Home / Poker News June 2011 / 2011 WSOP – Kirk Caldwell Wins $1,500 NL Holdem Event
2011 WSOP – Kirk Caldwell Wins $1,500 NL Holdem Event
Posted by: Randy Williams - Wed, 2011-06-22 06:11
Day 21 of the
2011 WSOP saw 2 bracelets awarded, one of which nearly ended up in ex-UB pro Phil Hellmuth’s pockets. Hellmuth is certainly on a roll this year, as the $10k Stud 8 or Better Event marked the second time he’s gotten within arm’s reach of his 12th WSOP bracelet.
The one who did pocket a bracelet was Kirk Caldwell though, who won the $1,500 NL Holdem event. The third and final day of the tournament saw 35 players belly up to the tables, looking to at least make the final table. It took the field a few hours to play down to the final stretch. When the final table bubble burst, Ben White had the lead, sitting comfortably behind a monster-stack of 2.46 million chips. Kirk Caldwell wasn’t far behind though: his stack was only about 50k chips flimsier than that of the leader.
Once the final table bubble had burst, the action sped up considerably. It only took about an hour for the field to play down to the final 4. From that point onward, things slowed down a little, but there were no two ways about how things would progress. Down to the heads-up stage, it was Kirk Caldwell squaring off against start of the final table chip leader Ben White. Caldwell had a massive chip lead going into the home dash, but he played it cautiously nonetheless. For a while, the two players probed around, and then suddenly, as if in a flash, the tournament was over.
The final hand of the event saw a preflop all-in after a few raises and re-raises. Caldwell then showed pocket 8s against his opponent’s A,Qo. The classic coin-flip was on, but the 7,9,9 which fell on the flop cooled things a bit. The J on the turn pushed things further out of reach for White, and the 8 on the river sealed the deal for good.
Caldwell picked up $668k for his efforts.
