Home / Poker News July 2011 / 2011 WSOP – Brian Rast Wins $50k Players’ Championship Event
2011 WSOP – Brian Rast Wins $50k Players’ Championship Event
Posted by: Randy Williams - Fri, 2011-07-08 09:13
Nine players returned to the tables of the $50k Players’ Championship event on the final day of the tournament. Among them was Phil Hellmuth, the ex-
UB pro, who was looking for his 12th career bracelet, and who had a more than decent stack to build on. The official final table was still to be reached when the action commenced, but Jason Lester’s elimination in 9th place soon solved that predicament. Lester fell at the hands of chip leader Minh Ly, whose A,8 spiked a two pair on the turn to best Lester’s A,K.
The final table of the event was played in a NL Holdem format. Brian Rast, Ben Lamb and Ahmed Owais were among the final table contenders as well. Phil Hellmuth was 5th in chips at that stage.
The first significant move at the final table was Hellmuth’s. The Poker Brat got all his chips into the middle with pocket Js on a board of Qd, Jd, 5s against Brian Rast’s 5d, 7d. The turn and the river both missed Rast and the pot gave Hellmuth enough chips to clinch the lead.
Ben Lamb became the first victim of the final table when his A,2o fell to Scott Seiver’s A,Jo.
Rast started his final sprint when there were 4 players left in contention. He managed to score a huge double-up which instantly propelled him to the top. Hellmuth fought back by eliminating Ahmed Owais in 4th place to add his victim’s chips to his stack.
Minh Ly soon found himself the short-stack and eventually he too donated his chips to Hellmuth, who thus shot into the lead again and made yet another heads-up stage in this year’s Series.
The two players started out nearly even, but then Hellmuth pulled ahead before Rast managed an awesome comeback. They were then head-to-head again for a while until it all suddenly came to an end.
The two players shoved on a flop of Jd,10,9d and Rast tabled K,Q, for the nut straight. Hellmuth had 8d, 2d for the flush draw and the straight redraw. The 5h on the turn and the 8s on the river put the final nail into Hellmuth’s tournament life.
Rast walked away with a $1.7 million prize.
