Jeff Madsen Wins 2006 WSOP $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em BraceletHellmuth Makes Another Final Table, Limit Reaches Final Table Action, and a Shootout...Tournament |
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It was business as usual in the Rio's Amazon Room. Four tournaments played out, with two of them reaching final tables, and one crowning yet another WSOP event champion.
$2,000 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table
After two days of tournament play, nine players sat down at the $2,000 no-limit hold'em final table. On the line were $660,948 and a gold bracelet.
The chip counts coming into the action were as follows:
1. Julian Gardner - $628,000
2. Paul Sheng - $569,000
3. Troy Parkins - $451,000
4. Robert Cohen - $419,000
5. Jeff Madsen - $413,000
6. Robert Bright - $365,000
7. John Shipley - $166,000
8. Michael Chow - $125,000
9. Billy Duarte Jr. - $102,000
The first cards hit the air at 2:14 p.m. PDT with $8,000-$16,000 blinds and $2,000 antes. The bottom three stacks felt the pressure from the blinds early on, and John Shipley became the first elimination only five minutes into play. Shipley took home ninth place ($60,349) after his J
7 ran into Paul Sheng's pocket queens.
Michael Chow avoided the axe with a double-up, which left Billy Duarte Jr. as the only serious short stack. Duarte, forced to make a move, pushed all in preflop only a few hands later. Robert Bright made the call, and eliminated Duarte in eighth place ($71,845) when his K
J paired a jack on the board and Duarte's A 8 failed to catch up.
The trend of moving all in preflop continued when Chow put his remaining $354,000 in from under the gun. Troy Parkins called, and took a dominating lead when he showed pocket jacks and Chow turned over pocket nines. The J 1 0
9
flop provided a set-over-set scenario, and Chow hit the rail in seventh place ($83,340).
Bob Bright exited the tournament next, as the sixth-place finisher ($94,835), after his pocket fours fell to Julian Gardner's ace-high straight.
Two minutes later, Robert Cohen hit the rail in fifth place ($112,077). He moved all in with J 10, only to be called by Parkins, who held pocket queens. Cohen shipped his remaining $465,000 after the K 9 6 4 2 board offered his hand no help.
At 6:58 p.m., the final table momentum shifted when Jeff Madsen, all in, flopped a full house and cracked Parkin's pocket aces. Parkins, who had been building a chip lead, never recovered. He bowed out in fourth place ($132,194) 20 minutes later, a victim of Madsen's pair of kings against his pair of nines.
Madsen continued to roll in three-handed play. On a Q 9 5 flop, he put Julian Gardner all in. Gardner showed Q J, and Madsen flipped over 10 6. The 8 turn put Gardner one card away from doubling up, but the 10 river made Madsen's spade flush. Gardner, the runner-up finisher in the 2002 WSOP Main Event, ended the day as the third-place finisher ($172,427).
As a result of Madsen's rush, he entered heads-up action leading Paul Sheng $2,260,000 to $970,000. Madsen, who turned 21 a month ago, didn't need to wait long to claim his first WSOP bracelet. On the very first hand of heads-up play, he called an all-in raise by Sheng on a 10 9 8 6 board. Sheng showed A 7 for the 10-high straight, but Madsen turned over J 7, giving him the jack-high straight.
Sheng's second-place finish netted him $330,485.
Madsen, making his second final table appearance of the 2006 WSOP, became one of the youngest players to win the gold bracelet. In addition to the coveted jewelry, Madsen took home $660,948 in prize money.
$3,000 Limit Hold'em - Day 2
Players returned for day two of the $3,000 limit hold'em event knowing that 26 of them needed to bust out in order for action to move to the final table.
Play began at 2:00 p.m. PDT with $1,000-$1,500 blinds and $1,500-$3,000 limits. One of the bigger stories coming into the day centered on Juan Carlos Mortensen, and his pursuit of a third 2006 WSOP final table appearance. Mortensen survived for nearly three hours, but his day ended with a 17th-place finish.
Players returned from the dinner break and then, less than an hour later, took a much longer break when Joel Gunnarsson became the day's 10th and final elimination ($11,294).
The chip counts coming into the final table are:
1. Ian Johns - $207,000 (Seat 5)
2. Jerrod Ankenman - $161,000 (Seat 8)
3. Brendan Taylor - $155,000 (Seat 6)
4. Javier Torresola - $132,000 (Seat 7)
5. Mark Newhouse - $106,000 (Seat 2)
6. Ben Robinson - $103,000 (Seat 4)
7. Theo Tran - $74,000 (Seat 9)
8. Tad Jurgens - $61,000 (Seat 1)
9. Fi Tran - $31,000 (Seat 3)
Players return at 2 p.m. PDT for final table action.
$3,000 Omaha Eight-Or-Better - Day 2
A number of big names returned for day two of the $3,000 Omaha eight-or-better event and, at the end of the day, the one name in the group pursuing WSOP history moved on to the final table.
Play began at 4 p.m. PDT with $1,000-$1,500 blinds and $1,500-$3,000 limits. Two-and-a-half hours later, the money bubble burst and Rafi Amit, the 37th-place finisher, became the first player to make a return on his $3,000 investment ($3,886).
Phil Hellmuth and Andy Black battled all day in hopes of making more than an $800 profit. The two pros squared off on a number of hands, but the rivalry came to an end when Hellmuth and Scott Clements split a pot and eliminated Black in 11th place ($11,685).
Clements followed up the Black bustout by catching a miracle straight on the turn to crack Joe Tieman's aces. Tieman's 10th-place exit ($11,658) set up the $3,000 Omaha eight-or-better final table, which includes Hellmuth, who will be taking his second shot at winning his 10th WSOP bracelet, tying him with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson for the all-time lead.
The chip counts going into the final table are as follows:
1. Scott Clements - $244,000 (Seat 4)
2. Phil Hellmuth - $158,000 (Seat 1)
3. Ronald Matsuura - $120,000 (Seat 9)
4. Alex Limjoco - $116,000 (Seat 6)
5. Peter Costa - $108,000 (Seat 3)
6. Steve Ladowsky - $97,000 (Seat 7)
7. Thor Hansen - $86,000 (Seat 5)
8. Martin Corpuz - $76,000 (Seat 2)
9. Brent Carter - $49,000 (Seat 8)
Final table action begins at 4 p.m. PDT.
$2,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
The $2,000 no-limit hold'em shootout event attracted a 600-player starting field, which generated a $1,092,000 total prize pool.
The action kicked off at 12:12 p.m. PDT with $25-$25 blinds. The shootout structure featured 100 six-handed tables, with players battling in a sit-and-go format. The winner of each table moved on to day two, while the other five players took permanent trips to the rail.
Fred Cabral became the first player to advance to day two when he took down his table in 45 minutes. The efficient victory caught people's attention, but was overshadowed by David Singer's heads-up match with…nobody. A vacant chair at the table survived the blinds longer than Singer's opponents survived play. Fellow pros Gavin Smith and Jean-Robert Bellande got a laugh out of watching Singer square off against an unmanned chip stack. "The line has got to be 6,000-to-1 over there," joked Bellande. Believe it or not, Singer won every hand and advanced to day two.
Other big-name table winners included Evelyn Ng, Layne Flack, J.C. Tran, Mike Sexton, Antanas "Tony G" Guoga, Chris Ferguson, Marcel Luske, Brett Jungblut, Todd Brunson, Roland de Wolfe, Jeff Shulman, and actor James Woods.
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow lost the final heads-up match of the day. His pocket nines failed to hold up against his opponent's A-7. Leaving the table, Matusow stated, "I played as great as I can play."
The 100 remaining players return tomorrow at 2 p.m. PDT where the action will be 10-handed at 10 tables.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos and for new episodes of "The Circuit" and "The Series."
For more information on bracelet winners and other WSOP news stories, please visit http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.
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