WSOP Event #44: Jeff Lisandro Crushes The Opposition

When the $2,500 Seven Card Razz Event started today, the main question everyone was asking was: who can stop Jeff Lisandro? Entering the day with a 2:3 lead over the second in chips, he went on a rampage and completed the trifecta of Seven Card events - winning a bracelet in Stud, Stud-8 and Razz.

Nikolay Evdakov (pictured left) was the first to fall on day three - his 8754A wasn't good enough to beat Kenna James' 7643A and he went to the rails on 14th place, leaving the remaining 12 players to contest with Lisandro's chip lead. One of them, Ville Wahlbeck, certainly had to be reckoned with - and it was the later indeed who would be the first to put a notch into Lisandro's stack.

His J-low held up against Lisandro's Q-low and he was able to double up early on. Just moments later, Kenna James was able to score his second elimination, though, and sent Ville Wahlbeck to the rails - leaving one of the strongest performers of this year behind.

The next players to hit the rails followed quickly. Willian Cole wasn't able to double up when his T-low lost to Warwick Mirzikinian, and the first day chip leader could build up his stack to 240,000.

Al Baribieri also had to muck to Ryan Fisler's 7-low and exited the tournament area on 10th place. After this, the remaining nine players were combined on a single table, and it would take a while to reach the official final eight.

As chips were flying and positions changed constantly, it took the players over 2 hours of play to find the final table bubble boy. Warwick Mirzikinian was one of the tougher short stacks as he managed to triple up twice to stay alive. In the end, the bring-in was high enough to loosen up the game and Don Zewin had to take his leave when his J-low was dominated by Ryan Fisler's 8-low.

From that moment on, Jeff Lisandro was going on a rush. Winning pot after pot, he was the first to pass the million chip mark at 1,020,000 - and now held 42% of the total chips in play. Allen Bari was eliminated on 8th place after being all-in on 4th street and failing to improve his Q-low to Ryan Fisler's 9-low.

This seemed to be the general pattern for most of the eliminations; Steve Diano
was all-in for his remaining chips on fourth street, too, and when the
board didn't bring him the necessary help, his J-low wasn't good enough
to better Mirzikinian's 8-low. The same was true for Michael Craig when
he busted with J-low against James' 7-low.

Source: IMPDI for 2009 WSOP

Going into five-handed play, no one really expected anyone to put up a fight against Lisandro anymore, especially if you took a look at the chip count: Jeff Lisandro was at 1,437,000 while the remaining four only had 919,000 - altogether.

It was Lisandro all over when he sent Eric Rodawig to the rails; his T-low was good enough against Rodawig who failed to catch anything and was left with K-low.

First day chip leader Warwick Mirzikinian was the next to go when Jeff Lisandro decided it was his turn; as usual, no spectacular hands with Lisandro's 7-low easily keeping up against Mirzikinian's T-low.

Suprisingly, it was Michael Craig who sent Ryan Fisler to the rails on third place - but only after Jeff Lisandro had crippled him in a previous hand. Faced with a mere K-low, Craig's 7-low was overkill and Craig could enter an intimidating heads-up with only 210,000 to put up a fight against Lisandro's 2.1 million chips.

It didn't take long for the inevitable to happen and in the end, it was Michael Craig who bet 4th and 5th street to get it all-in. In the deciding hands the boards unfolded (68)AA8J(K) for Craig and (T8)4497(J) for Lisandro, who could thus easily finish things up and take home his third bracelet in a convincing fashion.