Arieh Rolls to WSOP Win

Everyone else was playing for second. At least, that’s how it appeared Wednesday when Atlanta’s Josh Arieh absolutely dominated the final table in route to victory in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Rebuy tournament at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Arieh, third place in last year’s WSOP Main Event, started as the second largest chip stack at the table, but quickly garnered the chip lead and never looked back. Six hands into the competition, he knocked out seven-time WSOP bracelet winner, Erik Seidel, who was forced to make a move, as he was severely short-stacked. Once he had the most chips, Arieh used his lead position as leverage, constantly bullying the other players out of pots. Arieh seemed to raise almost every hand, frequently taking the blinds, but when someone did play back at him, he often had cards with which to work. It was a textbook lesson on how to play from the big stack. In the end, Arieh used his chip advantage to personally knock out half of his opponents.

Fittingly, the player who knocked out the others was the only one to give Arieh the slightest problem, runner-up and six-time WSOP champ, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. Ferguson remained patient, yet aggressive, all day, taking time to think out every move. Wearing his trademark sunglasses, black hat, and black suit, he picked his spots wisely, forcing his opponents to make difficult and potentially expensive decisions.

Even though he was out-chipped approximately 2.5-1 going into heads-up play, Ferguson did manage to double-up and wrench away the lead from Arieh for a while. He actually had Arieh all-in at one point, but Ferguson folded and the match was back to virtually even. From there, Arieh was able to re-assert his will and go on to the championship.

The word of the day was “domination”, even on the last hand. After a pre-flop raise by Ferguson and a call by Arieh, the flop came 7-5-2 with two hearts. Arieh bet hard, Ferguson raised, Arieh re-raised, and Ferguson went all-in. When the cards were revealed, Arieh had Ferguson dominated. Their hands were almost exactly the same: Arieh had K-9-2-3, while Ferguson held K-9-10-3. Thus, Arieh had paired his 2 and because three of their cards were the same, Ferguson was left with only three outs – the remaining 10’s – to stay alive. He got no help the rest of the way and Arieh took home the $381,600 prize and his second-ever WSOP bracelet.

In his post-game interview, Arieh spoke reverentially of the seasoned Ferguson, saying, “He [Ferguson] put on a clinic today.”

Maybe true, but Arieh was the true instructor Wednesday. Everyone else was just there for the lesson.

Complete Final Table Standings

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. Joshua Arieh - $381,600
2. Chris Ferguson - $210,460
3. Ronald Graham - $115,640
4. Tony Sevnsom - $92,510
5. Max Pescatori - $69,385
6. Arturo Diaz - $57,820
7. Dave Colclough - $46,225
8. Doug Lee - $34,690
9. Erik Seidel - $23,130

Originally published June 16, 2005