WSOP APAC
Phil Ivey, considered by many to be the greatest living poker player, has just improved the quality of his legend. He won the A$2,200 Mixed Event that gave the 3rd WSOP APAC bracelet in Melbourne, Australia, and took home a relatively small A$51,840 to go with the bracelet. What he won that was far more important to him was his 9th title, and bragging rights over the rest of the star studded field.
Ivey started the table as the chips leader, but sat back for the early stages of the 6 seat final table. However, after Daniel Negreanu was eliminated in 4th place, Ivey opened up his box of tricks, and started to dominate the table.
Graeme Putt was eliminated by Ivey in 3rd, to leave him heads up with Brandon Wong. The heads up battle lasted 179 hands, with the chip lead swinging back and forth between the two players.
With a lot of walks being handed about, the action when it came was usually pretty serious, and big posts were a fairly regular occurrence during the battle. The event ended with a 2-7TD hand. Wong Limped into the pot, only to see Ivey raise to put all of Wong’s stack at risk. Wong called, and both players drew two cards for the first draw. Ivey obviously happy with his cards, stood pat for the remaining draws, while Wong still needed two to make his hand. Ivey tabled his ten high hand, and Wong’s 7-6-3 draw needed some help. a 4 on the last draw gave Ivey a sweat, but the final card came a Q, finishing the action, and awarding the title to Ivey.
Congratulation tweets were floating around the internet, but one of the most magnanimous was from event #3 final tabler, and fellow Poker Legend, Daniel Negreanu:
Congrats to Phil Ivey on his 9th bracelet. He is simply the best poker player in the world and has been for a long time. Bravo.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) April 10, 2013
After a hard fought final table, the results look like this:
1st Phil Ivey – $51,840
2nd Brandon Wong – $32,039
3rd Graeme Putt – $22,427
4th Daniel Negreanu – $16,336
5th Rob Campbell – $12,020
6th Kevin Song – $8,978
Tomorrow sees the start of the Main Event, and the final table of the 6-Max $5,000 buy in Event #4, and we’ll be keeping you up to date with the action here on FTR. Like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with the action.