WSOP Final Table 2012
It has been an interesting poker week and with the final tables being concluded, let’s take a look at some of the action. The Amazon room hosted two big events, the $3000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em Pot Limit Omaha and the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. The remaining eight players from the 317 that took part in the $3000 Heads Up tournament battled it out on Thursday for the chance to get a WSOP bracelet.
The big names that remained at the tables were Andy Frankenberger and Annette Obrestad, both of which have already won a WSOP bracelet from previous tournaments and were now looking to get their second while the other remaining players were still fighting for their first. The first games between the Elite Eight would send home the big names; Koon sent Obrestad home without a new bracelet and Force won against Frankenberger. Four remain, Jason Koon, Simeon Naydenov, Julian Powell and Leif Force.
The match between the first two was very rapid as most of the action happened pre-flop while the latter two players faced off in a much more relaxed pace. Interesting enough, the battle between Force and Powell still finished first, making Force move on to the final heads up match. Later, Koon managed to eliminate Naydenov and be the second one to still have a chance at the bracelet.
The last match was shown on ESPN and Force played a very aggressive game while Koon couldn’t keep up. He pretty much dominated in both the NLHE segment as well as in PLO part and then continued to pressure Koon as he was forced to use one of his rebuy chips when the match switched back to Hold’em. With new found strength, Koon began the offensive and, after winning a hand with a K-10 against K-5, forced Force to use one of his rebuys.
Koon then later had to use his last rebuy after Force got a flush against a straight. From this point, it didn’t take long for Force to eliminate Koon and win the $207,708 prize as well as the WSOP title. The other event, the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, had 23 players remaining in the last day and many predicted that it will be a long day until only one will remain standing. Things didn’t really go as thought as most of the players seemed in a rush to get home and eight of them were eliminated in the first hour of the final day.
These were the ones that mostly had the small stacks and once they were eliminated, things got back to the slow pace we are used to when playing Seven Card. Xuan Liu started the final day in the lead and after an hour of play, she was still keeping her position but Bjroin and Chris Tryba were on the offensive, trying to get a share of her large stack. Sexton lost his chance at the bracelet and Sanjay Pandya took over the lead after Liu lost some of her chips to John Monnette.
Others were eliminated and the “bubble” position was taken by Marsha Waggoner; the final player to be eliminated without taking a share of the prize pool. Only eight remained at the final table and Zeidman had a huge lead over the other players. He then continued to increase this lead by taking chips from Liu and Yarron Bendor. Liu got eliminated by Bennie Rossi and took 8th place while Todd Brunson quickly followed.
The heads up match was between Zeidman and Bjorin with the latter having a 3:1 disadvantage. The games went late into the night as the heads up battle lasted more than two hours despite the big difference in chips at the start of it. The final hand was when Bjorin put all his remaining chips on the table (Q-8) J showing and Zeidman was happy to call with his (K-K) 8 and won the hand with his hidden kings. He took the $201,559 first prize and the WSOP Event #4 bracelet.
A lot of action in this final day of the 2012 WSOP and a lot of money being won by the best of the best in various types of poker.
