Matt Graham wins Event 53
The US American Matt Graham wrapped up the $1,500 Limit Shootout tournament and won his first bracelet. In the heads-up he defeated his fellow countryman Jean-Robert Bellande.
832 participants paid the buy-in of $1,500 and generated a prize pool of $1,123,395. 90 places were paid and Graham received $278,180 for his win.
First Bracelet for Graham
It was Graham's first bracelet, and at the same time the last bracelet which was given away this year before the Main Event.
Graham cashed three times in this year's WSOP. In the $2,500 Omaha/Seven
Card Stud Hi/Lo tournament he dropped out shortly before reaching the final table on rank 12. Overall, he now finished five times in the money at the WSOP. The first time was in the Main Event of 2006 where he finished 319th.
17 Hours of Poker on Day 2
At first, the Rio hosted 72 participants who played for a seat at the final table on the second tournament day. Graham started his table with Stefan Rapp, Duane Graff Jr. and Jonathan Tamayo amongst others. It was a very passive table as nobody wanted to make a mistake.
Graham was finally able to prevail over Graff and grabbed a clear chip lead. The flop came with 
. Graff checked, Graham bet, and Graff called. The turn card was the 
, the game repeated itself, and the river brought the 
. Both checked. Graham showed 
, and Graff mucked his cards.
The Final Table
When Graham won another pot against Graff, the later one was crippled. Shortly afterwards, Graham removed him from the table and was the last player to join the final table. There he was already awaited by Jean-Robert Bellande,
Danny Wong, Spencer Lawrence, Andrew Prock, Michael Kachan, Brandon
Wong, John Kranyak and Joe Deniro.
From the Final Table to the Rail
On the final table, Graham kept a low profile at first and let the other players have the action. Brandon Wong sent Kachan to the rail on rank 9. Prock (rank 8) and Kranyak (rank 7) were eliminated a bit later by Deniro. Bellande took the next two participants out of the game: Lawrence on rank 6 and Danny Wong on rank 5.
Graham made a first impression with the elimination of Brandon Wong on rank 4. Deniro became the next railbird - Bellande took him out of the tournament.
Heads-up
Bellande took a clear chip lead into the finale of the last two, holding 1.9M chips to Graham's 800,000 chips. After Graham lost a bigger pot, his chip count fell to 300,000. With several smaller pots he worked his way up to 625,000 chips again. The back and forth continued: Graham fell to 400,000, only to get back to 700,000 again a bit later, before he managed to catch up with Bellande after winning two big pots. Both now held exactly 1.35M chips.
The chip lead switched several times hereafter. Finally, Bellande dropped to about 275,000 chips: On a board of 
Graham won with 
.
In the next hand, Bellande called to the river and then folded after another bet from Graham. Bellande was now crippled with only 25,000 remaining chips.
The last Hand
In the last hand Bellande was all-in pre-flop, and Graham called. Bellande showed 
. Graham flipped over 
and was a 65% favourite to win the tournament. The flop came with 
and made Graham an almost 80% favourite. The 
on the turn and the 
on the river didn't help Bellande anymore. Graham won his first bracelet.
| WSOP 2008 Event 53 $1,500 Limit Shootout |
||
| Rank |
Name |
Prize money |
| 1 | Matthew Graham | $278,180 |
| 2 | Jean-Robert Bellande | $173,564 |
| 3 | Joe Deniro | $107,845 |
| 4 | Brandon Wong | $69,088 |
| 5 | Danny Wong | $33,701 |
| 6 | Spencer Lawrence | $20,221 |
| 7 | John Kranyak | $13,80 |
| 8 | Andrew Prock | $10,335 |
| 9 | Mike Kachan | $7,526 |
