Home / Poker News July 2009 / Matt Hawrilenko pockets $5,000 Short Handed NL Holdem bracelet
Matt Hawrilenko pockets $5,000 Short Handed NL Holdem bracelet
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-07-05 11:13
The final side-event of the 2009 WSOP featured a hefty buy-in and nice payouts for the top finishers. 16 players returned on the third day of the $5,000 Short-handed NL Holdem event to fight for the last gold bracelet to be awarded this summer and for the more than $1 million first prize.
Rory Matthews started the final day in the chip lead, with 1,358,000 chips. He was followed on the provisional chip leader-board by Peter Feldman and Matt Hawrilenko. At the end of it all, it was Matt Hawrilenko who clinched the victory, at the end of a short but intense heads-up match against Josh Brikis.
The first victim of the final day was Frank Calo. Calo first took a big hit and dropped most of his chips when his pocket Qs went under. Seriously short-stacked, he then pushed all-in against Sean Keeton, who then proceeded to hit top pair on the flop to eliminate Calo in 16th.
Eugene Katchalov went up against James St. Hilaire next, on an A,Q vs A,10 match-up. Unfortunately for him, St. Hilaire caught a 10 on the flop to make a pair and then spiked an A on the river to seal his fate in 15th.
Peter Feldman gradually bled his chips away early in the day, and soon he went from second place on the chip leader board to short-stack. Feldman’s A,K lost a classic race against Aurelien Guiglini’s pocket 10s. Feldman then pushed all-in against Thorsten Schaefer on a flopped set of 4s. Unfortunately for him, Schaefer had flopped pocket 5s and Feldman was done in 14th.
Aurelien Guiglini was eliminated in 13th, followed to the rail shortly by John Conkright in 12th. Rory Matthews, the earlier chip leader, was eliminated in 11th.
Alex Venovski ran out of chips in 10th place and James St. Hilaire followed him to the rail in 9th. Thorsten Shaefer fell in 8th, but a further elimination was needed for the official final table to be set.
Robert Kay became the final table bubble boy when he was eliminated in 7th, by Josh Brikis.
Matt Waxman then proceeded to run his A,10 into Josh Brikis’ pocket kings to become the first victim of the final table.
Brikis then eliminated Jonas Wexler, this time on an A,Q vs K,Q match-up. 4th place went to Sean Keeton, when his A,Q fell victim to Matt Hawrilenko’s pocket Jacks. Faraz Jaka was ejected in 3rd place, by the same Hawrilenko, who thus managed to secure the chip lead going into the heads-up stage against Josh Brikis.
Due to Hawrilenko’s overwhelming chip advantage, the fate of the title was decided in a mere 4 hands. The final hand featured Hawrilenko’s pocket Js going up against Brikis’ A,9 on a flop of 2,8,8. The turn brought a 3 and the river a 10 to seal Brikis’ tournament fate and to give Hawrilenko the last WSOP bracelet of the summer.
