Though it won’t help Mike Wattel feel any better, the Arizona guys are out celebrating, as Ryan Hughes won a bracelet tonight — in $1,500 7-stud Hi-Lo. Woot! (Uh-huh, yeah, we go like way back, Ryan and us … we all play 1-to-1,000, baby. OK, but seriously, anyone who even kinda-sorta knew him knew it was only a matter of time before Hughes hit big.)
What’s happened tonight at the WSOP:
The two final tables for today are both heads-up. First, the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event is down to Joe Commisso and Richard Lyndaker, having played over 130 hands of heads-up action so far. Commisso at one point had a 7-1 chip lead before Lyndaker clawed his way to having his own chip lead. At this time Joe has retaken the lead, but it’s still going to be hard for him to close the deal.
The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better tournament is was down to Ryan Hughes and Ron Long. At the moment, Hughes has a 2-1 chip lead, but the chips have been going back and forth quite a bit during heads-up play. Hughes finally defeats Long, taking home the bracelet and $183,000, while Long takes home just over $113,000. This is Hughes’ second bracelet, as he took down the $2,000 Stud Eight or Better event last year. The only other notable name at this final table was 2+2 author David Sklansky, who was the first out at the final table again, finishing in 8th.
Other tournament action on the next page:
More…
Let’s not talk about me (and how turning the straight with the second-nuts flush draw didn’t get there) … no no, there’s far more excitement going on in Scottsdale, as our good friends in the Arizona Posse are making quite a showing online this weekend.
Big Robert won a 300-player multi on Full Tilt last night–paid about $7,000–and tonight he’s sweating Pat Poels and Ryan Hughes, who are both at two different WCOOP final tables on PokerStars.
Poels is chip leader with seven left in 2-7 Triple Draw, and Hughes is sitting solid in Pot Limit Omaha (6-max). Both are playing for big five-figure payouts … actually Poels Hughes is already there.
Meanwhile, I’m deciding whether or not to drive home … or to Arizona.
UPDATE: Poels — pstarfish — finished 2nd (out of 649) to win $18,821. Hughes — elycash41 — finished 3rd (out of 1,818) to win $27,379. Nice job, Arizona! Way to represent. So wanna party like you guys.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that a bunch of top players in Arizona made the final table of the Arizona State Championship today. Though Pokerati’s horses keep dropping, it’s good to know we can keep adding horses from the soon-to-be-recognized and reckoned-with Arizona Posse. (OK, that name is starting to grind on me — perhaps we need something else — like the Scottfaces?)
Our embedded reporter Robert Goldfarb went out in 130somethingth place.
Our favorite Chinese Poker champion Jesse McGinty made the final table and finished 9th. Still waiting on the payouts.
Danny Fuhs finished 8th.
CORRECTION: Hooman Nikzad (also an AP player) finished 8th. You can see how we confused the names. It’s kinda a shame that a state championship doesn’t count in the various tournament-ranking databases, no?
Still alive from the Scottsdale-based crew are Ben Tang and Ryan Hughes (pictured), who won his first WSOP bracelet this summer. According to Tom Schneider, Ryan went to the final table with “a monstrous chip lead and will probably win it.”
UPDATE:
