After the Intense H.O.R.S.E. event that saw many of poker’s top players battling for over $7 million, some stars made the insane decision to jump right into the Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo tournament and play.
Among them were Chris Ferguson, Tony G, Kathy Liebert, Hoyt Corkins, and Men Nguyen. Joining them were 543 players who spent $1,500 to make the prize pool worth $741,195.
A lot of the top players were able to move on past the first day, but those that didn’t included Kathy Liebert, Kristy Gazes, and David Williams. Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, David Sklansky, and Annie Duke were among the players who had no trouble surviving this day.
Day 2 would see a number of these players fall by the wayside though as Hellmuth, Duke, and Toney G would all be among the bustouts. Hellmuth did manage to cash though as did the aforementioned Nguyen.
By the time that the final table was set, this is what it resembled:
Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Tim D’Alessandro – 140,000
Seat 2: Jonas Klausen – 338,000
Seat 3: David Sklasnsky – 66,000
Seat 4: Josh Feldman – 200,000
Seat 5: Ryan Hughes – 400,000
Seat 6: Ron Long – 224,000
Seat 7: Alessio Isaia – 220,000
Seat 8: Thomas Hunt – 31,000
No one really stood out at the top of the leaderboard, but there were a couple of players who stood out at the bottom due to their low stacks. David Sklansky happened to be one of them and was eliminated as two players split the pot and his all-in call yielded nothing for him.
Jonas Klausen knocked Josh Feldman out in 7th place when he held aces and kings against Feldman’s jacks and 9’s. Joining him would be Tim D’Alessandro as both him and Thomas Hunt got full houses but Hunt’s was better.
5th place would go to Jonas Klausen when Ron Long scooped the pot against him with the low and high hand. Alessio Isaia wouldn’t be around any longer either as Ryan Hughes eliminated him.
That left Thomas Hunt to be the last player sent to the rail before heads-up play began. Hughes did the honors again when Hunt couldn’t make a low and only had 2’s for high against Hughes 3’s.
This left Hughes and Ron Long with Ryan holding a big 1,317,000 to 315,000 chip lead. Eventually, Long went all-in and Hughes made a full house against Long’s kings.
This gave Hughes the dubious distinction of winning the same event in back-to-back WSOP.
Here’s how everyone else did:
Rank/Player/Money
1. Ryan Hughes $183,368
2. Ronald Long $113,240
3. Thomas Hunt III $68,686
4. Alessio Isaia $50,122
5. Jonas Klausen $39,355
6. Tim D’alessandro $30,444
7. Joshua Feldman $23,019
8. David Sklansky $19,306
9. James Richburg $15,593
10. Margaret Macre $15,593
11. Daniel Nicewander $11,880
12. David Brooker $11,880
13. Mike Hefer $8,168
14. Ta Hoang $8,168
15. Dennis Seagle $6,237
16. Vince Burgio $6,237
17. Men Nguyen $4,752
18. Lawrence Kozlove $4,752
19. Travis Erdman $4,752
20. Morgan Stringham $4,752
21. George Markakis $4,752
22. Chris Bjorin $4,752
23. Constantine Zdanowich $4,752
24. John Bunch $4,752
25. Steven Metzger $3,638