Best of a thousand – that’s the boast Jeff ‘Wildcat’ Carris can make this week after beating a large entry field to take down Event 22 – the $1 500 buy-in NLHE Shootout tournament at the World Series of Poker.
The final table came down to Jason Somerville, Chris Moore, Joseph Cutler, Jeffrey Carris, Michael McNeil, Josh Tieman, Egene Katchalov, Mike Shannon, Andrew Margolis and Brandon Wong, with Katchalov one of the most recognisable names with a previous track record that includes a WPT Five Diamond win. Players in the final started with chip stacks of 450 000 and blinds at 3 000/6 000 with a 1 000 ante.
Carris had an enviable final table, sailing through and eliminating five of his opponents, and when be sent Andrew Margolis ($124 158 for third place) to the rail he sat across the table from Jason Somerville in the heads up holding a 3 to 1 chip lead.
Carris’s good cards and obvious skill combined with that chip lead to deliver a fast 20 minute heads up in which Carris relegated Somerville to second place and a $194 004 payday, claiming the $313 673 lion’s share of the prize pool, along with his first WSOP gold winner’s bracelet. The win far surpasses Carris’s previous best tournament cash – a $54 405 cash last year at the Bellagio.
Katchalov achieved only a seventh placing in the event.
Event 24 – the $1 500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em has also reached a conclusion, with an initial field of 2 506 reduced rather quickly to a final table led by Andy ‘BKiCe’ Seth on a chip count of 2 290 000, followed by Alan Jaffray (1 946 000), Glenn McCaffrey (1 500 000), Dean Hamrick (1 473 000), Brian Fitzpatrick (989 000), Michael Greco (896 000), Ernst Hermans (859 000), Panayote Vilandos (702 000), Ronnie Kevin (507 000) and David Lerman (276 000).
Many of the pros who turned out for the event in anticipation of ample ‘donk’ opportunities failed to make the final table, among them: Kathy Liebert, Humberto Brenes, Adam Junglen, Dennis Phillips, Phil Hellmuth, T.J. Cloutier, Hevad Khan, Jason Mercier, Jimmy Fricke, J.J. Liu, Lee Watkinson, and Ivan Demidov.
And Liv Boeree, Jeff Madsen, Shane Schleger, and Surinder Sunar were among the first several hundred to go to the rail in the first few hours of the first day’s frenetic action that saw over 300 contestants busted out.
UK player Michael Greco’s $248 855 third place exit from the final table gave space for the Vilandos vs. Seth heads up battle, with Seth holding a 530 000 lead over his gutsy opponent, who nevertheless took only ten minutes to turn things around and claim victory in the game in a thrilling display of aggression and talent.
Panayote “Pete” Vilandos collected a check for $607 256 and his first WSOP gold bracelet, leaving Andy Seth with a second placing payday of $372 855.
As we went to press the match to watch was the $2 500 buy-in Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better, where top ace Phil Ivey and Ming Lee were engaged in a thriller of a heads up that started with Ivey in the lead by a million chips. More on that one later.