WSOP
WSOP Event #44 that concluded early morning at the Rio had over a thousand entrants and featured many notables, including Randy Lew, Lauren Kling, Matt Marafioti, and Jason Mercier. Sandeep Palusani ended up being the most successful pretender and claimed the crown of a champion after a long day of play for his first WSOP bracelet and $592,684 in cash.
22 players started day three and the final table was set after five hours.
The final table starting chip counts looked like this:
Michael Rocco 2,868,000
Martin Hanowski 1,004,000
Phillippe Vert 955,000
Pedro Rios 944,000
Nam Le 883,000
Zo Karim 881,000
Mark Teltscher 873,000
Sandeep Palusani 740,000
Niall Farrell 504,000
Hand #12 of the final table marked the first elimination. Vert got into it against a bigger stack Hanowski and flopped a set for his pocket sixes against Hanowski’s pocket aces. The players moved all in on the turn when the board showed 9
J6
5
. A on the river came out of nowhere to get Hanowski out of trouble and send disappointed Vert to the rail. Vert picked up $42,230 for his ninth place showing.
At level 27: 20,000-40,000, 5,000 ante, Pedro Rios moved all in for his last 510,000 and was shown the exit when his middle suited connectors J10 failed to improve against Hanowski’s 88
. Rios received $54,053 for finishing 8th.
Soon after, Nam Le had the misfortune of finding KK in the hole when someone else, Farrell, had AA. Farrell three-bet all in Le’s opening raise and Le promptly called. Farrell had around 200,000 chip advantage which meant that Le was done when the board ran out 9J467. Nam Le left in 7th place and received $70,120.
Hand #50 signified the tournament death for Mark Teltscher when, pushing from the button on AQ and getting called by 55 of Farrell he did not connect with the 36J102 board in any way and was sent to cashier’s cage to pick up his $92,186 for finishing 6th.
Next elimination followed the spotted 10-12 hand increment pace precisely: eleven hands later, on hand #61 Zo Karim pushed KQ from the button only to run into Hanowski’s AJ. Zo took the lead on the 58Q flop leaving Hanowski in a desperate need of an ace, which showed up dutifully like it has several times already, in the hearts suit on the turn, to be followed by 3. Comforted by the fact that the bad beat at least took him a few hands longer than the others, Karim left with $122,974 for fifth place performance.
From that point on, the pace slowed down somewhat and it was not until Level 29: 30,000 – 60,000, 10,000 ante and hand #89 that the next elimination took place. Hanowski had bled a lot of chips but was in a terrific shape to regain some when he shoved all in preflop on KK and got the call by Farrell’s AJ. An untimely ace claimed yet another victim when the dealer dealt out A7799. Hanowski was eliminated in 4th place for a payday of $166,579.
Sandeep Pulusani
The next 20 or so hands hardly saw any flops as the three players remaining would take turns pushing all in preflop. But, on hand #111 Farrell raised for 2.5 big blinds, which Rocco took as a sign to resteal. He pushed all in holding 66 and Farrell insta-called on KK. The 427J8 board brought no surprises and Michael Rocco was sent off pondering the virtues of his aggression in that spot. Nevertheless, he was no doubt satisfied with his overall performance receiving $229,500 for his, best ever, 3rd place showing at the WSOP.
Sandeep Pulusani has not eliminated anyone at the final table and entered heads up against Niall Farrell at almost 8:1 chip disadvantage. He showed his mettle by, first, wrestling the lead away from Farrell by hand #173 and then finishing him off less than ten hands later. On hand #181 Pulusani raised for 2 big blinds on A3 and Farrell went all in on A2. Pulusani called, expecting a showdown that would split the pot when he saw his opponent’s holdings. The board was kind to Pulusani and gave him another three on the 3759A board to take the pot and deliver a stunning heads up upset. Niall Farrell, though, received a generous $366,815 payout for his amazing run to the second place in this tournament. Sandeep Pulusani collected the leftovers for a glorious $592,684 first prize and a shiny WSOP bracelet.