With a dead small blind due to the elimination of Stephan Nitschke in 10th place last night, Jack Lyman shoved in from under the gun and won the pot.
World Series of Poker Europe 2010
Event #3: £1,075 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 3
Event Info
World Series of Poker Europe 2010
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
£1,000
Prize Pool
£582,000
Entries
582
Level
9
Blinds
300 / 600
Ante
75
Players Left 1 / 582
Filter
The cards are in the air for the final table of EVent #3!
Level: 19
Blinds: 4,000/8,000
Ante: 1,000
We're just moments away from the start of the final table for Event #3 here at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe! Leading the way into the final is Canadian Kaveh Payman with a whopping 434,000 chips, but that's not the story here folks.
British professional and two-time bracelet winner JP Kelly is going to back-to-back glory in his title defense run here at the Casino at the Empire. Kelly is also looking to become the youngest player to three gold bracelets and surpass Phil Ivey's record.
What else? Well, Mehdi Senhaji is looking to become the first Moroccan player to win a gold bracelet. He'd also be the first from the continent after Africa. He sits in second place on the leader board while Kelly is in third.
So who will it be? Be sure to stick right here on PokerNews to find out! The cards will be in the air shortly.
Hailing from right here in London, England, Jack Lyman will be looking to storm onto the WSOP scene with a bracelet win right in his own backyard. The only problem is, he has quite the task in front of him given a mere seven big blinds in his stack.
Lyman is a security engineer and this is his first year at the WSOP. He won a £100 satellite to this event and it's proving well worth the shot. When asked to list some interesting things about himself, Lyman simply said, "I'm blessed!"
This final table is all about JP Kelly. Why you might ask? Well, Kelly is the defending champion of this event for one. Successfully defending his title would make him the first to do in a gold bracelet event in the game of No-Limit Hold’em since Johnny Chan won the 1987 and 1988 Main Events. Phil Hellmuth won the same Hold’em title in 1992 and 1993 as well. Those are the last two players to become victorious in their title defense in Hold’em variations and Kelly could join that elite group if he wins today.
Last year, Kelly bested a field of 608 players to take home first place in this event. It’s his only cash ever in the WSOP Europe, but it was a win worth £136,803. Kelly also became the first British player with a WSOP Europe bracelet and the second player behind Jesper Hougaard to win a WSOP and a WSOP Europe bracelet in the same year. Earlier that year, he won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event out in Las Vegas.
As if that’s not even history to be chasing, Kelly would become the youngest ever three-time bracelet winner. Right now, oh, only Phil Ivey holds that record. Kelly would smash that record by over a year and he’s well aware of it.
Prior to this cash and final table, Kelly had nine WSOP cashes and two final tables. He has quite the record when he makes the final table though; winning the events both times he has been there. If Kelly wins this, he’d be a perfect 3/3 when he makes a WSOP final table.
Outside of the WSOP, Kelly has numerous other accolades. He’s cashes in five EPT events with three of those being cashes in the Main Event at each stop. He’s also cashed three times down in Australia during the Aussie Millions tournaments series. He cashed once in the Main Event down there in 2009 and then again the following year, including a finish in the money in a side event. On top of that, Kelly’s won numerous events around England.
Kelly comes into the day with 242,000 in chips, firmly in third place on the leader board. He has position on the two stacks larger than him and that may serve a great advantage for Kelly. Position can be everything in poker. With the way Kelly is playing right now, it’s hard to bet against him as he moves towards gold bracelet number three and a successful defense of his title.
The chip leader at this final table is Canadian Kaveh Payman, from Vancouver, British Columbia. Earlier in this year's WSOP Europe, Payman placed 23rd in Event #1 for £5,624. According to WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla, "Payman is in great position to earn what would be a first-ever WSOP victory."
When Payman isn't firing in bets and raises on the felt, he installs home theatre systems. He does take the game seriously though when he plays, even if that may only be part time. Payman has numerous cashes on his record, mostly from Canada. His total career live tournament earnings amount to nearly $60,000, but this will be his most prized finish to date. Earlier this year, Payman also cashed in an EPT side event while in Tallinn. He took fifth for €4,390.
Making a WSOP final table is something all poker players hope to do in their lives and Payman has a great chance to do even better, win the event. He has the most chips to start the day with 434,000.
Not much can be said about Mehdi Senhaji, who comes into the final table second on the leader board. We know he's from Casablanca, Morocco and that this is his first WSOP ever. Not bad that he happened to maneuver his way to the final table second in chips. Senhaji has been playing some power poker throughout the event and we really haven't seen him without a big stack. He's made some timely lay downs of big hands and pounced when the time was right - all of which have helped him get here to the final table.
Much like his tablemate JP Kelly, Senhaji will be chasing some history today. If he can pull off the win, he'll become the first-ever WSOP champion and gold bracelet winner from Morocco. Not only that, but he'd be the first player ever to take home a WSOP title from the massive continent of Africa. We'd say that's a lot riding on his shoulders then.
Senhaji made it to this even. The question is now, how much more will he make? Senhaji already dons a pair of gold-trimmed headphones, something a shiny gold bracelet would match up with rather nicely.
Jeppe Bisgaard has held a big stack for most of this event and the Dane comes into the final table siting fourth in chips. He's never played in the World Series, making this one heck of a rookie appearance; not too many players can say they make a final table run on their first go around. Bisgaard bought in with cash to this event and it seems like quite the investment as he's locked up at least £10,633.
On his bio sheet, Bisgaard wrote "shipping" as his occupation. Whether that pertains to the industry or shipping the chips at the poker table we don't know. We do know that he may be looking for a change of careers if he happens to ship this event.
The second shortest stack coming into the day, Paul Pitchford will have his work cut out for him if he's to claim his first bracelet today. His cumulative poker tournament earnings total just over $3,000, a number which he hopes to multiply several times over here today. His three previous cashes came in tournaments with buyins of less than £75, but Pitchford has thus far proven that he possesses the skill set needed to handle the jump up to this next tier of tournaments.
His count of 77,000 means he's got to make something happen early on today, but we certainly aren't counting him out just yet.
