Shawn Buchanan raised from under the gun and action folded to Andrey Zaichenko who called from middle position. The rest of the players folded and the two saw a flop of . Buchanan checked and Zaichenko threw out a bet. Buchanan called and the turn came . Buchanan check-called another bet. The river came the and the action went check-check.
Buchanan flipped over for ace-king high but was behind Zaichenko's . Zaichenko was able to drag in the pot.
If you remember last year at the 2010 World Series of Poker, Tom Dwan came oh so close to winning his first WSOP gold bracelet and decimating the bankrolls of many of poker's elite due to all the bracelet bets he would have won. Here's the recap post from that event.
Well that was quite the spectacle.
In one of the more exciting and nerve-racking nights of poker we can recently remember, Simon Watt has just put Tom Dwan's final few chips into his own stack to earn himself the gold bracelet for Event #11 and more than $600,000 in cash money.
But that was only part of the story tonight. The eyes of the poker world were upon our final table for a number of reasons, all of which revolved around runner up Tom Dwan. First, there's the story itself. A 23-year-old wunderkind from the northeast who plays the richest cash games in the world breaking through to win his first bracelet. If it's possible to have a legacy by age 23, this would certainly have helped cement it.
Oh, and then there's the bracelet bets. Some of the most notable players in the world were sweating their faces off tonight, as Dwan stood to take a big chunk of money out of the poker pool should he have closed the deal. The numbers are varying and mind-boggling, making it hard to get a real feel for what Dwan had on the line tonight. Either way, as disappointed as Dwan is, there are a dozen or so high-stakes monsters that are going to sleep particularly well this evening after fading that huge bad beat.
Just as we were typing this, in fact, the rest of the media were shooting the winner's photos and preparing for interviews with Watt. Mike Matusow came wandering into the nearly-empty arena and half-yelled at Watt, "Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars! How does it feel to be every high-stakes gamblers hero? They're gonna, like, put you on the wall in Bobby's Room or some shit."
But it's not all about "durrrr" tonight. Credit must be given to Simon Watt, the Kiwi who has now added a gold bracelet to his stat sheet which already boasted an APPT title. Coming into the day third in chips, Watt was up and down and back up again, but he never flinched and just kept plugging along. He put on a fantastic show here today, and for the past three days.
So many of the bracelet winners get lost in the sea of 57, but this one stands out strong. Just before Matusow walked back to his table, he looked over his shoulder and asked, "Hey, what's your name, kid?"
It'll be a long time before people forget the name of the man who beat Tom Dwan heads up for a bracelet, and Simon Watt is the toast of the high-stakes world tonight. So with that, we send our congratulations to Simon Watt, the champion of Event #11! We know who's buying the cocktails tonight.
If you'd like to relive the event, you can always check out the PokerNews archives with our complete hand-for-hand coverage of the final table. If reading's not really your thing, you can always click through the photo gallery as well and relive all of the amazing moments. We've also got two archived videos from last year's WSOP. Both of them are worth watching.
Catching the action on fourth street we found Tom Dwan check-calling a bet before check-raising fifth street with his opponent Michael Binger making the call. Dwan led sixth and seventh with Binger calling sixth before folding seventh.
Dwan: (X)(X) / / (X)
Binger: (X)(X) / / (X)
Following the hand, Binger slipped down to just 200,000 as Dwan surges towards two million.
Tom Dwan brought in and Shawn Buchanan called while everyone else folded. On fourth street, Buchanan bet after Dwan checked and got called. On fifth street, Buchanan bet and Dwan called and then on sixth, Buchanan check-called a bet from Dwan. On seventh, Buchanan check-called again.
Dwan showed the for a full house and his cheering section erupted. Unfortunately for him though, this is a split-pot game and Buchanan showed an eight-seven low to win the low half of the pot.
"Boooo! This game sucks!" yelled out one of Dwan's spectators.
The short-stacked Jacobo Fernandez found himself all in against Tom Dwan as both player's cards were spread like the following.
Dwan:
Fernandez:
With Dwan making a pair of sevens against Fernandez's pair of sixes, and each player possessing no low, Dwan was pushed the pot as Fernandez exits in 8th place.
PIcking up the action on fourth street, Tom Dwan bet with his open pair of fives and Shawn Buchanan raised. Andrey Zaichenko reraised and Dwan called. Buchanan also called and then Dwan jokingly asked, "Are you rolled up?" to Zaichenko.
On fifth street, Buchanan checked with his new pair of jacks and Zaichenko bet. Dwan called and then Buchanan tank-folded. On sixth street, Zaichenko bet after Dwan checked. Dwan made the call. On seventh, Dwan checked, Zaichenko bet and Dwan called.
Zaichenko tabled the from his down cards for a club flush and an eighty-six low. Dwan mucked and got scooped on this one to drop back under one million in chips.
Matthew Ashton completed only to have Fabrice Soulier two-bet. Jacobo Fernandez smooth-called before Ashton made it three-bets to go. Soulier capped it and Fernandez folded as Ashton found himself all in.
Ashton: / /
Soulier: / /
With Ashton catching a third six on fourth, he managed to scoop the pot to move to 450,000 as Soulier slipped below the 1,900,000-chip mark.
Daniel Ospina brought-in and faced a raise from Fabrice Soulier which was called. Soulier led out on fourth street and Ospina called. On fifth street, Soulier led out once again and Ospina threw out a raise. Soulier made the call and checked sixth street. Ospina continued the aggression with a bet on six street and Soulier called. On seventh street Soulier check-called one last bet from Ospina.
Soulier: (X)(X) / / (X)
Ospina: (X)(X) / / (X)
Ospina tabled but was behind the pair of eights of Soulier when he flipped up . Soulier was able to scoop the pot and boost his stack by a nice margin.