World Series of Poker 2009 — The Battle for Bracelets Part One

by Julio Rodriguez, Brian Pempus, Ryan Lucchesi, Rafael Guerrero

Event 2: $40,000 40th-Anniversary No-Limit Hold’em
Winning a bracelet in the 2008 World Series of Poker was the highlight of Vitaly Lunkin’s career. The quiet, reserved Lunkin was able to wave the Russian flag with pride as he topped a field of 2,706 and picked up $628,417 along the way. But that memory was easily cast aside when he earned his second bracelet in one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker history.

Lunkin was easily the dark horse to take the title of the $40,000 anniversary event with more established and recognisable pros around him, but if he was ever intimidated, he clearly never showed it.

Despite being seated at a final table with the likes of Ted Forrest, Noah “fourUhaters” Schwartz, Dani “Ansky” Stern, Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis, Alec “traheho” Torelli, Justin Bonomo, Greg Raymer, and Isaac Haxton, Lunkin never lost sight of the ultimate prize, and he used his good instincts and tricky plays to come out on top and pocket $1,891,012.

His momentum started when he made a great call against Torelli in a blind versus blind situation. Torelli bet the river, and Lunkin didn’t hesitate to make the call with king high, easily besting Torelli’s bluff attempt.
Amazingly, Lunkin continued to pick up chips, rarely showing down his cards, without ever taking out an opponent. The players continued to drop, but Lunkin never claimed a knockout until he was heads up with Haxton.

Though he started heads-up play down 2-1, Lunkin quickly took the lead with a big all-in bet on the river that forced Haxton to lay down his hand. He continued to grind away until he had Haxton all in and drawing for his tournament life. Lunkin slow-played pocket aces and got Haxton to commit his stack with K-10 on a king-high flop. Unfortunately, the play ended up hurting him when a 10 fell on the river.

Undeterred, Lunkin doubled up to take the lead back and once again decided to slow-play his aces. This time, Haxton’s flush draw and lower pair bricked out, sealing the victory for Lunkin.

Lunkin is riding a hot streak that includes a recent win at the Russian Poker Tour in Moscow for $433,741. Altogether, the Russian pro has earned over $3 million in the past two years alone.

Event 4: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Steve Sung’s first major tournament title not only brought an assortment of personal records, but it also contained a WSOP landmark. Sung, who won event four outlasted a record 6,012 players, making it the largest non-main event field in the history of poker. The professional player from Torrance, California, not only won his first bracelet, but his victory also ended a series of final table disappointments over the last couple of years.

Sung had previously finished runner-up at the 2008 World Poker Tour Shooting Star to Brandon Cantu, fourth at the 2008 WPT Doyle Brunson Classic Championship, and he busted out close to the bracelet at three prior WSOP final tables. The fourth WSOP final table proved to be the charm for Sung, as he netted the $771,106 first place prize, the largest of his young poker career.

His road to the bracelet in the $1,000 no-limit hold’em event was not easy among a minefield of amateur players. Sung entered the final table second in chips to the tournament veteran Daniel Heimiller, and he had to fight his way back after a downward spiral left his victory hopes in jeopardy.

After rising to the chip lead early at the final table with four million, Sung took a nosedive and eventually dipped below a million before going on a tear that left him with an overwhelming chip lead.

The catalyst for Sung’s rebound was the stack of Heimiller. The turning point came in a hand where Heimiller raised to 210,000 preflop, and Sung called from the big blind. Both players saw a flop of Ad 10s 8d, and Sung bet out 300,000. Heimiller made the call, and the turn brought the Jc. Sung fired out again, this time turning up the heat with a bet of 650,000. Heimiller announced raise and put out 1.5 million in total, for a raise of 850,000. Sung went into the tank before shoving the remainder of his chips into the middle. It didn’t take too long for Heimiller to fold, and Sung took down the huge pot. He was now the chip leader with 6.35 million.

The confrontations between the two most accomplished players at the final table eventually erupted into a huge elimination hand that propelled Sung to victory.
After limping into a pot preflop, Heimiller was faced with a raise of 350,000 by Sung and a call from Panayote Vilandos. Heimiller elected to go all in over the top of Sung’s raise. Sung called the all-in bet, and Vilandos folded. Heimiller exposed the As Ks and had Sung’s Ah Qs dominated. The crowd gathered in anticipation, and the flop of Qc 6d 3h was magical for Sung, giving him a huge lead in the hand. Heimiller failed to catch up as the turn brought the 3s and the 2c hit the river. Sung eliminated Heimiller in sixth place, and as a result, he held over half the chips in play (9.4 million).

After Heimiller was gone, Sung went on to eliminate two more players before reaching heads-up action versus Vilandos with close to a 3-1 chip advantage. His confidence was evident from the beginning against the much older Vilandos. Losing some pots early in the match didn’t affect Sung’s poise in trying to capture his first career title. He remained calm and collected with the bracelet looming on the table.

With a two million chip lead, Sung raised preflop to 500,000, and Vilandos reraised 1.7 million more. Sung thought about it briefly before moving all in for about 10 million. Vilandos called the additional 6.3 million and exposed the 8s 8c. Sung wasn’t racing with his opponent, as he tabled Ks Kh. The board ran out Ah 7d 2h 6d 7c, and Sung took the lion’s share of the non-main event record prize pool of $7,718,400.

Event 5: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Jason Mercier had already conquered Europe. His first major tournament win came at the European Poker Tour stop in San Remo just over a year ago. Mercier has also proven that he can beat the best in the game. He won the EPT London High Roller Showdown this past October, beating John Juanda heads up to win his second major title. Now, Mercier has won his first WSOP gold bracelet and added a third major title to his trophy case.

Mercier won event five ($1,500 pot-limit Omaha) at the WSOP and he took home $237,415 in prize money, emerging from a field of 809 players. Mercier took a huge chip lead during day one of the event and played solid poker to find his way to the final heads-up match against Steven Burkholder. Mercier took control of the heads-up match 30 minutes into play and never looked back on his way to victory. He beat an impressive final table that also included Dario Alioto, An Tran, Jonathan Tare, and Matt Giannetti. Mercier now has $3,134,313 in lifetime winnings at just 22-years-old.

Event 8: $2,500 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball
The dry spell is over, and Phil Ivey has taken down his sixth career WSOP bracelet. Ivey came into the final table of the $2,500 deuce-to-seven event sitting in second-to-last on the leader board and even bought into the 5 p.m., $10,000 World Championship Mixed event, fearing he might not have a long stay ahead of him. Instead, Ivey proceeded to double up several times, taking out a few players along the way, and put himself back into contention.

A few hours later, Ivey had his heads-up opponent, John Monnette, on the ropes. But his 9-2 chip lead wasn’t safe, and Monnette doubled up twice to take the lead. Then, after grinding his way back to a small advantage, the final hand came down that gave Ivey the win.

The tournament drew a field of 147 entrants and boasted some of the best players in the world. Notables to cash in the event included Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb, David Grey, and Layne Flack.
Relatively speaking, $96,361 isn’t a lot of money, at least not to Ivey, who regularly plays in cash games so high that the amount he won in event eight would barely cover the buy-in for one of his online tables. But it’s no secret that Ivey had more riding on this bracelet than the original prize pool. Thanks to side bets with numerous regulars from Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, among others, Ivey is rumored to have made much more for winning this bracelet, and late during his final table broadcast, he was overheard mentioning the amount, $3 million, to Monnette. Whether that was what he earned or wagered hasn’t been confirmed.

Event 12:  $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event
The WSOP’s $10,000 buy-in events draw the best players in the world. The competition is fierce and simply finishing in the money is a great accomplishment. The winners of these events get the distinction of being called a world champion. For Ville Wahlbeck from Finland, these events have treated him kindly in 2009. He finished third in the $10,000 Stud event and has captured his first bracelet and earned the right to call himself world champion of the $10,000 Mixed Event by taking down some of poker’s best.

Prior to the 2009 WSOP, Wahlbeck had cashed four times in WSOP events, his most recent in 2007. However, he never managed to cash in on a five-figure payday. That’s all changed in 2009 as he has bettered his overall winnings by more than 200 times with his results.

Wahlbeck took home $492,375 for winning this bracelet to go along with the $152,915 he pocketed for finishing third in event six.

This tournament attracted 194 of the best poker players in the world. Notables like Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey, and Chris Ferguson were just some of the names who participated in the event. However, none of these players were lucky enough to secure one of the 24 spots that paid out in this event. Those who did cash included big names like Max Pescatori, Michael Binger, John Cernuto, Huck Seed, Mark Gregorich, Todd Brunson and his father, the legend himself, Doyle Brunson.

Joining Wahlbeck at the final table were David Chiu, Todd Brunson, Mike Wattel and Huck Seed. These four players alone held 10 bracelets between them. James Van Alstyne, Scott Dorin and Mark Gregorich rounded out the end game and each sought their first bracelet, along with Wahlbeck.

Wahlbeck entered the final table with the chip lead, but that evaporated just one hour into play. He found himself battling from the short stack for most of Saturday night and early into Sunday morning. Despite the odds stacked against him, he hung around long enough to get down to three-handed play against David Chiu and online professional Scott Dorin.

It was here Wahlbeck made his move. In what seemed like a flash, Wahlbeck went from the short stack to the dominant chip leader. He took big pots away from his two opponents and by the time he got to heads-up play against David Chiu, Wahlbeck had a huge 5-1 chip lead.

The final hand occurred during the Omaha eight-or-better round. David Chiu had survived a few hands in which he put his chips all in and the situation arose again as Chiu was all in preflop. Wahlbeck had a slight advantage before the flop and maintained it after the flop. But the turn gave Chiu the lead and the four-time bracelet winner was well on his way to a desperately needed double up. Unfortunately for Chiu, the river gave Wahlbeck a broadway straight to win the pot and the tournament.