It was a final table full of very tough competition. Poker Pros like Daniel Negreanu and Brandon Wong stood in the way of Phil Ivey and a ninth WSOP Bracelet. The action started with Ivey as the chip leader in the final table of the $2,200 Mixed event of World Series of Poker(WSOP) Asia Pacific(APAC) at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. But the perseverance of one of poker’s all time greatest players paid off after he survived a grueling heads up session with Wong to conquer his 9th WSOP Gold Bracelet.
It took five appearances at the final tables of WSOP and a trip down under for Ivey to capture the ninth bracelet and write his name in the record books. He now equals Johnny Moss at number 4 for the most number of bracelets won. Though the prize money of $51,840 is not that meaningful for Ivey, the bracelet certainly ended his long dry spell. But it is still a long way to go for him to finally outnumber Phil Hellmuth, who is topping the record with a total of 13 bracelets.
Ivey started his game as the chip leader on the final table. His good friend and famous Poker Player Daniel Nigreanu was right behind him. But the surprise of the day came in the form of Brandon Wong who played a tremendous game and came out as the runner-up for the event. Wong dominated the final table for most of the time and made it look like as if Ivey has to wait for his ninth bracelet for some more time. But after a round of 178 hands and almost three hours Ivey proved himself better than Wong and won the event.
It was already a hard road to walk down as longtime pros like Kevin Song and Graeme Putt were also playing for the title. Song was the first one to get eliminated. Following him were Rob Campbell and Daniel Negreanu. Graeme Putt showed some resistance and stayed on the table for a little longer. But he proved to be unable to match the game of Ivey and Wong.
After winning the event Ivey admitted that he really wanted to win this time and he sensed that he can win this time as he recalled his last five tables tougher than this one. With this win, Ivey has given people a new topic to talk about, ‘’ How many bracelets will Phil Ivey win in his lifetime?’’. The 37 year old has tremendous skills of Poker game and will certainly win more bracelets in the coming years. It is also worth mentioning here that Ivey has won all his bracelets in Non Hold’em events which proves his master class over all forms of the poker game.
So after three events at WSOP Asia Pacific here in Melbourne, its three out of three for the Americans.
The final table result for WSOP APAC Event #3:
- Phil Ivey- $51,840
- Brandon Wong- $32,039
- Graeme Putt- $22,427
- Daniel Negreanu- $16,366
- Rob Campbell-$12,020
- Kevin Song- $8,978