The last several days has born witness to plenty of WSOP action: Roland de Wolfe finalling in the 2k, Marcel Luske coming close to his first bracelet, and Jon Shoreman taking home $57k in the Triple Draw rebuy event – but still no gold medal in sight for Britain, our best performance being Stuart Fox’s 2nd place finish in June.With that in mind, it was with great anticipation that we awaited commencement of the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha, an event that, unlike the H.O.R.S.E., would be brimming with English talent and perhaps serve up our best chance of bracelet glory thus far.
John Kabbaj, Devilfish, Surinder Sunar, Marc Goodwin, John Gale, Dave Colclough, Paul Jackson and the entire Hendon Mob were all present, and this was our strongest game after all, so a final table appearance was surely on the cards, wasn’t it?...
Well, you would have thought, but with Ram Vaswani’s Aces being bust by a backdoor flush, Richard Ashby’s flopped set of Jacks being outdrawn by a flush draw, and the ever-consistent Jeff Kimber being snipered down by the legendary Doyle Brunson, any early promise was soon evaporated, renowned pro’s such as Patrick Antonius, Scotty Nguyen and Huck Seed massing mountains of chips early doors.
One man was flying the red and white flag with pride, and that was EPT entrepreneur John Duthie, at one point second in chips but alas falling at the final hurdles. Even Dave ‘Dubai’ Shallow showed signs of making a dent in the event, but his rollercoaster ride would end in tears before the close of Day 1.Instead, when Day 2 arrived, it was the men in green who were fighting the good fight, Donnacha O’Dea, Sylvester Geoghegan, Dave Callaghan and pretend Irishman Roy Brindley all in with a shout of making that illustrious final table.
Whilst Dave Colclough and Joe Beevers just missed out on the money, the baton was left with Paul Jackson, but although he avoided that dreaded bubble with ease, a few bad beats would seem him obliged to accept 36th, the 22k prize being a mere reminder of what could have been.
So, with British hope’s fizzling out and Irish prayers going unanswered, we were left with a disappointingly non-local final table, but one which included Flying Fin Patrick Antonius and everybody’s poker hero, Doyle Brunson, not to mention the ‘famous brother/husband’ combo of Robert Mizrachi and Marco Traniello, the latter being the other half of the well established Jennifer Harman.
Unfortunately, while only one man can take down that bracelet, it wasn’t to be a record equalling number eleven for Doyle, his 8-8-Q-9 shortstack push being picked off by Antonius’ Q-7-6-3, the previous hand doing most of the damage when the aforementioned Turned a flush against the Texas Dolly. Marco Traniello and Tommy Ly would soon follow, and then the former model/tennis player himself would taste dust, a rather vulnerable A-K-8-2 running into the Pocket Aces of Mizrachi. Still, the $311k 3rd prize was more than just a consolation.
Heads-up saw Rene Mouritsen taking on the double chair sitting Mizrachi, but although he played superbly throughout, the Dane’s stack paled in comparison to the American’s, and would eventually find it’s way over to Mizrachi’s mountain with Mouritsen’s flush draw failing to hit the River, leaving Mizrachi and his set of nines to pick up the win, the $768,889 first prize and that highly sought after gold bracelet.
A 28-year old professional from Miami, this was Mizrachi’s first taste of gold, a feat, incredibly, unmatched by his more renowned younger brother, Michael. But Mizrachi senior is no pushover, holding several six figure sum wins to his name including a 4th in January’s WPT’s Caribbean Poker Adventure WPT for over $400k.
Taught by his mother, Mizrachi is a clear fan of all forms of poker, and credits much of his success in the game to diversifying and looking beyond the primitive world of Hold’Em. “There are so many great No-Limit Hold’em players,” Mizrachi said, “but if you want to be really considered a great player, you have to master all forms of poker.”So, after all the excitement, all the anticipation, and all the “This is the one where Britain will shine”, it was an American who took top honours, and not only that, but was one of 35 non-Brits to cash, Paul Jackson being our only flag flier come money time.
Pot Limit Omaha has always been touted as a European game and one in which we excel. Have those darn Americans caught up already?...