Thang Luu captures first WSOP Bracelet

Thang Luu aggressive play gave him the chip lead at the end of Day 2, and he would continue the same style at tonight’s Event 6 final table which ended up earning him his first WSOP bracelet. In doing this he survived an 833 field with marked the most to have ever participated in an Omaha Hi/Lo event in WSOP history

Here where the nights starting chips counts.

Thang Luu – 560K
Greg Jamison – 333K
Chris Falconer – 331K
Scott Clements – 315K
Mark Wilds – 226K
Spencer Lawrence – 226K
George Guzman – 196K
Craig Sabel – 160K
James Prichard – 155K

One of the night’s early final table hands six players saw a flop and 4 of them made it to show down despite the flop being 5 bet capped. On the river the board read: 9d 4d 7s 6h 5h and Sabel bet, Wilds called, Guzman raised, Clements called 2 bets cold, and the remaining players called.

The show down:

Sabel: Ac 2c 8c 9h… earning him the high pot and 1/3 of the low pot
Guzman: Ah 2s 9d 9s… earning him 1/3 the low pot
Wilds: As 2h 4s 5s… earning him 1/3 the low pot
Clements: Ad 3d Qd 4c… a losing hand

Scott Clements who won WSOP Omaha Bracelets in 2006 and 2007 found himself down to about 200K when this hand was complete. He’d ended up losing a few more pots and would eventually become the first elimination of the night on a hand which he got his chips all in against both Thang Luu and James Pritchard, who both checked down a board of Jc 9d jd 2h 8h, Pritchard showed Js 2c w/ Qc Kh for a turned full house and Scott Clements received $22,172 for his ninth place finish.

It would take a few more hours before players started dropping quickly because of the fixed limit structure of this event. Eventually we reached the handed play and along the way the following payouts occurred: 8th Mark Wilds – $30,700, 7th Craig Sabel – $39,228, 6th Greg Jamison – $50,598, 5th Chris Falconer – $64,243, 4th James Pritchard – $78,456.

One of the most amazing stories of the final was George Guzman surviving eighteen all-ins good enough to earn him $93,806 for his 3rd place finish. When he was eliminated he said “19 wasn’t a good one”.

When the heads-up match was set to determine the Event 6 bracelet winner it was Spencer Lawrence from the London, who was making his first WSOP appearance versus Thang Luu who had final tabled all three of the previous WSOP events he’d cashed in. Luu’s previously best finish was good for $147,726 when he was the runner up in a Hi/Lo event in the 2007 WSOP.

The heads up chip counts:

Spencer Lawrence: 1,300,000
Thang Luu: 1,200,000

The heads up match would last about an hour where after 45 minutes or so Luu would have himself a 2 to 1 chip lead. The key hand which more or less decided the nights outcome saw Lawrence limp from the SB and Luu raise from the BB, CALL!. The flop came Ah 9h 7d, Luu bet and Lawrence called. The turn was the Th and Luu again bet and Lawrence again called, Luu tossed in a bet before the river Kc was even dealt, and Lawrence likely made his first major slip up making a raise which seemed to stun Luu. After thinking for a moment, Luu 3-bet and Lawrence called. Luu tabled Kh Qh for the nut flush (10c 8s his other two) and Lawrence mucked. This left Lawrence very short stacked.

Lawrence would battle back a bit but then on the tournaments final hand he called a raise preflop and then on a flop 7d Kd 8d would get into a series of raises that ended with him being all in.

Lawrence: 6h 5d 9d 5c
Luu: 4d Kd 3s 7h

The turn was the 8c and the river gave Luu the winning full house when the Kc fell.

Lawrence Spencer received $156,343 for his second place finish and Thang Luu received $243,356 top place prize money along with his first WSOP bracelet.

Source credit: PokerNews Event 6 coverage