Home / Poker News June 2009 / Tomas Alenius wins $1,500 Limit Holdem event
Tomas Alenius wins $1,500 Limit Holdem event
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2009-06-16 04:31
The final day of the $1,500 Limit Holdem event - event #26 of the 2009 WSOP - saw 15 survivors belly up to the tables. The field included some Limit Holdem specialists like Richard Brodie and Al Barbieri, but at the end of the day, it was Tomas Alenius who stood victorious, pocketing the $197,488 first prize.
Al Barbieri started the day in the chip lead, and as soon as the action kicked off, the pressure was on the short-stacks to make their do or die moves. As a result of the early short-stack action, no fewer than 4 players busted out over the first 20 minutes.
John Varner was one of these players. He put his tournament life on the line with A,Qo and lost the coin-flip against a caller’s pocket 9s.
Mike Schiffman was another early victim as his J,10o proved to be no match for Richard Brodie’s K,Qo.
Andrew Kerstin made his all-in move on pocket 5s, unfortunately for him though, he got called by Rep Porter’s pocket 10s which proved too much for his 5s to tackle.
Glenn Engelbert crippled Ken Dickenson to push him onto the edge of extinction. His last 6,000 chips on the line, Dickenson moved all-in on a pair of 9s only to be called by Richard Brodie’s Ah, Qh. Unfortunately for Dickenson, an A came on the flop and he never managed to catch up from there.
With his elimination, the remaining 10 players were consolidated to a single table but another player needed to go before the official final table could be set.
That player was Richard Brodie himself, as his A,J did manage to make a pair of Js on the turn, but ultimately lost the race against Jason Tam’s rivered flush.
Cole Miller became the first victim of the final table and Engelbert was quick to send Kim-Phong Duong after him.
Rep Porter exited next at the hands of Demetrios Arvanetes, followed by Dominik Kulicki who was bounced by Jason Tam.
Arvanetes fell in 5th place, in a three-way pot in which Engelbert and Alenius combined forces to eject him. Engelbert then dropped a huge pot to Al Barbieri and suddenly found himself on the brink of elimination. He decided to take his chances on a Qs,7s, but unfortunately for him, Alenius had landed pocket rockets in that hand.
Barbieri was the next victim, his J,10 falling to Jason Tam’s A,Ko. This elimination gave Tam a huge chip lead going into the heads-up stage against Alenius.
Alenius mounted a successful comeback though and pretty soon he turned the tables on his opponent. The final hand of the event featured Alenius’ A,4o going up against Tam’s Q,5o. The board fell 10,6,2,K,K and Tam was eliminated in second place.
