Thang Luu Defends Title, Wins 2nd WSOP Bracelet

One can only imagine the thoughts going through Than Luu’s mind heading into 2009 WSOP Event #3, $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo. When he came to this event last year he was sitting down in his best game with something to prove. At the time it was his fourth year in a row he sat at a World Series of Poker final table. In 2005 he finished 3rd in a NLHE Event, in 2006 he finished 9th in an event with a then record 2891 entrants, in 2007 he finished the runner up in the Omaha Hi/Lo event behind Frank O’Dell. He did prove though that he was not going to just be one of those guys who always comes close when in 2008 he finished one spot better than his runner up finish the year before, by capturing his first career bracelet.

Did he have something to prove this year? Or was the pressure off having got the first WSOP bracelet monkey off his back. Only Thang Luu and perhaps poker god can answer that one, but he did prove something last night. He certainly proved he’s one of (if not the) greatest active players in his game, Omaha Hi/Lo, when he successfully defended his title. Keep in mind he won this even last year and the year previous was the runner up.

Here are the results from the Final Table:

1st – Thang Luu $263,190
2nd Ed Smith – $162,109
3rd Ming Reslock – $106,373
4th Robert Price – $73,404
5th Pascal Leyo – $53,293
6th Jordan Rich – $40,611
7th Jim Geary – $32,404
8th Freddy Deeb – $27,028
9th Senovio III Ramirez – $23,520

The Road to Victory:

Thang Luu’s victory in this event was near wire to wire. He headed into day two as the chip leader and was second in chips heading into the final day of play. On this day there were 19 players left who returned at 2:00PM to battle for the bracelet. 30 minutes later there were 18 left after Jeremy Harkin took 19th place ($7689) after moving all in the flop BB with A-J-9-7 against the starting day chip leader Ed Smith’s K-6-3-4 who sent Harkin to the rail when the board ran K-J-4-6-10.

Once one player had been eliminated others started dropping like flies. Henry Hull finished in 18th ($9,899), William Seale 17th ($9,899), Edgar Cheng 16th ($9,899), Adam Quiggle 15th ($12,669) and Dan Spear 14th ($12,669).

With thirteen players remaining the eliminations slowed greatly and it took till 6PM for the final table to be reached. Along the way Micah Brooks ($12,668), Richard Toth ($16,828) and Lee Mougous ($16,828) fell wayside, and it was Sebastian Ruthenberg who had to settle for the bubble claiming tenth place and $16,829.

At the start of the final table Ed Smith and Jordan Rich were the two big stacks with the rest of the field a great distance behind. The first player eliminated at the final table was Senovio Ramirez III ($23,520) when his K864 could not top Ming Reslock’s AAJT. Of the remaining eight players, many were so short stacked they ended up all in preflop surviving no more than one show down before being eliminated. These players included Freddy Deeb (8th for $27,028), Jim Geary (7th for $32,404), and Pascal Leyo (5th for $53,293).

Defending Champion Thang Luu got a massive double up to over 500,000 chips on a hand where he and Reslock were raising back and forth on a flop of Ks, Qs, 8d. When the hands were turned up Luu showed Kh Kd Qc Qd (top set and the current nuts) while Reslock showed As Ts Th 9c for a Royal Flush draw. The case king on the river sealed the hand for Luu as he increased his chip stack to over 500K.

Soon later Luu took his hand of AAAJ against Jordan Rich’s K643, unable to improve Rich was left short stacked and went out against Reslock shortly later. Rich picked up $53,293 for his 6th place finish.

Robert Priced received $73,404 for his fourth place finish, falling victim of defending Champion Thang Luu who had him all in drawing dead on the turn. Next to go was the field’s remaining female player Ming Reslock who picked up $106,373 for her third-place finish. On the hand she was eliminated she check-raised all in the turn with a small pair and gutshot straight, but Luu had 2 pair which held up.

When heads up play was reached it was the day’s starting chip leaders who had survived to play for the braclet. Luu had roughly 2.3 million chips to Smith’s 1.8 million. The battle lasted an hour with Luu never relinquishing the lead. Around midnight Smith, holding J-9-9-3, got most of his chips in preflop against Luu’s Q-9-8-7. The board ran Q-5-4-5-10, and Luu’s miraculous run in defending his title was complete. Ed Smith took $162,110 for his second place finish.

Poker Prop congratulates Thang Luu on his impressive run and looks forward to reporting his 3-peat next year.