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June 30th 2006
Brandon Cantu wins WSOP Event #2 - $1500 NL Hold’em
The second largest field in poker history assembled on Day One of the 2006 WSOP to play in Event #2 – the $1500 No-Limit Hold’em freezeout. Yesterday Brandon Cantu emerged victorious, and $757,839 richer.
A stupendous 2776 players took their seats at the felt on Tuesday for the start of the first open event of the 2006 WSOP, filling more tables than any other poker event save the 2005 WSOP main-event. Perhaps even more amazingly, only 121 players were left at the end of the day – that’s 1665 eliminations in one day!
Clearly this meant players were either in serious gambling mood, or the cards were falling in deadly combinations. Either way, at an average of 260 eliminations per hour, this was poker at its fastest and most furious.
Surviving the carnage with the most success was Carlos Mortensen, the 2001 World Champion, who ended Day One with $140,000 in chips. Accompanying him to Day Two were Jennifer Harman, Dave “the Devilfish” Ulliot, Greg Raymer, Tuan Lee, Phil Hellmuth, Eric Seidel and John Bonetti among others but of those none but Carlos could find their way to the final table.
Even Carlos couldn’t remain out of trouble for two whole days, especially in the do-or-die mayhem that characterised this event. He tripped up twice, meaning he started the final table in seventh place. Leading at the end of Day Two was one Brandon Cantu.
Day Three was a little more restrained, with the final table starting at 2pm and continuing till just after midnight. First out was the long time chip leader Carlos Mortensen – he moved all-in pre flop with AQ suited only to be called by Drew Rubin with JJ. With no help on the board he was left crippled and bowed out shortly after.
It was almost two hours until the elimination of Mark Swartz followed, and it sparked a flurry of further capitulations. Swartz moved all-in with K-J but was called by Brandon Cantu with T-T. Just a few minutes later both Ron Stanley and Don Zewin fell victim to Lee Padilla. His As-Js made a flush on the river to beat Stanley’s Ac9c and Zewin’s 8-8.
Brent Roberts was the next casualty; after making a rash call all-in with Ks-Jc when well set for chips, he might have felt relieved to only be up against pocket twos, but the relief wont have lasted long. He found no help on the board, and a few hands later moved all-in for his last $500,000 with pocket sevens. This time it was he who went into the hand ahead, but ended up losing to Cantu’s A-Q after a queen was the first card out of the pack.
Next out the door was Lee Padilla. He had spent much of the day in second spot, but ran into difficulty before succumbing to Mark Ly in a pre-flop all-in battle. Ly’s A-T had Padilla’s A-3 dominated all the way. Then we were down to two, after Drew Rubin, short-stacked for much of the time, fell to Cantu’s pocket eights.
Heads-up play lasted less than half an hour. After trading blinds for a short while, Ly was crippled when he moved all-in on a board of Ac-Jc-6d. Ly had Jh-4h for second pair, but Cantu had Ad-Ks for top pair. Ly had only enough for the blinds next hand, and that left Brandon Cantu, chip leader at the start of Day Three, the winner of Event #2 at the 2006 WSOP.
Position and prize money:
1 Brandon Cantu $757,839
2 Mark Ly $416,816
3 Drew Rubin $226,597
4 Lee Padilla $176,579
5 Brent Roberts $151,570
6 Don Zewin $126,940
7 Lee Stanley $107,614
8 Mark Swartz $88,668
9 Carlos Mortensen $71,617
Submitted: 30/06/2006 11:15:02
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