As if the players didn't know what else they got for winning a WSOP event besides a truckload of cash, the Bracelet has been laid on the table to spur them on. It's actually turned away from them and facing the sizeable rail, though, for maximum crowd effect.
First heads-up blood (we imagine a nosebleed where chips come out of both players' nostrils) went to Jeffrey Lisandro, who limped in on the button and then took it down with a 45,000 bet on the flop.
After a few hands's worth of unanswered button raises and the occasional limped button and raised big blind, we got to see another flop; this hand also went Lisandro's way.
Joe Serock made the opening raise to 60,000, which Lisandro flat-called in the big blind. No further chips made their way into the pot, though, as they checked down the board. LIsandro revealed for a flopped straight, and it was good to take the pot.
Jeffrey Lisandro limped on the button twice in a row, the first time flat calling and passing on the flop, but the second time he reraised pot (144k). Joe Serock announced, "All in," and it seemed they just came to an agreement to turn their cards over and work it out afterwards:
Serock:
Lisandro:
Two suits each, one rail asking Joe if this was what a bracelet smells like, and a very tense deal indeed...
Flop: - looking good for Lisandro's pair and hearts
Turn:
River: ! That's a broadway straight each and a crowd-teasing chop!
Just a few minutes ago Jeffrey Lisandro was the short stack here - he asked TD Jack Effel to colour up the T1000 chips, but then was most unwilling to part with the two leftover ones, requesting that they be left in his stack rather than removed from play as the schedule required. So perhaps frustrated by his inability to double up in that last hand, Lisandro really turned up the aggression after that, and he has actually now taken a slight chip lead over Joe Serock.
It was several smallish hands that did it rather than one huge encounter; Lisandro's favourite trick right now seems to be calling Serock's button raises and then check-raising on the flop - he did it on a flop, and then again a few minutes later on one that read . Both times Serock folded, and the stacks now look like so:
Of the last six hands, four have been won by Joe Serock, and three following the pattern of: Serock raises on the button to 70k, they see a flop, Lisandro check-folds to a 70k bet. These 70ks add up (even when you take into account the big blinds returned to Lisandro in the form of Serock passing preflop) and he's now extended his chip lead back out to 1,300,000 vs. Lisandro's 500,000. Only one hand got past the turn in 15 minutes, when Lisandro (after limping the button pre) called a 45k bet on the flop but folded to a 65k one on the turn.
Jeffrey Lisandro had picked up a few small pots, putting his stack at 680,000 when Joe Serock opened for 75,000 from the button. Lisandro made it 220,000 to go, and just a few short moments elapsed before Serock quietly announced, "Pot." A call all in from Lisandro, and they were on their backs.
"Aces?" said Lisandro.
Yup.
Serock:
Lisandro:
"Smells like a bracelet to me!" called over Shannon Shorr from the rail. But he spoke too soon.
Board:
There was a brief silence from the crowd; if Lisandro has any supporters here at all, they are keeping a very low profile. Then came a few sad cries of, "Hang in there, Joe!"
Whatever the rail's feelings about it, the current stack sizes are Lisandro 1,360,000, Serock 440,000.
At a big chip disadvantage, and knowing it, Serock went out fighting, although gave up 140k bet-folding a flop leaving him looking to get it in preflop. And so it happened - Jeffrey Lisandro raised pot, and Serock moved in; call.
Serock:
Lisandro:
The flop brought straightening possibilities and then some, just Ace high still ahead for Lisandro: , but the turn and river didn't bring them - Lisandro held and now holds a fifth WSOP bracelet!