That momentum of Jeffrey Gibralter's just came to an abrupt halt in a big hand between himself and chip leader David Singontiko.
Gibralter opened with a raise to 130,000 from the button, Michael Yee folded, and Singontiko reraised the pot to 415,000. Gibralter thought a moment, then called the reraise, leaving himself about 920,000 behind.
The flop came . Singontiko sat quietly for a moment, then looked up at the dealer and said "pot." Before the chips were counted out, Gibralter said "call," thinking he was pushing all in. In fact he was committing all but 115,000 with the call, but the pair agreed to bet and call in the dark to get the rest in. Their cards were thus tabled before the turn arrived:
Singontiko
Gibralter
The turn was an especially bad card for Gibralter -- the -- giving Singontiko a full house and leaving Gibralter needing a friendly low card to win at least part of the pot. But the river was the , and Gilbralter is out in third.
Singontiko bumps up to 3.7 million, and will have a huge advantage over Michael Yee to start heads-up play. Yee has just 375,000.
In only the second hands of heads up, David Singontiko and Michael Yee got it all in preflop when Yee only had 325,000 left.
Singontiko:
Yee:
The board ran out and when the ten hit the river, Singontiko's whole rail went nuts and he fell to the floor as they realized he had just won a bracelet in his first ever WSOP event.
We're witnessing quite a scene here. David Singontiko of California has just won his first WSOP bracelet — in the first event he's ever entered! — besting a field of 946 to win Event No. 51, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better event. His group of joyous supporters have surrounded him, and it looks like the celebrating will be continuing for some time this evening.
It was a hard-fought ten-handed final table that saw several big chips swings, some clever play, and more than a few moments of good fortune along the way. During the very first orbit of play, David "Doc" Sands lost his huge chip lead and more than two-thirds of his stack after losing a huge hand versus Jeffery Gibralter. Sands would hang on a while longer before exiting in 10th and missing the official final table.
While Gibralter maintained his newly-gained chip lead, the short stacks fought for a while before soon falling one by one, with John Reiss (ninth), Robert Campbell (eighth), and Cliff Kettinger (seventh) going out in short order. The Brazilian Marco Oliveira — with recent bracelet winner Andre Akkari on the rail cheering him on — went out next in sixth, followed soon by Thomas Scarber in fifth.
Meanwhile, Singontiko was accumulating chips, and after knocking Igor Sharaskin in fourth in a particularly unlucky hand for the Russian, held a large chip lead when three-handed play began.
It looked like Michael Yee was destined to go out in third, stuck on a short stack for much of the time the trio played. But a huge pot developed between Singontiko and Gibralter that saw the latter hit the rail in third, and it would only take a couple more hands for Singontiko to take the last of Yee's short stack.
The story we're hearing is that Singontiko worked several months for his father's mortgage company at $10/hour to save up for this one event, his first ever at the Series. Soon after winning, Singontiko gave his father a call to tell him the good news — in three days he'd earned a cool $268,235 with that $1,500 he saved up working for his dad! Not to mention a nice piece of jewelry to commemorate his effort.
The celebrating is still going on, and it's hard not to smile as we watch. Congratulations to David Singontiko! And thanks for following our coverage of Event No. 51 here at PokerNews.
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. Singontiko sat quietly for a moment, then looked up at the dealer and said "pot." Before the chips were counted out, Gibralter said "call," thinking he was pushing all in. In fact he was committing all but 115,000 with the call, but the pair agreed to bet and call in the dark to get the rest in. Their cards were thus tabled before the turn arrived:
-- giving Singontiko a full house and leaving Gibralter needing a friendly low card to win at least part of the pot. But the river was the 
, and Gilbralter is out in third.
and when the ten hit the river, Singontiko's whole rail went nuts and he fell to the floor as they realized he had just won a bracelet in his first ever WSOP event.
