Shankar Pillai Wins Event #28 at the WSOP

Poker is a game of near misses. Tuesday at the World Series of Poker one of two historic events almost came to fruition. The obvious one was Phil Hellmuth chasing bracelet number 12, but his exit in sixth place put that on the back burner. As the day developed, another interesting possibility emerged, two female bracelet winners on the same day. The groundwork was laid earlier in the day when Katja Thater became the first female winner of an open event in three years by taking down event No. 29, $1,500 seven-card razz.

As Thater celebrated her victory in the razz tournament, Beth Shak had just started heads-up play with Shankar Pillai for the title of event No. 28, $3,000 no-limit hold'em. If Shak could defeat Pillai heads up, it would have been the first time in the history of the WSOP that two women won bracelets on the same day. Unfortunately she still had to win, and therein lay the problem. Pillai had no interested in becoming the answer to a poker trivia question, and in the end he derailed the historic day. Pillai defeated Shak in eight hands of heads-up play to take down the top prize of $527,829. He was the lone man standing out of the 827 players wjo started the event, which created a $2,282,000 prize pool. The final table was stacked, reflecting the trend of great finales in recent events. The day started with the following chip counts: Dustin Holmes ($1,076,000), Shak ($740,000), Brett Richey ($738,000), Perry Freidman ($723,000), Pillai ($371,000), Luke Vrable ($315,000), Jason Song ($284,000), Benjamin Fineman ($272,000), Phil Hellmuth ($213,000), and Daniel Corbin ($210,000).

Hellmuth's quest for a 12th bracelet was stopped by Shak, but not before he and Phil Ivey exchanged over $100,000 in side action ... during the tournament. Hellmuth and Ivey were having fun throughout the final table. When Hellmuth pushed all in with A A versus Brett Richey's 7 4, Ivey yelled, "Hey Phil you want insurance?" Hellmuth bounded across the tournament area to the rail and in a Godfather-like scene quickly discussed a deal. He then made the announcement, "It's OK honey; if we lose this hand Phil Ivey will pay us $90,000." Later in the tournament, on a board of A J 6, Hellmuth again found himself all in, this time against Fineman. Hellmuth held A 8 and Fineman had J 9. Before the turn Hellmuth yelled, "I want insurance, where's Ivey?" and the don of prop bets quickly replied, "Oh, you got it, what is it [in reference to what the actual cards were]?" After looking it over, they decided that Hellmuth would risk $30,000 to Ivey's $90,000. The next two cards came 7 3, and while Hellmuth doubled up in tournament chips he lost another $30,000 in real money. This prompted Hellmuth to say, "I've rin out of money in my pocket." In the end, he was eliminated in sixth place for $76,464, but lost $109,000 to Ivey. Hellmuth was down $32,536 for the night. Conversely, Ivey ended the night making better than fifth-place money, all from the rail.

After all the antics, there still was a poker tournament to play, and in the end it got down to Pillai and Shak. They entered heads-up play with Shak holding a marginal chip advantage, with the count $2,550,000 to $2,410,000. It only took them eight hands to play their first and only major pot. Pillai raised tp $180,000 and Shak reraised $550,000 more. Pillai made the call and the flop came 10 8 3. Shak keyed up a strategy she had used effectively during the final table, and open-pushed all in with a made, marginal hand. This put Pillai deep into the tank forcing him to think for over a minute before making a decision. The arena was respectfully quiet until Pillai finally made the call. Shak's section burst into applause when she tabled K 8, but this applause was quickly drowned by the uproar of Pillai supporters when his A 8 was announced by tournament director Sam Minutello. The turn brought the 7 and the river the 2. That shipped Pillai the pot, $527,829, and the WSOP gold bracelet. Shak was eliminated in second place. She received $328,683 and a story she will forever tell as the one that got away.

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