WSOP Event #6: Mark Vos Wins Largest Prize of First Week

July 4th weekend may be a time to celebrate for Americans, but at the 2006 WSOP, Aussies are shooting off fireworks during the long holiday weekend. Sunday night, last year’s main event champion, Joe Hachem fell just shy of capturing his second bracelet (although he still scored over $200,000, so it was a good day). Monday night, Mark Vos, from Brisbane, Australia, pocketed a whopping $803,274 after a relatively short eight and a half hour $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em final table.

The festivities started about forty minutes later than the 2:00pm Pacific scheduled time, as final table participant, David Wells, was late arriving, and the “Grand Marshalls” of the tournament, Liz Lieu and Johnny Chan, took a moment to make speeches.

Things got off to an exciting start when the first female final table player this WSOP, Vanessa Selbst, called the all-in of Wells. The tension built as they were about to flip over their cards…and then they both showed Q-Q. Anti-climactic. Selbst then went on a run of aggression, raising the next two hands pre-flop, and continued to show strength over the next several hands. She didn’t play stupidly, however, as she was willing to lay hands down when she felt she didn’t have the best of it.

For the second time in a week, the first player knocked out at the final table was Carlos Mortensen, who entered the day eight in chips. After pushing all-in over the top of Selbst’s pre-flop raise, he saw Selbst make the call. Mortensen had pocket 7’s, Selbst had A-9 and proceeded to flop an Ace. While two early final table exits was not what Mortensen wanted, making the final table in the largest tournaments of the WSOP so far is one grand accomplishment.

Wells was the next out. He had been crippled earlier, but had hung on long enough to move up one spot in the money. Selbst took him out as, well, dominating his K-8 with K-10.

While impressive, Selbst’s aggressiveness finally got the best of her approximately three hours into play. She raised pre-flop, Willard Chang, who hadn’t been very active to that point, found something he liked and called, but then the overwhelming chip leader going into the final table, Kevin Peterson, re-raised. Selbst then moved all-in and was called by Peterson after Chang folded. Unfortunately for Selbst, it was a bluff gone horribly, horribly wrong, as she had a measly 5-2 suited versus Peterson’s pocket Aces. As if it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Selbst was going out in 7th place, Peterson proceeded to hit quads. A valiant effort and a bold move by Selbst, just really bad timing. This hand gave Peterson 40% of the chips at the table.

After a rather uneventful hour, Peterson took a big hit when his pocket Queens fell to Nam Le’s A-K. This gave Le the chip lead and signaled the beginning of the end for Peterson. Two hours later, his Q-J was no match for J.R. Reiss’s pocket 3’s and he went out in 6th place.

Just a few minutes later, Willard Chang pulled a Selbst and picked a bad time to bluff all-in pre-flop when his K-3 got picked off by Le’s K-Q.

Maybe it was because the blood was diverted away from players heads and towards their stomachs, but the nighttime portion of this session was where the action continued to flow hot and heavy. Just a few hands after Peterson and Chang made their exits, Mark Vos moved all-in with J-6 after a K-6-6 flop and was called by Thomas Hunt III and his A-3. Hunt was pretty much gone at that point and the next hand that officially eliminated him in 4th was just a formality.

Only about fifteen minutes later (why couldn’t the afternoon have been like this?), Reiss pushed after the turn when the board showed T-8-4-J, most likely feeling good about his A-J, which gave him top pair, top kicker. Too bad Nam Le had turned a straight.

Going into heads-up play, Nam Le had an almost 3-1 chip lead over Mark Vos, and considering how strong of a player Le is, things were looking good for the chip leader. But about twenty minutes into the one-on-one match, the tables turned.

Le raised to $70,000 pre-flop and Vos called. Vos checked the Q-T-6, all spades, flop, and Le led out with an $80,000 bet. Vos re-raised to $190,000 and Le called. Vos bet $275,000 after the Ace of diamonds was dealt on the turn and Le called again. A fourth spade, a 5, landed on the river and Vos bet $300,000 and had to have gulped as Le moved all-in. Vos was pot committed and had to call with his K-8 of spades. What once looked like a lock for the pot must not have been looking too good with four spades on the board. But Vos was thrilled when he saw that Le was bluffing with only Q-J, giving Vos the pot and the lead.

Approximately an hour later, a little after 11:00pm Pacific, Vos sealed the deal. Vos raised pre-flop and led out the betting on every street, with Le calling him the whole way until he was all-in. Vos had Q-J and had flopped a pair of Queens and rivered trips, while Le held pocket sixes.

Originally published July 4, 2006