Heads Up!
by Brett on 06.03.09, 9:26 pm
Play in the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha Event has moved along rapidly today, and amazingly the last four remaining at the final table are all players we’ve been keeping tabs on since yesterday’s coverage.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier (pictured left), Steven “PiKappRaider” Mercier, Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti had all locked up fourth-place money of $66,544 but each was eyeing the their first WSOP bracelet.
Giannetti was under 100K in chips when he pushed all in and was called by then-chip leader Mercier:
Mercier: K
T8
6
Giannetti: AT22
The flop fell 7
33, and Giannetti remained in the lead. The turn card was the 6, though, and Mercier jumped out in front. Matt needed an ace or a deuce to save his tournament, and received neither. The river was the 9, and Giannetti was eliminated in 4th place, earning $66,544.
Iacofano was the next to make an exit. Burkholder (pictured right) raised to 60K from the button and Iacofano called from the big blind. On a flop of QT5, Iacofano check, Burkholder bet 80K and Iacofano re-reaised the pot. Burkholder re-potted and Iacofano moved all in and Burkholder called:
Iacofano: KKJ 3
Burkholder: QQ94
Iacofano needed help but was unable to improve when the turn and river revealed the 6 and 8. He earned $96,128 for his third place finish.
Burkholder currently holds a slight chip advantage over Mercier. Heads up play has been slow so far but considering the way Mercier moves chips around it could end rather quickly.
Check back in for the final result of the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha event!
WSOP 2009 Event #7: $1.5K NLHE
In the 1.5K there have been a few bustouts since we last reported. Pocket nines were unkind to both Frank “round42″ Rusnak and Andy “BKiCe” Seth, as both players were all in preflop with them on separate tables against AK and lost.
Other players have disappeared in the depths of the Rio, but we hope their absence is simply because of a table break and not elimination.
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (pictured at left) and Brandon Cantu find themselves at the same table, and the tension is high every time they get heads up. In one case, a player raised from the cutoff, with the blinds at 1K/2K/200, to 5.2K. Mizzi sweated his two cards, and re-popped him from the button to 14.5K. The small blind folded, and Cantu announced “34.5″ from the big blind. The original raiser quickly folded, and the action was back on Sorel. He asked for a count from Brandon, who obliged. “I started the hand with around 90,” he said. Mizzi tanked for a bit before folding. Cantu scooped the pot and is now above 100K. Sorel is still strong though, sporting a stack over 110K.
Notable chip counts:
Alex Jacob - 45K
Lee “acumen53″ Childs - 43K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 33K
Play is also underway in the $2.5K Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha event. We’ll have updates for you in our next update while players in the $1.5K NLHE and $1.5K Mixed NLHE are on their dinner break.
