As construction of the World Poker Tour stage began in the ballroom of the Commerce Casino, the final 18 players regrouped in a small corner of the room, walled off to outside observers and the noise that accompanies a typical poker tournament. The tension was sky-high as most of the players felt the pressure of the big prize that awaited them. Two of the players, who entered the tournament via satellites, had the shakes for most of the day and had trouble stammering out their words with the WPT cameras surrounding them.
The first elimination came just two hands into play when action was folded to David Singer on the button and he moved all in with A
Q. Phil Hellmuth looked down at his hand in the big blind and as he squeezed it out said, “This might be aces, David … It is. I call." Hellmuth’s aces held up and Singer was out in 18th place.
Over the next 30 hands, Brian Taylor and Yury Parad were busted after both players lost with a big ace. It was at this point that Hellmuth came out of his shell a bit to berate Scott Montgomery. Montgomery got it all in on the turn, and he was drawing to two outs. He then hit his miracle card against the self-proclaimed best player in the world. This set Hellmuth off as he paced the room and wondered out loud how anybody could make such a "poor play."
Pete de Best was the next to go when he lost a coin flip to Phil Ivey. Next, Matt Brady ran into pocket kings to hit the rail. Play slowed down a bit as Blair Hinkle began to go out of his way to play pots against both of the Phils. His decision ended up costing him when he put in the third raise preflop against Ivey holding just J
9. Ivey’s pocket kings had to sweat two hearts on the flop for Hinkle, but ultimately they held up to put him over 2 million.
A short while later, Hellmuth went on an extermination mission, knocking out two players just before the dinner break. Mike Carson moved all in with pocket fives but was outflopped by Hellmuth’s A-K. Then, after Jennifer Tilly was moved into the vacant seat, she made a move with 10 7 against his K Q
and failed to connect with the board. This run of cards put Hellmuth over 2.7 million heading into dinner.
Hinkle went out next in an interesting hand that had the whole room talking. Hellmuth completed from the small blind and Hinkle shoved for his last 410,000. Hellmuth tanked for a bit, saying, “I think I might have you beat. I know I should fold, but my gut is telling me I'm right.” After a bit more thinking out loud, Hellmuth called, showing Q 2
. His read turned out to be correct, however, when Hinkle turned over 9 7. Queen-high was good enough to bust the online professional, and the final 10 players took a break to consolidate.
Here were the chip counts heading into the final table:
Seat 1:
Mike "SirWatts" Watson — 680,000
Seat 2:
Jeff Schwimmer — 800,000
Seat 3:
WeiKai Chang — 1,225,000
Seat 4:
Quinn Do — 620,000
Seat 5:
Nam Le — 1,005,000
Seat 6:
Theo Tran — 590,000
Seat 7:
Phil Hellmuth — 3,885,000
Seat 8:
Phil Ivey — 1,995,000
Seat 9:
Charles Moore — 1,165,000
Seat 10:
Scott Montgomery — 1,330,000
Play slowed down considerably once they combined, and it took 45 hands for the next player to be eliminated. A short-stacked Mike Watson eventually moved all in and he was called by the pocket kings of
Quinn Do. Watson couldn’t hit an ace to survive, and he hit the rail in 10th place. Quinn took out the next player, as well, when his pocket sevens held up against the A
Q
of Jeff Schwimmer.
Montgomery parlayed his two-outer against Hellmuth into an above-average stack and was in great shape when he picked up pocket kings against
Theo Tran’s pocket deuces. Tran picked up a flush draw on the turn, but did not hit the card he needed to double through. With his elimination, the players were now on the TV bubble.
The biggest hand of the night came down just after Tran’s elimination. Both Ivey and Hellmuth had been comfortably controlling the table, Ivey more than Hellmuth, after a cooler hand came down that made Ivey a monster chip leader. Hellmuth raised to 240,000 from the cutoff and Ivey made it 640,000 total behind him. The blinds got out of the way and Hellmuth announced that he was all in. Ivey called and casually turned over pocket aces, and Hellmuth turned over his big slick. The board didn’t help Hellmuth, and he shipped the 5.6 million pot to Ivey. Hellmuth was left with just 1.2 million, vulnerable for the first time of the day.
Hellmuth was able to avert disaster, however, when he ended the night holding a dominating A-Q to Chang’s K-Q. The board rolled out safely, and Hellmuth was able to salvage the day by finishing third in the chip counts.
Here are the official chip counts for tomorrow's historic final table, scheduled to start at 5 p.m. PT:
Seat 1: Quinn Do — 1,450,000
Seat 2: Nam Le — 1,180,000
Seat 3: Phil Hellmuth — 2,380,000
Seat 4: Phil Ivey — 4,100,000
Seat 5: Charles Moore — 1,510,000
Seat 6: Scott Montgomery — 2,680,000
