2007 WSOP Event #52 – Michael Graves Wins $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Rebuys

Michael Graves has enough money to open his own practice now.  The 23-year-old University of Texas-Southwestern medical school student should have no problem paying his student loans, either, now that he has won $742,121 in the $1,000 no-limit hold’em re-buy tournament at the World Series of Poker. 

With over 1,000 entries and more than twice as many re-buys, the prize pool soared to $3,226,609.  Graves held the chip lead going into the final table…barely.  With 1,233,000 chips, he was essentially tied with Isaac Haxton, who had 1,226,000.  Theo Tran was not far behind, either, with 1,132,000.  Graves took it easy early on, letting his opponents beat each other up. 

Haxton was one of those players who got pummeled.  On a roller coaster ride during the first couple hours, the beginning of his end came shortly after the 8^th place finisher was eliminated.  He and Shawn Luman got all their chips in pre-flop, Luman with 10-10, Haxton with A-K.  The pair held up, sending Haxton down to 770,000 chips. 

A short while later, Theo Tran raised with A-K and Haxton decided to make the call with K-8.  They checked the 3-3-9 flop, but when a 7 hit on the turn, Haxton made a stab at the pot and was called by Tran.  Same thing when a 4 was dealt on the river – Haxton bet 350,000 after Tran checked, and, after much consideration, Tran decided Haxton was full of it and called.  He was right, of course, and Haxton was crippled.  Haxton bowed out of the tournament in 7^th place on the next hand. 

Graves finally got involved in a big way about 40 minutes later when he was fortunate enough to have his A-A run into Chad Batista’s Q-Q.  Graves flopped a set and Batista couldn’t hit a runner-runner flush, so he went home in 5^th place. 

After he eliminated Luman, who had eliminated Shawn Hattem in 4^th place, Graves went into heads-up play against Tran with 4.2 million to 2.5 million chip lead. 

Tran made a little headway and then had a great shot to double-up when he got his 6-5 all-in on a 3-5-8 flop against Graves’ 4-5.  Unfortunately for Tran, the turn and river produced cards higher than 8, so they chopped the pot. 

A few minutes later, it was Graves with the 6-5 offsuit.  On the 4-5-7 flop, both players got their chips in the pot, Tran with 8-9 for a gutshot draw plus to overcards.  None of his outs came in (the 8 would have been no good, anyway, as it would have given Graves a straight) and Graves took down the bracelet.