WCOOP – Event #3, $215 PLO: 'jalla79' Takes Bracelet

September 16, 2007

Matt Wehner

WCOOP – Event #3, $215 PLO: 'jalla79' Takes Bracelet 0001

Day Two of the PokerStars World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued on Saturday with Event #3, $215 Pot-Limit Omaha (6 max). This was another new event this year and saw a great turnout of 1,818 players. The tournament had a guarantee of $200,000, but in typical WCOOP fashion, it wasn't needed as $363,600 was generated for the prize pool.

Many noteworthy players were in attendance for the event, including the winner of last year's WCOOP Event #15 PLO $320, 'Trabelsi.' In fact, the top four finishers from WCOOP '06 #15 event played, and Trabelsi finished deepest yesterday at 233rd place, while Humberto B., last year's second-place finisher, went out early at 1402. Jon 'PearlJammer' Turrner took a strong 272nd-place just outside the money, while Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy, Kevin 'BeLoWaBoVe' Saul, and Bill Chen didn't fare as well. Tom McEvoy managed to place in the money for a second day in a row at 401st.

After ten hours of play, the field was narrowed down to the final twelve players. 'All_in_at420' was the first of the final twelve eliminated when he found himself all-in with J♣J♥A♦2♣ against 'Jalla79''s K♠K♣J♠3♣. Jalla79's pair of kings held up and he quickly became the first player to reach one million in chips.

'smittymatt' and 'ely_cash' both quickly joined Jalla79 as chip leaders and the remaining players found themselves short-stacked in comparison. With the blinds only 4,000/8,000, the players at the two tables quickly became aggressive with several pots reaching over 200,000.

The final table of six was finally reached when 'C.K.,' in the small blind, raised the pot to 80,000 pre-flop after a raise from smittymatt on the button. smittymatt raised to 136,000, putting C.K. all-in, and he made the call. C.K. showed 10♦10♠9♠9♦ while smittymatt opened Q♣Q♠9♥3♠. The board came 8♥8♠3♦K♦8♣ and C.K. was eliminated in seventh place. The final table consisted of jalla79, smittymatt, 'TomNordli,' 'Lefty2506,' 'madiso,' and ely_cash41.

For an hour and a half, jalla79 continued to lead the table with a three-to -one chip lead. On the hand right before a break, jalla79, from under the gun, made it 45,000 to go. Lefty2506 and TomNordli both made the call and the flop came K♦8♣4♣. TomNordli checked in first position, while jalla79 led out for 105,000. lefty2506 raised it to 390,000 and jalla79 called. The turn was the 2♠ and lefty2506 moved all-in after jalla79 checked. Jalla79 made the call and after the Q♦ on the river, lefty2506 showed K♣J♣9♣4♠ for a pair of kings while jalla79 showed K♠10♦8♦4♠ for two pair, kings and eights. Lefty2506 became the first player eliminated from the table.

Just three hands later, smittymatt found himself in trouble with just 200,000 in chips. Raising from the button pre-flop, smittymatt made it 70,000 and was raised by jalla79 to 220,000. smittymatt made the call and was all-in with 6♠6♥Q♠10♥ against jalla79's 8♥8♦J♥10♦. The flop came K♦6♠2♦ and things were looking good for smittymatt, especially when the Q♥ fell on the turn. However, the 7♦ on the river gave jalla79 a flush and left smittymatt eliminated in fifth place.

Later, TomNordli made it 40,000 to go while under the gun and was raised by madiso to 160,000 from the big blind. Both TomNordli and jalla79 called. The flop came 5♥3♠2♠ and madiso moved all-in after jalla79 checked. TomNordli came over the top for an additional 220,000 and jalla79 quickly got out of the way. madiso showed A♥J♥10♠9♠ while TomNordli showed J♠7♠6♦4♦ for the flopped straight. The turn brought the J♣ while the river brought the 8♣. madiso failed to improve and was eliminated in fourth place.

ely_cash41 departed in third when, facing a raise in the big blind of 87,500, he reraised to 350,000. jalla79 raised back to 1,137,500 and ely_cash41 was all-in after calling. ely_cash41 showed A♦K♥Q♠2♠ while jalla79 showed 9♣9♠8♥6♠. The board came 10♦9♥4♦6♣7♥, giving jalla79 a straight and ely_cash41 nothing but ace-high.

Going into heads-up play, Jalla79 had over four million in chips while TomNordli had only one million. The tide quickly turned, and after just four hands of heads-up play, the two players were completely even in chips. A deal was discussed for an even split as the players were even in chips, to which both players agreed. Each of them pocketed $49,000, while leaving $18,000 in the middle, as well as a bracelet, to play for.

Both players continued to stay even in chips until the last hand of the night, where TomNordli raised to 75,000 from the small blind. jalla79 responded by making it 225,000. TomNordli called and the flop came 7♦4♣2♠. jalla79 led out for 300,000 and TomNordli called. The turn brought the 3♠ and TomNordli made it 700,000 to go after jalla79 checked. jalla79 check-raised all-in for a total of 2,858,182 and was called. jalla79 showed A♦9♠8♦5♠ while TomNordli revealed A♠9♦7♠3♣. The river brought the 4♦, which didn't help TomNordli's nut flush draw improve over jalla79's straight, and TomNordli was eliminated in second place, giving jalla79 the title, bracelet, and remaining $18,000 purse.