As can be expected, Event #35’s regular Seven Card Stud tourney didn’t exactly pack the house at the Rio. 381 players paid the $1,500 buy-in to make the prize pool a modest $520,065.
That didn’t put a damper on the competition at all though as everyone here was out to win the event from the very start.
Especially with players like Phil Ivey, David Sklansky, Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed, John Juanda, and David Williams taking the felt. A lot of these players wouldn’t even make it to dinner though as Williams, Hellmuth, and Phan all busted out quick.
Little known German player Leonardo Ebeling took top honors on the day while Greg Pappas also played really well. Here’s how the top 10 shook out at the end of day 1:
Rank/Player/Chips
1. Leonardo Ebeling 78,000
2. Greg Pappas 50,000
3. Al Barbieri 44,500
4. Levon Torosyan 38,700
5. Charlie Townsend 38,000
6. Michael Rocco 36,400
7. Chris Tryba 32,900
8. Payam ‘Paul’ Attarchi 31,300
9. Kim Erfle 31,200
10. Alan Jaffray 28,900
On day 2, 70 players started the day seeking to be one of the remaining few players left for the eight person final table. But for Men “The Master” Nguyen, Jerry Buss, and Jens Voertmann the order proved to be too tall.
One very notable bust out on this day was Leonardo Ebeling who had led everyone in chips the day before. Once Charles Moore was knocked out in 9th, the final table was set.
Here’s how it looked:
Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Levon Torosyan – 114,500
Seat 2: Al Barbieri – 252,500
Seat 3: Max Troy – 88,500
Seat 4: Michael Rocco – 255,000
Seat 5: Giacomo D’Agostino – 123,000
Seat 6: Andre Boyer – 106,000
Seat 7: Jeffrey Siegal – 150,000
Seat 8: Danny Kalpakis – 55,000
Jeffrey Siegal came in as the second shortest stack and would lose the rest of it before anyone else did. Andre Boyer was the next person to be eliminated as he lost to Al Barbieri’s set of 4’s.
Barbieri got lucky with another set on fifth street (2’s) to end Danny Kalpakis’ day early. Michael Rocco got going next when he got trip A’s to eliminate Giacomo D’Agostino in 5th place.
Max Troy’s pair of aces turned out to be no good when Levon Torosyan got a full house on the river and he was gone too. But Torosyan got no full house against Rocco when Rocco hit trips queens.
Now it was down to him and Barbieri for the bracelet. Rocco went into heads-up play holding a 2-1 chip advantage and was able to diminish Barbieri’s stack the whole time till it was nothing more.
Rocco cried during his celebration and spoke of his 5 year-old son as well. Here’s how those he beat fared:
Rank/Player/Money
1. Michael Rocco $135,753
2. Al Barbieri $83,210
3. Levon Torosyan $50,186
4. Maxwell Troy $37,184
5. Giacomo (Jack) D’Agostino $28,083
6. Dan Kalpakis $21,842
7. Andre Boyer $16,642
8. Jeff Siegal $14,041
9. Charles Moore $11,441
10. Roy Rose $11,441
11. Bryan Devonshire $8,841
12. Sabyl Cohen Landrum $8,841
13. Gregory Pappas $6,240
14. Christopher Tryba $6,240
15. Chris McIntyre $4,680
16. Chad Brown $4,680
17. Charles Jett $3,640
18. Charlie Townsend $3,640
19. Joel Fischbein $3,640
20. Ryon Nicholson $3,640
21. Stefan Rapp $3,640
22. Kobie West $3,640
23. Kim Erfle $3,640
24. George Brand $3,640
25. Daniel Studer $2,860