More than 40 bracelets have already been awarded at the World Series of Poker. So, where are the tournament reviews? But, it's not that simple.
A lot of interesting things actually happened in limit games; not the last people won. However, since the final death of the online limit (which coincided with the destruction of the PokerStars loyalty program), interest in mixed tournaments among the European/Russian-speaking audience has naturally waned. Inside the US, the opposite is true due to the numerous casinos and home gaming culture, which is why 800 people enter the HORSE bracelet tournament at the WSOP.
Unfortunately, the rest of the world has been turned off from many very interesting varieties of poker by the greed of room managers. No one has been able to convince them that games need to be breakable.
Therefore, there really weren’t that many events that were suitable for review at the WSOP. The $25k Hold'em tournaments looked promising, but the composition at the late stage was somewhat strange, and even Nick Schulman's historic victory was not a strong enough argument. Even more surprising was the set of players at the $25k 6-max finals – not a single European! Where are you, Pads, Holz and BenCB? Has everyone gone to the football? There is only one German in the money, and that one is Rainer Kempe (by the way, he already has 8 hits in the money in this series). It would be too depressing to talk about nameless fighters that none of the readers have 3-bet online or even seen on streams.
Only tournament #39: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em – more or less lived up to expectations, gathering not exactly a constellation of names, but a pretty decent lineup. Let's start here.
The most valuable bracelet event offered in the series was played for three days, although in principle, it could have been done in two. This was thanks to the late registration, which lasted until the end of the second level of the second day. Those who entered the battle received 150 blinds from the first minutes. Among them were many of our comrades – Artur Martirosyan, Nikita Kuznetsov, Aleksey Ponyakov, Alexey Boyko (a little later they were joined by Mikita Badziakouski and Nikolay Voskoboynikov), as well as last year's winner Leon Sturm and his heads-up opponent Bill Klein. Haxton, Ivey, Negreanu, Visbrod, and other stars didn't miss the chance to play in good depth. It would be interesting to know who entered Chino Rome into this tournament and what ROI they expected.
Already at level 5, Chino played a 3-bet pot with Voskoboynikov. On the flop , Chino checked, the player from Belarus bet the full pot, about 50k chips. Chino, who probably considered the pot bet a weakness, shoved in 155k with . Nikolai called and showed and held.
At the end of the first day, six players scored more than a million (starting stack – 300k). Masashi Oya (Japan) was in the lead – 1,570,000, and Artur Martirosyan was in 6th place – 1,015,000. Phil Ivey had 888,000, Viktor Blom had 866,000. The dangerous Spanish duo of Sergio Aido (937,000) and Adrian Mateos (844,000) collected good stacks. Aleksejs Ponakovs had 565,000, Boyko – 501,000, Stanislav Shilkov (Latvia) – 351,000, the rest of the Russian-speaking participants did not finish the day. A total of 134 entries were made, and 68 people entered on the second day.
Some heroes and losers of the first day:
Those who joined on the second day received 25 blinds. Among those who took advantage of this opportunity was Mikita Badziakouski.
The Great Isildur1 was the first of the participants to overcome the 2 million chips mark. To do this, he needed to go triple all-in against the hated Martin Kabrhel and another unfortunate one. Victor showed AKs, the Czech had aces, and the third player had KQo. The flop put everyone in their place – , and the next two cards didn't change anything. A double knockout, and Victor Bloom has 2,600,000. Kabrhel makes a rebuy. Unfortunately, he is not so easy to get rid of it.
True, Viktor was quite quickly and confidently ahead of Sergio Aido: his victory in a classic flip with queens against AKo Alexey Boyko brought the Spaniard's stack to 4,100,000. And a couple of hours later Aido was given V Brandon Wilson and he had 4,700,000!
At level 12, the organizers counted registrations (177 entries) and announced the rewards: $2,026,506 for first place, $1,351,000 for second, with 27 prizes in total. At level 14, 29 people remained in the game.
It was at this stage that the famous herald of fist fights, Bruce Buffer, who fought on equal terms with poker superstars, received two aces and moved all in over Mikita Badziakouski's raise. Mikita thought for a long time, and made a call with – and he has less than three blinds left.
Outlasting two people with three blinds is not a trivial task. Adrian Mateos came to Mikita's rescue. The Spaniard 3-bet Eric Wasserson and called his all-in for 1,700,000 with two queens. Wasserson showed a hand quite strong for this stage – two aces.
Mateos had no doubt that he would win.
And indeed, this is what happened. Wasserson was out, and the money was one flight away. In this limbo, the players left for dinner. The notorious Spanish duo Mateos (5,500,000) and Aido (4,400,000) were in the lead, Martirosyan (3,500,000) was third, followed by Kabrhel (3,200,000) and Blom (3,150,000). More than a million chips remained with last year's winner Leon Sturm, and Poniakov (475,000) and Badziakouski (170,000) were the short ones.
After dinner, Mikita doubled up with threes against K9s for seven blinds. Sturm achieved similar success, AKo>QTs of one of the chip leaders. Only the third all-in led to elimination: Andrew Pacheco shoved 330,000 with AJo, and Kabrhel called from the BB with AKs. None of the players improved.
A few more people were quickly out of the money, but Badziakouski and Poniakov were still going the short stack ninja route with 450,000 and 710,000 respectively. Soon they clashed with each other, showing respect And . The strongest hand held out, Poniakov became the shortest – and outlived two more!
To take down this giant, Aido had to join forces with Marius Girse: Alexey pushed A9o and received two repushes from AJo and . Aido had the ladies, and he won. 22nd place brought Poniakov a cash of $101,724.
Mikita finished his tournament journey in 19th place with the same prize.
In two tables, Mateos (7,150,000) and Aido (6,400,000) were still in the lead. Sturm (4,550,000) and Chance Kornuth (3,150,000) came up from the depths. Artur Martirosyan had a good stack – 5,050,000, but when you are dealt AKo against Isildur1, you don’t want to think about the bad. Our player 4-bet all-in cold after the Swede's 3-bet, but Isildur1 found two aces. A miracle did not happen, and Artur had a little more than a million left, and his opponent became the new chip leader.
On the third day, 13 people crossed over. Viktor Blom was in the lead – 9,670,000. Sergio Aido was second – 8,800,000. Artur Martirosyan had 1,660,000 left, only the last surviving amateur, Bruce Buffer, had less.
As result of the redraw, Blom and Aido found themselves at different tables and had every chance to trample their competitors on the finals bubble.
Before the clock started, Bruce Buffer, as promised, announced the signal to the entire hall to start the game – Shuffle up and deal!
And then he doubled with kings against Jonathan Jaffe's ATs.
Artur Martirosyan was eliminated in 12th place. The preflop fielding with ATO against A6o ended in a disappointing failure – although a ten came on the flop, on the turn and river the opponent hit a runner-runner-flush.
An interesting hand was played by Jesse Lonis and Leon Sturm. Lonis raised to 250,000 from the cutoff and got a call from the BB. On the flop Lonis bet 120,000 and check-raised 400,000. Turn closed the flush, Sturm made a blocking bet of 490,000, Lonis called again.
River – , four cards to a flush. The assault slowed down – check. Lonis placed a bet of 1,050,000. His opponent burned three time banks but still folded his cards – and only to immediately look at in the hands of an opponent.
Let us remind you that the gambler Jesse Lonis is the winner of last year’s $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet tournament.
Sergio Aido rid the final table of Martin Kabrhel by winning a coinflip with AQs against two nines.
Bruce Buffer reached 8th place, and his departure turned out to be a worthy one – AKo turned out to be weaker than the two Jaffe kings. The annoucer's prize – $212,423.
Stacks of finalists during the dinner break:
Aido – 16,380,000
Blom – 12,280,000
Lonis – 10,375,000
Mateos – 6,185,000
Kornuth – 4,810,000
Jaffe – 3,070,000
Aido has many online victories, including SCOOP and WCOOP (nickname: zcedrick), but not a single WSOP bracelet with almost 20 million in prize money on the Hendon Mob. It's not surprising that he's good at more than just all-ins. In a hand against Chance Kornuth, he opened and called a 3-bet with AJo, paying two barrels on the board and folded for a big bet on the river . Kornut played all the way with ATo – a good fold from the Spanish regular!
Kornut also proved himself to be a master of timely folding. Having received AKo, he raised, but, seeing further all-in and another all-in, he calmly folded the cards. Opponents showed And , Mateos confidently doubled with the kings.
Viktor did not lag behind them. On the board of in a raised pot, Victor check-called the flop, the turn was checked, and on the river the Swede just played a check-pass and turned out to be right – Jesse Lonis made a straight with . There are, of course, a lot of one-card straights here, and a flush is possible, but still, throwing out two pairs when you are Isildur is a huge achievement.
Quite soon Viktor took revenge on the offender by winning the preflop exposure with JTs against AJs. There were four left, with Blom and Aido taking the lead, and Mateos and Kornuth surviving with stacks of less than 20bb.
The leaders played a big pot with tens against aces. Before the flop, there was a 4-bet, but after the flop the owner of tens did not lose a single chip and, one might say, got off with a slight scare.
The first of the shorts to fall was Mateos: he shoved about seven blinds with Q8s, Aido called with K7s and made trips.
In 3-max it seemed that heads-up between the Europeans was a matter of time, but Kornut did everything to prevent such a outcome. He even 3-bet Isildur at 94o – but it didn’t work, and in response he got a push from A2s.
Their next skirmish turned out to be even more interesting. Bloom attacked with 95s, Kornut defended with J2s of the same suit. On the flop Bloom placed a small continuation bet of 450,000. Kornuth called all-in for 2,850,000. His opponent thought for a long time and... gave up.
And in the next hand, the players were almost even. In a limp pot on a board of Viktor, who received a free flop in the BB, decided to barrel a couple of streets with the maximum low of the range – . Cornut with paid the flop and turn , and on the river when the queen came out he carelessly led himself.
The fun didn't end there. Blom attacks with , Kornuth calls with . On the flop Blom c-bet 450,000, and Kornuth cranks it up to 1,700,000 out of sheer enthusiasm! A fold follows, and Isildur1 drops to 3rd place.
A bored Aido collects two pairs ( ) On the board of in a limped pot and bets three barrels topped with an all-in. Kornuth calls with the nuts and leans back in his chair with relief.
The struggle between Blom and Kornuth for the second place continues – first one and then the other come forward. But everything, or almost everything, ends with a banal preflop placement: Kornuth plays a limped push with A9o, Blom closes it with KJs, the ace on the flop doubles Kornut, and the Swede has nine blinds left. True, it immediately doubles, and you have to wait for the cooler to finally send it to the cashier.
On the flop , Kornuth, who defended the BB with , donk bet, and Blom with responds with a raise. Long theatrical deliberations follow, then all-in and an instant call.
The turn gives Isildur a chance to make a flush, but the river doesn't help.
The heads-up starts with almost equal stack sizes:
Aido – 27,700,000
Kornuth – 25,400,000
Kornuth is a heads-up specialist, but Aido doesn’t complain about his skill in this component either. In the first clash, Kornuth manages to knock out a stronger hand from his opponent, but the second time he is unable to steal a big pot. On the turn Kornuth bets 1,600,000 from the BB and Aido calls. River – , Kornuth increases the pace to 4,200,000. Aido burns three time banks and calls... ! His opponent is bluffing – , and the Spaniard noticeably increases his lead.
They didn't give us any more beautiful hands. At the new level, Kornut opens with a min-raise with , gets called and hits a high pair on the flop . He bets 700,000. The response is a check-raise of 2,600,000. Call.
Turn – . Aido bets 5,800,000. Call again.
River – . Aido burns two time banks and goes all-in. Now Kornuth is taking over the chips. Three time banks go to the dealer, but then the American decides to play the card and calls. Top pair is not thrown away in heads-up, that’s what Doug Polk said.
Unfortunately for Kornuth, Sergio Aido simply flopped the nuts – he had .
Despite all the regalia, it was this victory that Sergio Aido called his main achievement in poker.
