Brian Lemke wins 2009 WSOP 15, $5K NLHE

Brian Lemke came into 2009 WSOP Event 15 with exactly zero cashes under his belt. Yet through out this event he was confident the entire way, as many members of the poker media stood in his corner till past 3AM hoping to see him take it down.

You might wonder, what’s all the hoopla for a player like Lemke that few have ever heard of? Well the deal is, he was playing this event dedicated to his cousin Justin Shronk who was a well loved member of the poker media who passed away suddenly just before the WSOP at the all to young age of 27. In his post match interview Lemke commented, “He was with me the whole time – the entire time. I know he brought that queen for me. I miss him and that bracelet is dedicated to him, my family, my grandma, and his mom.”

I think Joe Sebok said it best on his Poker Road blog: (http://tweet.pkrrd.com/blog/joe-sebok/posts/a-special-night-at-the-wsop-las-vegas-nv)

“He battled and battled and when he finally won that final hand, coming from behind to take the bracelet, he came over and gave me a huge hug and said, “You know why I won this, don’t you? You know.” The answer was emblazoned on his shirt, “Got Shronk?” I just told him that yeah, I did know. It was a really beautiful moment and I absolutely teared up a little from it. Sometimes things do fall the way they should. Sometimes the good guys do come out on top. They are victorious and things seem just perfect with the world. Tonight was one of those nights and I couldn’t help but soak it in as Brian posed for all his pictures with his new bracelet. I just couldn’t be prouder of him.”

And here is how the event unfolded:

2009 WSOP Event 15 Day 3 Report

655 players entered this $5,000 buy-in NLHE event and with two long days in the book, just 17 returned to the Rio yesterday to battle it out for a coveted WSOP bracelet and the $692,658 first place prize money.

During the first hour Tom Braband and Nicholas Grippo were eliminated each collecting $27,029. Lars Bonding ran his A-T into Brian Lemke’s pocket queens and finished in fifteenth collecting $35,341 and David Benefield gave all but a single chip to Iselberg when he ran AJ vs AQ, he lost that chip on the next hand and collected $35,341 for his fourteenth place finish.

As time passed, Matthias Neu finished in 13th ($35,341), Olivier Busquet in 12th ($47,501) and David Inselberg in 11th ($47,501). Play was then consolidated down to a single table, that for WSOP stats purposes, needed one more elimination before it was an official final table.

Here’s how the seat assignments and chip counts looked at the time:

Seat 1: Thomas Keller – 330,000
Seat 2: Liya Gerasimova – 940,000
Seat 3: Danny Illingworth – 1,200,000
Seat 4: David Pham – 680,000
Seat 5: Billy Kopp – 1,100,000
Seat 6: Fabian Quoss – 2,000,000
Seat 7: Isaac Baron – 1,400,000
Seat 8: Christian Iacobellis – 780,000
Seat 9: Brian Lemke – 730,000
Seat 10: Mike Sowers – 840,000

Ten handed play was slow with very few flops being seen. Eventually the decision was made to move everyone to the ESPN featured table, where shortly after a big pot developed that saw two players eliminated. On this hand David “The Dragon” Pham pushed all in with Kc Qd, Isaac Baron did the same with pocket tens, and Christian Iacobellis called all in with As Kh. The board didn’t hit anyone and Isaac Baron won the massive pot sending home David Pham in tenth ($47,501) and Christian Iacobellis in ninth ($66,403).

Brian Lemke managed to get all his chips in with QQ against Billy Kopp’s AQ suited. The board ran safe and when the hand was complete Billy Kopp was down to just 2,000 chips. He did hang on for a bit, but eventually Kopp became the eight place finisher receiving $75,115.

The seventh place finisher was Isaac Baron who collected $83,783. He had been crippled by Lemke when he ran AJ against AQ, he was then finished off on the next hand by Fabian Quoss. Next, Danny Illingworth learned his Ac 8h was no match for Thomas Keller’s Ad Kc, so he was the next to leave the Rio, but not before stopping by the cage to pick up $109,872 for his sixth place finish.

Liya Gerasimova, now has a sense of what her boyfriend (Ivan Demidov) felt like last year when he nearly won the WSOP Main Event, as she made it this deep only to have her run end at fifth place. She had returned from the dinner break, doubled up on the first hand through Thomas Keller, only to then turn around and double up Mike Sowers moments later when her A-Q lost to Sowers flopped set of eights. With just 180K chips remaining Gerasimova lasted just one more hand and collected $142,688 for her fifth place finish.

Next to go was Mike Sowers when he moved in preflop with Q-T against Fabian Quoss’ pocket eights. This hand resulted in Quoss making a set and improving to 6.4 million chips while Sowers headed to the rail to collect $194,931 for his fifth place finish.

The heads up match was reached after Thomas Keller shoved all in with QJ and was snap called by Fabian Quoss who woke up with Ac As. The board ran 5s 2d 5d 4d giving Keller a flush draw, but a 3c on the river sealed his fate and he was out in third place collecting $280,852.

When heads up play began Quoss held a commanding over 3.5-to-1 chip lead over Brain Lemke. However Lemke chipped up winning a few pots, before losing a big one, and then turning around to double back to 3.5 million. Eventually Lemke got the chip lead when after two hours of head-up play he got his money in with Kh Tc and turned a flush against Quoss’ As3d.

On the final hand of the tournament, Lemke moved all in preflop with A8 and was dominated by Quoss’ AQ. However, the board would run JT9Q giving Lemke the straight and with no eight or king on the river Quoss was eliminated collecting $427,912 as Brian Lemke raised the bracelet in the air and pointed up to the heavens in a brief emotional celebration to honor his cousin, Justin Shronk.