Eight players returned on the last day of WSOP Event #46 $50,000 Poker Players Championship to crown a champion.
In the lead was the prodigy of this year’s World Series, Event #3 $1,000 PLO winner, Event #18 $10,000 Seven Card Razz runner-up and Event #43 $1,500 Limit Hold’em 3rd finisher Brandon Shack-Harris. He was followed in the chip counts by WSOP 2009 $2,500 27TD champion Abe Mosseri, among other renowned players.
The Final Table seat draw was as follows:
Seat 1: Frank Kassela – 2,507,000
Seat 2: John Hennigan – 1,878,000
Seat 3: Allen Kessler – 439,000
Seat 4: Abe Mosseri – 3,485,000
Seat 5: Chun Lei Zhou – 1,389,000
Seat 6: Melissa Burr – 661,000
Seat 7: Brandon Shack-Harris – 4,101,000
Seat 8: Jesse Martin – 840,000
Play started on Level 21 and the first elimination was quick to occur: Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler and Mosseri clashed in a Stud 8 hand:
Kessler: (X-X) / 5:d J:d 5:s 9:c / (X)
Mosseri: (X-X) / 7:h 9:h 8:d T:h / (X)
Kessler check-called the 5th and 6th streets before calling all-in on the 7th. Mosseri showed A:s K:c 6:c for a straight, while Kessler had K:h K:d 2:d for a missed flush draw and was out in 8th place.
Still in a Stud 8 hand, Melissa Burr, who has already played a number of finales this year, and two times WSOP bracelet holder John Hennigan met:
Burr: T:h 3:h / 5:h J:h T:d Q:s / T:s
Hennigan: A:s Q:d / A:c 4:h A:h A:d / 7:h
Hennigan won with a four of a kind, sending Burr to the rail in 7th place and as the first female player ever to have cashed and made it to the finale in the Players Championship.
Two times WSOP champion and WSOP 2010 Player of the Year Frank Kassela was then eliminated by Hennigan in 6th before online high stakes fish Chun Lei ‘samrostan’ Zhou got railed in 5th: he moved all-in as shortstack in an Omaha 8 hand on the 2:s 7:c K:d 8:d board, Hennigan and Mosseri called and then they checked the 6:s river. Mosseri won the high pot with a flush, Hennigan got the low for his 8-7-4-2-A hand and Zhou was eliminated, tabling two pairs.
On Level 23, Mosseri got kicked by Shack-Harris in a 27TD hand to give way to a long 3-handed game. Near the end of Level 25, last year’s $10,000 2-7 Lowball event winner Jesse Martin got eliminated in a NLHE hand: he moved all-in from the button for about 1,000,000 in chips, holding Q:s 9:c. Shack-Harris called with A:d K:c and the board came neutral.
John Hennigan – 11,530,000
Brandon Shack-Harris – 3,770,000
Shack-Harris was unable to stop Hennigan and he eventually shoved on Level 26 in a NLHE hand for about 700,000 in chips. Hennigan called.
Shack-Harris: K:h 7:s
Hennigan: A:h T:d
Board: J:h J:c 9:h 4:d 4:s
Hennigan won with a better kicker, scooping in his third WSOP title. Meanwhile, Shack-Harris is now close behind George Danzer on this year’s WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard.
End results:
1st: John Hennigan – $1,517,767
2nd: Brandon Shack-Harris – $937,975
3rd: Jesse Martin – $594,570
4th: Abe Mosseri – $402,696
5th: Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou – $286,122
6th: Frank Kassela – $212,829
7th: Melissa Burr – $165,435
8th: Allen Kessler – $134,101
