By Paul Oresteen, Bluff
Event #9 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em returned a dozen players for Day 3 at the 2014 World Series of Poker. The final table played out in the Gold section of the Amazon Room in the shadow of the much hyped Millionaire Maker and a star-studded $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo championship.
Jeff Smith won the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event. (Photo by Drew Amato)
Jeff Smith arrived at the final table middle of the pack in chips and managed to play his way to a heads-up match with Danny Nguyen that lasted a couple of hours. After a see-saw battle Smith survived Nguyen’s all-or-nothing play for a couple of hours to win the bracelet and $323,125.
“It (the heads-up match) was kind of long, but I felt like I had an advantage over him,” Smith said. “He kept winning some big hands that got him back into it. Losing the big hand right before the break was tough. I had an hour to think about it. I came back with a different mindset and it went well after that.”
Once the field was trimmed to a final table of nine, Chris Hunichen and Frank Patti were neck and neck for the chiplead with just 50,000 separating the two. Nguyen, Chris Haugo, Jorge Vergara sat in middle position while Brad Libson, Smith, Dave Inselberg and John Fontana occupied the bottom of the counts.
On just the second hand of the final table Patti opened and Vergara moved in from the button holding pocket tens. Patti called with pocket queens and watched the board run J 9 2 J 4. Vergara was eliminated in ninth place and Patti took the chiplead.
An orbit later Inselberg opened, Patti three-bet from the button and Inselberg called to see the T9 7 flop. Inselberg check-raised all in, Patti called with A K and Inselberg tabled pocket eights. The board finished A 2, rendering Inselberg’s pocket pair no good and he was sent to the rail.
Two hands after that Nguyen opened in late position and Libson moved all in. Nguyen called with pocket kings and Libson had to hit the board to stay alive with A 8. The board ran T 8 4 64 and Libson was the third player eliminated in the first dozen hands.
Read the full story by Paul Oresteen from Bluff.
