2014 WSOP Day 38: Matt Grapenthien Wins $10K Stud; Todd Brunson 2nd, Hellmuth 6th

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Jul 04, 2014 6 min read

Thursday saw the last five preliminary events of the 2014 World Series of Poker in action, highlighted by the victory of Matt Grapenthien in the Event #61: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship following an exciting final table.

Grapenthein defeated Todd Brunson after a back-and-forth heads-up battle, with Poker Hall of Famers Phil Hellmuth taking sixth and Henry Orenstein eighth, and another — Todd’s father, Doyle Brunson — railing as well.

Here’s a recap of all the action from Events #60-64 yesterday as we look forward to the start tomorrow of the 65th and last event on the WSOP schedule, the $10,000 Main Event.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

There were just 24 left from a starting field of 2,563 in Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, and after working through 10 more one-hour levels just two players remained. After battling heads-up for two-and-a-half hours and nearly 200 hands, Brandon Hall and Salman Jaddi will be returning this afternoon to continue play to determine which of the two will be winning the Event #60 bracelet and $614,248 first prize.

During the afternoon that field of 24 quickly worked down to a nine-handed final table, with Scott Baumstein (24th, $14,255), Evan McNiff (19th, $17,577), and Erwann Pecheux (17th, $21,936) among those hitting the rail early.

Kurt Jewell next went out in ninth, followed by start-of-day chip leader Steve Sung in eighth. Sung had begun the final table in the middle of the pack, chip-wise, but had an early exit after losing a lot of his stack to Hall in a hand in which the latter flopped a full house, then getting his last chips in with A♣10♥ versus Jaddi’s K♣10♦ and watching the board come 2♠9♠Q♦Q♥J♠ to give Jaddi a winning straight.

A little later came a 16-hand stretch that saw three knockouts with Thomas Dietl going out in seventh, David Bravin being eliminated in sixth, Cherish Andrews falling in fifth. The final four then went to dinner with Hall and Jaddi well in front of Zach Gruneberg and Guillauma Marechal, and soon after they returned Hall knocked out both Marechal in fourth and Gruneberg in third.

Those pots helped Hall take a lead into heads-up play with about 8.2 million to Jaddi’s 3.2 million, but Jaddi soon seized the advantage and would in fact build up over 9.6 million at one point before Hall slowly chipped back to even things up.

By the time they reached the end of Level 30 and bagged up, they’d reached Hand #320 of the final table and 198 hands of heads-up play, with Jaddi ahead with 6,820,000 to Hall’s 4,725,000.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Event #61: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship

Meanwhile just nine returned from the 102 starters in the $10K Seven-Card Stud Championship, with Todd Brunson coming back to a big chip lead and hopes of earning his second WSOP bracelet.

Following the early knockout of Jesse Martin in ninth ($26,299) who fell in a hand against Hellmuth, the official final table began with 90-year-old Henry Orenstein the first to go in eighth, also falling to Hellmuth. Orenstein became the oldest person to cash at the WSOP this summer, let alone make a final table.

Henrik Hecklen next went out in seventh, then Hellmuth followed in sixth, the finish marking his seventh cash of the summer, his 107th career WSOP cash overall, and his 51st WSOP final table.

Steve Landfish — who finish second in this same event in 2011 — next hit the rail in fifth, soon followed by Ben Yu in fourth, then James Obst in third.

Grapenthien had a small chip lead to begin heads-up play, but Brunson would quickly move in front to whittle Grapenthien down and assume a 3-to-1 lead. But “Grapes” would come back and eventually the pair would exchange the chip advantage a half-dozen times before Grapenthien at last edged ahead to take a commanding lead.

Finally the last hand arrived, one that saw the two exchange bets all of the way down to seventh street until Brunson called all in on the end with XxXx / 5♦9♣3♠2♣ / Xx while Grapenthien had XxXx / 8♠9♦J♦K♦ / Xx.

Grapenthien then tabled his down cards — 10♦8♥4♣ — to show he’d made a pair of eights. Brunson only showed one of his — a five — before mucking, and Grapenthien had earned his first gold bracelet.

Event #61: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship Final Table Results

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Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop

After Wednesday’s first Day 1 flight of Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop saw 1,492 total entries, there were more on Thursday’s Day 1b to bring the total number for the event to 4,496, a bit shy of the 4,756-entry field for this tournament one year ago.

That turnout meant a total prize pool of $4,046,400, scheduled to be divided among the top 468 finishers. After play concluded last night there are 885 players left to advance from both Day 1 flights to Friday’s Day 2, with Gerald Karlic managing to end the night bagging the most chips with 79,500, giving him the overall chip lead heading into Day 2. Other top finishers from Day 1b included Mykhailo Krasnytskyi, Maurice Hawkins, and Ray Henson.

A big first prize of $637,539 awaits this weekend’s winner.

Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop Combined End of Day 1a/1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix

There were 85 returners for Day 2 of Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix yesterday from the starting field of 445, and after another day of rotating through 10 different poker variants just nine players remain with New Zealand’s Jan Suchanek finishing the night with big chip lead, having edged close to 500,000 while nearest challenger Bryn Kenney ended with just under 300,000.

Andrey Zaichenko (in third) and Randy Ohel (in fourth) will also be part of the formidable group returning for Friday’s final day to fight for the bracelet and $153,220 first prize.

Among those making the final four tables yesterday but not quite making it through the night with chips were Justin Bonomo (24th, $4,775), Victor Ramdin (23rd, $4,775), Mel Judah (22nd, $4,775), Brandon Shack-Harris (21st, $4,775), Marcel Luske (19th, $4,775), Tom Koral (16th, $5,947), Bret Jungblut (15th, $5,947), Roland Israelashvili (14th, $5,947), and Allen Cunningham (13th, $5,947).

Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

Finally the Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship got underway yesterday and as expected drew a big field of 418, exceeding the 386 who played in the event a year ago. That group built a prize pool of $3,929,200 to be split among the top 45 finishers, with a huge $923,379 payday awaiting the winner.

After one day of play 132 players were able to bag chips, with Chance Kornuth collecting the most of anyone with 338,200, just a touch ahead of Ruslan Dykshteyn who ended the night with 338,000.

Tom Marchese (in third position), Will Durkee (fifth), David Williams (seventh), JC Tran (eighth), and Sam Trickett (ninth) were also among those building healthy stacks on Thursday, as did Sergey Rybachenko (14th, 178,900), Ludovic Lacay (15th, 169,200), Daniel Negreanu (20th, 149,700), and Alex Kravchenko (28th, 126,200).

Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

On Tap

There are four events still to be decided before — and as — the Main Event gets underway tomorrow. Two of them — the heads-up battle in the $1,500 NLHE (#60) and the 10-Game Mix (#63) — will find winners today, while the “Little One for One Drop” (#62) and $10K PLO (#64) move into their second days of play with plans to complete this weekend.

Here’s the full schedule of bracelet events for this Fourth of July (all times PDT):

• 1:00 p.m. — Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em (Day 4 of 4)
• 1:00 p.m. — Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop (Day 2 of 4)
• 2:00 p.m. — Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix (Day 3 of 3)
• 2:00 p.m. — Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship (Day 2 of 3)

Video of the Day

Rossana Woo talked with Thursday’s winner, Matt Grapenthien, about his victory in the $10K Seven-Card Stud Championship. Take a look:

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• Tags WSOP Matt Grapenthien Todd Brunson Phil Hellmuth Henry Orenstein Brandon Hall Salman Jaddi Gerald Karlic Jan Suchanek Bryn Kenney Andrey Zaichenko Randy Ohel Chance Kornuth Tom Marchese
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Phil HellmuthTodd BrunsonTom MarcheseBrandon HallChance KornuthAndrey Zaichenko