THREE MORE BRACELETS WON AT WSOP

13 June 2008

Events 15 through 17 completed


Recent wins at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have included the $1 000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, the $2 000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better tourney and the $1 500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout.

Svetlana Gromenkova, a Russian immigrant resident in New York for the past six years, realised her dreams when she won the Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, having bested an entry field of almost 1 200 players. Gromenkova has previously cashed at WSOP in 2005 and in 2007, and also made the money in a WPT earlier this year, but the Ladies Event win was her first biggie...and her first WSOP bracelet.

By Day 2 an entry field that had included names like Evelyn Ng, Linda Johnson, Van Nguyen, Amanda Leatherman, Kathy Liebert and Nancy Todd Tyner had been reduced to a final table of nine, featuring Gromenkova, Anh Le, Patty Till, Christine Priday, Marla Crumpler, Debbie Mitchell, Roslyn Quarto, Yesenia Garcia and Sue Porter.

Gromenkova pretty much dominated the game, and down to three handed play it was the ex-Russian with a chip lead of 200 000 against Anh Le on 902 000, with Patty Till trailing in third on 345 000. And that's how they finished, with Tilly eliminated to make way for the heads up between Gromenkova and Le.

The chip lead fluctuated between the two smart and aggressive players several times but on the final hand, Le called off her stack with A 6 pre-flop and found herself up against Gromenkova's pocket kings. The flop brought T 8 7, which gave Le hope of a gut-shot straight draw, but the turn brought a K to give Gromenkova the set and an A on the river gave her the win.

For Le it was another WSOP disappointment - although she picked up a useful $144 567 for her second finish, this was a replay of her 2005 experience, where she lost to Jennifer Tilly in the heads up of the same event.

Gromenkova won the bracelet, a Corum watch and the main prize of $224 702.

Event 16 - $2 000 Omaha Hi/Low Split - recorded an entry field of 553 players that included Greg Raymer, Ted Forrest, Kristy Gazes, Alan "Chainsaw" Kessler, Barry Greenstein, Justin Bonomo Layne Flack, Max Pescatori, Mel Judah, Barny Boatman and many other stars and topped the previous year's attendance. A well supported and at times noisy contingent from Australia were tough competitors.

Eight levels of play and a day later, only 169 players remained to fight it out for final table positions, with Josh Arieh, David Williams and Scott Clements all doing well. The second day of the match proved inadequate to reach a final 9 players, and the 18 survivors were given a further day of action to make the cut, with Soheil Shamseddin in the lead at that point.

The last day saw the formation of a final table comprised of Andrew Brown, Ted Forrest, Jim Pechac, Soheil Shamseddin, Kia Hooshmand, Ralph Perry, Scott Clements, Allan Enciso and James Fricke.

It looked as if Ted Forrest was going to take the honours as the game culminated in a heads up between him and Andrew Brown, a relatively unknown 26 year old player, but the veteran was eliminated at the critical point by an opponent who managed to come back from what looked like certain defeat.

Brown took the bracelet and the main prize of $226 483, leaving Forrest with a second place and $143 420.

The victor told reporters that in his assessment Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey and Ted Forrest are probably the three best poker players in the world, which made his tournament experience one to remember. "I was looking forward to playing Ted Forrest heads-up," Brown said. "He's amazing. We had a see-saw battle. It was a great heads-up match."

Event 17 - the $1 500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout - was also concluded this week with New York player Jason Young taking home the main $335 565 prize after a tough heads up with Californian Mike Schwartz, who had to be satisfied with a second placing pay check of $209 527.

Once again the entry field, at 1 000 players, topped last year's event - an indication of the enduring popularity of the game. Among them were David Singer, Nenad Medic (both of whom won bracelets last week) Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Erick Lindgren, Kenna James, Lee Watkinson, Tim Vance, Phil Gordon, and Robert Varkonyi.

The action was fast and furious, with a final table being reached within the 2 day planned schedule for the event but at a demanding cost of 30 hours of play and a lengthy heads up.

Final tablers, who all started with a million chips were: Casey Coleman, Matthew Gianetti, Thomas West, Rory Monahan, Kyle Bowker, John Strzemp, Mike Schwartz, Sergio Ryabenko, Jason Young and Alexander Triner.

In the heads up Young and Schwartz started with pretty much even chip stacks and fought a roller-coaster of a battle, with the lead swinging between them and at one time Schwartz virtually out for the count but making a remarkable comeback. It wasn't enough to stop Young, however, who left the table as the winner.

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