WSOP Event 26 – Tomas Alenius wins Sweden a Bracelet

Tomas Alenius, despite a a 3-1 heads-up chip deficit, went on last night to win 2009 WSOP Event 26 ($1,500 buy-in NLHE) capturing his first career WSOP bracelet and $197,509 top place prize money. Alenius is a 33 year-old former blackjack dealer from Stockholm, Sweden who started playing poker seven years ago. In the end he defeated a Canadian orthodontist Jason Tam who received $121,999 for his runner up finish.

Alenius became just the second Swedish born player to win a WSOP bracelet. The other Swedish bracelet winner Chris Bjorin won two (1997 and 200).

Here’s how the 2009 WSOP Event 26 day three action played out:

2009 WSOP Event 26 Day 3 Report:

Day 3 of Event #26, ($1,500 Limit Hold’em) started with fifteen survivors, of the events original 643 entrants, returning to the felt, to battle it out for $197,488 top place prize money and a WSOP bracelet. Those still in contention included limit hold’em specialist Richard Brodie and Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri, who began the day as the chip leader with 400K.

During the first 20 minutes of play, we saw the field narrowed further as four players were eliminated. This included John Varner when he raced Ad Qh against the pocket nines of Tam. Mike Schiffman when his JT straight draw failed to improve against Richard Brodie’s KQ. Andrew Kerstine when his pocket fives ran into 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Rep Porter’s pocket tens and Yang Pen Li when his AK was no good against Tomas Alenius set of fours.

With eleven players remaining we needed one more to go before play would be consolidated to an unofficial final table. It was Ken Dickenson who was left settling for this spot and $13,543 in eleventh place prize money. It was a huge hand earlier against Glenn Engelbert that crippled him, but the hand that finished him off saw his pocket nines out raced by Richard Brodie’s AQ suited.

At the start of the unofficial final table the chip counts and seat positions were:

Seat 1 — Glenn Engelbert (410,000)
Seat 2 — Richard Brodie (195,000)
Seat 3 — Demetrios Arvanetes (370,000)
Seat 4 — Kim-Phong Duong (175,000)
Seat 5 — Rep Porter (370,000)
Seat 6 — Dominik Kulicki (95,000)
Seat 7 — Cole Miller (180,000)
Seat 8 — Al Barbieri (495,000)
Seat 9 — Jason Tam (255,000)
Seat 10 — Tomas Alenius (370,000)

Ten handed play did not last long. Richard Brodie got his money all in on the turn with AJ on a board that read Qs Jh 2s Qc against Jason Tam who had Ks 10s for an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. When the river came 3s Richard Brodie was to the rail in tenth place ($13,543) as the official final table bubble boy.

Final table play started great for Al Barbieri, when his 9h 6c hit a straight on the 5h 8c 7d flop, he got plenty of action from Jason Tam to extend his chip count to over 800K.

The first player eliminated from the final table was Cole Miller ($18,932) when he got all his chips in with Ah 9d on a flop of Qh 5c 3c against Al Barbieri’s 8c 5h. The very next hand Kim-Phong Duong was eliminated receiving $21,416 for eight place when his two opponents checked down a board of 6h 4d 2d 4s 10h board. At showdown, Engelbert tabled Ac Kd and that was enough to beat both the 9h 7c of Tam and the Ah Qd of Duong.

Rep Porter found himself needing to wait for another day to win a second career WSOP bracelet when he put his remaining chips in on a board that read 2s 5c 7s 4s 7h. His opponent Demetrios Arvanetes called and turned over Js 10s for a flush and Porter mucked receiving $25,313 for his seventh place finish. He was followed to the rail by Dominik Kulicki when his KQ ran into Jason Tam’s pocket aces.

Fifth place ($40,681) went to Demetrios Arvanetes when he put the last of his chips in on the turn against both Glenn Engelbert and Tomas Alenius. The final board read 3c Jh 7c 2c Jc, Engelbert flipped over 7s 7d for a full house which won the pot. Shortly after giving most of his stack to Al Barbieri, Engelbert was to the rail in forth ($55,576) when his Q7 Can into Alenius’s pocket aces.

When three handed play began it was anyone’s game with Jason Tam in the lead with 970K in chips, but Tomas Alenius was right behind him with 930K and Al Barbieri held 850K. However after some time Barbieri’s stack size dwindled to just 290K chips and he was eventually eliminated when he got his final chips in with JT on a board that read A-J-8-7. Tam had top pair with AK. When the 4d fell on the river Barbieri was eliminated in third place receiving $80,072.

When heads up play began Jason Tam had a massive lead of 2.18 million to 720K of Tomas Alenius. However, limit holdem can be a highly volatile game and this proved to be the case as Alenius picked up pot after pot to eventually gain a small lead. This small lead grew into a massive one, when with stakes of 50K/100K both players saw a flop of Jd 7d 8s. Alenius check-raised a bet from Tam. The turn fell the As and Alenius bet out. Tam made the call and the river was the 8d. Alenius bet out again and Tam made the crying call. Alenius flipped up 8c7c for eights full and that was enough to take the pot. Alenius moved up to 2.2 million with that pot and Tam was down to his last 500,000.

On the final hand Alenius holding As 4c got Tam to commit his chips with Qs 5c. When the board ran T-6-2-K-K Tomas Alenius became the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Champion and Jason Tam collected $122,000 as the runner up.