WSOP Day 14 recap sees Ted Gillis and Kory Kilpatrick win their first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets; Dominik Nitsche leading a final table in search of his third, and Doug Polk also on course to slap a piece of jewelry on his wrist.
The 45th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has seen the professional poker players take the large majority of the bracelets.
Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago have been knocking 10-bells out of Rocky.
Then on the 14th day Rocky triumphed in the shape of Ted Gillis. A single father, who confessed during his post win interview that he hardly plays poker, taking down Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for the huge sum of $514,027.
Prior to this tournament, Gillis only had three minor cashes to his name and was facing the legendary John Hennigan in heads-up action. Fortunately, Gillis took the chip lead into heads-up after eliminating Dejan Divkovic, in third place, and was able to overcome his more experienced opponent after just 27 hands of action.
So how did a rank amateur stumble his way through a field of 2,086 players?
“I won hands and got a lot of luck. A lot of luck,” Gillis told PokerNews after his win.
Final Table Standings
1st. Ted Gillis – $514,027
2nd. John Hennigan – $319,993
3rd. Dejan Divkovic – $222,429
4th. Jacobo Fernandez – $160,193
5th. Mustapha Kanit – $117,079
6th. Jaime Kaplan – $86,609
7th. Hiren Patel – $64,911
8th. Edison Shields – $49,267
9th. Dylan Thomassie – $37,834
Kory Kilpatrick Wins Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Win two SNGs and before you know it you are playing for a bracelet.
It’s seems so easy doesn’t it?
Yes and no.
The shootout format means that the final table is almost always stacked, and this one was no exception.
Phil Galfond, a player many believe to be the best in the world, was making his second final table appearance of the summer; Dylan Linde, a coach on Galfond’s site RunItOnce, was making his third deep run of this series, and Taylor Paur was making his second final table of the series.
So whilst all eyes were on that particular trio, it left Kory Kilpatrick to quietly go about his business, and man did Kilpatrick do the business.
Linde got unfortunate when he got it in good KK vs AQ, only for an ace on the flop to stick a knife into his gut. Then his boss was out in sixth spot when he moved all-in holding [As] [4s] and was picked off by the [Ac] [Jc] of Jack Duong.
Paur’s eliminated was squeezed between the RunItOnce gang, when his pocket eights lost out to the pocket jacks of Noah Bronstein to leave the party in seventh spot.
Kilpatrick disposed of Wasserson in heads-up action to take his first piece of WSOP hardware: AJ v JT the final hand of the night to hand Kilpatrick a $254,891 payday.
Final Table Standings
1st. Kory Kilpatrick – $254,891
2nd. Eric Wasserson – $157,490
3rd. Noah Bronstein – $115,659
4th. Jack Duong – $85,616
5th. Chris Bell – $63,877
6th. Phil Galfond – $48,043
7th. Taylor Paur – $36,414
8th. Michael Stonehill – $27,812
9th. Dylan Linde – $21,409
The Best of the Rest
Dominik Nitsche is staring down the barrel of his third WSOP bracelet in as many years and his second one of 2014, after winning the 2014 WSOP National Championships in Atlantic City just days before all the Las Vegas fun began.
At the time of writing, Nitsche has managed to wade through 2,043 players to lead the final five in Event #21: $1,000 NLHE, with $335,659 up top.
Jeff Gross (6th), Erwann Pecheux (11th), Mickey Petersen (14th), Timothy Adams (18th) and Jason Senti (21st) just a few of the luminaries that also had a great run in this slugfest.
Nitsche has a slight chip lead, but there isn’t much separating the four of the five players as they play down to the final table.
Event #22: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship is also heading towards a climax with 13 players remaining at the time of writing.
Randy Ohel is the current chip leader, but it’s a whose-who of mixed game specialists left in the field including the red hot Calvin Anderson, Frenchmen David Benyamine and Bruno Fitoussi, and the British pro Richard Ashby, who came second in the recent $10K Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event,
Finally, there are 1,473 players entered Event #23: $1,000 Turbo NLHE, and at the end of the first day of action, the final table of nine is set. Doug “WCGRider” Polk leading a final table that sees Tony Gregg also take a pew.
