When you’re hot… you’re hot.
Let’s just pause for a moment and talk about what Daniel “djk123” Kelly has already accomplished in this year’s WCOOP. He had an auspicious start, taking down Event #2, $215 Razz, then went on to cash eight more times in WCOOP events over the next two weeks. Then today, while building a stack in the $5,200 buy-in NLHE Main Event, Kelly entered the $10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. event. By the time Day 1 play was finished in the Main (Kelly finishing up with 555,410, good for tenth in chips out of 178 players), he was going for his second WCOOP bracelet at the H.O.R.S.E. final table. Like Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo and now Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (who picked up his second bracelet tonight in Event #43), Daniel Kelly became a double-bracelet winner and now sits atop the Player of the Series leaderboard for the 2009 WCOOP. Not bad for a 20-year old Villanova junior.
Some of the biggest names in poker rounded out the 103-strong field in this event, creating a $1,030,000 prize pool. 16 places were paid, with first place set to earn $252,350.00. Team PokerStars Pro comprised nearly 14% of the field with George Danzer, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Ylon Schwartz, Chris Moneymaker, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Gavin Griffin, and Joe Hachem all taking a shot. Coming away with cash finishes were Katja Thater (13th) and Chad Brown (10th), while Noah “Exclusive” Boeken made the final table.
Here’s a look at how our final six stacked up as action got underway:
Seat 1: wallfly (130,889 in chips)
Seat 2: NoraFlum (199,643 in chips)
Seat 3: matchpoint20 (65,956 in chips)
Seat 4: Noah “Exclusive” Boeken (119,336 in chips)
Seat 5: Jorj95 (13,396 in chips)
Seat 6: ozenc (137,007 in chips)
Seat 7: Daniel “djk123” Kelly (163,978 in chips)
Seat 8: Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (199,795 in chips)
With little more than two bets left in his stack, Jorj95 exited in eighth place on the second hand of the final table after putting his last 10,000 in before the flop in a hand of Omaha hi/lo. Both djk123 and wallfly called and continued betting on the side, wallfly check-calling bets from djk123 on every street of the 10♠9♠5♥ 6♠4♦ board. Djk123 was betting for a good reason, turning over A♠8♣ 7♠3♥ for an ace-high flush and a 6-5 low. Wallfly made the same low, but only had nines and fours for high with his A♥ 9♥ 4♠3♣ , earning a quarter of the side pot and a quarter of the main. Djk123 took down the rest, and Jorj95 mucked, his WCOOP run at an end with an eighth place finish for $30,900.
The game switched over to Razz and matchpoint20 was able to hang on for another fifteen minutes before playing a pot with ozenc. After djk123 brought it in with the Kâ™ , matchpoint20 completed to 3,000, ozenc raised to 6,000 and matchpoint20 made the call.
matchpoint20 (X) (X) 4♠Q♣ 10♦ 2♥ (X)
ozenc (X) (X) 4♦ 9♥ 6♠5♠(X)
Ozenc made the low board on fourth street and lead out, matchpoint20 making the call. He kept the lead on fifth and fired again, matchpoint20 looking him up despite catching a second brick. Ozenc led again on sixth street and matchpoint20 called, having caught a deuce. Ozenc set matchpoint20 all in for his last 2,500 on the river and he made the call, turning over 3♥ 5♣ 9♣ in the hole for a 9-5-4-3-2 low, but ozenc had the better low, showing 7♠8♥ 9♣ for a, 8-7-6-5-4 low. Matchpoint20 hit the rail in seventh place, earning $41,200 for his finish.
Meanwhile, wallfly was coming off a disastrous Omaha Hi/Lo level, having lost nearly every pot he played to take his stack from 105,000 down to 29,000. Luck wasn’t on his side in Razz either, his stack eroding all the way down to 5,204 before he got the rest of his chips in the middle on third street against Noah Boeken.
wallfly (8♥ ) (6♦ ) 3♠8♦ 6♠2♥ (6♣ )
Exclusive (10♦ ) (2♠) 4♥ 6♥ A♦ 10♣ (4♣ )
Boeken made a T-6-4-2-A low while wallfly finished the hand with a pair, heading to sleep with a sixth place finish and an extra $51,500 in his PokerStars account.
Sitting on 90,000 in chips while his other four opponents were all hovering around 200,000, Boeken was able to hang on with a short stack for a full forty-five minutes. Boeken took a significant hit on a stud hand against Hoss_TBF, losing nearly half his stack when his flush draw failed to come in against Hoss_TBF’s two pair, then sustained another blow when ozenc scooped him in a stud hi/lo pot with a queen-high flush. Despite being left with only 10,000 in chips, Boeken refused to give up and managed to double up several times before falling back down to 11,000. With only two bets left and facing the blinds in limit hold’em, Boeken raised to 10,000 from early position and was three-bet by Hoss_TBF. Boeken called all in, showing 10♣ 6♣ while Hoss_TBF tabled Q♦ 9â™ . It was all but over on the flop when a queen hit, and though Boeken picked up a flush draw on the turn, the river blanked out, his tournament at an end in fifth place. For his performance, Boeken earned $66,950.
Four-handed play was a long, hard grind, lasting well over 150 hands. While ozenc and djk123 steadily chipped up, Hoss_TBF and NoraFlum found themselves slipping toward short-stack status. Omaha hi/lo was especially rough on Hoss_TBF, who tumbled from 135,000 chips to 63,000 during the level. Not one to give up easily, Hoss_TBF fought for every last chip before finally getting his last 5,600 in on third street against NoraFlum in a stud hand. Unfortunately for Hoss_TBF, NoraFlum had buried aces that improved to trips on the river, sending him to the rail in fourth place for a $92,700 payday.
Despite knocking out Hoss_TBF, NoraFlum was still on the short stack with 64,000 while ozenc was up to 593,000 and djk123 was on 372,000. NoraFlum lost most of his stack in a stud hand where he folded on the river to ozenc, then made a stand a few hands later, getting his remaining 12,000 in chips in on third street against djk123.
NoraFlum (10♣ ) (4♥ ) 4♠2♦ K♣ 7♣ (A♥ )
djk123 (10♦ ) (10♠) 2♣ A♦ 9♥ Q♥ (9♣ )
NoraFlum was looking at an uphill climb with split fours against djk123’s buried tens and couldn’t pull a miracle, djk123 rivering two pair to KO NoraFlum in third place. He took home a hefty $133,900 for his performance.
Ozenc started heads-up play with a 1.7 to 1 chip lead over djk123:
Seat 6: ozenc (645,713 in chips)
Seat 7: djk123 (384,287 in chips)
Heads-up was nothing short of a marathon, lasting 141 hands. Though ozenc started off with a solid chip lead, he quickly lost it to djk123, who pulled nearly even with him on this hand of seven-card stud.
From there, djk123 simply dominated the rest of the match, hitting hand after hand in the stud and stud hi/lo rounds. Aces up. Kings up. A nine high straight. Hard as he tried, ozenc couldn’t get his stack to head in the other direction. After djk123 scooped a stud hi/lo pot with an eight-high straight, ozenc tried to make something happen on the next hand, but was run down again by two pair.
In what would be the final hand of the tournament, djk123 had the bring-in with the 10♥ and ozenc completed showing the A♦ . Djk123 made the call, and they went to fourth street, where ozenc caught the 7♣ and led out for 8,000, djk123, showing 10♥ 7♥ raised, ozenc reraised all in and djk123 made the call.
ozenc (Q♠) (4♣ ) A♦ 7♣ 9♥ 4♦ (J♠)
djk123 (2♥ ) (3♥ ) 10♥ 7♥ J♦ 6♠(6♣ )
Though djk123 had four to a flush on fourth street, neither player made as much as a pair until sixth street when ozenc paired his four. Djk123’s hand, though was rife with outs, needing a heart, a six, a seven, or a jack on the river to scoop or an ace, four, five, or eight to make a low to split. He hit a six, making a pair of sixes to take down the hand and seal up his second WCOOP victory of the year! In addition to the champion’s bracelet, djk123 pocketed $252,350 while runner-up ozenc earned $175,100.00.
WCOOP Event #44 ($10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.) Results
1. Daniel “djk123” Kelly $252,350.00
2. ozenc $175,100.00
3. NoraFlum $133,900.00
4. Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko $92,700.00
5. Noah “Exclusive” Boeken $66,950.00
6. wallfly $51,500.00
7. matchpoint20 $41,200.00
8. Jorj95 $30,900.00.
Djk123 is now atop the 2009 WCOOP leaderboard, but can anyone catch him? Check out the WCOOP page for details. For highlights and replays from the first 43 WCOOP events, head over to PokerStars.tv for the finest in poker multimedia.
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