardware.
The final table will commence play at 2 p.m. Las Vegas time on Tuesday. Be sure to stay tuned to the PokerNews live updates as we document the crowning of another WSOP champion.
Event #44: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day 1 of Event #44 wrapped up on Monday. Ten levels and 12 hours have been recorded, and the chips have been bagged. A total of 1,072 players registered for the event, generating a prize pool of $2,926,560. Just 117 of those will make the money, guaranteeing them at least $5,560 with first place receiving $592,684 for his or her efforts.
Heading into Day 2 as the chip leader will be Zohair Karim, who bagged up 128,700 in chips. He played aggressively throughout the day, going rather unnoticed as he reached the six-figure mark, before he flopped a set of fours, and was able to take out two players in the same hand to rocket up the counts. He will lead a pack of 229 players including PokerStars Team Pros Matthias De Muelder (74,500), Jonathan Duhamel (65,700), Jason Mercier (65,100), Joe Cada (58,900), Randy Lew (28,300) and Alexander Kravchenko (20,450). Others too also bag up chips for the night were Lauren Kling (65,200), Scott Clements (48,000), Michael Gathy (43,000) and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (34,700).
Dan Kelly finished just behind Karim, bagging up 113,700 in chips. This progression continues a great 2013 WSOP for Kelly, who up to this point, has cashed in eight events, including two final tables. It won’t be any surprise to anyone, if Kelly can run deep once more.
The players that will be returning will be coming in at 1 p.m. pm local time on Tuesday and play another 10 levels or until a final table is reached, which ever comes first. Make sure to check in to PokerNews for the continuing coverage of Event #44: $3,000 No-Limit Hold-em.
On Tap
While three events will be continuing with action on Tuesday, there are two others that will be kicking off for Day 1. Event #45: $1,500 Ante-Only No-Limit Hold'em and Event #46: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or-Better begin at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively, and both should draw great fields of competitors. Be sure to stay tuned to the PokerNews WSOP Live Reporting pages for all the action.
Video of the Day
You don't have to stay cooped up inside the Rio all summer long, as our very own Kristy Arnett explains in the Stay Stacked video below from Camp Rhino, an indoor obstacle course training site.
Be sure to follow our Live Reporting page for continuing coverage of every event at the 2013 World Series of Poker, and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
