October 08 2012, Chad Holloway
On Sunday night, the World Poker Tour Season X continued on Fox Sports Network with Part I of the $25,000 WPT World Championship, which took place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas from May 19 to 26, 2012. The tournament attracted 152 of the world’s best players and created a prize pool of $3,660,500, of which $1,196,858 was reserved for the eventual winner.
This week’s episode, the first of three, began with a look back at the tournament’s early days. That included a look at past Season X winners from around the world, each of whom earned a seat in the WPT World Championship by winning their respective events. They included Tommy Vedes (Seminole Hard Rock Showdown), Moon Kim (Bay 101 Shooting Star), Sean Jazayeri (L.A. Poker Classic), and Edouardo Alescio (Venice), just to name a few.
Player of the Year: The WPT Season X Player of the Year Race was a heated affair entering the event. Will “The Thrill” Failla sat atop the leaderboard with 2,050 points, but several players were still in contention including, but not limited to, James Dempsey (1,400 POY Points), Bobby Oboodi (1,400 POY Points), Darren Elias (1,600 POY Points), Daniel Buzgon (1,750 POY Points) and Joe Serock (1,800 POY Points).
Early Action: The aforementioned Sean Jazayeri was an early exit, as were Erik Seidel and Phil Laak. In the end, only 98 players made it through Day 1 with Steve O’Dwyer and his stack of 231,500 leading the way. However, registration was open until the start of Day 3, so plenty of other notables entered the fray on Day 2 such as Jake Cody, Sam Trickett and Dave Shallow; in addition, former WPT World Champs Martin De Knijff (Season 2), David Williams (Season 8) and the reigning champ, Scott Seiver, all registered for the event.
James Dempsey, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst and Morten Christensen all hit the rail on Day 2. At the end of the day, two-time WPT champ Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi led the final 94 with 428,200.
Will Failla’s exit early on Day 3 meant he was no longer in control of his fate in the POY race. “I’m sweating profusely right now, there are 13 people that could still pass me for Player of the Year. I’m really hoping they don’t, but you know, it is what it is, let it land where it’s supposed to, I absolutely did everything I could do to win it,” Failla said after his elimination.
“The Thrill” was soon joined on the rail by Dave Shallow, Scott Seiver, Martin De Knijff, Edouardo Alescio, John Juanda, Joseph Cheong and Vanessa Rousso, but they were replaced by late registrants like Jason Mercier, David “Doc” Sands, Mohsin Charania, Antonio Esfandiari, Faraz Jaka and Phil Hellmuth. Although many failed to make anything happen on Day 3. In fact, only 44 players made it through the day, including Curt Kohlberg who bagged up 918,300 for the chip lead.
The Money Bubble: Only 18 players were slated to get paid, but that didn’t slow the action. With 21 players remaining, three two-time WPT champs built a three-way all-in pot. Both Antonio Esfandiari and Jonathan Little were all-in and at risk against Michael Mizrachi.
The 
flop gave Mizrachi a gut-shot straight draw, but it was the 
on the turn that gave him the lead. The 
on the river was of no consequence and Mizrachi scored the double elimination. Day 4 ended with 19 players left, meaning just one more needed to go on Day 5 to reach the money.
Marvin Rettenmaier
It happened when Josh Arieh got his short stack all in under the gun with 
and received a call from Marvin Rettenmaier, who woke up with 
in the big blind. The board ran out 
and Arieh became the bubble boy. Not long after, players began to hit the rail including Guillaume Darcourt (18th – $40,266), Faraz Bonyadi (17th – $40,266) and Rinat Bogdanov (16th – $40,266). It was at that point that Joe Serock retook the lead in the POY race; however, Moon Kim and Matt Juttelstad still had a chance of passing him.
Juttelstad (13th – $43,926) was actually busted by Kim a short time later, and then Serock hit the rail in 10th place after his 
was outdrawn by Retteinmaier’s 
after the board ran out 
, bringing about the end of Day 4 with nine players remaining.
A Short Day 6: With only six seats at the final table, three players needed to hit the rail on Day 6. The first to go was Hafiz Khan (9th – $58,568), and he was followed out the door a short time later by Wil Wilkinson (8th – $82,361). On the TV final table bubble, Moon Kim got his stack all in preflop with 
and was up against the 
of Marvin Rettenmaier. The board ran out 
and Kim was sent to the rail in seventh place, good for $118,966. What’s more, his elimination ensured that Joe Serock would become the WPT Season X Player of the Year.
Here’s how things stacked up at the start of the final table:
WPT Season X $25,000 World Championship Final Table
| 1 | Michael Mizrachi | 2,560,000 (43 BBs) |
| 2 | Marvin Rettenmaier | 6,715,000 (112 BBs) |
| 3 | Steve O’Dwyer | 2,035,000 (34 BBs) |
| 4 | Nick Schulman | 1,555,000 (26 BBs) |
| 5 | Trevor Pope | 1,480,000 (25 BBs) |
| 6 | Philippe Ktorza | 895,000 (15 BBs) |
The Pope: Without a doubt, the man with the best rail was Wisconsin’s Trevor Pope, who had a friend in the crowd dressed as the Pope. Actually, the Pope conjures up images on an elderly man donned in white, but Pope’s friend looked to be about 21 and had a red robe and hat, something more reminiscent of either a bishop or cardinal. Nonetheless, watching him clap and celebrate in the background at the Royal Flush Bar alongside the Royal Flush Girls – well let’s just say it’s not something you see every day.
Sands is the One to Watch: Through Season X, seven up-and-coming poker pros were featured as Ones to Watch. The players finished the season with mixed results, but it was David “Doc” Sands who finished with the best results by quite a margin:
Ones to Watch Season X Winnings
| 1 | David “Doc” Sands | $806,370 |
| 2 | Matt Marafioti | $94,891 |
| 3 | William Reynolds | $39,806 |
| 4 | Dan O’Brien | $7,300 |
| 5 | Maria Ho | $0 |
| 5 | Dylan Hortin | $0 |
| 5 | Ebony Kenney | $0 |
Trevor Pope
Nope for Pope: Action folded to Trevor Pope on the button and he moved all in for 1.46 million holding 
. Philippe Ktorza then moved all in for 1.7 million from the small blind with 
, which pushed Michael Mizrachi out from the big blind. Pope was a 3-1 dog and was up out of his seat even before the flop fell 
flop, which gave him a gut-shot draw to a wheel. The 
turn gave Ktorza a set, but it also gave Pope an added flush draw. Unfortunately for him, the 
river was not what he needed and Pope finished in sixth place for $155,571.
“I don’t have any complaints, this is obviously a good finish [in the tournament],” Pope said in his post-elimination interview with Jessica Welman. “A final table is a final table, I don’t expect it to be the last one I make, but sometimes things go in your favor and sometimes they don’t.”
Who will be the next to join this prestigious list:
| 1 | Alan Goehring | $1,011,886 |
| 2 | Martin De Knijff | $2,728,356 |
| 3 | Tuan Le | $2,856,150 |
| 4 | Joe Bartholdi | $3,760,165 |
| 5 | Carlos Mortensen | $3,970,415 |
| 6 | David Chiu | $3,389,140 |
| 7 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | $2,143,655 |
| 8 | David Williams | $1,530,537 |
| 9 | Scott Seiver | $1,618,344 |
| 10 | ??? | $1,196,858 |
Tune in Next Week: Part II of the WPT World Championship is set to air on Sunday, Oct. 14, on FSN, so be sure to check your local listings. If by chance you miss it, check back next week for the latest recap of all the action here on PokerNews.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook now!
*Pictures courtesy of World Poker Tour.
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September 18 2012, Chad Holloway
On Sunday night, the World Poker Tour Season X continued on Fox Sports Network with Part I of the $100,000 Super High Roller, which took place alongside the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio back in May.
On Day 1 of the event, 26 players, including Phil Galfond, David “Doc” Sands, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Masa Kagawa, Robert Zeps, Brian Hastings and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, forked over the $100,000 buy-in. Eventually six players were eliminated and took advantage of the reentry – Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Galen Hall, Tom Marchese, Andrew Robl and Cary Katz.
As the day wore on, Sam Trickett joined the action, and Negreanu busted his second buy-in after his 
ran into the 
of Galfond. “Everything went wrong in this 100K for me…not rebuying anymore,” Negreanu tweeted shortly after taking his leave. Others who joined him on the rail throughout the day were Grospellier, Michael Parziale, Robert Zeps and Clemenceau Calixto.
Day 1 ended with 19 players and Justin Bonomo’s stack of 1.433 million leading the way. Registration was open up until the start of Day 2, and that inspired poker pro Sorel Mizzi to give it a shot. Likewise, Calixto opted to give it another go and reentered the tournament, which created a $3.3 million prize pool.
Mizzi’s late registration didn’t go as planned because he busted within an hour of entering, and Dan Shak, Mercier, Katz, Calixto, Sands, Smith and Galfond soon followed him out the door. When Hastings exited in 10th place, the final nine players combined to one table and looked to play down to the official final table of six – though only five were slated to get paid.
, eliminating Smith.Here’s how things stacked up at the start of the final table:
WPT Season X $100,000 Super High Roller Open Final Table
| 1 | Bill Klein | 620,000 (12 BBs) |
| 2 | John Juanda | 1,875,000 (37 BBs) |
| 3 | Tom Marchese | 2,235,000 (44 BBs) |
| 4 | Daniel Perper | 3,415,000 (68 BBs) |
| 5 | Justin Bonomo | 2,105,000 (42 BBs) |
| 6 | Andrew Robl | 3,355,000 (67 BBs) |
Where is JJ?: There was one man mysteriously absent at the start of the final table, and that was six-time WPT finalist John Juanda, who finished runner-up to Gus Hansen in the first-ever WPT event at the Bellagio. “First place is over $1.3 million and the guy’s not even here, it’s just incredible to me, but you do blind the guy off and ante him off, so however long that takes for him to go broke,” Mike Sexton said before choosing Bonomo as his pick to win it.
Playing for Charity: In the very first hand of the broadcast, Tom Marchese opened for 100,000 with 
only to have Daniel Perper three-bet to 240,000. Bill Klein proceeded to moved all in for 615,000 from the big blind with 
.
Interestingly, Klei, the amateur, had pledged to donate 100% of his winnings to charity; what’s more, he had promised to contribute another $100,000 to charity even if he busted in sixth place on the money bubble. As it was, Marchese folded the best hand and Perper called with the worst to put Klein at risk. Klein, who you may recognize from some episodes of High Stakes Poker, was a 68 percent favorite, but that dropped to 60 percent on the 
flop. The 
turn bumped it up to 75 percent, and the 
river gave him a double to 1.41 million on Hand #1.
“I’ve been very blessed in my life. I had cancer in 2003, I’ve been a cancer survivor. Every day is a great day. We’ve been financially blessed. You gotta give back, you gotta get in there and pitch in. You can’t somebody else do it,” Klein said in a side interview.
, and was none too happy when tournament officials informed him that it was a dead hand.The Fashion Report: Mike Sexton believes finalists should look good at the feature table; as such, in our Part I recaps I like to offer a short and sweet fashion report on each player:
Bill Klein: A baby blue polo with a black baseball cap. Definitely not anything special, but somewhat fitting since you got the feeling this amateur would be left black and blue by the professionals at the table. Grade: C+
John Juanda: A brown-and-white squared short-sleeve button-up. Nothing too fancy, but the colors looked good on Juanda. Grade: B
Tom Marchese: A grey t-shirt with what appeared to be black flames rising up. C’mon Tom. Grade: D
Daniel Perper: Slicked back hair with a silky black button-up. It was the sort of shirt you might see at a nightclub, but it looked good. Grade: B+
Justin Bonomo: A similar getup to Perper, Bonomo sported a long-sleeve black button-up, though the sleeves were up and cuffed. It looked pretty sleek. Grade: A-
Andrew Robl: You might think he planned his outfit with Bonomo and Perper, because he was wearing – you guessed it – a black button-up. “He looks a little like a poor man’s Matt Damon, doesn’t he,” said Vince Van Patten. Grade: B+
The Bubble Boy: In Hand #13 of the final table, with the blinds at 25,000/50,000 and a 5,000 ante, Justin Bonomo min-raised from the cutoff with 
only to have John Juanda three-bet to 300,000 from the big blind with 
. Bonomo thought for a few moments before making the call, and then watched Juanda move all in on the 
flop. Bonomo had flopped top pair with top kicker, and he called off his remaining 1.9 million.
Bonomo, who only had an 18 percent chance of survival, looked dejected and stared at the table as the 
turned. That dropped his chances to win down to just 8 percent, but the useless 
peeled off on the river and his day was done. Bonomo composed himself enough to shake hands with the remaining players, but you could tell he was extremely disappointed to be leaving empty handed on the $263,160 money bubble.
“It sucks, there’s not really much other way to put it,” Bonomo told Jessica Welman in his post-elimination interview. “The World Series is coming up, so hopefully I’ll do well there. I can’t complain too much, life is good.”
Tune in Next Week: Part II of the WPT World Championship Super High Roller is set to air on Sunday, Sept. 23, on FSN, so be sure to check your local listings. If by chance you miss it, check back next week for the latest recap of all the action here on PokerNews.
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook now!
*Pictures courtesy of World Poker Tour.
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