The 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific is winding down with just the Main Event and High Roller yet to complete. During the series, we saw a player win their third bracelet of 2014, another win their sixth career bracelet and we nearly saw Phil Hellmuth rewrite history. Today we look back at the top stories of the WSOP APAC preliminaries.
Ivey Skips WSOP Asia-Pacific
The big story of the series outside of the actual events was the fact that 10-Time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey would not play. He skipped the event to try and win his case against London’s Crockford’s Casino.
Unfortunately, the High Court ruled that Ivey cheated at punto-banco and will not receive a dime of the $12 million won in 2012. Ivey and his attorneys are weighing their options and will likely try to force some type of an appeal.
Jeff Lisandro Wins Bracelet #6 in $1,650 PLO Event
Australian Legend of Poker Jeff Lisandro won his sixth career bracelet during the WSOP APAC when he took down the $1,650 PL Omaha Event. The final table included Australian Hall of Famers Jason Gray and Gary Benson.
Ultimately, it was Lisandro against Gray for the title. The pair battled back and fourth for close to 100 hands before the final hand. Gray was all-in on the flop with two pair while Lisandro held bottom pair and a flush draw. The turn and river wound up bringing Lisandro a runner-runner straight for the hand and the title.
Lisandro is one of just two players in history to have won bracelets in all three WSOP variants. This bracelet win also earned him $44,796 in prize money.
Phil Hellmuth Missed Out on #14
Heading into the last couple of levels of Event #7, $2,200 Six-Max NL Hold’em, Phil Hellmuth was short stacked and looking forward to playing in the next day’s 8-Game. A late double-up would result in a hot streak and Hellmuth finished Day 1 of the event in the top 10.
Hellmuth rode that momentum to make a run at the final table of his event. Heading into the final table, Hellmuth was fourth in chips but quickly eliminated 2014 November Niner Bruno Politano in sixth place. He was unable to hold those chips for long as he ran into quad jacks from Michael Tran.
This left Hellmuth as one of the shorter stacks and while he played skillfully and made it to four-handed play, he could never fully recover. He was eventually all-in with Ah-7s against the pocket fours of Tran. The fours held and Hellmuth hit the rail in 4th place.
This was Hellmuth’s 51st career WSOP final table and 108th WSOP cash.
George Danzer Wins Third Bracelet of 2014 in $5k 8-Game
George Danzer all but locked up the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year award after winning Event #8, the $5,000 8-Game Mixed Event. Danzer came into this event trailing Brandon Shack-Harris and looking for his third-career bracelet.
The path to the final table was not an easy one. He had to survive a final table that included Tino Lechich, Sam Khouiss, Scott Clements, and 2009 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duahmel.
Danzer and Clements would battle for the bracelet and it was quite the battle. Danzer started with the chip lead before losing the lead to Clements. He then doubled through Clements to take a 6.5:1 chip lead. Amazingly, Clements would battle back and the heads-up battle continued for a couple hours.
In the end, Danzer regained the lead off the strength of a pair of PLO and left Clements looking to gamble with NL Hold’em. He shoved with Qs-6s and Danzer called with Jd-10d. A ten on the flop gave Danzer the lead and that pair would hold to give him his third bracelet of 2010.
George Danzer is just the fifth player in poker history to win three bracelets in a single year. The last to do it was Jeff Lisandro back in 2009.
Just two events remain in the 2014 WSOP Asia Pacific. The $10,000 Main Event and $25,000 High Roller Event are both underway and both have stacked fields. The High Roller will play to a winner on Friday while a televised Main Event final will conclude on Saturday.
