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August 31st 2006
WPT Legends of Poker: Victory in under 4 hours
It didn’t take long for the final table to kick into gear. After his excruciating (and crippling) bad beat at the end of yesterday’s play Scotty Nguyen was going to need to make a move with his short stack, and on the 18th hand he moved his $247,000 stack in from the small blind. Hoyt Corkins made the call from the BB and Scotty was delighted to see his AK was up against Hoyt’s A-7; the delight was short lived however – a seven on the river meant it was all over for Scotty baby!
Before the players could draw breath Randy Holland was following Scotty to the rail. On the very next hand he moved all-in over the top of Joe Pelton’s raise for a total of $424,000. Kevin O’Donell made the call from the big blind and Pelton left them to it. It was a similar situation to the previous hand, big ace versus little ace, but this time the big stack held the big ace, and the big ace held up. O’Donnell’s Ad-Qd was ahead of Holland’s Ac-3d from the start and a blank board meant Holland was walking away in 5th with $177,460.
The two early eliminations were no surprise; both players had short stacks and were up against it from the start, but the next man out was against all expectations, and the manner of his exit was even more surprising. Kevin O’Donnell was in second place when he limped in from under the gun and then moved all-in over the top of Frankie O’Dell’s $250,000. It was a case of right move, wrong time, as Frankie made a good call with Ad-Qd. O’Donnell had been caught with fingers in the jar as he reluctantly flipped over 7c-6d. A suck out was still an option with two live cars, but the first card out of the deck was a queen and O’Donnell was out in fourth, kicking himself all the way to the rail. He received $226,260.
With that win Frankie O’Dell had gained a massive chip lead of more than 2:1 on second placed Joe Pelton but Pelton wiped out some of the difference by eliminating Hoyt Corkins in 3rd. The Alabama Cowboy went over the top of Pelton’s $250,000 raise with pocket threes and was even money when Pelton called with JT off-suit but a jack fell on the flop and Hoyt couldn’t improve. He won $381,540 for third.
The tournament was progressing at a furious pace with the heads up stage being reached after just three hours of play. After a short break the players began battle with O’Dell still holding a chip lead with $5,670,000 chips to Pelton’s $3,570,000. It didn’t take long for the tables to turn.
Just seven hands into heads-up play the following hand came up: with Pelton on the big blind O’Dell limped in and Pelton checked his option. The flop came Q-Q-4 and Pelton bet out $100,000. O’Dell then raised to $250,000 only for Pelton to re-raise to $750,000. O’Dell then moved all-in and Pelton immediately called, almost beating O’Dell in to the pot. When the cards were turned O’Dell was almost drawing dead, with his J-4 needing to catch runner runner fours to beat Pelton’s Q-8. Not surprisingly, the miracle didn’t come.
It was a strange play for O’Dell, who had plenty of chances to get away from the hand. In all likelihood he had convinced himself that Pelton was on a diamond flush draw, and was trying to push him out, but it was still a high risk play.
The loss was a serious blow to O’Dell, leaving him with just $2.8 million chips to Pelton’s $6.4 million. He was going to need to make some moves and on the 13th hand of heads-up play he moved all-in over the top of Pelton’s $400,000 raise. Pelton called immediately showing Ac-7c while O’Dell flipped over pocket sixes. O’Dell was fractionally ahead at this stage, but as had happened all through the final table the first card out paired the big card in the drawing hand. The board ended up: A-J-3-2-Q and one of the shortest final tables in WPT history was over.
Joe Pelton collected $1,577,170 for first place along with entry into the WPT Championship, while Frankie O’Dell picked up $776,385 for second.
Submitted: 31/08/2006 10:28:48
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