WSOP Event #39: Ray Foley Cracks Brandon Cantu

Ray Foley and Michele Iacavone were the two chip leaders coming into the final day of this $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament - and, coincidentally, they started on the same table. This surely held some promise for early action, but there were enough short stacks waiting to get their money in, too.

Jim Mitchell, who was trailing the field as one of the shortest amongst them, was the first to be eliminated as the participants played down to the final table. While a lot of other short stacks managed to stay alive by doubling up, Steve Mohs and Nam Le didn't get lucky and had to take their leave, too. Next to go were Christopher Kolla,  Joe Bartholdi and Mohsin Charania - the last ones to bust before the final two tables.

The pace however didn't slow down, and the eliminations just kept coming. After John Woolen, it is Nicholas Derke, Michele Iacovone, Zachary Humphrey, Donald Nicholson and Raymond Davis who were all eliminated in a matter of fifteen minutes; Iacovone probably was the least lucky one.

When she turned a full house with her on the board, it became impossible for her to get away from Tyler Spalding's unbeatable quads with . Down to 615,000 in chips, she was crippled in a coin-flip against Donald Nicholson - and finally ran into AK when she pushed in the remainder of her stack with KJ.

The other ones busted in the usual pre-flop spots: Woolen couldn't catch a king with his KQ against AQ, Humphrey lost his race with TT against AQ, Nicholson was short and ran his K9 into AQ, while Davis was rather unlucky when his AK had to face Brandon Cantu's AA. Shawn Glines followed on 12th place ten minutes later when his 66 was in bad shape against Ray Foley's AA.

After this flood of eliminations, play calmed down a bit as the big stacks got involved into some pots. Kelvin Crawford ended up being the next short stack who had to make his move. Shoving his K7 under the gun, he was called by Richard Lutes and his QQ - which held.

And finally, Matt Livingston was the last one to go before reaching the official final table; he open-pushed from middle position with JT and was called loosely by Ray Foley's A3. Flopping a gutshot, help didn't come on turn or river and he had to take his leave on 10th place.

It seemed like most of the eliminations would come down to pre-flop all-ins, as confirmed again by Patrick O'Connor who put his tournament life at stake by shoving A4 first-in from the small blind. Brandon Cantu however woke up in the big blind with 33 and the blind battle turned into a race, sending O'Connor to the rails as he failed to catch.

At this point, there were no real short stacks left on the table and Ray Foley was leading the field with about 2.7 million in chips. He was followed by Brandon Cantu at about 2.1 million and both Tyler Spalding and Alex Jacob with approximately 1.8 million. The other four players all had between 800,000 and 1.2 million in chips.

Brandon Cantu started tearing up the field and moving up in chips relentlessly, to over 3 million effective stack. All the while, Ray Foley was trying to keep up, but came up a bit short with about 2 million chips stacked in front of him and almost even with Tyler Spalding - who had managed to overtake him in one of their pots. This obviously left the remaining five players with very few chips to navigate and eliminations were sure to ensue.

In one of the rare all-ins to take place after the flop, Richard Lutes moved his chips in on the flop after Brandon Cantu had checked the action to him. Cantu's call was swift and put Lutes at risk with his for a flush draw. Although Lutes' was comfortably ahead, the on the turn sealed his fate and he was busted on 8th place.

Next up was Chairud Vangchailued who had raised pre-flop from UTG with a mere . After a flat-call, Alex Jacob moved all-in and Vangchailued instantly called - he was in bad shape against Jacob's , though. While Vangchailued was able to catch two-pair, it also gave Jacob the set and Vangchailued had to exit the tournament area.

Jonathan Markham had to swallow a very bitter pill when he flopped a set of kings on the board. When he snap-called Wei Mu's re-raise all-in and showed his , he probably didn't expect to be behind against Mu's flopped Broadway with . Drawing to a full house, Markham couldn't improve and was sent home on 6th place.

Going to five-handed play, everyone had a good shot at the title with over 2 million in chips, except for Tyler Spalding who was sitting with a mere 600,000 in remaining chips. When the latter was eliminated with his J2 - by Alex Jacob's 99 - it left the four-handed round open for a lot of action.

Jacob, who was comfortably out front leading into this battle, was the first to take his leave. In a key hand, he propelled Ray Foley into a dominant chip lead after losing out to his JJ - he had tried to isolate Branon Cantu's raise with his A3 by shoving, but Foley still made the all-in call.

Trying to pull the same move on Cantu some hands later, he put him all-in with 68 and got called again, this time by Cantu's own TT. He couldn't catch the necessary cards and was now crippled at a mere 320,000 remaining chips. In his final hand, the J9 failed to improve against Ray Foley's A4 and Jacob had to leave on a frustrating 4th place.

Wei Mu's elimination was less spectacular when he moved all-in on the flop with for top pair. Brandon Cantu made the call and had him dominated with - turn and river blanked and Cantu had to face Ray Foley in the heads-up while Mu had to leave with almost $270,000 for third place.

Source: IMPDI for 2009 WSOP

With his last elimination, Brandon Cantu had managed to make it to the final duel as chip leader with about 7 to 5 in chips. In the very first hand to produce action, it already looked like he would take the bracelet home - he made a great call with AQ against Ray Foley's A7 pre-flop re-push, but when the board paired twice, the pot was chopped and they were back to status quo.

Cantu still managed to keep up the pressure, though, and established a lead of 8 to 4 million chips. Chipping away slowly, pot for pot, he outplayed Foley until they got to another pre-flop all-in where Cantu's K9 was behind against Foley's TT. First, it looked like luck had changed this time as Cantu hit his king on the flop, but the ten on the turn had Cantu drawing dead and handing the chip lead back over to Foley.

Cantu subsequently lost his momentum and couldn't keep up the pressure. Giving Foley a walk in the big blind three straight times, he finally raised again and was called. In this deciding hand, he bet out on the and Foley decided to move all-in after a short pause.

Canu tanked for about a minute before calling and tabling his , but it wasn't enough against Foley's . Turn and river came and Foley took the victory and about $650,000 on top of his bracelet, while Cantu won about $400,000 for second place.