Johnny Chan and Chris Moneymaker Win in WSOP Grudge MatchesSeidel vs. Chan Postponed Indefinitely |
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The World Series of Poker “Grudge Matches” created high drama on Thursday at the Rio, pitting former main event champions against their historic runner-up finishers. The made-for-television rematches were scheduled to be those listed below, however, the third match (Seidel vs. Chan) was postponed indefinitely because Seidel was busy playing in another event.
Match One: Chris Moneymaker vs. Sam Farha
Match Two: Phil Hellmuth vs. Johnny Chan
Match Three: Johnny Chan vs. Erik Seidel — Postponed
The day began with Hellmuth and Chan squaring off in a rematch of their main event duel. The two players each started with 890,000 in chips with the blinds at 5,000-10,000 and a 1,000 chip ante, and eventually Hellmuth found himself short stacked with 125,000. On the final hand of the battle, Hellmuth got it in with the K
10
and was flipping against Chan’s pocket eights. The board ran out 9 5 3
J 9, and Chan was able to take the 2011 match 22 years after Hellmuth derailed his hopes of three-consecutive main event titles. With the win Chan took $20,000, while Hellmuth profited $10,000 for competing.
The next contest for the day was between the 2003 main event finalists, Chris Moneymaker and Sam Farha. Unlike the single match between Hellmuth and Chan, this rematch was a best-of-three format. The two players started with the same amount of chips they had to begin with in 2003; in the second match the chip counts were reversed; and after they split the first two duels, they played a third with even chip stacks.
Moneymaker took the first round when a short-stacked Farha got all of his chips in the middle with the A 10, for a massive advantage against the A 8
of Moneymaker. The flop came Q 5 5, and Moneymaker was still behind. However, an 8 on the turn put Moneymaker far ahead. The river bricked for Farha and the first match had gone to Moneymaker.
Although Farha was able to win the second match in the contest in convincing fashion, thanks to starting with the chip counts reversed, he fell in the rubber match when his K 10 was unable to get lucky against Moneymaker’s K J. With the hand Moneymaker remained victorious against Farha, while also pocketing $50,000. Farha walked away with $20,000.
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Stay tuned for Card Player for information regarding the postponed Seidel-Chan match.
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