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January 4th 2007
Hachem wins WPT and Mizrachi is POY: 15 days in poker
Since our last news update on December 15th a few interesting things have happened in the poker world, none more so than Joe Hachem’s win in the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic (DBNAPC), also known as the Five Diamond Classic.
Ever since winning the World Series of Poker in 2005 Hachem has been desperate to prove he is no one-hit-wonder, and for most people his impressive showing in the 2006 WSOP (where he had a second place finish, a fourth place finish and a respectable 238th/8773 in the main-event) did just that. But Hachem sets his standards a little higher than most people, and as far as he was concerned nothing less than a major tournament victory would suffice. With just a few days to go before Christmas he got it.
The DBNAPC proved to be one of the biggest tournaments of the calendar year, with 583 players paying the $15,000 buy-in to create a massive prize pool of $8.5 million, with over $2 million going to the winner.
There were strong showings from many of the world’s top players, with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi catching the early headlines as he captured the Player of the Year title in style, with a 29th place finish. Justin Bonomo was also impressive, continuing his fine Five Diamond form by making yet another final table, this time ending in 7th place for $152,230.
The final table was no disappointment either, featuring two of the world’s biggest draws in Daniel Negreanu and Joe Hachem, alongside EPT winner Mads Anderson, Foxwoods final tablist Eddie Jordan, and amateurs Jim Hanna and David Redlin.
In a room packed with spectators the WPT final table got off to a cracking start, when Daniel Negreanu made a great read to eliminate Ed Jordan. With the board showing Q-Q-10-4 with three hearts Jordan pushed all his chips in the middle, and after some consideration Negreanu called, showing Ac-Kh, for ace high with a flush draw. He hit his flush on the river, but that was incidental, as Jordan was on a stone cold bluff with 8s-7s.
Next to go was David Redlin, who satellited into the tournament for $70 and left with $253,715. He sent his A-Q to war against Hachem’s Q-Q and was a huge dog until the turn paired his ace leaving Hachem with just one card in the deck to win. The 43-1 shot duly arrived on the river and Redlin was toast.
Mads Andersen then exited in fourth at the hands of Daniel Negreanu, leaving Kid Poker, Joe Hachem and amateur Jim Hanna still standing. At this point Negreanu was already sure to end the tournament as the highest earner in the history of the WPT, but with a healthy stack of chips the odds were on Negreanu going even further.
In the end however, the poker Gods chose to deny Negreanu his third WPT victory, and as his cards dried up Kid Poker began to bleed chips, losing some key battle against Jim Hanna in the process. He finally bowed out in third place when he re-raised all-in for his last $1.125 million over-the-top of Hachem’s $450k raise. Hachem called and his pocket fours held up against Negreanu’s K-T.
When heads-up play began Hanna’s pummelling of Negreanu meant he had a slight advantage over Hachem, but it didn’t last long. Hachem, with validation in sight, had the bit between his teeth and began to force the play with a series of re-raises. The first of these brought Hachem level with Hanna, but the next win put Hachem nearly $10 million in front when he moved all-in over-the-top of a $3 million bet by Hanna on the flop.
It wasn’t long before Hachem made his advantage count. Constantly piling on the pressure, Hachem once again re-raised Hanna all-in, this time preflop. Hanna called with Q-Js, but couldn’t topple Hachem’s A-6.
History was made, as Hachem joined Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortensen and Scotty Nguyen as only the fourth player in history to win a WPT title to go with his WSOP main-event win.
Final table payouts
1st – Joe Hachem - $2,182,075
2nd – Jim Hanna - $1,099,430
3rd – Daniel Negreanu - $592,000
4th – Mads Andersen - $380,630
5th – David Redlin - $253,715
6th – Edward Jordan - $169,145
Submitted: 04/01/2007 12:38:07
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