Good afternoon, and welcome back to the 44th annual World Series of Poker. Two players remain in Event #27: $3,000 No Limit Hold'em (Mixed Max), and with nearly even stacks, Max Steinberg and Isaac Hagerling are in for a tough battle against one another for the bracelet. Steinberg won a bracelet in 2012 and finished runner-up in the 2013 National Championship. Hagerling only has three WSOP cashes to his name and roughly $188,000 in career live tournament earnings, but he's guaranteed at least $231,501 by making the championship match.
Seed
Player
Country
Chips
8.
Max Steinberg
USA
2,649,000
3.
Isaac Hagerling
USA
2,690,000
The two are set to start in the next 30 minutes or so, and we will be providing hand-for-hand updates straight from the Mothership.
Hand #8: Max Steinberg raised to 25,000, Isaac Hagerling defended, and the flop fell . Hagerling checked, Steinberg fired out 32,000, and Hagerling check-raised to 100,000. Steinberg called. Both players knuckled on the turn () and the river (), and Hagerling won with for aces and tens.
Hand #9: Hagerling raised to 36,000, and won the blinds and antes.
Hand #10: Steinberg raised to 25,000, and Hagerling folded.
Hand #23: Isaac Hagerling raised to 36,000 on the button, Max Steinberg called, and the flop fell . Both players checked. The turn was the , Steinberg fired out 100,000, and Hagerling folded.
Hand #24: Steinberg raised to 25,000, Hagerling three-bet to 90,000, and Steinberg folded.
Hand #25: Hagerling raised to 36,000, Steinberg defended, and the flop came . Steinberg check-called a bet of 40,000, and the turn was the . Steinberg checked, Hagerling bet 115,000, and Steinberg check-raised to 335,000. Hagerling tanked for over two minutes before calling.
The completed the board, and Steinberg bombed 825,000 into the middle. Hagerling returned to the tank, and eventually mucked his hand.
Hand #29: Isaac Hagerling opened to 48,000, Max Steinberg defended, and both players checked on the flop () and the turn (). The river was the , Steinberg led out for 125,000, and Hagerling called. Steinberg showed for a seven-high straight, and Hagerling tabled for the same hand.
Hand #30: Steinberg raised to 33,000, Hagerling three-bet to 116,000, and Steinberg folded.
Hand #31: Hagerling raised to 48,000, Steinberg called, and the flop fell . Steinberg check-called a bet of 60,000, and the turn was the . Steinberg opted to lead out, firing 135,000 forward, and Hagerling called. The river was the , Steinberg bet another 310,000, and Hagerling called.
Steinberg showed for a rivered straight, and scooped the pot.
Hand #59: Isaac Hagerling raised to 67,000, and won the hand.
Hand #60: Max Steinberg raised to 55,000, and won the hand.
Hand #61: Hagerling raised to 67,000, winning the blinds and antes.
Hand #62: Steinberg raised to 55,000 on the button, Hagerling called, and the flop fell . Both players checked. The turn was the , Hagerling led out for 80,000, and Steinberg called. The river was the , Hagerling fired out big bet of 250,000, and Steinberg called.
Hagerling showed for a straight, winning a big pot.
Hand #69: Isaac Hagerling limped in, Max Steinberg raised to 90,000, and Hagerling called. Both players checked on a flop of , and the turn was the . Steinberg checked, Hagerling fired out 125,000, and Steinberg called. The river was the , Steinberg checked, and Hagerling bet 300,000. Steinberg called.
Hagerling showed for a pair of fives, but Steinberg had that beat with for a pair of kings.
Hand #70: Steinberg raised to 65,000, Hagerling called, and the dealer fanned . Hagerling led out for 85,000, Steinberg raised to 275,000, and Hagerling called. The turn was the , Hagerling checked, and Steinberg fired out 450,000. Hagerling called.
The completed the board, and Hagerling checked a second time. Steinberg announced that he was all in, wagering his remaining 1,040,000, and Hagerling tanked for quite some time before folding.
Hand #71: Isaac Hagerling raised to 65,000 on the button, and Max Steinberg folded.
Hand #72: Steinberg raised to 65,000, Hagerling called, and the dealer fanned . Hagerling check-called a bet of 80,000, and the turn was the . Hagerling checked, Steinberg fired out 300,000, and Hagerling folded.
Hand #73: Hagerling raised to 65,000, Steinberg three-bet to 175,000, and Hagerling called. The flop fell , Steinberg led out for 215,000, and Hagerling called. The turn was the , Steinberg checked, and Hagerling bet 525,000. Steinberg check-raised all in for 2.198 million, and Hagerling tanked for roughly two minutes before calling.
Steinberg:
Hagerling:
Steinberg was one card away from winning his second career World Series of Poker bracelet, and he had Hagerling drawing to three outs. Unfortunately for Steinberg, the was one of them, and when it hit the felt he threw his hands onto his head in disbelief. Hagerling sat silent as Steinberg paced for a moment or two, then he returned to the table to cut out chips and send then to Hagerling.
Hand #102: Max Steinberg limped in on the button, Isaac Hagerling checked, and the flop fell . Hagerling led out for 65,000, Steinberg called, and the turn was the . Both players checked. The completed the board, and Hagerling check-folded to a bet of 125,000.
Hand #103: Hagerling limped in on the button, Steinberg raised to 130,000, and Hagerling moved all in. Steinberg folded.
Hand #104: Steinberg limped in on the button, Hagerling checked, and the flop came . Hagerling checked, Steinberg bet, and Hagerling check-raised to 150,000. Steinberg folded.
Prior to Event #27, Isaac Hagerling had three World Series of Poker cashes for a total of $14,393. After besting a field of 593 entrants, Hagerling can add $372,387 to that total.
Hagerling made it to Day 3, the heads-up portion of the mixed-max format, third in chips and earned the No. 3 seed. With that, he held more than a 16:1 chip lead in his Round of 32 match against Markus Gonsalves. Hagerling made quick work of Gonsalves when the latter shoved with and was called by the former's . Hagerling improved to Broadway and punched his ticket to the Round of 16 where he battled Nick Binger.
Of the eight matchups in the Round of 16, Hagerling vs. Binger went the longest. In fact, three of the four Round of 8 matches began while Hagerling and Binger were still battling for a seat. The back-and-forth match turned when Binger three-bet shoved for effectively 31 big blinds with . Hagerling called all in with , held up, and won the match shortly thereafter.
He began his Round of Eight match against Yevgeniy Timoshenko nearly an hour after the other matches began and, as was the case in his match against Binger, his match lasted well longer than the rest. Hagerling held the lead for nearly the entire match and earned a spot in the semifinals after Timoshenko bluff-shoved the river. The board read and with about 190,000 in the pot, Timoshenko moved all in for 388,000. With about 770,000 behind, Hagerling gave it some thought before calling with for trip nines. Timoshenko was bluffing with ten-high, setting up a matchup with Jeremy Ausmus.
Ausmus had been waiting for several hours for the matchup and jumped out to a sizable chip lead. However, Hagerling doubled with pocket tens against Ausmus' ace-ten after the chips went in on a king-high flop. On the last hand of the match, Ausmus check-raised all in on the turn of a three-spade board, and Hagerling called with a queen-high flush. Ausmus was drawing dead, meaning Hagerling and Max Steinberg would battle it out for the bracelet on Day 4.
The battle went back and forth for the first 69 hands before Steinberg evened out the chips with a queen-high bluff-shove on the river. Just three hands later, Hagerling called all in for his tournament life on a board with . He was crushed by Steinberg's , but caught an unlikely on the river to take a commanding chip lead with 97% of the chips in play. The match would last another 34 hands while Steinberg battled back, but ultimately Hagerling sealed the deal.
Congratulations to Isaac Hagerling for winning his first WSOP bracelet and earning nearly $400,000. Thanks for sticking with us here at PokerNews.com. Until next time, good night from Las Vegas!