Home / Poker News June 2009 / Greg Mueller scores second WSOP bracelet in $1,500 Limit Holdem shootout
Greg Mueller scores second WSOP bracelet in $1,500 Limit Holdem shootout
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2009-06-30 15:16
The 2009 WSOP has a 4th double bracelet winner. Greg Mueller just won the $1,500 Limit Holdem shootout after he’d won the $10,000 World Championship Limit Holdem event earlier.
Phil Ivey, Jeffrey Lisandro and Brock Parker have also won two bracelets each so far.
Mueller’s triumph came in event #50, the final day of which featured an 8-player field and equal 450,000 chip starting stacks. Each player who’d made it to the final table had survived 2 similar Single Table Tournaments earlier in the event.
Mueller was the man with the plan early on day 3. He hit a runner-runner flush with his Ah,10h on a board of Ac,Js,6h,2h,8h and got called on every street by Joep van den Bijgaart. That hit didn’t send van den Bijgaart to the rail yet though. The first victim of the final table was Jose Barbero. He got all-in against Mueller on a flop of Ah,7h,10c with Kh, 2h for the flush draw, against Mueller’s As, 10s. The turn and the river failed to fill his flush though and he was done in 8th place.
Van den Bijgaart fell next, when he ran his Q,8 into Marc Naalden’s A,10 and Naalden proceeded to catch an A on the flop.
Following the dinner break, Flaminio Malaguti decided to make his final stand on an A,K he’d picked up. David Williams called him with A,5. The flop fell 2,6,10 and Malaguti was still looking good. His hopes were shattered though by the turn and the river which fell 5 and 4 giving Williams a straight and sending Malaguti home.
Greg Mueller bounced Matt Sterling in 5th place after the latter had had his pocket rockets cracked in a previous hand to remain crippled.
David Williams busted in 4th place, picking up $51,145 for his efforts. Mueller was responsible for his elimination and he was the one who bounced Millie Shiu in 3rd too.
Thanks to all these eliminations, Mueller entered the heads-up action against Marc Naalden on a huge 4-1 chip lead. Naalden himself had already secured a bracelet this year, so by the heads-up stage it was clear that someone would repeat.
Despite the chip lead he started with, it took Mueller over 2 hours to dispose of Naalden. Naalden managed to even the chip count after only a few hands.
The chip lead then went back and forth or a while, until Mueller managed to take a decisive advantage, which he didn’t relinquish. It still took him another 30 minutes to bounce Naalden. The final hand of the tournament saw Naalden’s K,2o going up against Mueller’s K,5o. The board gave both players a pair of Ks but Mueller’s superior kicker was enough to make the difference.
Greg Mueller picked up $194,854 for his win.
