Home / Poker News September 2009 / WSOPE News: JP Kelly wins £1,000 event
WSOPE News: JP Kelly wins £1,000 event
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2009-09-24 09:19
JP Kelly, the young British who had been hanging around the top of the chip leader board all event long, managed to win the WSOPE London’s £1,000 event in a spectacular fashion.
Having survived a starting field of 608 players, JP Kelly took on none other than the final table chip leader, Fabien Dunlop, in the heads-up stage. Having to overcome a 3-1 chip deficit, Kelly stormed from behind to win the event and to take home the £136,803 top prize.
This title is Kelly’s second WSOP win in 2009. He had taken down a WSOP bracelet in the summer, in the $1,500 PL Holdem event. This latest success makes him the first ever player to secure a WSOP and a WSOPE title during the same year.
This year, it was quite obvious the Brits wouldn’t let this event slip away. Out of the 9 players at the final table, 8 were British, with the exception of the chip leader, Fabien Dunlop, who nearly ended up winning it all anyway.
Despite the fact that the Frenchman made it all the way to heads-up and that he held a healthy chip lead going into it, Kelly revealed after the tournament that - knowing that he was the better heads-up player - he liked his chances against Dunlop.
Sure enough, as soon as the action commenced, Kelly started working off his deficit, and soon he drew even with his opponent. Already under tremendous pressure, Dunlop knew that the psychological edge was on his opponent’s side from that point on. Looking to nip Kelly’s progress in the bud, he committed on a hand which turned out to be the decisive one of the confrontation.
Both players shoved all-in on the flop, holding diamond flush draws. A third diamond did land on the turn, giving Dunlop a J-high flush and Kelly a K-high one. Faced with such a prefect hand situation, Dunlop was probably happy with the call he’d made at that point. The river did nothing to alter the situation and Dunlop’s stack was left in tatters, barely enough to cover a few BBs.
With the Big Blind upon him, there was little he could do but to shove all-in. Unfortunately for him, he had a mere 4,9 suited at that point and Kelly’s Q,J made short work of it.
Dunlop picked up £84,512 for his second place effort.
The second event of the WSOPE London, the £2,500 PL Holdem/PL Omaha one kicked off the same day. 158 players coughed up the £2,500 buy-in in the hope of grabbing a share of the prize-pool which grew to £640,401.
With the money bubble set to 18th place, day one almost managed to burst it, as only 22 players were left in contention for the second day of action. Canada’s Erik Cajelais will lead the survivors into battle on Day 2, having amassed more than 144,000 chips. Tristan Clemencon is in second place. Hoyt Corkins, Men Nguyen, Howard Lederer, Dario Alioto, Vitaly Lunkin and Ian Frazer are also among the survivors.
