Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship Day 8 | 2018 World Series of Poker

07-12-2018 08:23 UTC-7

Seat 7: Michael Dyer (32) - 109,175,000 (2/9)

Yori Epskamp

Seat:	7
Chip Count:	109,175,000 (2/9)
Hometown:	Houston, Texas
Age:	32

Michael Dyer has over $130,000 in live tournament earnings, including an eighth-place finish in a 2009 WSOP event for $65,905. After gaining most of his experience playing online, the Houston, Texas native wondered how he would fare if he returned to the Main Event. His sole appearance came in 2016, when he was eliminated on Day 1.

"I haven't been playing live poker for a while," he said, "and I was curious to see how I'd do. The tournament has been going well so far."

It certainly has. Dyer has been atop the chip counts since Day 5, when he finished with 12,180,000 to give him a wide lead over second place, the two-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon.

“It was pretty swingy early on,” Dyer said about Day 5, “but then I moved to the Feature Table and [my stack] skyrocketed.”

When asked to reflect upon his massive chip lead during most of Day 7, Dyer said that playing a big stack simplified his decisions. "I got rolling when I won with a combo draw, the eight-nine of spades," he said. That pivotal pot came after a jack of spades, eight of diamonds, five of spades flop, when Dyer made a large reraise with his pair and flush draw and found himself against Paulo Goncalves’s off suit ace-jack. The king of clubs turn kept Goncalves ahead, but the ten of spades river gave Dyer a winning flush.

As the final table loomed, Dyer moved to the Feature Table. During much of the action, he hunched in his seat; impassive and focused, with a box of Bite-Sized Shredded Wheat within arm’s reach. "You've gotta fuel up, somehow," he explained.

Dyer's dad, David, also offered support from the rail. He flew from Houston to Las Vegas on the morning of Day 7, and Dyer's mom plans to join them for Day 8. "There's no pressure," he said, "but I was hoping to make the final table so my mom wouldn't fly out for no reason."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1b	74,600	632/3470
2ab	502,400	4/2786
3	693,000	693/1,182
4	1,767,000	74/310
5	12,180,000	1/109
6	26,515,000	4/26
7	109,175,000	2/9

KEY HAND

On the Day 5 Feature Table, Dyer squared off against Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, who raised to 110,000 under the gun with 3.8 million chips. Dyer three-bet to 315,000 with ace-king suited and Josephy, after some thought, four-bet to 815,000. Dyer shoved, barely covering Josephy's stack, and the former November Niner called with kings. The ten-six-three flop didn’t help Dyer, and neither did the turn five. But the river was an ace, which sent Josephy to the rail and boosted Dyer's stack to over nine million.

"It’s a trap hand," Dyer explained. "Josephy has so many chips that he can have whatever he wants to have. He had a really good hand, so I got lucky [but] that just happens sometimes. I just play hands. Whatever happens, happens.”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Throughout the Main Event, and especially in the later stages of the tournament, Dyer has shown a willingness to enter lots of pots and put pressure on his opponents through bold bluffs. Dyer's aggression and hefty 109,175,000 stack—only three million behind chip leader Nicolas Manion—should make him an exciting to watch player at the final table.

Player	Chips	Progress
Michael Dyer	109,175,000

Tags: Michael Dyer

07-12-2018 08:19 UTC-7

Seat 8: Joe Cada (30) - 23,675,000 (6/9)

Yori Epskamp

Seat:	8
Chip Count:	23,675,000 (6/9)
Hometown:	Shelby Charter Township, Michigan
Age:	30
Twitter:	@cada99

After Day 1C of the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, which started players with 50,000, former champ Joe Cada bagged up just 16,500. He was near the bottom of the counts. Obviously, you can call it a comeback as he now finds himself at the final table.

"It was a lot more of a grind this time," Cada told PokerNews. "I knew that it was a long eight days and I felt like I had room to come back. I had 9K at one point in this tournament and I just grinded a short stack. I was like maybe one-fifth of average almost the entire tournament. I just had to pick my spots and try to shove on people that were raising too much and just try to pick up some hands."

It marks the second time he’s been in this spot as nine years ago, he topped a field of 6,494 players to win the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $8,547,044. At the time, he was 21 years and 11 months old, and became the youngest player in WSOP history to win the Main Event. Not only that, he did it by besting a final table that included Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, and Darvin Moon.

"It feels unreal. What other feelings are there?" Cada said after returning to the final table. "We'll see how it turns out. I don't know...cards...you never know."

An online poker player before striking it big, Cada, born November 18, 1987, still resides in Shelby Charter Township, Michigan.

He made headlines earlier this summer for two reasons. First, he bested a 363-player field to win the 2018 WSOP Event #3: $3,000 NLHE Shootout for $226,218 and his third bracelet. His other gold hardware came back in 2014 when he took down Event #32: $10,000 NLHE 6-Handed Championship for $670,041.

The other headline he grabbed was around Father’s Day, which is when he put his father, Jerry Cada, into the $1,000 Super Seniors Championship. The story was heartwarming as not long before Jerry spent over a month in a coma after suffering a stroke. During his recovery, Joe spent time teaching his dad the poker ropes. Joe was on his dad’s rail, but now it’s time for the father to root on son once again.

As for playing it out in the coming days as opposed to the defunct November Nine break, Cada's all about it.

"I like it better. I'd rather just get this thing over with and see where it lies. The three months...you toss and turn a lot thinking about where it's going to end."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	16,500	3,252/3,470
2c	93,800	1,032/1,655
3	211,000	672/1,182
4	559,000	249/310
5	2,965,000	56/109
6	8,850,000	19/26

KEY HANDS

One of Cada’s pivotal hands came with 15 players remaining in Level 34 (200,000/400,000/50,000) when he three-bet jammed for 6.875 million holding ace-six suited. The initial raiser, Frederik Jensen, called with ace-ten and Cada was in trouble. Fortunately for him, the board ran out with three hearts, including one on the river, to give him new life.

Cada on the hand: "I don't know if I would have been as patient back then. I was a little bit more patient this year. I mean I got lucky with that ace-six of hearts but honestly, if I didn't ship that, for the next two hours, I wouldn't have won a hand. I would have just been blinded out. He actually made a really good call with ace-ten. That's a tough spot there. I got lucky with that and I was able to get in some really good situations where I was able to run my stack up."

In another big hand, Cada executed a three-barrel bluff against Alex Lynskey, who had flopped top pair on a king-high board. Cada’s river shove sent his Australian foe into the tank and eventually, he folded. Cada’s brazen bluff lit up the Twitterverse and showed that he was willing to put it all on the line for another shot at the title.

"It was just situational. I was lucky enough for a jack or a queen to come off because that was the only way I was going to continue with the bluff," Cada said of the hand. "That board's my range. They're playing tight and I'm raising into the two chip leaders. There's no reason why I can't have a straight or two pair there. It's so hard to have any bluffs besides an ace, which I did but it's not often. It's just situational."

If Cada were to win the Main Event, he would join the ranks of Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Stu Ungar as repeat winners. Similarly, a fourth bracelet would put him in a company that includes Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Brian Rast, and Amarillo Slim, just to name a few.

Finally, Cada is the first Main Event champ to return to the final table since 1995 winner Dan Harrington went back-to-back in 2003-04.

Cada has a favorable position at the table. The two big stacks are to his right, and the two short stacks are to his direct left. Cada has the experience and knows how to close the Main Event out, which just might be the edge he needs to make poker history.

Player	Chips	Progress
Joe Cada	23,675,000

Tags: Joe Cada

07-12-2018 08:15 UTC-7

Seat 9: Antoine Labat (29) - 8,050,000 (9/9)

Yori Epskamp

Seat:	9
Chip Count:	8,050,000 (9/9)
Hometown:	Vincenna, France
Age:	29

While France gets ready to play Croatia in the World Cup final on Sunday, France’s Antoine Labat is happy for his country but is more focused on another competition. The lone Frenchman standing in the 2018 WSOP Main Event, Labat says he feels the support from his home country.

“The French community is really beside me; even if they don’t really know me.”

A mostly online player, using the monicker 'Mpiyavv' to collect $623,363 in earnings, Labat has just under $200,000 in live cashes to his credit. His only two WSOP cashes, both coming from this summer, make for a total of $6,857 prior to the Main.

Really into all kinds of board games and competitive chess growing up, Labat naturally transitioned into poker as soon as he could, around age 17. Once he could go to casinos at 18, he did so, and pretty soon Labat was playing live cash and online MTTs for a living, which he does to this day.

With one brother and one sister, Antoine was always the gambler in the family, "[l was always] willing to put my ass on the line.”

That's exactly what he did in the final hand of the night, even though it didn't work out this time. The monster cooler of a last hand of the evening saw Labat commit most of his stack with pocket kings, only to be up against Nicolas Manion’s pocket aces and another pair of kings, held by the shorter-stacked Yueqi Zhu. Manion’s aces held up and, while Zhu’s elimination got them down to the official final table, Labat was left as the short stack.

Understandably, Labat was feeling a bit sad right after bagging up for the final table, but the feelings were mixed.

“I’m really happy to be here. Really really, I just wish it would not be that way at the end.”

Though he wondered in the moment if he could fold the kings, he decided he kind of had to go with it. “If I fold, it’s going to look so crazy. But I had this feeling like, he has it. The way he did it, it’s just like, it’s just a feeling.”

But even though it didn't go down exactly the way he'd hoped, Labat stayed positive and kept perspective.

“It’s amazing, it’s amazing. I know I’m a lucky guy to be here.”

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	168,500	63/3,470
2c	218,000	282/1,655
3	185,000	726/1,182
4	1,359,000	113/310
5	2,015,000	79/109
6	28,445,000	3/26

KEY HAND

On Day 6, Labat caught a massive heater to soar from 2.015 million to a third-place stack of 28.445 million to end the day.

The pivotal hand came in the third level of the day when Labat picked up aces against Michael Feil’s pocket kings and Brent Ballentine’s queens. All the chips went in preflop, and Labat’s aces held to vault him up the counts with 18 million as he sent two to the rail. Labat was emotional after the hand and called it, “the best thing I ever won in poker.”

“It really upset me from my feet to my head and then when I went on break I was like crying almost. I felt really bad; really good and really bad at the same time.”

He caught fire with that pot, flopping a boat with jack-nine against Jeff Trudeau, and then going runner-runner Broadway against Andres Jeckeln, who had flopped a set of fives. A bit later, Labat flopped a set of queens when Jeckeln flopped another set of fives, and Labat won that significant pot which put him into the chip lead for the first time.

With players dropping on Day 7, Labat was feeling the pressure and was focusing on his breathing, making sure the oxygen was getting to his body and brain. His goals as the final tabled approached?

“Just play hand by hand, and see what happens. Stay focused, play my best.”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

It’s fun for Labat to be playing at the WSOP final table after watching it with his brother on TV in France a decade ago.

“We imagined ourselves; one day we’d be there, so now it’s my turn. I hope it’s going to last more than five minutes, that’s all, since my girlfriend is joining tomorrow. I hope she’s not coming just for seeing me bust in five seconds.”

His friends and family in France likely stayed up all night watching Labat make the final table, and his sister is also flying in but will be late. Again, Labat hopes he can build up his stack and stick around, so they get to watch him play.

While Labat was disappointed to take the big hit at the end of the night and come into the final table short, he is confident that he will find a double up and build back.

“They don’t know it, but I will. I know I’m going to make it. I feel it. I just had to lose that hand to make them feel that I am human, that’s all.”