We're back with yet another update on the 2011 WSOP. Since our last update on June 10th, another 4 events have finished - Event #13 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, Event #14 Limit Hold'em, Event #15 Pot Limit Hold'em and Event #16 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. Below you can read about how John Juanda beat Phil Hellmuth in an epic heads-up match...and much more...
Event #13 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 Max)
Buy-in $1,500
Entries: 1,440
The No-Limit Hold'em Shooutout event started with 1440 people and 160 tables - 9 players at each table and only the winner would advance to the next table. After several hours of play, 160 players remained and played 10-handed tables. The 16 winners from these tables were then playing a traditional freezeout format. Once the tournament was down to 9 players, the final table begun and the remaining players had won a combined six WSOP-bracelets.
Andrew Badecker, from US, ended up winning the tournament after eliminating Robbie Verspui, from Gibraltar, in second place. For the win, Badecker received his very first bracelet and $369,371. The win was a well-needed bankroll boost for Badecker.
"Honestly, I came out pretty under bankrolled," said Badecker. "I was going to play three events, but I had to sell some action to get into all three. I was just going to see how the first few events went, and if I ran good I'd play more. I guess that's what happened."
Event #14 Limit Hold'em
Buy-in: $3,000
Entries: 337
The final day of the Limit Hold'em event lasted nearly 12 hours and included a heads up battle that lasted about two and a half hours. Tyler Bonkowski, who was the only non-american on the final table, ended up winning the tournament and laid hands on his first WSOP bracelet and $220,817. This is how the final hand was played out:
Bonkowski and Demes got the money in on the turn with the board 6
5
5
10
. Bonkowski had K10, and Demes had KQ. The 8 landed on the river, and Tyles Bonkowski, from Canada, claimed the victory.
Event #15: Pot Limit Hold'em
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 765
765 players signed up for the Pot Limit Hold'em event and created a prizepool of $1,032,750. The field included players like Tom Dwan, Liv Boeree, Annette Obrestad, Gavin Smith and Humberto Brenes - just to mention a few. After 2 days of play were over, the field had been narrowed down to 10 players. These 10 players then battled it out on the final table on day 3. Many of the finalists were short-stacked and therefore it didn't take long before a winner had been crowned, Brian Rast. Rast could partly thank his buddy and fellow poker pro Antonio Esfandiari for winning his first WSOP bracelet and $227,232.
After a long flight to Vegas, Brian Rast was dead tired and planned on getting some sleep before hitting the poker tables. But 'The Magician' must have put a spell on him as he he managed to convince him to take part in the Pot Limit Hold'em event.
Event #16: 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No-limit)
Buy-in: $10,000
Entries: 126
The 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship attracted a field of 126 players of which many were big names in the poker world. The final day of the tournament included players like Greg Raymer, Nick Schulman, Richard Ashby, John Juanda and Phil Hellmuth.
It ended up being John Juanda and Phil Hellmuth who played heads-up. Hellmuth had a very good chance to win his 12th bracelet as he had a 3:1 chip lead against Juanda, who is considered to be one of the best 2-7 no-limit players in the world. Anyhow, Juanda played fantastic poker and managed to take down pot after pot. Phil Hellmuth started getting more and more frustrated during the last hour of play. After about 3 hours of heads-up, John Juanda had won his 5th bracelet and $367,170. Phil was denied his 12th bracelet, but he left the Amazon Room with $226,907 for his efforts.
After the match, Hellmuth shook Juanda's hand and said "Well played buddy, well played. You're just so f***king scary."
