2014 World Series of Poker Day 13: Bracelets for Kitai, Heimiller, and Danzer

June 09, 2014

Martin Harris

2014 World Series of Poker Day 13: Bracelets for Kitai, Heimiller, and Danzer 0001

What a day at the 2014 World Series of Poker, with seven different events in action and three bracelets won. Davidi Kitai grabbed his third career WSOP bracelet in a short-handed no-limit hold’em event, Dan Heimiller earned his second in the record-breaking Seniors event, and after several near-misses George Danzer picked up his first in the star-studded $10K razz.

Danzer won nearly $300K for his victory, Kitai over half a million dollars, and Heimiller better than $627K for his Seniors win. Meanwhile four other tourneys played out at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, highlighted by the $3K NLHE Shootout reaching a final table that will feature Phil Galfond, Chris Bell, and Taylor Paur all gunning for a second career bracelet.

Event #15: $3,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

The one event not in the original packed line-up on Sunday was Event #15: $3,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em that saw two players — Belgium’s Kitai and Gordon Vayo of the U.S. — still battling late enough Saturday night to require an extra day to find a winner.

The pair returned Sunday with Vayo the slight chip leader, though within the first dozen hands Kitai had grabbed the edge and began pushing out in front. Before long Vayo had slipped into the danger zone, and even after doubling up with pocket aces was still at a more than 3-to-1 chip disadvantage.

Vayo would double a second time when his 9♣6♣ managed to overcome Kitai’s A♥J♠, but on the 69th hand between the two the end finally arrived. All in before the flop with A♠5♣ versus Kitai’s A♦K♥, Vayo found no help from the community cards and Kitai had secured the win and the bracelet.

The victory marked the third time this summer a player won a third career bracelet after Vanessa Selbst’s win in Event #2: $25,000 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold’em and Brock Parker’s in Event #10: $10,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Low Championship. Ted Forrest is the other multi-bracelet winner to claim more gold thus far this summer, winning his sixth WSOP title in Event #7: $1,500 Seven-Card Razz.

In addition to outlasting a total field of 810 players, Kitai had also endured a patented Phil Hellmuth rant on Day 3 of the event before Hellmuth’s departure in eighth place in which Hellmuth got both Kitai’s native country wrong (calling him a “crazy Frenchman”) and tournament experience (“Of course he’s never won a tournament before”).

In addition to winning two previous WSOP bracelets in pot-limit hold’em events (in 2008 and 2012), Kitai has World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour titles to his credit — giving him poker’s “Triple Crown” — and now nearly $4.5 million in career tourney earnings.

Event #15: $3,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Place	Player	Payout
1	Davidi Kitai	$508,640
2	Gordon Vayo	$314,535
3	Tony Ruberto	$200,476
4	Mark Darner	$132,169
5	John Andress	$89,734
6	Zachary Korik	$62,690

Event #17: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship

For the 11th straight year the Seniors event broke an attendance record, with the Event #17: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship drawing an incredible 4,425 entries from which just 32 survived the first two days of play. By the time that group played down to a final table of nine last night, Heimiller had established a significant chip lead with 2008 WSOP Main Event third-place finisher Dennis Phillips among those with whom he still had to contend.

Phillips, who finished second in the Seniors event two years ago after outlasting more than 4,000 players, managed to last until Donald Mass ousted him in fifth, then on the next hand Heimiller knocked out Anthony Wise in fourth to set up three-handed play.

Mass had overtaken Heimiller by then, with blogger David Smith (a.k.a. “MemphisMOJO”) trailing in third. After it taking just 55 hands to go from nine to three, they’d need 67 more before Heimiller finally took out Smith when the latter’s A♣10♦ failed to improve against Heimiller’s 4♦4♠.

Heimiller had the advantage once more to start heads-up with Mass with about a 3-to-1 edge in chips, and just six hands later Heimiller flopped a straight and then after raising the flop called bets from Mass on the turn and river to claim the last of his opponent’s chips.

The victory carried Heimiller’s overall tournament earnings close to $4.8 million. Heimiller’s first bracelet came back in 2002 in a $2,000 mixed limit hold’em/seven-card stud event.

Event #17: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship Final Table Results

Place	Player	Payout
1	Dan Heimiller	$627,462
2	Donald Maas	$388,054
3	David Smith	$279,412
4	Anthony Wise	$206,492
5	Dennis Phillips	$153,883
6	David Tran	$115,651
7	Doc Barry	$87,615
8	David Vida	$66,945
9	Jim Custer	$51,573

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Event #18: $10,000 Seven-Card Razz Championship

The much-discussed Event #18: $10,000 Seven-Card Razz Championship drew a larger-than-anticipated field of 112, just 12 of whom made it through to Sunday’s final day of play.

After the eliminations of Thomas Butzhammer (12th) and Roland Israelashvili (11th), each of whom earned $24,572, and Daniel Negreanu (10th) and Dan O’Brien (9th), who took away $28,878 apiece, the final table began with Yuval Bronshtein leading a table full of tough competitors.

2009 $50K H.O.R.S.E. champion David Bach — who already final tabled the summer’s other razz event, Event #7: $1,500 Seven-Card Razz, where he finished fourth — went out in eighth, followed by another bracelet holder Naoya Kihara who fell in seventh.

Meanwhile Danzer fell to short-stacked status, but was able to chip back up while knocking out Todd Dakake in sixth. Brian Hastings’ bid for a second bracelet then ended with a fifth-place finish. After that, Brandon Shack-Harris knocked out both Bronshtein in fourth, and Todd Barlow in third to set up heads-up play.

Shack-Harris was gunning for his second bracelet of the summer after winning Event #3: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha. Meanwhile Danzer was hoping to break through for his first WSOP title after having collected a runner-up, two third-place finishes, two fifth-place finishes, and a sixth over the last five WSOPs.

Danzer took a small chip lead to heads-up play, lost it immediately to Shack-Harris, then grabbed it back and build the lead further before the final hand arrived. With Shack-Harris all in, they drew to sixth street by which Shack-Harris had made a 10x7x6x3x2x while Danzer had 6x5x3x2x with a couple of face cards. Danzer then squeezed an Ax to make a six-low, making Shack-Harris’s seventh-street no matter and giving the German the title.

Danzer joined Kitai yesterday as the first non-Americans to win bracelets at the 2014 WSOP.

Event #18: $10,000 Seven-Card Razz Championship Final Table Results

Place	Player	Payout
1	George Danzer	$294,792
2	Brandon Shack-Harris	$182,155
3	Todd Barlow	$114,081
4	Yuval Bronshtein	$82,602
5	Brian Hastings	$64,557
6	Todd Dakake	$51,481
7	Naoya Kihara	$41,806
8	David Bach	$34,500

Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Day 2 of Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em saw 233 players return from a starting field of 2,086, with that group playing down to just 12 players led by Hiren Patel at night’s end.

Mustpha Kunit and Ted Gillis ended with stacks very close to Patel’s, with another trio of tough competitors just behind them in the counts in Jaime Kaplan, Jacobo Fernandez, and John Hennigan. Hennigan will be seeking his third career WSOP bracelet and first since 2004. The winner of Event #19 will earn a hefty $514,027 first-place prize.

Meanwhile among the notables cashing yesterday in Event #19 as the day and night wound down were Eric Mizrachi (207th, $2,872), Allen Kessler (161st, $3,154), Darryll Fish (138th, $3,154), Scott Montgomery (111th, $3,506), Jason Somerville (84th, $4,505), Matt Affleck (36th, $12,390), Loni Harwood (29th, $12,390), Phil Collins (16th, $18,755), and Max Silver (13th, $23,486).

Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Position	Player	Chips
1	Hiren Patel	1,873,000
2	Mustapha Kunit	1,183,000
3	Ted Gillis	1,118,000
4	Jaime Kaplan	984,000
5	Jacobo Fernandez	827,000
6	John Hennigan	746,000
7	Dylan Thomassie	692,000
8	Ron McMillen	603,000
9	Gregg Merkow	517,000
10	Dejan Divkovic	360,000
11	Darin Stout	272,000
12	Edison Shields	155,000

Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout

After 389 players played 40 tables’ worth of nine- or ten-handed sit-n-gos on the first day of Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shoutout, the 40 making it to yesterday’s Day 2 then played 10 four-handed tables with the winner of each making it to today’s final day.

Chris Bell was the first to win his table yesterday, while Michael Stonehill was the last winner of the night. There were a number of tough foursomes battling yesterday, but Stonehill might have had drawn the most difficult as he had to overcome Erik Seidel, Daniel Alaei, and Christophe de Meulder to advance

As players carry chips forward from day to day in the shootout, the remaining 10 each will begin with roughly even starting stacks at the final table. As noted, Bell, Galfond, and Paur will all be seeking second WSOP bracelets. A nice first-place prize of $254,891 sits up top for today’s Event #20 champion.

Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout End of Day 2 Chip Counts

Position	Player	Chips
1	Noah Bronstein	354,000
2	Phil Galfond	347,000
3	Narendra Banwari	346,000
4	Michael Stonehill	346,000
5	Dylan Linde	346,000
6	Chris Bell	346,000
7	Eric Wasserson	345,000
8	Kory Kilpatrick	344,000
9	Taylor Paur	339,000
10	Jack Duong	338,000

Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Another low-buy-in NLHE event kicked off on Sunday with Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em, again drawing a big field as 2,043 took part to build a prize pool of $1,838,700 with $335,659 awaiting the eventual winner.

After a full day of play just 168 players survived with Paul Newey (212st), Steve Brecher (205th), David Singontiko (202nd), and Byron Kaverman (172nd) among those collecting a min-cash of $1,875 near night’s end.

Dave D’Alesandro ended the night with the chip lead, with former November Niner Soi Nguyen also claiming a spot inside the top 10. Meanwhile Erik Seidel, Dominik Nitsche, and JC Tran are among the competitors just behind the lead pack.

Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Position	Player	Chips
1	Dave D’Alesandro	154,400
2	Bronson Tucker	108,700
3	David Lucchesi	107,300
4	Jonathan Neckar	98,300
5	Thayer Rasmussen	91,200
6	Zo Karim	88,100
7	Jeffrey Flannery	87,700
8	Christophe Gross	86,000
9	Soi Nguyen	83,700
10	Vasil Medarov	83,100

Event #22: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship

Finally late yesterday afternoon came the start of another $10K “Championship” event, the Event #22: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship that drew exactly 200 entrants, a remarkable turnout. That group built a $1,880,000 prize pool with the winner due $507,614 of it.

From the 200 there are still 122 players alive in this one, with three-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Madsen claiming the overnight chip lead. Other multiple bracelet holders finishing Day 1 in the top 10 include Greg Mueller, Erick Lindgren, Michael Mizrachi, and none other than Phil Hellmuth, the latter again seeking a record-extending 14th bracelet.

Event #22: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Position	Player	Chips
1	Jeff Madsen	129,200
2	Greg Mueller	121,400
3	Eric Rodawig	112,000
4	Francesco Barbaro	108,500
5	Jon Turner	106,000
6	Erick Lindgren	105,600
7	Vladimir Shchemelev	104,600
8	Phil Hellmuth	100,900
9	Michael Mizrachi	98,200
10	Cory Zeidman	95,500

On Tap

Just five events will be in action today, with both Events #19 and #20 reaching conclusions and Events #21 and #22 playing down to final tables or close to them. Meanwhile one new event will kick off at noon today to start the day’s poker proceedings, the two-day Event #23: $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em.

Here’s the full schedule for Monday (all times PDT):