Home / Poker News September 2009 / WCOOP Day 17 – David Williams secures bracelet
WCOOP Day 17 – David Williams secures bracelet
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2009-09-23 07:41
Day 17 marked a milestone in the 2009 WCOOP. It was the second straight day in which two professional players managed to emerge victorious and take home their WCOOP bracelets. On the previous day, it was Frenchman Bertrand Grospellier and Terrence Chan who walked away with WCOOP titles, on day 17, it was David Williams and Justin Young who struck gold.
Event #41 was the first of the day. The $500+$3- PL Omaha event attracted a field of 526 players, which gave birth to a $263,000 prize-pool.
Justin Young, known online as “robert07” took on “AB_illusive” heads-up, holding a 2-1 chip lead. AB_illusive fought back though, and soon took over the lead. After a few more hands, AB_illusive looked poised to take the title, but he suffered a serious bad beat which set him back for good.
The hand – which turned out to be the decisive one in the economy of the heads-up confrontation – started with AB_illusive’s raise. Young made the call and the flop fell: 9h,Jd,7c. Young checked and then raised AB_illusive’s bet. AB_illusive made the call and the turn fell the 7c. Slowing the pace of the action down, both players opted to check after the flop, to see the 9c fall on the river. This was the card that sparked off the action: Young three bet all in and after some deliberating, AB_illusive made the call. Young showed 7,7,Q,6 against AB_illusive’s 3,8,9,J whose boat was no match for his quads. This hand turned the tide of the action and a few hands later Young hammered his advantage home, winning the bracelet and the $52,600 first prize. Other better known players to finish in noteworthy positions were: Ryan Nathan (who finished 9th), David Baker (11th) and Yadin Shemmer (12th).
Event #42, the $2,000+$100 8-game mix, attracted a starting field of only 245 players, but because of the generous size of the buy-ins, the prize-pool swelled to $490,000. Another result of the large buy-in was the fact that well bankrolled professionals dominated the field at the expense of the masses of amateurs who usually flood smaller buy-in events.
The final stage of the event reflected this state of affairs extremely well. The heads-up action was between two players every poker fan knows: David Williams (his online nick “RugDoctor”) and Alexander Kostritsyn (known online as “joiso”).
Kostritsyn began the heads-up stage in the lead, but he failed to capitalize on his advantage. Williams managed to turn the tables on him in a Stud hand which saw Kostritsyn begin with a pair of Ks in his pocket. On 5th street though, Williams made a set of 8s and he proceeded to fleece Kostritsyn whose boat draw failed to fill up.
That hand left Kostritsyn crippled, so shoving it all in on the very next hand looked like a perfectly reasonable move for him. Unfortunately, Williams got the better of him again, taking down the final hand, the WCOOP bracelet and the $107,800 pot that came with it.
Rami Boukai finished 8th in the event, while Casey Jarzabek secured a $4,410 prize, by finishing 21st.
