Lee Watkinson Wins First Bracelet In 2006 WSOP $10,000 Pot-Limit OmahaPhan Dominates Day 2 $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event and $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Event Begins |
|
"I love these calm little moments before the storm." - Stansfield, from the 1994 film The Professional
For the first time in a week, the Amazon Room at the Rio seemed … quiet. Compared to the recent action - the loose-cannon atmosphere of the rebuy tournament and the massive day one field of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em event - the day's three tournaments, one of them a final table, played out in a more docile, smaller fashion.
The $2,000 pot-limit hold'em opened the action, followed by day two of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em and the final table of the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event.
On the eve of the inaugural, and much anticipated, $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, which generates more buzz with each passing hour, today's tournaments may eventually be considered the quiet before the storm.
Last year's bracelet winner, Rafi Amit, returned to defend his title. He entered final table action as the short stack, and the chip counts for the nine players were as follows:
1. Jani Vilmunen - $485,000
2. Hasan Habib - $349,000
3. Mike Guttman - $283,000
4. Lee Watkinson - $276,000
5. Mark Dickstein - $212,000
6. Nick Gibson - $207,000
7. Thomas Wahlroos - $168,000
8. Mickey Appleman - $102,000
9. Rafi Amit - $99,000
The action began with $4,000-$8,000 blinds and exactly half an hour into play, Mickey Appleman became the first player eliminated from the final table. He finished in ninth place ($40,984) when his pair of eights failed to improve against Jani Vilmunen's sixes and threes.
After tripling up, Amit continued to accumulate more chips with his elimination of Thomas Wahlroos. Holding K
10 
8 4, Wahlroos pushed all in preflop and Amit called. Amit's A Q
10 9 made a better two pair on the Q 10
7 5 4 board, and Wahlroos exited the tournament in eighth place ($61,746).
Vilmunen brought the biggest stack into final table action, but failed to build upon his lead. Falling to the bottom of the board, Vilmunen pushed all in on a K K 5 flop with 10 8 7 6. Mike Guttman called and his Q Q 6 5 became a full house, queens full of kings, after the Q river. The boat proved to be more than enough to send Vilmunen home as the seventh-place finisher ($81,984).
Few short stacks found success battling back, as Nick Gibson, the low man on the final table totem pole, hit the rails next. He finished in sixth place ($102,469), after his pair of jacks ran into Amit's aces and kings.
Always a favorite coming into a final table, Hasan Habib struggled to drag many pots. He survived on the short stack for over an hour, doubling and tripling up, but lacked the ammunition to make a solid run at the chip leader. Amit, aggressive in defending his title, eliminated Habib in fifth place ($122,295).
Amit displayed an intense passion for repeating, and even told reporters he planned to defend the title as if it were his own child. He entered final table action as the short stack, but clawed his way up to second place in chips. Putting himself in a good position to win back-to-back bracelets, Amit's run ended when he tangled with the one player who could knock him out, Lee Watkinson.
In a heads-up hand, Watkinson called an Amit $150,000 preflop reraise. When the K109 came, Amit pushed all in and Watkinson immediately called. Amit looked pained as he flipped over K1098 and then watched Watkinson show the king high straight with KQJ2. After a Q turn, the A improved Watkinson's already dominating hand, and he eliminated the defending champion in fourth place ($143,444).
The pot gave Watkinson a huge chip lead going into three-handed action. Seven minutes later, Watkinson used his stack to send Mark Dickstein home as the third-place finisher ($184,428), when Watkinson's nut flush crushed Dickstein's paired nines.
Watkinson's million-dollar advantage against Guttman implied a short, one-sided heads-up victory. But Guttman had other ideas. A rivered diamond flush doubled him up, and put him only $180,000 behind Watkinson. Guttman followed up his big win with several dragged pots, and took the chip lead.
Watkinson appeared unfazed by Guttman's surge and battled back, taking down enough pots to reestablish himself as the chip boss. With the momentum shifted, Guttman plummeted and Watkinson built up another massive lead.
On the final hand of the tournament, Guttman reraised Watkinson's $150,000 preflop bet. After Watkinson called, the flop came 5 4 3 and Guttman moved all in. With another Watkinson call, Guttman flipped over J J 10 10 and his pair of jacks gave him the lead over Watkinson's A Q 6 5. Guttman's shot at a second comeback came to an abrupt end when the 7 turn made Watkinson the 7-high straight. A K river offered Guttman no help.
Guttman's second-place finish netted him a $360,659 cash prize.
With the help of his fiancée, Watkinson clipped on his first WSOP bracelet. "I didn't think it would be this good, honestly," Watkinson told Card Player's Jay Newnum. Along with the prized accessory, Watkinson also took home $655,746.
Action began at 2:48 p.m. PDT with $800-$1,600 blinds and $200 antes. Favorable blind structures generally dictate conservative play but, like most WSOP events, conventions were made to be broken. The field dropped by 20 within the first hour of play and by the 6:30 p.m. dinner break, only 36 players still had chips.
John Phan became the big story of day two as he dominated the opposition and built up a chip stack in excess of $700,000.
Carlos Mortensen fell short of reaching his third 2006 WSOP final table. His 10th-place elimination ($38,936), at the hands of Phan, established the nine players who would return for a shot at the gold bracelet and the $526,185 first-place cash prize.
The chip stacks going into the final table are as follows:
1. Mike Pomeroy - $1,325,000
2. John Phan - $747,000
3. Tom Hawkinberry - $675,000
4. Humberto Brenes - $564,000
5. Thang Luu - $314,000
6. Corey Chaston - $229,000
7. Kevin O'Donnell - $222,000
8. John Friedberg - $189,000
9. Mike Halford - $89,000
Players return tomorrow at 2 p.m. PDT for final table action.
The first cards hit the air at noon PDT with $25-$25 blinds.
Some pros who failed to survive day one action included Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Victor Ramdin, Jeff Shulman, Joe Sebok, John Juanda, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Clonie Gowen.
At 12:08 a.m., the money bubble burst with the 54th elimination. Nearly three hours later, play concluded with the remaining 22 players set to return for day two action. Joseph Hachem, Kirill Gerasimov, and Jim McManus are three big names who ended the day near the top of the leader board.
Play resumes tomorrow at 2 p.m. PDT.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and for new episodes of "The Circuit" and the "The Series."
For more information on bracelet winners and other WSOP news stories, please visit http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
