WSOP 44, Lisandro wins 3rd Stud Bracelet of Series

2009 WSOP Event #44, $2,500 buy-in Razz is now in the books and it will be an event remembered for some time as Jeffrey Lisandro was victorious picking up his third bracelet of the 2009 WSOP. In doing so he became poker’s first 7 Card Stud Trifecta winner. Lisandro’s first bracelet of 2009 came in 7 Card Stud, his second in 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo and now his third in Razz. This is undisputedly the greatest feat any stud player has ever achieved during a single series in the forty year history of the World Series of Poker.

The top place prize ($188,370) Lisandro received to go with his fourth career WSOP bracelet is likely small in comparison to the money he’ll soon be collecting from prop bets he has riding on his performance this series. When Event #44 began Lisandro was tied for first in the 2009 WSOP Player of the Year (POTY) standings with Ville Wahlbeck. Both players made it deep in this event however after Wahlbeck was eliminated in 12th Lisandro claimed the sole lead.

The last player to win three bracelets in a single series was Phil Ivey in 2002 and prior to that it was Ted Forrest in 1993. In his post match interview Lisandro spoke about being confident coming into the event. He said “I was feeling lucky, and I was playing good and I wasn’t struggling. I felt if I was ever going to win another bracelet it would be this series.” When asked about winning a fourth bracelet this series, something that’s never before been accomplished, he talked about being burnt out, needing rest and how it’s never easy, but then commented “yeah, let’s try and make it four”.

Guys in Bobby’s Room with action against him might not be pulling for Lisandro, but at poker-prop.net were pulling for him all the way. Congratulations to Lisandro and best of luck the remainder of the series.

Here’s how 2009 WSOP Event #44 Day three played out.

At 1PM local time, 13 previous day survivors of the original 315 entrants took to the felt to play it out for a coveted WSOP bracelet. The leader of the pack was Jeffrey Lisandro with 438,000 chips; however a tough group of competitors remained including Kenna James, Ville Wahbeck, Nikolay Evdakov and Al Barbieri.

It took only 20 minutes of play before Nikolay Evdakov became the day’s first casualty. He sent most of his chips to Kenna James on a hand where he showed A574 on sixth and Kenna James A36Q. Both players checked sixth and seventh street and when the hands were turned up Evdakov’s 8754A low was bested by James 7643A low. With just 38,000 chips remaining, Evdakov was out a few hands later.

Next out was “player of the year” co-leader Ville Wahlbeck, unfortunately for him the man he was tied with Jeff Lisandro was still in the event and possessed a massive chip lead. Following Wahlbeck to the rail was William Cole in eleventh ($12,737) and Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri Eliminated in tenth ($15,570).

With nine players remaining play was consolidated down to an unofficial final table. In Stud Events only the final eight players are considered to have made a final table as far as stat purposes are concerned. Amazingly nine handed play lasted for almost three hours before Don Zewin finally needed to settle for ninth place prize money ($15,570) as the official final table bubble boy.

When official final table play began the seat assignments and chips counts were:

Seat 1 – Michael Craig 343,000
Seat 2 – Warwick Mirzikinian 271,000
Seat 3 – Steve Diano 96,000
Seat 4 – Allen Bari 55,000
Seat 5 – Ryan Fisler 412,000
Seat 6 – Jeff Lisandro 814,000
Seat 7 – Kenna James 210,000
Seat 8 – Eric Rodawig 171,000

Eight handed play did not last long. On the final table’s first elimination Allen Bari’s (Q-4) 6-K-8-Q-(A) fell to Ryan Fisler’s (3-9) 4-K-6-4 (5). Bari was all in on forth street; he collected $19,880 for his eight place finish.

Next to go was Steve Diano who got his money in on fourth with 4-7-6-4 against Warwick Mirzikinian 8-7-4-5. Diano caught another four on fifth and could was eliminated receiving $23,669 when Warwick Mirzikinian caught an Ace on sixth to make an eight low.

Kenna James got his money in good on fourth street with 4-8-6-A against Michael Craig’s 6-6-2-3 however as Razz too often go, when the hand was over Craig had a 7-6-5-3-2 low which bested James eight low to send him to the rail in sixth worth $29,473.

A desperate short stacked Eric Rodawig was just about forced all in with K-5-5 and ended up going out in fifth worth $38,471. He was followed to the rail by Warwick Mirzikinian (4th Place – $52,773) who raised all in on 5th and went down to Lisandro when the final boards read Mirzikinian: (4-T) 3-8-A-J (Q) / Lisandro: (7-T) 4-5-2-6-(2).

It would take only a few hands for play to go from three handed to one man standing. Shortly after Rodawig was eliminated Ryan Fisler met the same fate picking up $76,261 for third. He was first crippled on a hand where the board read Lisandro 9-5-2-Q / Fisler 4-6-3-7. On this hand Fisler bet every single street including seventh, Lisandro called every bet but on seventh finally put in a raise which was enough to set Fisler all in. After hemming and hawing for quite some time, Fisler folded leaving himself just 35,000 chips behind. He tossed these in the next hand on a pot won by Michael Craig.

When heads up play began Jeff Lisandro had a massive lead with 2.153 million chips to Michael Craig’s 210K. It took just two hands for Lisandro to finish him off. On the final hand Craig bet his final 21K chips on fifth and at showdown the cards were Lisandro (T-8) 4-4-9-7-J and Craig (6-8) A-A-8-J (K). Michael Craig received $116,405 while Lisandro picked up the $188,370 top place prize money, his third bracelet of the 2009 WSOP, fourth bracelet of his career, and sole first-place on the 2009 WSOP POTY standings all in a single feat.