For several agonizing seconds, it looked as though Oleskii Kovalchuk’s first trip to a bandar judi pulsa final table would be a brief one. With his set of fours floundering against Anthony Ruberto’s set of jacks, he sat quietly, awaiting his fate. But somehow, down to his final out, Kovalchuck drew the final four in the deck, giving him four of a kind to beat his opponent’s newly full house. With the momentum now in his court, the 21 year-old from the Ukraine began his march toward victory.
That was the story in the 26th event of this year’s World Series of Poker, a $2,500 6-handed match of No Limit Hold’em. A total of 1,378 people dropped the necessary buy-in, bringing the total prize pool to $3,134,950. The top 126 players received a return on their investment, with a minimum payout of $5,235.
Prior to his win in Event 26, Kovalchuck had posted a pair of cashes in this year’s WSOP. The first came in Event 10 (NLHE, Six-Handed, $1,500) with a 99th place finish, followed by a 105th place berth in Event 22 (PL Omaha, $1,500). For his latest effort, the youngster netted $689,739.
All in all, the young man has collected a sizable haul in his first outing with the WSOP. But, as he told reporters, monetary value plays only a small roll in his desire to play:
“I feel very happy. I do not know what to say. I do not think about the money. The money is second to me. I wanted the gold bracelet and to win.”
Here’s the final table rundown on Event 26:
#1 – Oleksii Kovalchuk ($689,739)
#2 – Anton Ionel ($428,140)
#3 – Chris Moorman ($271,800)
#4 – Dan O’Brien ($179,162)
#5 – Mazin Khoury ($121,416)
#6 – Anthony Ruberto ($84,549)
Mark Rodoja has claimed the crown in the World Series of Poker’s twenty-fourth event of 2011, taking home $436,568 for his efforts.
The event itself featured a $5,000 buy-in, running a three-round shootout of No Limit Texas Hold’em. 387 players ponied up the necessary cash, bringing the field’s total prize pool to $1,818,900. Among those finishing in the money were noted pros Erik Seidel, Gavin Smith, and James Akenhead, each of whom pocketed $13,368.
In the end, Radoja, a 25 year-old grinder from Ontario, walked away with his first bracelet and ninth WSOP cash over the past five years. Specifically, he hails from the small town of Guelph, which has produced several prominent poker names.
“You will not find a tougher $5,000 or lower buy-in field for the World Series,” said the Canadian-born champ, “or anywhere else in the world than this one. This was the best field ever assembled for a tournament like this. You can ask anyone in it… I was fortunate, because two of the best players went out early. You have to catch cards at the right time. Looking back, I have no regrets about decisions I made. But you have to get lucky too, along the way. I played my best, got lucky at times, and here I am.”
The event will be remembered for its wild chip swings, which nearly cost Radoja his berth at the final table. Things got particularly dicey during his second round heads-up match, when he squared off against Yasuhiro Waki. Asked to describe the encounter the eventual winner described it as “definitely the most epic heads-up ever.
“I would say no one has ever had a heads-up match like that before,” the winner told ESPN. “I had him 550,000 to 50,000. Then, he had me 550,000 to my 50,000. I came back and won. At one point, he had flopped trips on an 8-8-6 board. He had A-8 and I had A-6. I ended up making the runner-runner flush, or I wouldn’t even be here. There were so many incredible, mind-boggling things that happened when we were heads-up.”
Among the biggest personalities at the final table were runner up Jeffery Gross (who logged his highest in-the-money finish to date), and ninth place finisher Sean Getzwiller, who just days before had captured a bracelet in Event 8, a $1,000 NLHE affair.
