Bob Chalmers Wins 2006 WSOP $1,500 Limit Hold'em Bracelet

$1500 Limit Texas Hold'em - Day 3

Going into the final table, this was the seating chart and chip counts:
Seat 1 - David Calla $147,000
Seat 2 - Thanh Nguyen $72,000
Seat 3 - Bob Bartmann $64,000
Seat 4 - Jan Sjavik $37,000
Seat 5 - Bob Chalmers $175,000
Seat 6 - Doug Saab $150,000
Seat 7 - Graham Duke $184,000
Seat 8 - Tam Ho $149,000
Seat 9 - Warren Wooldridge $74,000

Play began with blinds at $3,000-$5,000 and stakes of $5,000-$10,000. Jan Sjavik was short-stacked but doubled up, bringing him relatively even with the field. Slow, cautious play continued for an hour before the new short stack, David Calla, got his last few chips in the middle preflop against Graham Duke. Calla showed K Q and Duke turned over J 10. Despite his advantage, the board came 10 4 3 8 2 to give Duke a pair of tens and make Calla the first casualty of the day, finishing in ninth place ($19,137). Next out was Bob Bartman in eighth place ($28,706), followed three minutes later by Graham Duke in seventh ($38,375).

Warren Wooldridge then began mixing it up, getting involved with many large pots. He eliminated Sjavik in sixth place ($47,843) when Wooldridge's pocket kings were an overpair to the top pair of Sjavik, which he held on the board. Shortly after eliminating Sjavik, Wooldridge crippled Doug Saab in a large pot. Saab battled back, even managing to triple up, but could only survive one more level, busting out in fifth place ($57,412).

The remaining four players all had healthy chip stacks going into short-handed play. At the time the chip counts stood at Warren Wooldridge, $320,000; Thanh Nguyen, $260,000; Tam Ho, $260,000; and Bob Chalmers, $210,000.

Thanh Nguyen raised a three-way pot with his last $5,000 chip after being crippled in a previous hand. Wooldridge and Tam Ho both called. On a board of A Q 8 8 7, both players checked the whole way down. Ho flipped over A J while Wooldridge showed A 6 to chop the pot. Nguyen mucked his hand and was eliminated in fourth place ($66,981).

Early on during three-way action, Ho controlled the table. However, things took a turn for the worse when Ho's trip kings got busted by Wooldridge's trip kings with a better kicker. But Wooldridge would have his share of running bad as well, losing over $300,000 in less than a half hour. The end of his day came on a board of Q 10 10 9. Bob Chalmers bet out $30,000 and Wooldridge called all in for his last $10,000 chip. Wooldridge showed A 6 but Chalmers flipped over 10 9 for the flopped full house. The river was the J and Wooldridge was eliminated in third place ($76,549).

Heads-up play between Bob Chalmers and Tam Ho would last less than 15 minutes. After Chalmers initially drew first blood, he then crippled Ho with a better two pair. On the final hand, Chalmers raised from the small blind and Ho tossed in his remaining $50,000 from the big blind. Chalmers called with Q 3 while Ho flipped over A 2. The board came A K Q 4 3, giving Chalmers two pair and eliminating Ho in second place ($135,396).

Bob Chalmers, the 2006 $1500 limit hold'em champion, walked away with $258,344 and the most coveted piece of jewelry in all of Las Vegas.

$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Rebuy - Day 1

"Rebuy!" was excitedly shouted throughout the Amazon Room, giving the Rio the feel of a friendly home game, instead of an event where players had to plunk down $1,000 for every mention of the word. Most were in a jovial mood as blind all-in raises and large calls for inside straight draws became almost standard. Daniel Negreanu went all in blind five times. Not to be outdone, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi did it seven straight times. (He ended up reloading for $22,000).

With 752 entries, rebuying a total 1,670 times, the prize pool generated was $2,204,000. All that remains at the end of day 1 (other than depleted bank rolls) are 66 players, all of whom are in the money. Play will resume tomorrow at 2 pm PDT.

$2,500 No-Limit Hold'em - Day 2

With 99 players remaining at day 2 of the event, action was fast and loose, evident by the 19 eliminations in the first 18 minutes of play. Action began to slow, as short stacks continued to make their exit, allowing for some dominating stacks to exchange chips.

Current chip leader and former bracelet winne, Anthony Reategui had been at the top of the field for most of the day, running opponents over with aggressive betting.

Tomorrow's final table should be a great matchup with Reategui's stack being equal to the total of his closest two competitors. Two additional players to look out for at the final table will be Max Pescatori and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, who always seems to makes things just a bit more interesting.

Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and for new episodes of "The Circuit" and "The Series."

- Tom Bostic

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