Noah Schwartz is considered by many to be one of the up and coming names in the poker world, and with good reason. he’s in the top ten of this year’s Player of the Year Race, and has come so close to a WSOP bracelet to go with his WPT title so many times.
Yesterday he justified the hype and picked up his first WSOPE title and €104,580 to celebrate with.
The day started with the semi final matchups, and Schwartz was up against Iyri Merivirta, while Ludovic Lacay was playing Vitaly Lunkin.
Schwartz made fairly short work of the Finn, and the matchup ended when Merivirta called Schwartz’s all in, with the Finn holding A
QJ
7c with the cards in the middle showing 4K2. Schwartz had
J
T53 for a flush draw and an open ended straight draw. None of these came on the 8 turn, or on the T river, but that ten gave Schwartz a pair, which was enough to send the American to the final matchup.
The Lacay/Lunkin match wasn’t such a cut and dried affair, after Lunkin managed to double up early in the action to bring the chip stacks approaching parity after starting with Lacay a 6:1 chip favourite. Chinese whispers were running about the poker community that Lunkin might grind it out against the Frenchman, but it wasn’t to be.
With the blinds at 3k/6k and the match over an hour old, Lunkin opened with a main raise on the button. Lacay called to bring the 56Q and Lacay check called Lunkin’s 15,000 continuation bet. The A turn sowed the action down as both players checked, bringing up the 4
river. It wasn’t long before all of Lunkin’s stack was in the middle, leaving Lacay having to go deep into the tank before making the call.
Lunkin was on a stone cold bluff with 8393 while Lacay’s call with a flopped flush holding T9Q2 making the call with a bluffcatching hand.
This brought together the two pre-action favourites in the final, and Lacay went in with a 780,000 stack compared to Schwartz’s 362,500.
By the first break, Schwartz had overturned Lacay’s lead, but a full house in hand #27 of the matchup saw Lacay take back the lead for a short time until hand #32.
Schwartz limped for 8,000 from the button, opening the door for the Frenchman to raise to 24,000 out of position. The flop was dealt to show 985 and Lacay check called Noah’s 22,000 bet. The turn brought a pretty innocuous 4 and this time Lacay check raised over Schwartz’s 53,000, making the bet 251,000 and the American made the call to create the biggest pot of the matchup to date. The river fell a 5, Lacay checked, and Schwartz moved the rest of his stack over the line, getting a fold from the Frenchman. Schwartz had flopped a set of nines holding K993 while Lacay had missed both his flush and straight draws on the river, holding AJT2.
Schwartz now held a big chip lead, but it still took another 28 hands to seal the deal.
She last hand started with Lacay limping to 12,000 on the button. Schwartz applied pressure by raising to 32,000 and got a call from Lacay. The flop was fanned over the felt showing 56K, and was soon followed into the middle by a 42,000 continuation bet from Schwartz. Lacay raised the action to 100,000 only to see Schwartz announce “all in.” Lacay, maybe slightly surprisingly called, putting his tournament life on the line.
Schwartz held KA87 for top pair with an open ended straight draw but he was behind Lacay’s
8Q56, giving the Frenchman two pair.
The last two community cards came A followed by 3 giving Schwartz a better two pair and his first bracelet.
The results from the last four ended up like this:
- Noah Schwartz – €104,580
- Ludovic Lacay – €64,600
- Vitaly Lunkin – €34,500
- Iyri Merivirta – €34,500