WSOP Event #37: An Epic Finish

When the final day of the World Championschip of Seven Card Stud H/L-8 started with only 12 players remaining, no one could have guessed it would take 15 hours to find a champion. After less than an hour, Lyle Berman, Scotty Nguyen (pictured left) and Perry Friedman had already gone to the rail and the last nine players could join up for the final table.

Anthony Rivera was the first to bust on the final table when he got it in against Yan Chen in the first round of betting. Chen's split aces were out front, but when Rivera caught another ten to his burrowed pair, it looked like he might double up. Chen's board however unfolded ()() and his flush and low were good enough to scoop against Rivera's ()().

A lot of split pots followed after the first final table elimination, and it took more than two hours until the next player was sent home. Justin Smith decided to make a stand and call Yan Chen down with his pair of aces, but the latter revealed a flush and Smith had to take his leave.

Doyle Brunson managed to finish 7th after being forced to bring it all-in on first street. Farzad Rouhani made fours full of tens and had Brunson drawing dead.

It took another hour until the next contender was willing to give it up. When Abe Mosseri put his remaining chips at stake, he was happy to see his split queens improve to two-pair to beat the opposing two-pair sevens and nines. In the end, Frank Mariani improved to nines full of sevens, though, and Mosseri had to leave the tournament area.

Yan Chen was the next to go when he had to bring it all-in and lost against a mere pair of sixes on Rouhani's board as he failed to catch.

Frank Mariani was eliminated after being crippled in a pot agains Jeff Lisandro when his kings couldn't beat Lisandro's two-pair. In the following hand, he was all-in with the ante and managed get a pair of kings again. This time it was Rouhani who would flip over two-pair to take down the high part of the pot, while Lisandro would reveal a low to take down the other half, leaving Mariani with no chips and gone on fourth place

Chip counts at this point were about 3 million for Rouhani, 1.5 for Lisandro and a mere 605,000 remaining chips for Mike Wattel. In the end, it was the latter short stack who had to be satisfied with third place and leave the heads-up to the big stacks. Again, it would be Lisandro's caught two-pair - fours and fives - that would take down Wattel's pair of fives.

Source: IMPDI for 2009 WSOP

Going into the heads-up with a disadvantage of 2,860,000 to 2,150,000 chips, Jeff Lisandro would put Farzad Rouhani to a serious test - a test Rouhani would initially master rather well. After the first hour of heads-up, he was able to extend his lead to 3,730,000 to 1,280,000 and it looked like he was in full control.

Lisandro however managed to barely snatch the chip lead away from him when he scooped a pot with trip queens and was out front with 2.6 to 2.4 million chips. Subsequently, he was able to build on this momentum when he scooped yet another pot with two-pair and 8-low, moving ahead to 3.4 million chips against Rouhani's 1.5 million.

From that moment on, Lisandro wouldn't let loose again, taking down pot after pot and knocking Rouhani down relentlessly. After numerous chops, Rouhani was finally able to double up once, but it wouldn't be of much use as the deciding hand came mere minutes later. Again, it would be Lisandro's notorious two-pair who would seal the deal.

After over three hours of a hard-fought heads-up, it held up against Rouhani's () for gutshot and low-draw when the latter bricked out with (), turning ()() into the final winning hand. Rouhani will take home $266,804 for his 15 hours of play that day, while Jeff Lisandro now is the proud owner of three WSOP bracelets on top if his $431,656 in prize money.