WSOP Event #54: Tony Veckey Wins The Bracelet

The final play day of the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event saw the remaining 28 players returning to the tables. Sergey Konkin entered the day as the chip leader with a stack of 1,400,000 and there were only two more players with more than one million chips - Christopher Demaci and Joe Chaplin. The rest of the players would have to follow and breach that one million chip mark if they wanted to have decent chances of winning the title.

Vivek Rajkumar didn't really have much of a stack during the time he spent at his table, mostly struggling to make a breakthrough, but it never came. He joined the list of those who couldn't make it to the final table, as he was eliminated by Christopher Demaci and had to pack his bags in 15th place for which he earned $40,350.

The official final table was ready to begin with the departure of Mike Ratcliff. Even though he started the day with the 4th largest stack, it wasn't large enough to carry him any further than the 10th place. Jason Wheeler was the man who eliminated him, after Ratcliff's pocket kings lost against Wheeler's pocket queens. The flop revealed a queen which gave Wheeler the lead and it held up through the remaining two streets.

Source: IMPDI for 2009 WSOP

Despite the play getting tight after Ratcliff's elimination, the final table soon started to lose players and eventually, the race for the title was down to just two players. Joseph Chaplin was busted in 3rd place after a hand in which he raised to 200,000 and both Tony Veckey and Jason Wheeler called.

The flop came , Veckey bet 450,000, Wheeler called and Chaplin moved all-in for 1.6 million. Veckey folded and Wheeler called with while Chaplin held . The turn brought and Chaplin missed his straight draw with the on the river.

The heads-up play featured Jason Wheeler holding 8 million chips against Tony Veckey's 4.7 million. With a nearly 2-1 chip lead, Wheeler tried to apply pressure on his opponent early on, but Veckey soon started to fight back.

After a back and forth battle, Veckey (pictured right) managed to win two important hands and the last one was also the decisive one, as it secured him the title. On a flop of , Wheeler bet 450,000 and Veckey called. The turn brought , Wheeler bet 1,200,000, Veckey moved all-in and Wheeler called. Veckey tabled and Wheeler showed and with the on the river, Wheeler did get trips but it was still no good against Veckey's straight.

Tony Veckey outlasted a field of 2,818 players by playing aggressively throughout the tournament, applying pressure whenever possible but also showing that he is capable of laying down hands, such as the one in a tricky pre-flop situation in which he folded pocket kings to an all-in raise. Veckey was awarded $673,276 for his efforts, along with a WSOP bracelet.

Here are the final table results:

World Series Of Poker Event #54 Results
Place	Name	Prize
1st	Tony Veckey	$673,276
2nd	Jason Wheeler	$418,122
3rd	Joseph Chaplin	$276,029
4th	Sergey Konkin	$195,213
5th	Andrew Malott	$147,131
6th	Christopher Bonita	$117,358
7th	Christopher Demaci	$98,933
8th	David Jaoui	$87,855
9th	Miha Remic	$81,970