Home / Poker News June 2009 / John Kabbaj scores first WSOP bracelet in $10,000 World Championship PL Holdem event
John Kabbaj scores first WSOP bracelet in $10,000 World Championship PL Holdem event
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2009-06-27 14:35
The $10,000 World Championship PL Holdem event of the 2009 WSOP attracted an initial field of 245. After two days of action, only 14 of the initial 245 players returned to the tables. At the end of the final day, it was John Kabbaj who held his freshly acquired WSOP bracelet up, the $633,335 first prize in his pocket.
Kabbaj’s win came after a marathon final table session, the culmination of which saw him best Kirill Gerasimov heads-up for his first ever WSOP bracelet.
High buy-in events always attract some of the biggest names, and event #45 was no different. Jason Lester, Isaac Haxton and Eric Baldwin were all among the 14 day 3 participants but they all failed to stop Kabbaj’s march to victory. Kabbaj started the day on a huge chip lead and he managed to hammer that edge right home, despite the high-profile foes’ trying to stop him.
Thomas Pettersson started the day on a short-stack and he became the first victim of the final day. Billy Kopp was the one who knocked Pettersson out, but he wouldn’t last long either. Following Ken Lennaard’s and Michael Kamran’s eliminations, he hit the rail too in 11th position.
Mohsin Charania was the final table bubble boy. He was eliminated in 10th, when his A,J got called by Davidi Kitai’s pocket 9s and the board failed to bail him out.
Daryl Fish started the final table on the shortest stack and sure enough, he became the first victim of it. He was followed to the rail by Isaac Haxton, who shoved all-in on his K,Q against Davidi Kitai’s A,Q in his final hand. The board bricked out and Haxton was done.
Eugene Todd ran his A,Q into Kirill Gerasimov’s pocket Qs to be eliminated next. Jason Lester was ejected in 6th place, but he picked up $110,431 for his efforts, which meant that he was the first to finish in six-figures.
JC Alvarado found no help on the board when he rammed his A,Q into John Kabbaj’s pocket 10s. Alvarado picked up $138,175 for his 5th place finish.
Davidi Kitai fell next at the hands of Kirill Gerasimov. He shoved all-in on pocket 5s against Gerasimov’s K,10 and the Russian went on to spike a K on the river to send the one time chip leader to the payout booth.
Eric Balwin finished 3rd when his A,J got cracked by Gerasimov’s A,9 as the latter caught two pairs on the flop.
The heads-up stage of the game was a back and forth affair in beginning. It took Kabbaj about 9 hands to take the lead, and from there on it was all downhill for his Russian opponent. The final hand of the event saw Gerasimov’s K,K go up against Kabbaj’s A,A on a board which failed to alter the preflop match-up. Thus, Gerasimov was done in 2nd and he picked up $391,369.
