Home / Poker News June 2009 / Peter Traply wins $5,000 NL Holdem shootout, scores first bracelet
Peter Traply wins $5,000 NL Holdem shootout, scores first bracelet
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-06-26 10:56
300 players had originally registered for event #41 of the 2009 WSOP, the $5,000 NL Holdem shootout. Out of that starting field, only 5 players made it to the final day of action. Day one of the event saw the 300 participants match wits and skills in 30 10-handed single table tournaments. The winners of these tourneys moved on to day two, where they played in 5 6 –handed STTs to advance to the final table. Thus, the final day would start directly with the final table and those who made it all the way to day three had all won two STTs on the two previous days. Everyone at the final table started with equal chip stacks.
Nasr el Nasr started the final table with a plan: he would bet and re-raise and bully the other players into submission through sheer aggression. His plan worked well until Lady Luck decided she’d had enough of him. He managed to get Andrew Lichtenberger all-in while holding pocket rockets against Lichtenberger’s 10,9o. Unfortunately for him, Lichtenberger was hit by the board for two pair and he was left crippled. Nasr got all his chips into the middle a few hands later, on 3,3, against Traply this time and got called by the latter with 8,8. The board brought no changes and Nasr was done in 5th place.
Andrew Lichtenberger had a hand in the elimination of Danny Wong as well. He and Wong got all their money into the middle on the turn of a hand which featured the following board: 10,2,2,7. Wong turned over A,10 for two pair top kicker, but he was way behind Lichtenberger’s pocket Aces and 2s. The river fell a harmless 2h and the field was reduced to three.
Traply and Lichtenberger put their big stacks to work to push Maxim Lykov to the edge of extinction. The final blow was landed by Lichtenberger, when Lykov shoved all-in preflop on his A,10. Lichtenberger had pocket Js and the board fell 3,6,6,2,9 to send Lykov home in 3rd with $145,063 in his pocket.
Immediately after Lykov’s elimination, Lichtenberger made a move shoving all his chips in on A,Q against Traply’s pocket 6s. The flop did land an A but the turn gave Traply a set to cripple Lichtenberger.
Despite the fact that the tournament looked like it was over at that point, Lichtenberger fought back and clawed his way back into contention. After nearly two hours of heads-up play though, he had to concede defeat. The final hand of the event featured Lichtenberger’s A,Jo going up against Traply’s A,K. The board came 5,3,A,Q,Q, and Traply superior kicker gave the young Hungarian his first ever WSOP bracelet, coupled with a prize of $348,728. Lichtenberger took home $215,403 for his efforts.
