 The $10,000 buy-in events always bring up a tough field (well, except for the biggest part of the Main Event, but okay), and in the World Championship Mixed Event it was no different. All players knew how to play various games, which makes winning it an awesome performance without a doubt. Winning the first ever Finnish WSOP bracelet, Ville Wahlbeck was delighted.
The final day started with 20 players, amongst which both Doyle and Todd Brunson, Huck Seed, Michael Binger, and others. Not only the line-up was pretty sick, but the difference in games offered as well. They had to know how to play No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, 2-7 Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em and Omaha 8 (in this order). Knowledge of all these 8 games was required, and one had to adapt quickly to the changing games.
Coming into the final table, Scott 'dorinvandy' Dorin was the chipleader with 1,4 million chips while the shortstack, Allie Prescott had just 276.000. So it was no surprise that Prescott was the first to leave, followed by Todd Brunson (his father finished 16th). It finally came heads-up between David Chiu, who already owned 4 bracelets, and the Finnish Ville Wahlbeck, who was recently thinking of quitting poker! Fortunately for him, he had not made that move. He started heas-up with a huge chiplead (about 7:1) and Chiu never had a chance. The final hand was played in Omaha-8 with a preflop all-in:     for Chiu against     for Wahlbeck. The board ran out      which meant that Wahlbeck made his straight, the bracelet and $492,375 ! To add to that, it meant his second final table and top 3 finish, after he finished 3rd at the $10k 7-card Stud event just 3 days earlier!
Final results:
1. Ville Wahlbeck $492,375
2. David Chiu $304,176
3. Scott Dorin $199,940
4. Mark Gregorich $139,159
5. Huck Seed $102,286
6. James Van Alstyne $79,181
7. Mike Wattel $64,373
8. Todd Brunson $54,854
9. Allie Prescott $42,818 |
