The 2014 WSOP’s first millionaire was crowned last night, but the UK players had to console themselves with big scores as Jonathan Dimming wins the Millionaire Maker
The WSOP’s Millionaire Maker was a massive success. And when we say massive, we mean massive – 7,977 players ponied up the $1,500 buy-in to be a part of the second biggest tournament in history.
UK pro Andrew Teng made the final table and was in with a decent shot at the title with 4,375,000 chips – good for third spot. Stephen Graner was the monster chip leader with a 12,005,000 stack but things didn’t go his way from the off. Graner lost the chip lead on hand #3 when he called a three-bet from James Duke with As-5s. The 8-3-2 flop seemed harmless enough but all the money went in with Duke’s Kings holding for a monster pot.
Graner got back into it when he bust Maurice Hawkins in 9th place with Kings against Queens – a Queen on the river not good enough to counter the King on the flop. Hawkins left with $128,150.
Andrew Dick was next to go after a slightly tilty preflop shove with K-8 was looked up by Jonathan Dimming and his A-10. Dimming had just doubled through Dick the hand before. By the time Jason Johnson was eliminated in 7th spot, Andrew Teng was the table short-stack, but he managed to nurse it to a fourth place finish after first Stephen Graner (6th) and Bradley Anderson (5th) were sent to the rail. It would have been especially disappointing for Graner, coming in with around a third of the chips in play. He bust in a huge pot that saw him river a smaller straight than Dimming.
Andrew Teng pulled himself back into it but with blinds turning the table into a series of shoves, he lost a flip with Q-9 to Dimming’s Twos. A Queen on the flop teased him with the prospect of a big stack but a Two on the turn sealed his fate. The $465,972 is by far Teng’s biggest payday.
It took another 45 hands for the next elimination, with James Duke losing out to Jonathan Dimming, who took a big lead to the heads-up confrontation with Jeffrey Coburn. It was all over just four hands later when Coburn raised preflop with K-Q and called an all-in from Dimming with his short stack on the 3-3-2 flop. The board bricked and Dimming took the bracelet and the first seven-figure score of the 2014 World Series.
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Ashby close, but no cigar
We came even closer to winning our first bracelet of the series in the $10k Limit Omaha Hi-Low Championship. 18 players returned for Day 3 and when Eli Elezra bubbled the final table, Richard ‘Chufty’ Ashby was on top of the world with 885,000 chips. Ashby knocked out Melissa Burr in 8th and Steve Lustig in 7th to keep his charge going before Brock Parker scooped a massive three-way pot to put himself in contention.
Three-way to a flop of 8s-Qh-5c, the action checked to Shirley Rosario who bet. Parker called, Viatcheslav Ortynskiy raised and both other players called. Rosario and Parker called turn and river bets as well with a final board reading 8♠-Q♥-5♣-J♥-6♥. Parker tabled A♥-J♠-4♥-2♦ for the nut low and the nut flush.
Shirley Rosario couldn’t add to Vanessa Selbst’s haul for the ladies, falling in 4th place and with the action three-handed Ashby was still in great shape, with 1.9m chips. He almost evened out the stacks when he eliminated Ofir Mor in 3rd and took a dominating chip lead shortly after before Brock Parker took control. It would have been Ashby’s second bracelet after his Seven Card Stud triumph at the 2010 WSOP.
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Best of the rest
Elsewhere US player Jeff Smith won the $1k No-Limit Hold’em event for $323,125 (making it a straight ten from ten bracelets for the US), Justin Bonomo is second with ten left in the $1,500 Six-Handed NLHE (watch it play to a climax tonight at WSOP.com), and Barny Boatman is just keeping his head above water in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em. He had his Kings cracked by A-J just before the end of the day to leave himself with just 13,100 chips in a field of 69 runners, down from 557 players at the start.
Bigger names are dominating the top of the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship after Day 1. With just 87 entries, 36 players will be back for Day 2 with Jennifer Harman the chip leader, closely followed by John Juanda and Shawn Sheikhan, with Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth still in the chasing pack. You can see what should hopefully be a stacked final table play out tomorrow night.
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