Online Poker > Online Poker News
Poker News
July 18th 2006
WSOP Update: Second final table for Hellmuth, but still no tenth bracelet
The story of Event #24, the $3000 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, was once again the story of Phil Hellmuth Jnr’s quest for a record equalling tenth WSOP bracelet. There was of course another story, the story of the winner, but when Phil Hellmuth is involved you can be sure the attention will focused on him.
Hellmuth has never won a WSOP event that wasn’t Texas Hold’em, but yesterday, starting the final table second in chips, Hellmuth must have fancied his chances of shedding that monkey from his back and winning that tenth bracelet he so desperately desired.
At start of play the final table looked as follows:
Seat 1 - Phil Hellmuth - $158,000
Seat 2 - Martin Corpuz - $76,000
Seat 3 - Peter Costa - $108,000
Seat 4 - Scott Clements - $244,000 (chip leader)
Seat 5 - Thor Hansen - $86,000
Seat 6 - Alex Limjoco - $116,000
Seat 7 - Steve Ladowsky - $97,000
Seat 8 - Brent Carter - $49,000
Seat 9 - Ronald Matsuura - $120,000
In a sign of things to come Hellmuth had a terrible start, losing over half his stack within 45 minutes. His wasn’t the worse beginning though. Alex Limjoco was desperately unlucky when on a flop of Q42 he made top two pair, and then turned a full house when a second queen hit the deck. Scott Clement however had two aces, and an ace on the river gave him a better full house. That left Limjoco with just $11,000 which he lost on the very next hand.
Hellmuth had his own reason to gripe a little while later, and rest assured, gripe he did. With shortstack Steve Ladowsky pushing all-in from under the gun Hellmuth got himself heads-up and was a clear favourite with Ad-Kd-Q-9 against Ladowsky’s A-T-7-3. A flop of Q-7-4 further strengthened his position, but another 7 on the turn was decisive, and the river ace just filled Ladowsky up to a full house. Needless to say Hellmuth was not best pleased.
For Ladowsky however it proved to be merely a stay of execution and Hellmuth had the consolation of providing the finishing touch. He called with 6c-6h-4h-3c against Ladowsky’s Ah-Kh-8-4 and when the board blanked out Ladowsky was out in 8th.
Next out was Peter “the Poet” Costa, the British-Cypriot winner of Late Night Poker VI. Crippled from an earlier encounter with chip leader Scott Clements, when he wrongly read Clements to be on a draw for the low half of the pot, Costa moved all-in a few hands later with a queen high flush draw on the turn. Unfortunately for him Thor Hansen had the ace high flush, and he was out in 7th.
Then it was time for Phil Hellmuth’s elimination. With As-Qs-6h-5h Hellmuth called all-in for his last $16k. Scott Clements also called and he and Brent Carter proceeded to check down a board of Ts-8c-8s-3c-8h. In the end no-one had a pair to go with the trip eights on the board, but Carter’s A-K kicker was good enough to beat Hellmuth’s A-Q kicker and knock him out of the tournament.
By the time Ronald Matsuura was eliminated in 5th place Scott Clements had already built up a considerable chip lead, with $615,000 to second placed Thor Hansen’s $200,000. He continued to dominate, scooping pots left and right before finally losing a pot to Thor Hansen after a seemingly interminable run of wins.
It was a few hours after Ronald Matsuura’s elimination before Martin Corpuz exited in fourth place. Again it was Scott Clements who delivered, first quartering Corpuz and taking a large chunk of his stack, before finishing him off with a flush.
With three players left Clements was way out in front, with $875,000 to Thor Hansen’s $100,000 and Brent Carter’s $75,000. It proved an insurmountable lead.
Just ten hands after Corpuz was knocked out Brent Carter was also on his way to the rail. No prize for guessing that Clements was once again the beneficiary. He raised $30k preflop and Carter called. The flop was 9-8-5 and Carter bet $15k. Clements then made it $30k and Carter called. On the turn (a five) Carter called for his last $30k and the cards were turned over. Carter had A-T-7-3 for a ten high straight draw and a draw to the low. Clements had three fives and a jack high straight draw. The river was a queen, making Clements’ straight and knocking Carter out in third.
Sadly for the sake of the tournament, though not for Scott Clements, there was no excitement about the heads-up play. With a $980,000 to $90,000 chip lead there was simply no prospect of a comeback from Thor Hansen. In NL Hold’em his chances would have been slim, but in Limit Omaha Hi/Lo they were non existent.
Eleven hands after heads-up play started Thor Hansen was put out of his misery. The money went in before the flop and it was Jd-5d-4h-2h against Td-9s-6s-5s. The board then came 8s-4c-2s-7s-3d giving Clements a spade flush for the high and 2-3-4-5-6 for the low. He won $301,175, while Hansen picked up $155,443 for second.
Submitted: 18/07/2006 13:33:16
Page 1 of 1
Monthly Archive