Congratulations to Joey Weissman on Winning His First Bracelet
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The day started with 26 players all with the same subtly strong thought of “I could win a bracelet today”. Only one of those players didn’t get their hopes up, and that player was Joey Weissman.
It only took 2.5 levels of play to reach the final table with Vanessa Selbst, Adria Balaguer, Larry Duplantis, and Jimmy Fradettedufour all making early exits.
We reached our ten-handed unofficial final table with the elimination of Stephen Reynolds. Ten-handed play didn’t last long with William Reynolds being crippled early on and eliminated shortly after. Once the eight players were reached play slowed down considerable, with most hands consisting of stealing the blinds and antes. Soon though the blinds rose up and players started to fall to the wayside. Konstantin Puchkov, Joshua Pedraza, Michael Gagliano, and Joe Gualtieri all took their exits and we found ourselves five handed.
Five handed play consisted of Weissman playing almost every hand and short stacks doubling up every so often. Five handed play couldn’t last forever though and we finally had an elimination when Bradley Lipsey’s queens ran into Weissman’s aces, causing Lipsey to be our fifth place finisher. A few hands later after Lipsey left, Philip Meulyzer was knocked-out. Twenty minutes after that saw the fall of Fernando Brito.
Joey Weissman came into the day with the chip lead and never looked back. Weissman’s day started off in the right direction, delivering the knock-out blow to the most feared player left in the tournament Vanessa Selbst. Weissman continued his rush, single handily knocking out Joshua Hillock and Mark Schmid. Weissman was involved in many pots early on, and had a reason to do so; he was winning almost every hand. A crowd of Weissman fans began to shuffle in little by little, and by the time the final table was reached Weissman couldn’t steal the blinds and antes without thunderous approval from the crowd. Weissman continued to put pressure on every single player throughout the day. Almost every hand came with a raise from Weissman, and players consistently folded to stay out of his way. If Weissman were to raise and get rebuffed by a three-bet he would fold, and come out of the gates raising again the next hand.
Once Weissman reached heads up play it looked as though he would be able to over power Jeremy Quehen like he had everyone else who played. Quehen was resistant though hovering around 3,000,000 for most of heads up play. Near the end of the last level of play though Quehen won a double up to put himself in better position. A few hands after that he exploited a flush and overtook the lead.
Then when it looked like Weissman was going to come up second best, he doubled up. Players were then basically even for the first time of the night. They wouldn't be even for long, as Weissman managed to get all his opponents chips in while holding the best hand.