Zwerner Captures 2006 WSOP $1,500 Omaha BraceletThe Battle of Phil & Vinnie and the $1,500 Stud Begins |
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The faces and events changed, but the rotation stayed the same - first day, second day, final table. The $1,500 seven-card stud kicked off, the $5,000 no-limit hold'em established a final nine, and the $2,000 Omaha eight-or-better crowned a champion.
$2,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better Final Table
The game of Omaha, a mystery to a good number of casual poker fans, drew a solid crowd of die-hard WSOP viewers, old-school Vegas rounders, and the faithful loved ones of players, for the final table of its $2,000 eight-or-better event.
The chip counts coming into the final table were as follows:
1. Jeff Madsen - $225,000
2. Jack Zwerner - $189,000
3. Daniel Negreanu - $166,000
4. Bob Mangino - $165,000
5. Robert Collins - $156,000
6. Florante "Rusty" Mandap - $156,000
7. Russ Salzer - $142,000
8. Cuong Do - $99,000
9. Steve Lustig - $31,000
Action began at 2:30 p.m. PDT with $3,000-$6,000 blinds and $6,000-$12,000 stakes. Steve Lustig, the short stack, needed to make a move quickly and the forced action caused him to bow out first. Jack Zwerner's full house sent Lustig to the rails in ninth place ($24,388).
Chopped pots usually mean no casualties in card games, but Russ Salzer exited the tournament on a hand split by two other players. Rusty Mandap took half the pot with trip aces and Bob Mangino raked the other with the A-2-4-5-8 low. Salzer mucked his hand and finished the day in eighth place ($36,582).
Daniel Negreanu, easily the biggest name at the table, suffered two big hits in a row that left him with only $10,000 in chips. He moved all in with two pair, but was eliminated when his opponent rivered a straight. Negreanu walked away from the final table as the seventh-place finisher ($48,776).
A mere five minutes later, Robert Collins (sixth place, $60,970) and Mangino (fifth place, $73,164) were eliminated from tournament play.
Cuong Do, who lived on a short stack all day, finally saw his tournament run come to an end after his two pair failed to improve against Zwerner's trip queens. Do's fourth-place finish ($85,385) set up a three-way showdown between Zwerner, Mandap, and Jeff Madsen.
Mandap held half as many chips as his opponents but managed to win a number of key pots and moved into first place. Madsen suffered a different fate as his stack dwindled from $500,000 to less than $65,000.
For the second time at the final table, a player went out on a chop when Zwerner took half the pot with a king-high flush and Mandap won the rest with the low. Madsen raked no chips, and his tournament life ended with a third-place finish ($97,552).
Zwerner took a $300,000 lead into heads-up action, but within half an hour built his chip stack to over $1 million, nearly 10 times Mandap's. With his demise all but guaranteed, Mandap doubled up a number of times but simply could not close the gap.
Zwerner took Mandap out when his A
8
7
4 defeated Mandap's A
A 10 3 on a 7 6 5 3 2 board. Mandap's second-place finish netted him the biggest cash prize of his career ($176,813).
While Zwerner might not have been the most recognized face in the Amazon Room, let alone his final table, T.J. Cloutier, on hand to M.C. heads-up action, called his friend of 25 years "the best heads-up Omaha player ever."
With a $341,426 first-place prize and a WSOP bracelet, Zwerner may just have proved Mr. Cloutier right.
$5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event - Day 2
The middle third of the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event saw some of the brightest and most engaging stars in poker battle for a spot at the final table. Although it was not a filmed bracelet event, many players held the $5,000 tournament in high regard, and a palpable tension filled the roped off playing area. Even Phil Hellmuth, infamous for his late arrivals, showed up on time for the 2 p.m. start.
As the action moved to two tables, Vinnie Vinh and Hellmuth drew adjacent seats, and the table chatter between the two poker pros never stopped. At one point, Marcel Luske, playing at the other table, asked tournament personnel to "Close the door, please," and motioned in the direction of the bickering stars.
Vinh and Hellmuth tangled on a number of hands, and Hellmuth grew increasingly agitated by Vinh's aggressive playing style. At one point the "Poker Brat" warned, "Nobody runs me over all day in a hold'em game. Not Stu. Not Johnny. Vinh, after denying the suggestions of hyper-aggressive play, ribbed Hellmuth about his constant hand-by-hand analysis. "Why do you always have the best hand, Phil," Vinh joked, "How come if you have A-10, your opponent always has A-9? Why don't you ever have A-8?"
The marquee matchup and world-class banter not only drew the attention of the railbirds but a number of other pros as well. Some of the stars who stopped by to watch Hellmuth vs. Vinh included David Williams, Amir Vahedi, and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan.
Day 2 of the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event ended shortly before midnight, when Dang Trinh called an all-in bet by Luske. "The Flying Dutchman," having already flopped a wheel, eliminated Trinh in 10th place ($32,157).Trinh's trip to the rails meant that the remaining 9 players were all one step closer to the $818,546 first place prize, and WSOP bracelet.
The chip counts going into the final table are as follows:
1. Quoc Al "Vinnie" Vinh - $784,000
2. Phil Hellmuth Jr. - $461,000
3. Marcel Luske - $458,000
4. Isabelle Mercier - $301,000
5. Jeff Cabanillas - $275,000
6. Douglas Carli - $273,000
7. Eugene Todd - $240,000
8. Thomas Schreiber - $200,000
9. Dan Smith - $117,000
$1,500 Seven-Card Stud Event - Day 1
The $1,500 seven-card stud event began with a starting field of 478 players, and tournament officials established a day 1 goal of playing to the money.
Some of the day's highlights included Doyle Brunson and Todd Brunson drawing adjacent seats, David Sklansky winning with quad kings over quad fives, and Barry Greenstein giving a signed copy of his book Ace on the River to the opponent who knocked him out of the event.
The money bubble burst at 3 a.m. and the 40 remaining players will return in 12 hours to resume play.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and for new episodes of "The Circuit" and "The Series."
Quote of the Day: "Phil Hellmuth has lost his mind" - Phil Hellmuth
A Second Quote of the Day: "Phil Hellmuth is my friend" - Vinnie Vinh
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