Mohsin Charania becomes the 21st person to win multiple World Poker Tour titles, after overcoming unbelievable odds to defeat Garrett Greer, in heads-up action, to capture the crown at the World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
If we were casting parts in a poker presentation of David and Goliath one would hand Mohsin Charania the sling. He would probably want the great big club – I mean who wouldn’t – but he has proven that he doesn’t need it. He plays the part of the underdog to perfection, and he can aim, fire and overcome with the accuracy that most can only dream of.
In October 2013, I was fortunate enough to stand in the Aviation Club de France (ACF) as Charania prepared for his heads-up encounter with the over-powering Vasili Firsau. I’m not talking about the stench of the Belarusian’s armpits. I thought he had quite a sweet odor about the man. I am talking about his 7:1 chip advantage. Now that’s what I call a club.
It just happened again.
Mohsin Charania has overcome a 9:1 chip disadvantage, against the BLUFF.com Ones to Watch, Garrett Greer, to win the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic. He has slain another giant. Not in man, but in gaps in chips. And in doing so he has become the 21st player to win multiple WPT Main Event titles, and taken his total live tournament earnings up to $4.7m.
According to the WPT Live Reporting blog, Charania’s fight back started way back at the beginning of Day 4. There were 78 players left with chips and Charania was acting in the role of Atlas whilst everyone else tried to squeeze him into the dirt. 77 chip stacks higher than his. It didn’t worry him, it didn’t faze him; he just took one hand at a time until he was standing at a cage figuring out the best way to shepherd $1.4m into Chicago.
It was a stacked final table. The 13th season of the WPT is well under way, but that hasn’t stopped the poker giant from releasing the names of seven players they believe will have a big impact during the 2015 half of that tour. Amongst those Ones to Watch are Garrett Greer and he set about proving the picker right by coming so close to winning this thing before Charania worked his magic.
Unbelievably, the multiple World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Brett Shaffer, was making his first-ever WPT Main Event cash. His pocket nines failing to overcome the [Kh] [Qh] of the one-man battering ram Greer, after a flush flooded the turn. One half of the impressive Julius brothers also made the final table. Once again it was pocket nines breaking its neck against the wall of Schaffer as a pair of aces expelled Ryan Julius in fourth.
What a year it has been for Ryan Fee. The online cash game wizard proving to all and sundry that when it comes to poker he has a wand for every occasion. Fee’s fifth place finish – running pocket aces into Greer’s set of jacks – was his sixth major final table of the year, and he ends it with $2.5m in live tournament earnings.
Then you had the customary German; this time in the formidable shape of Tobias Reinkemeier – in town for the WPT Alpha8 action. The fifth place finisher in this years WSOP Big One for One Drop not getting any traction going in this one, after being shown the door first when his [Ah] [Th] was unable to overcome the power of Greer’s pocket jacks.
What does it take to overcome a 9:1 chip disadvantage?
Charania worked it out. You need to double up five times. That was the magical number. Greer will wake up this morning in a mixed frame of mind. The $869,683 will make it feel like a good few days work, but one assumes he will also be feeling like he has lost something – a something that now belongs to the man with the sling.
WPT Five Diamond Final Table Results
1st. Mohsin Charania – $1,477,890
2nd. Garrett Greer – $869,683
3rd. Brett Shaffer – $562,736
4th. Ryan Julius – $272,842
5th. Ryan Fee – $272,842
6th. Tobias Reinkemeier – $218,842
The WPT is back Jan 25-30 for the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open.
