World Series of Poker 2009

By Julio Rodriguez, Brian Pempus, Ryan Lucchesi, and Rafael Guerrero

Event 20: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em
It was a battle of England versus Germany in the heads-up final of event 20 at the World Series of Poker on June 11, as John-Paul Kelly and Mark Tschirch battled for a gold bracelet. It took a little more than an hour for the Englishman, Kelly, to prevail and win the $194,434 first-place prize. This is the first gold-bracelet win by an Englishman since 2007, when Ram Vaswani won a $1,500 limit hold’em shootout event.

The 23-year-old poker professional also beat out Erik Seidel and Jason Dewitt at the final table to take home his first gold bracelet. Seidel made his 30th WSOP final table appearance, but he busted in seventh place, falling short of his ninth gold bracelet. Kelly’s win made for four international bracelet winners through the first 20 events at the 2009 WSOP.

The final results were:
First J.P. Kelly $194,434
Second Marc Tschirch $120,102
Third Jason Dewitt $79,826
Fourth Kyle Carlston $54,711
Fifth Aaron Virchis $40,048
Sixth Tony Steward $30,837
Seventh Erik Seidel $24,919
Eighth Andrew Radek $21,082
Ninth Ravi Raghavan $18,634

Event 27: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better
It had only been done once before in the history of poker. In January of 2008, Gavin Griffin became the first person to ever win poker’s triple crown by winning a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour event. That one-person club has now grown to two with Roland De Wolfe’s victory in event 27, a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better tournament.
De Wolfe’s triple crown victory also includes the WPT Grand Prix De Paris in 2005 and the EPT Dublin in 2006.

The 30-year-old professional from London beat out a stacked final table that included the likes of recent Spring Championship of Online Poker Player of the Series Brett Richey, Omaha eight-or-better mastermind Scott Clements, Alex Kravchenko, Andy Black, John Racener, and Anthony Lellouche.

The ever-humble De Wolfe gave all the credit to his threehanded opponents, admitting he was still a novice at the game and was forced to play fast with his hands in order to take away their skill advantage.

Despite his lack of formal training, De Wolfe overcame the odds and became a part of poker history.

The final table results were:
First Roland De Wolfe $246,616
Second Brett Richey $152,618
Third Scott Clements $101,063
Fourth Robert Campbell $72,121
Fifth Alex Kravchenko $53,881
Sixth Andy Black $42,993
Seventh John Racener $36,200
Eighth Armando Ruiz $32,105
Ninth Anthony Lellouche $29,965

Event 38: $2,000 Limit Hold’em
Marcus Naalden made his first cash of the 2009 World Series of Poker count. Naalden took down event 38 besting a field of 446 players.

Naalden recently finished 10th at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in May for $162,500. His only other final table at the WSOP was in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event in 2006, where he finished third.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Naalden netted $190,770 for the win. His bracelet was only the second ever for the country. The other was won in 2008 in event 30 ($10,000 world championship limit hold’em) by Rob Hollink.

Naalden had to defeat an experienced final table that included bracelet winners Ian Johns (2006 limit hold’em) and Rep Porter (2008 no-limit hold’em) to take the title.

The final table results were:
First Marcus Naalden $190,770
Second Steve Cowley $117,902
Third Ian Johns $77,576
Fourth Tommy Hang $54,182
Fifth Alexander Keating $39,977
Sixth Danny Qutami $31,088
Seventh Jared O’Dell $25,439
Eighth Jameson Painter $21,819
Ninth Rep Porter $19,594

Event 45: $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold’em
John Kabbaj had not been heads up for a World Series of Poker bracelet since 2004. He capitalised on his second chance this year winning event 45 ($10,000 world championship pot-limit hold’em) for $633,335.

After playing in WSOP events for years, Kabbaj made it to the end of a 2004 $3,000 no-limit hold’em event only to finish second to Mike Sica. The tournament veteran from London took home a bracelet five years later, after battling through a tough final table that included bracelet winners Eric ‘basebaldy’ Baldwin (third), Davidi Kitai (fourth), and Jason Lester (sixth).
Going into the final table, Kabbaj had not won a major tournament since 1999. Making his way through a stacked field of 275 players, Kabbaj added another final table to his 2009 WSOP. The other came when he finished eighth in event 10 ($2,500 pot-limit hold’em/ pot-limit Omaha).

Kabbaj stayed patient throughout the final table, entering heads up play with a 2-1 chip deficit. However, he battled back slowly and held the chip advantage when a cooler went his way. On the final hand of the night, Kabbaj held pocket aces versus the pocket kings of Kirill Gerasimov.

Baldwin took third in the tournament, falling just short of winning his second bracelet of the series.

Here are the final results:
First John Kabbaj $633,335
Second Kirill Gerasimov $391,369
Three Eric Baldwin $259,534
Four Davidi Kitai $183,638
Five Juan Carlos Alvarado $138,375
Six Jason Lester $110,431
Seven Eugene Todd $93,085
Eight Isaac Haxton $82,688
Nine Darryll Fish $77,136

Event 49: $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.
David Bach had made a final table at the World Series of Poker in each of the four years leading up to 2009, but he had no gold bracelet to show for his strong results. That all changed the morning of July 1, when Bach won the $50,000 world championship H.O.R.S.E. and the most coveted gold bracelet among poker professionals. “I never wanted to touch one until I earned it,” said Bach, as he put on his golden prize and grinned from ear to ear.

Bach emerged from a field of 95 players, the toughest collection of players pound-for-pound in the history of tournament poker, to claim the first-place prize money worth $1,276,802, and a bracelet. Bach will also have his name placed on the Chip Reese memorial trophy, along with the former champions of this event, including Freddy Deeb, Scott Nguyen, and Reese himself. Bach now holds $2,407,727 in lifetime earnings after booking the largest win of his career.

The win wasn’t an easy one for Bach. He had to overcome John Hanson in a heads-up match that lasted seven hours and saw six lead changes before he was crowned champion. The entirety of the final table ran 18 hours and 44 minutes in length, and it took 480 hands to decide. The 2009 world championship H.O.R.S.E. is the second longest WSOP final table in history: the 484 hands that took place during 19 hours and 9 minutes at the 2008 WSOP Europe main event holds the top spot.

Hanson scored $789,199 for his runner-up finish, and his results are now the greatest in terms of $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. consistency. He also finished in third place in 2007. Hanson joined the short list of players that have made two final-table appearances during the first four years of this H.O.R.S.E. tournament:

John Hanson (2007 — third place, 2009 — second place)
Huck Seed (2008 — eighth place, 2009 — fifth place)
Barry Greenstein (2007 — seventh place, 2008 — sixth place)
David Singer (2006 — sixth place, 2007 — sixth place)

The final table results were:
First David Bach $1,276,802
Second John Hanson $789,199
Third Erik Sagstrom $522,394
Fourth Vitaly Lunkin $368,813
Fifth Huck Seed $276,610
Sixth Ville Wahlbeck $219,655
Seventh Chau Giang $184,087
Eighth Erik Seidel $162,382

Event 51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Carsten Joh has accumulated over $300,000 in tournament earnings in Europe, and now the German native has made his presence felt on the other side of the Atlantic too.

Joh earned his first gold bracelet by winning event 51, the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. He waded his way through a massive field of 2,781 players and took home $664,426 for his efforts.

The turning point for Joh’s tournament came fivehanded. Joh was the short-stack and was all in with Ad Jd , up against Steven Levy’s A K . He ended up making a runner-runner flush to take the pot and gain some momentum.

Joh was short most of the day. He entered the final table seventh in chips, and after his crucial hand with Levy, he was able to last long enough to make three-handed play.

At the start of three-handed play, he was the short-stack by a fair amount. With Walasinski sitting on more than 4 million in chips, and Andrew Chen having more than 6 million in chips, Joh had a little less than 2 million in his stack. After seemingly systematically taking everything from David Walasinski and eliminating him in third place, he took a small chip lead against Andrew Chen heading into heads-up play.

Over the course of the hour-long heads-up match, Joh slowly extended his lead to a massive 5-1 chip advantage. After that, he won a coin-flip with pocket sixes against Chen’s 10d 9d to take down his first bracelet and make his name known in North America.

The final table results were:
First Carsten Joh $664,426
Second Andrew Chen $412,632
Third David Walasinski $272,405
Fourth Steven Levy $192,650
Fifth Owen Crowe $145,199
Sixth Thibaut Durand $115,817
Seventh Georgios Kapalas $97,634
Eighth Jason Helder $86,702
Ninth Nathan Page $80,894

Event 52: $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em
Jorg Peisert had never cashed at the World Series of Poker prior to registering in event 52 ($3,000 triple-chance no-limit hold’em). By the time the final card of the tournament hit the felt, Peisert had his first career WSOP bracelet, winning the event and taking home a nice $506,800 payday.

The three-day event attracted 854 players and paid 81 places. The field was filled with many notable names on day 1, but many of them failed to survive into the second day, including Andy Black, Eric Froehlich, Chris Ferguson, and Liv Boeree. On the flip side, notables who were able to take home some cash included Kathy Liebert, Nenad Medic, Roy Winston, Nick Binger, and Isaac Baron.
The final day saw 16 players return to play down to a champion. Peisert was in fifth chip position at the start of the day, and by the time the final table was set, Peisert was third in chips and in striking distance of the chip leader. He had to deal with a table that included Jason Somerville, Karga Holt, and Michael Katz.

Peisert proceeded to knock out four players at the final table and entered heads-up play against Jason DeWitt with nearly a 5-1 chip lead. Peisert never slowed down, and on the final hand, he had DeWitt all in with just one overcard to Peisert’s pocket nines. The pair held up, and Peisert made his first career WSOP cash a flashy one, taking home his first bracelet and $506,800.

The final table results were:
First Jorg Peisert $506,800
Second Jason DeWitt $313,227
Third Benjamin Gilbert $205,180
Fourth Michael Noda $142,035
Fifth Jason Somerville $103,591
Sixth Michael Katz $79,385
Seventh Karga Holt $63,781
Eighth William Erickson $53,622
Ninth Wes Watson $47,070