Day 3 of event 11 started with 14 hopefuls and on the top of the pack was the man who eventually took it down, Levi Berger. It around 11 hours and 108 hands at the final table, but when it was said and done, Berger took home nearly a cool half mil and his first gold bracelet.
When the action kicked off, Tamara Tibbles, the last woman in the tournament, was the first to be eliminated when her A4o couldn’t outrun the AKo of Mickey Petersen. Not much longer afterwards, a short stacked Peter Turmezey shoved on the button with 22 and was called by Scott Clements with AJo. The Poker God’s decided to award the coin flip to Clements and Turmezey finished in 13th place, setting the final two tables into place.
It would be just 3 more hours to lose the next 6, and some went out in true “that’s poker” fashion. Here were the casualties:
12th Gary Pearce ($22,786)
His A5s couldn’t find a way to beat Levi Berger’s pair of sevens, despite flopping a pair and gut shot straight draw.
11th Luke Vrabel ($22,786)
Vrabel picked up AK, but ran it straight into the AA of Ben Palmer.
10th Tuan Le ($30,165)
Le got it in good with AA against Eddy Sabat with 77, only for the river to slap a seven, giving Le a beat he won’t soon forget.
9th Mickey Petersen ($30,165)
Peterson got it in bad with AJo against the AQo of the steamrolling Ben Palmer and was unable to find a suckout.
8th Marcio Cid ($41,011)
Cid tried to make a move, 3-bet shoving A4o but Scott Clements had other things in mind snapping it off with AKo and holding.
7th Clifford Goldkind ($41,011)
Goldkind picked up a suited Ace-Ten, but was only 30% to win when he got it in against the AJo of Scott Clements.
And with that, the final table was set:
Seat: Player – Chip Count
1: Jacob Bazeley – 861,000
2: Scott Clements – 2,675,000
3: Levi Berger – 1,331,000
4: Eddy Sabat – 734,000
5: David Gonia – 461,000
6: Ben Palmer – 889,000
Clements had a dominating lead over everyone with Berger in 2nd at half the lead.
Just 5 hands into the final table, David Gonia met Levi Berger. Gonia held A9o and didn’t use his one time properly (or it was already spent) against the AJo of Berger. $57,282 isn’t much of conseltaiton considering what they were playing for, but it was Gonia’s first ever WSOP cash and final table.
Play would slow down a bit with 5 remaining and Scott Clements held onto his lead, with Berger slipping down into 4th place after he flopped TPTK with AJo against the king high flush draw of Ben Plamer. They got it in on the flop, and the club on the river sent the 2 million chip pot over to Palmer.
Berger wouldn’t give up though as he doubled through Eddy Sabat when his ATs snapped an Ace on the flop crushing Sabat’s KK. A few hands later, Berger then eliminated Jacob Bazeley in 5th place when his 33 flopped a set. Bazeley held QJ, flopping a Queen for top pair.
Down to 4 way action, Berger and the chip leader Clements would continue battling for the top spot. In a huge pot, Clements raised the sb, only to be three bet from Berger. Clements would call and they would see a flop of A
64
. Clements check called a bet from Berger to see the 2 turn which went check-check. The river dropped K, adding a fourth spade to the board. After some deliberation, Clements bet small, attempting to look like a value bet, and was snapped called by the AK (no spade) of Berger. Presumablely a “nice call” was muttered as Clements only had the 8 6 to turn up which gave the monster pot to Berger and made him table captain and the chip lead.
Berger would then send another player to the cage; Eddy Sabat. It was a battle of the blinds, Berger raised and Sabat called, seeing the flop of 3A3
. All of the chips went in and Sabat wasn’t happy to see his A9o crushed by the 53o of Berger.
After a lot of 3 way battling, Ben Palmer would eventually meet the man known as Berger for the final time. Berger, with 43o, managed to double through Palmer who held K9o on a rainbow 9 4 3 flop. No help came which left Palmer with just 5,000 chips and was out the next hand.
Down to heads up, the chip counts were nearly identical, with Berger showing a small lead:
Levi Berger 3,535,000
Scott Clements 3,345,000
Heads Up: Levi Berger & Scott Clements
Berger quickly started to pull away, and while Clements tried to mount a come back, he was eventually the final victim of Mr. Berger. Berger doubled the blind from the button and Clements called, seeing a flop of 872. Clements checked which promoted a bet from Berger. Clements answered with a check-raise, which Berger 4-bet. After some thought, Clements decided to ship and was snap-called from Berger. Clements turned over T9 for a straight draw and all Berger had to do was hold with his K
K. But you already know what happens, Berger held, and after eliminating everyone on the final table, took home his first bracelet and $473,019.
Final table results:
1 Levi Berger $473,019
2 Scott Clements $292,339
3 Ben Palmer $185,426
4 Eddy Sabat $121,711
5 Jacob Bazeley $82,297
6 David Gonia $57,282