Home / Poker News July 2008 / Matt Graham mounts huge comeback, takes last bracelet in event #53, the $1,500 Limit Holdem shootout
Matt Graham mounts huge comeback, takes last bracelet in event #53, the $1,500 Limit Holdem shootout
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2008-07-06 09:23
Event #53 was the last WSOP side-event before the $10,000 Big Dance. This year, it was an extremely disputed one. Round 2 saw 90 players belly up to the tables, out of which Matt Graham, who’s already had 3 money finishes this year, would become the last one standing at the end of the day. Graham would come back from a 1,100,000 chip deficit against Jean-Robert Bellande in the head-up stage, producing one of the most spectacular finishes in any WSOP event this year. The bracelet – which was the last side-event one this year – was accompanied by a $278,180 prize.
As Round 2 began, Tony “The Lizard” Bloom became the first casualty only a few hands into the action. Other big names like Rhett Butler, Kenna James, Hoyt Corkins and Mike Vattel would soon follow. The final hand of Round 2 had Matt Graham faced with Duane Graff on just about equal stacks. Matt’s Q,4 held up against Graff’s A,K as he caught top pair and the latter failed to get anything going. With that bust-out, Matt Graham clinched the last berth at the final table, where he would be joined by Jean-Robert Bellande, Danny Wong, Joe De Niro, John Kranyak, Michael Kackhan, Andrew Prock, Spencer Lawrence and Brandon Wong.
Michael Kachan, who had taken some hits earlier, would be the first to leave for the rail, at the hands of Brandon Wong. The prize of $7,526 he earned for his 9th –place finish wouldn’t be much of a consolation either.
Prock made the right move and shoved all-in on his A,Q next, faced with Joe De Niro’s A,J, but the whole thing blew up in his face when the flop came A,J,3 and he found himself unable to improve on later streets.
The next bust-out would go down on an eerily similar hand, only the outcome would be different this time. De Niro held the A,Q against Kranyak’s A,J. This time, the hand with the better mathematical expectation came through, sending Kranyak to the rail in 7th.
Spencer Lawrence ran into Jean-Robert Bellande’s monster stack next, followed to the rail by Danny Wong few hands later.
Brandon Wong ended up in 4th and Joe De Niro in 3rd as he got swept out by Bellande. After such a dominating performance, Bellande held a 1,900,000 vs 800,000 lead against Matt Graham heading into the heads-up.
Graham pulled off some pretty hair-raising moves to reel Bellande in. The two struggled for the chip-lead for a while, but it swung Graham’s way eventually. The final hand was Graham’s A,J thoroughly dominating Bellande’s 9,7. The board brought only blanks and Graham completed one of the most spectacular comebacks of this year’s WSOP.
