John Juanda Wins!
by Court on 10.04.08, 5:58 am
Over 21 hours is what it took for John Juanda to overcome Stanilav Alekhin and the other players at the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair. Epic is a pretty hefty word, often overused in situations not so grandiose, but the heads up battle between Alekhin and Juanda fully qualifies as an epic heads up contest.
The heads up play had length, excitement, ups and downs and the title going to the victor being one of the most coveted in the game. After a grueling back and forth battle where both players took turns as the chip leader and the short stack and both were within a card or two of claiming victory, John Juanda was able to double up to take the chip lead and then go on to close the deal. Juanda had to fade a flush draw with his two pair to double up, and after that he had the chip advantage to take a shot or two at the short stacked Alekhin.
As Stanislav was forced into push or fold mode, the chips ended up all in preflop with Alekhin slightly ahead with his A-9 against Juanda’s K-6. The flop brought two sixes for Juanda though and 2 card’s later the marathon was over.
Alekhin put on an impressive performance, being the dominating player for the first part of the final table and showing he had staying power and the ability to change gears and adapt in the monstrous heads up battle. His second place finish has to leave him somewhat disappointed but he will be banking a nice £533,950 to take the edge off.
Longtime pro John Juanda adds another title to his resume along with the £868,800, which translates to somewhere in the range of $1,546,000 in US dollars.
