Pray to the poker gods that you’re on the right side of these World Series of Poker hands…
Quads for Merson
Event #2 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em
It’s the biggest day of your poker career. You’ve made four cashes before, the biggest for $5,198. now you’ve got yourself to a WSOP final table, along with 2012 main Event champ Greg merson. It gets better. You’ve got a decent 40BB stack when merson raises into your aces. You three-bet, he calls and you hit top set on the A♣-K♠-J♣ flop. You bet, merson calls and you fill up on the J♦ turn. all the money goes in and then you get the bad news – merson has quads. Poker’s a brutal game and you can’t help but feel sorry for Long Nguyen.
Trust the ladies
Event #56 – $5,000 Turbo NLHE
We’re not saying it’s easy to make the right decisions when you’re staring at life-changing money, but Pascal Theodosiadis gets it all wrong when he’s chip leader and three-handed in the $5k turbo. He opens with Queens on the button, only to see first Igor Yaroshevsky and then kevin MacPhee move all-in over the top. Theodosiadis folds Queens face up and then has to suffer the agony of watching the other two players flip A-J and A-T. Theodosiadis would have won the bracelet but as it was he was eliminated in third for $201,878. Kevin MacPhee went on to win the bracelet and $490,800.
It’s never easy
Event #28 – Monster Stack
It’s five-handed in the monster Stack and the pay jumps are huge. the next player out gets $335,938 and the winner almost $1.3m. In a blind-on-blind battle, Eric Place gets his money in good preflop with Queens against Christian Rodriguez’s A-J, but he’s the one at risk. The 7♣-T♥-K♠ flop makes Place stop his rail from calling for a Queen but the A♣ on the turn is just as painful. Place is now just a 7% shot to survive but he hits the miracle Jack on the river and ends up finishing second for $796,834.
Deeb tweets it out
Event #15 – $10k Pot LimIt Hold’em Championship
Sean Deeb had never won a WSOP bracelet – and the manner in which he won this tournament must have made it all the sweeter. He picks up aces and then flops top set on the a♥-5♠-2♠ board. It’s tough to get paid with a hand like this, but Paul Volpe decides to make a move with 9-6, betting the flop and turn before potting the 5♥ river. which has just filled deeb up! deeb moves all-in and volpe elects to fold, leaving 10k behind – one chip and one fifth of a big blind! deeb takes a snap of the hand and tweets it for the world to see.
Hellmuth wins #14
Event #17 – $10,000 Razz Championship
Phil Hellmuth is renowned for his patience at the poker table, but it was in short supply at the tail end of the $10k razz Championship. Heads-up with Mike Gorodinsky, Hellmuth has already made a couple of questionable plays when he decides to get it all-in with k-4-7-6. Gordo has 2-4-5-t for the best hand but it doesn’t hold up. Hellmuth picks up a perfect 2-a combination on sixth and seventh to make history and win his 14th bracelet. Gorodinsky went on to win the prestigious $50k Poker
Poker’s biggest bubble
Event #68 – $10,000 Main Event
It’s always the worst tournament to bubble, but this year the pay jump was astronomical as well. tenth place in the 2015 main Event received $756,897, a huge payday, but a lot less than the $1,001,020 you’re guaranteed for ninth. the unlucky loser this year was Alex Turyansky, who raised with a-k and then shipped over chip leader Joe Mckeehen’s three-bet. Mckeehen had pocket Queens and was running like God so the outcome was never in question. Could Turyansky have called pre and folded the flop, with other short stacks below him?
Watch it all again!
The WSOP’s coverage has been top notch again this year, with live streams of almost every final table – the majority with hole cards and commentary from David Tuchman. If you missed them you can cherry pick the best from the WSOP archive – click here to browse them.
For more great WSOP videos try reading a free copy of PokerPlayer magazine HERE
