Home / Poker News June 2009 / Pete Vilandos wins $1,500 NL Holdem event to secure his second bracelet
Pete Vilandos wins $1,500 NL Holdem event to secure his second bracelet
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-06-15 15:55
Pete Vilandos, the veteran poker pro who’s earned his first WSOP bracelet back in 1995, secured his second one in the $1,500 NL Holdem event of the 2009 WSOP. He beat a field of 2,506 players and denied internet-pruned youngsters the boasting rights in this one.
This was Vilandos’ second final table presence at this year’s WSOP, and the $607,256 that he received as prize-money was certainly one of his better – if not the best – WSOP cashes.
Day 3 featured but 19 of the 2,506 players who registered for the event and the field would soon fit onto 2 tables, following the elimination of Chris Sparks who started the day on a short-stack and was under pressure to get something going. He went all-in on his pocket 7s and got called by David Lerman whose big slick made short work of him on a board of A,A,K,K. Roberto Truijers, Andrew Seden, Roberto Corea and Ali Davoudi also busted out early.
Mihai Manole was eliminated in 14th, when he shoved on his A,K against Michael Greco’s pocket 10s. The board didn’t give Manole the break he was looking for and he was done.
After players were consolidated to a 10-handed final table, the official final table came about quickly. Ernst Hermans became the final table bubble boy when Ronnie Kevin sent him packing in 10th.
Brian Fitzpatrick was the first elimination of the final table. He got all his chips in with A,8 and was thoroughly dominated by Vilandos’ A,10. No miracle card came on the board for Fitzpatrick who was thus out in 9th.
Ronnie Kevin was the next victim, sent home by the increasingly dominating Pete Vilandos. Kevin got all his money in on A,Q and Vilandos didn’t think twice about making the call with his pocket Ks.
David Lerman was shown to the rail next in a three-way hand, followed shortly by Andy Jaffray. Pete Vilandos was guilty of this elimination too, as well as of Dean Hamrick’s, who became closely acquainted with the rail in 5th place.
Andy Seth bounced Glenn McCaffrey next and riding the momentum, he disposed of Michael Greco too to secure a slight chip lead on Vilandos going into heads-up play.
The heads-up action was a fairy balanced back and forth affair for a while, until Vilandos managed to cripple Seth, crushing his A,Q with an A,K that saw no improvement with the board.
The final hand saw Vilandos slam his A,5o against Seth’s A,Jo. Vilandos then went on to make a straight on the turn to pocket the prize money and his second WSOP bracelet.
