He’s done it again. Well, almost.
Erik Seidel is one elimination away from winning yet another High Roller title in 2011. The man who’s already accrued more than $4.3 million in earnings this year will play
Erick Lindgren for
$1,092,780 and the World Poker Tour $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller crown on Friday afternoon at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
A total of
29 players turned out for the highly anticipated event on Wednesday with 17 surviving to see Day 2.
Justin Bonomo led the way going into Thursday but the field was still stacked with some of the world’s most talented pros. The eliminations came in a flurry, as Eugene Katchalov,
Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Gabe Kaplan, Tyler Smith, Greg Brooks and John Morgan were all sent to the rail within the first two hours.
Seidel was short stacked for much of the tournament but was able to begin building near the final table bubble. He won a pre-flop confrontation against
Dan Shak early Thursday to double back close to the starting stack (400,000), and then got the rest of Shak’s chips later to increase his stack to around 2 million and burst the final table bubble. According to the
WPT Live Updates team, Shak moved all in with Js-9d on a board reading Jh-8d-3d-2c-3h and Seidel called with pocket queens, giving him the winning hand and one of the largest pots of the tournament. The dealer determined that Seidel barely had Shak covered and the following final table was set:
Seat 1: Sam Trickett — 620,000
Seat 2: Vivek Rajkumar — 1,850,000
Seat 3: Randy Dorfman — 550,000
Seat 4: Cary Katz — 350,000
Seat 5:
Ashton Griffin — 275,000
Seat 6:
Daniel Negreanu — 800,000
Seat 7: Erik Seidel — 1,950,000
Seat 8: Rick Salomon — 740,000
Seat 9: Erick Lindgren — 1,450,000
Seat 10: Justin Bonomo — 2,740,000
Bonomo had strengthened his chip lead going into the day but Seidel seized control of the final table quickly by sending
Rick Salomon to the rail in 10th place. With the blinds at 6,000/12,000 and a 2,000 ante, Seidel raised to 30,000 from the hijack and Salomon re-raised to 80,000 from the cutoff. Seidel called and the flop came Kc-3c-3h. Seidel checked, Salomon bet 155,000 and Seidel check-raised the minimum. Salomon moved all in for about 700,000 total and Seidel called having his opponent nearly drawing dead:
Salomon:
Seidel:
The turn and river were no help to Salomon and Seidel chipped up to around 2.7 million. After
Ashton Griffin (ninth) and
Sam Trickett (eighth) were eliminated, Seidel did more destruction by knocking out
Randy Dorfman in seventh place.
Cary Katz finished in sixth place and out of the money, leaving the remaining five players with a minimum payday of $224,160. Bonomo was the next to go, mistiming a three-bet shove with Qs-9s into the Kh-Qc of Erick Lindgren, who used his newfound chips to claim the chip lead over
Vivek Rajkumar. He’d soon get all of Rajkumar’s chips on a hand that Vivek won’t soon forget. Here’s how it went down according to the
WPT Live Updates team:
Vivek Rajkumar raises to 125,000 from under the gun and Erick Lindgren reraises to 400,000 out of the big blind. Rajkumar four-bets to 760,000 and Lindgren announces he is all-in, having Rajkumar’s 2.3 million-chip stack covered.
Rajkumar calls with As-Ah and Lindgren gets a laugh from the table as he turns over Jd-9s.
The 6d-3c-2d flop was a safe one for Rajkumar, but Lindgren pairs up and picks up a diamond draw when the turn comes 9d. The river Js gives Lindgren two pair and cracks Rajkumar’s aces to eliminate him in third place.
That left Seidel and Negreanu chasing the monster stack of Lindgren, who continued his hot run by eliminating his close friend Daniel in third place toward the end of the day. Negreanu 3-bet all-in preflop with pocket fours, Lindgren called with Ah-6h, and the board brought an ace to send Negreanu out the door with $448,320.
Seidel and Lindgren played heads up for more than three hours before the final level of the day came to an end. The two players were given the option of playing it out Thursday night or coming back to finish the tournament Friday afternoon. Both agreed to call it a day, so play was paused for the evening and the two players bagged their chips.
Here’s how the stacks compare heading into Friday’s heads-up match (blinds will begin at 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante):
Erik Seidel — 7,120,000
Erick Lindgren — 4,480,000
Meanwhile, the six-handed final table of the
$25,000 WPT Championship will commence at 4:00 p.m. Friday. 2011
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) champion
Galen Hall and Scott Seiver lead the way, but a talented group of players also have their eyes on the $1.6 million prize. Here’s a look at the table draw heading into the day:
Seat 1: Galen Hall — 5,095,000
Seat 2: Justin Young — 1,750,000
Seat 3: Tony Gargano — 3,550,000
Seat 4: Roger Teska — 3,600,000
Seat 5: Scott Seiver — 5,075,000
Seat 6: Freddy Bonyadi — 2,470,000
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the results of both events from the Fontana Lounge at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
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