Corey Harrison

TCorey Harrison


Besting a huge field at the WSOP event #24, amateur Corey Harrison was the last man standing after 12 hours of play on day three, taking the bracelet and the $432,411 cash prize.

17 players returned to play on day three with a dream of holding a WSOP bracelet. Even though the average stack was about 30 big blinds, it took less than an hour and a half to reduce it to the last nine.

Here are the final table chip counts.

Daniel Cascado                  2,190,000
Paul Spitzberg                    1,139,000
Corey Harrison                   1,014,000
Zimnan Ziyard                     869,000
Gareth  Teatum                   800,000
Salvatore Dicarlo                 652,000
Moshin Charania                 361,000
Robert Brewer                     339,000
Gregory Josifovski               304,000

On hand #18, Moshin Charania open-shoved his 437,000 at blind level 24: 12,000-24,000, 4,000 ante. Robert Brewer called with less than that on a pair of tens. He had high hopes of doubling up on a jack-high dry flop after Charania tabled KQ off-suited. Turn Q, however, gave a huge lead to Charania, which held with a blank river deuce.  Brewer was thus eliminated in 9th for $31,711.

It was a tug-of-war for the next 50 hands between the remaining eight players, and the action had to progress two more levels to deliver another elimination. On hand #72, Gareth Teatum moved all in from late position for less than ten big blinds holding A3, to which Charania moved all in over the top. Suspecting it cannot be good news for his weak Ace, Teatum had to search for three outs when Charania showed AJ. The board ran out 79859, and Teatum pocketed $41,198 for his eight place finish, recording this memorable look  for posterity.

Only seven hands later, Zimnan Ziyard moved all in from the cutoff for 510,000 and Dicarlo reshoved for 600,000 behind him. When everyone else folded it was a coin flip between the two, Dicarlo’s 66 versus Ziyard’s K10. 782 on the flop put Dicarlo in the lead, which held to the end when 9 and 4 followed. Ziyard was knocked out and collected $54,191 for finishing seventh.

Next to go was Charania, who re-raised all in an open raise from Cascado for his remaining 605,000. Charania held a slight edge with A10 against Cascado’s KQ, but relinguished the lead on the flop, which came down Q88. 6 on the turn and J on the river did not change Charania’s fortunes, eliminating him in 6th for $72,208.

Just a few hands later there was another exit. Hoping to steal, Josifovski pushed all in on Q7 to a raise-call in front. Harrison, the raiser, moved all in over the top on 44 and Spitzberg folded his KQ offsuit. Josifovski busted out and received $97,493 for his fifth place when he did not connect to the JJ89K board.

It was Spitzberg then, who lost his 25 bb stack and the place at the final table when he moved all in on a 107 flop holding K6 against JJ of Cascado. Not hitting a K or 6 on turn or river, he picked up $133,364 and the fourth-place WSOP honors for his efforts.

The blinds went another couple of levels before we arrived at the next elimination. Dicarlo jammed from big blind on Q4 and was called by Harrison with A6. The 673 flop gave Dicarlo a gutshot straight draw, but put Harrison firmly in the lead with a pair. The turn 9 and river J were no help to Dicarlo, who notched a hefty payday with $184,914 at third place.

Cascado held almost a two million chip advantage going into the heads-up, but Harrison clawed his way back, and exactly 50 hands into the action eliminated his last opponent. At level 31: 60,000 – 120,000, 15,000 ante, Cascado three-bet all in from big blind on K10 and Harrison called on A7. The flop came down AJ4 handing Harrison a huge lead on top pair and nut flush draw. The turn was 6, leaving Cascado only two queens as outs. The river J sealed the deal for Harrison. Cascado was handsomely rewarded with $267,452 for his runner-up performance in one of the biggest fields at WSOP 2013 yet; Corey Harrison, however, stepped on the pedestal for his first WSOP bracelet and a massive $432,411 in cash.

  1. Corey Harrison – $432,411
  2. Daniel Cascado – $267,452
  3. Salvatore DiCarlo – $184,914
  4. Paul Spitzberg – $133,364
  5. Gregory Josifovski – $97,493
  6. Mohsin Charania – $72,208
  7. Zimnan Ziyard – $54,191
  8. Gareth Teatum – $41,198
  9. Robert Brewer – $31,711