2007 WSOP Event #33 – Alan Smurfit Wins $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-buys

A chip and a chair.  A chip and a chair.  Alan Smurfit subscribes to this poker axiom, having completed one of the greatest final table comebacks in World Series of Poker history.  In the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha re-buy event, he started as a prohibitive short stack, yet persevered to win the whole thing and $464,867. 

The blinds at the final table started at $10,000/$20,000.  An opening raise could be anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000.  Smurfit had only $95,000.  Nobody else had less than twice that many chips and the chip leader, Qushqar Morad, had more than ten times the stack of Smurfit. 

With Hilbert Shirey going out on the second hand, Smurfit may have been happy knowing he at least made an extra $12,000.  But short stack be damned, he raised the pot on the next hand, picking up the blinds.  He did the same on hand eight.  Then, on hand nine, he doubled through Chau Giang, and all of a sudden, Smurfit was back in business (although not entirely comfortable) with $320,000 in chips. 

On the 27^th hand, Smurfit almost doubled-up (Morad folded on the river) and then won another pot two hands later.  After those two, he was up to $630,000 and second in chips to Morad. 

Smurfit just kept on going.  When the tournament was down to four players after 53 hands, he had $770,000, still good for second place.  By the 100^th hand, he had just shy of $1 million, and when he eliminated Van Marcus in 3^rd place, he was up to $1.3 million.  Morad was still in control of the tournament, however, with $2.2 million. 

The heads-up battle was epic.  It lasted 167 hands, compared to 104 for the rest of the final table, and spanned six hours.  The key hand of the match was hand 135, when Smurfit had his final $500,000 chips in the pot pre-flop with A-5-5-3 versus Morad’s A-K-K-8.  By the river, the board read 10-9-4-9, meaning Smurfit needed a 5 to stay alive…and he got it.   

From there, the lead switched hands many times, although Morad seemed to have the lead for many more hands than did Smurfit.  Usually, when Smurfit would take the lead, he’d give it right back.  But on the 202^nd hand, Smurfit won a $1 million pot to regain the lead and he never fell back to second place again. 

Finally, on hand 271, the two men got their chips all-in on the flop of J-8-6, Smurfit with Q-J-8-2 and Morad with 10-9-9-6.  Thus, Smurfit had two pair and Morad had a pair and an open-ended straight draw.  Morad took the lead when he hit trip 6’s on the turn, but joy turned to agony when an 8 on the river gave Smurfit a full house and the bracelet. 

Final Table Standings 

1. Alan Smurfit -- $464,867
2. Qushqar Morad -- $279,595
3. Van Marcus -- $190,326
4. Chris Bjorin -- $129,691
5. Chau Giang -- $96,005
6. Brandon Adams -- $75,794
7. Robert Fellner -- $57,266
8. Birinder Nijran -- $42,108
9. Hilbert Shirey -- $30,317