Home / Poker News June 2011 / 2011 WSOP – Zhukov wins first World Championship Event
2011 WSOP – Zhukov wins first World Championship Event
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2011-06-10 13:35
The English language may not be Vyaceslav Zhukov’s friend yet, but that did not prevent the Russian from hoisting up the first World Championship bracelet awarded by the
2011 WSOP, at the end of the $10k Omaha Hi/Lo event. Three players showed up for the final day of the event: Zhukov, Steve Billirakis – who only had about 3 Big Blinds in his stack, and George Lind. The tree of them were all that remained of an initial starting field of 201 players, who took 3 days to bust out, setting up the 3-handed final day.
Throughout the entire 4-day ordeal, Zhukov didn’t say a whole lot, although in the end, bracelet in hand, he saw it fit to declare: “I’m exhausted”.
Billirakis’ chips were barely enough to give him a taste of the day 4 action. Before he knew it, he was all-in and called by both his opponents. The board fell 8,5,Q,J,K and both Lind and Zhukov were still in the hand. Eventually, a bet from the Russian prompted Lind to get out of the way. Zhukov then showed down a set of Ks against Billirakis’ two pair, to seal the deal.
The heads-up stage of the tournament lasted for a massive 3 hours. The ups and downs came in relatively quick succession for both players, but eventually Zhukov managed to build up a bit of a lead. The final hand came on the 32nd level, but a crucial hand went down about 10 minutes earlier: on a flop of 5,K,10 rainbow, Lind check-called a bet from Zhukov, and then swung into action on the 9d on the turn. The Jd on the river prompted another bet from Lind, but Zhukov countered with a raise and Lind folded and fell to 1.4 million chips.
The final hand of the event saw Zhukov hit a straight for the win and it was all over. Lind picked up $287k for his efforts.
