Juanda wins WSOPE main event

World Series Of Poker Europe Main Event, Casino at the Empire, London, £10,000 No Limit Hold’em, September 27 – October 2nd 2008

Entrants: 363

Buyin: £10,000

Prizepool: £3,630,000

1. John Juanda, USA, £868,800

2. Stanislav Alekhin, Russia, £533,950

3. Ivan Demidov, Russia, £334,850

4. Bengt Sonnert, Sweden, £271,500

5. Daniel Negreanu, Canada, £217,200

6. Scott Fischman, USA, £171,950

7. Robin Keston, UK, £135,750

8. Toni Hiltunen, Finland, £108,600

9. Chris Elliott, UK, £81,450

After the longest final table in World Series of Poker history, American pro John Juanda became only the second WSOPE main event champion, netting £868,800. It was Juanda’s fourth bracelet and his first since 2003. He certainly earned this one, though, as the final table lasted an incredible twenty-one hours, with the heads-up match alone clocking in at over five hours!

Scot Chris Elliott was the first to leave, his two-pair falling to Stanislav Alekhin’s flush draw on the river. From that point, the final table was dominated by both Russians, Alekhin and Ivan Demidov. Demidov had made history simply by getting to this final table as he is also a member of the infamous ‘November Nine’ that reconvene in a few weeks to play out the WSOP Main event (Las Vegas style) final table, with a $9m first prize. As he and Alekhin combined to eliminate Hiltunen, Keston and Scott Fischman, a Russian one-two was very much on the cards.

Crowd favourite Daniel Negreanu was next to feel their wrath. After being card-dead all day and falling into a short stack, Negreanu called the all-in of Alekhin with A-9 blind on blind. Unfortunately for the Canadian, Alekhin once again had a big hand, pocket jacks. They held up and Negreanu left in fifth place.

Bengt Sonnert was gone soon after as John Juanda found himself sandwiched inbetween the two Russians. Coming in as the chip leader, Juanda had quietly crept into the final three, still armed with a very capable chipstack. Though Demidov doubled through him early on, Juanda’s pocket aces managed to hold up against a mryiad of straight and flush draws that Demidov held as all the money went in on the turn. Demidov’s dreams of a double WSOP main event victory would have to be put on hold.

While Juanda and Alekhin entered heads-up pretty even on chips, nobody expected the match-up to go on for an astounding five hours. In that time, the chiplead swung constantly, with both holding 6:1 chipleads but not being able to finish the job. Ultimately, after being crippled a few hands earlier, Alekhin pushed with A-9 and got called by Juanda’s K-6. A flop of 6-6-2 sealed it for Juanda while a quads-making 6 on the river was just the exaclamation point on a historic victory.