blonde poker

 
Amid all the WSOP hysteria, there was still some WPT business to attend to, and as Event 1 of this year’s Series commenced, the 2007 Mandalay Bay Poker Championship at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino was reaching its conclusion.

Likely due to a combination of the curious clash with the opening day of the World Series and the $25,000 Final yet to become a distant memory, just the 228 partook in the WPT Event, but within that 228 field was a good concentration of renowned players.

As seems to be the case of late, whilst the old guards such as Barry Greenstein and John Juanda placed high, the former bubbling for just over 50 grand, it was the Internet whizkids who continued to impress.

With David Levi dropping in third, we were left with two well-known youngsters in Jared Hamby and Shawn Buchanan (above-left), both high calibre players with an immense amount of experience for ones so young.

Although both cashed in this year’s WPT Championship Final, Hamby was undoubtedly the favourite. However, Buchanan wasn’t about to let Hamby’s reputation overawe him, and in true young gun style, kept a cool head to get the edge over his similarly youthful opponent.

One hand in particular that saw the tides truly turn in the favour of the Canadian was when Buchanan called not just a pre-flop re-raise, but also a Flop and Turn bet on a Qs-9h-4h-9c-Kd board with Pocket Threes. A check on the River, a muck from Hamby (right) and the monster pot was Shawn’s.

Soon after, it was all over, and Shawn had sheared his sheep, Pocket Threes once again dealing the blow, all-in pre-flop against Kh-8h. A Jh-7c-5c-4s-As board and the title was Shawn’s, oh, and of course the small matter of a comedy cheque worth 768k.

Not bad for a week’s work! Let’s see if he can add a bracelet to that wrist…