Home / Poker News November 2008 / It’s Demidov vs Eastgate heads-up for the title
It’s Demidov vs Eastgate heads-up for the title
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2008-11-10 12:47
The long wait which preceded the Big Dance’s final table is over. The 9 players still in the books were finally allowed earlier today to battle it out for the biggest prize in live poker and the prestige that comes with becoming the owner of a
WSOP Main Event bracelet.
The participants, also known as the “November 9” were: Peter Eastgate, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz, Dennis Phillips (in the chip lead), Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Ivan Demidov and Kelly Kim (the short-stack).
Quite surprisingly, even though he held a micro-stack going into the final table action, it was not Kelly Kim who busted out first. That “honor” befell Craig Marquis, who pushed his pair of 7s all-in against Scott Montgomery’s A,Q. Marquis hit a set on the flop, but the turn and the river gave Montgomery a Broadway straight to push Marquis to the rail. This way, Craig failed to add any money to the 9th place dough he had already pocketed in July.
The second to go was Kelly Kim, and he could probably be called the moral winner of the day. Having come into the game on a micro stack, he busted out right after Marquis, (his 4,4 fell to Suharto’s 9,9), and took home an additional $387,547 to make it a total of $1.29 million.
David Rheem busted out in 7th followed by Darus Suharto in 6th. Suharto shoved all-in on an A,8 only to be called by Montgomery with A,Q. Sure enough, Montgomery hit a flush to send Suharto to the payout line in earnest.
The joy of making it at least to 5th place was short-lived for Scott Montgomery though. His last hand was a real heart-breaker: he managed to pair his ace up on the flop, and it looked like he definitely had it all in the bag against Eastgate’s 6,6 when he hit a set on the turn. The 6 on the river however was one of only two cards that could beat him at that stage, as it gave Eastgate a boat.
Ylon Schwartz decided to pull a bluff on Peter Eastgate in the wrong moment. Eastgate had made a boat again and he was all too eager to call Schwartz’s bluff sending him packing in 4th in possession of a $3.78 million prize.
Dennis Phillip’s elimination in 3rd position set the final table and signaled the end of the hostilities for Sunday, with the heads-up stage being scheduled for Monday. Phillips too tried to bluff Eastgate out of a hand, unaware that the latter held a set of 3s.
The battle which decides the champion will take place tomorrow, between Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate who has built a considerable chip lead and thus will start out in control of the proceedings.
