WSOP Event 3 Results: Full Tilt Poker’s David Singer wins first bracelet

David Singer is one of the most accomplished poker professionals never to have won a WSOP bracelet. That was of course until last night when he battled back from being the second short stack at the outset of Event #3’s final table, all the way to capturing the events $214,131 top place prize money and to him more importantly the coveted WSOP gold bracelet. Here is how the final table played out.

The first hour or so of the event players were vary caution with no one wanting to be the first person to be eliminated. Eventually it was Glen Bean who had to settle for the 9th place finish and $19,464 in prize money. The California native started the day with the shortest stack and never really had an opportunity to make anything positive happen. He was eliminated when he called a 24K preflop raise with his final 21K chips. His cards: Jh 8c and his opponent Zachary King’s cards: Ah Qh. Before the flop Bean stated “I’m going to win this one” and for a moment it looked like he would when the board ran: 9c 8s 3d 9h, but an ace on the river would seal his fate.

Al Barbieri, a tournament veteran with more than $500K in circuit winnings, was the final tables next casualty when he ran K6 versus David Singers Ac Qd, Barbieri received $26,764.

Zachary King who had earlier eliminated Glen Bean managed to win a few other pots before his tournament went down hill. The hand that finished him off was Greg Alston’s pocket aces. The 22 year-old Georgia native Zachary King received $34,063 for his 7th place finish improving his career tournament winnings to an impressive $131,995 (considering his age).

With six players remaining the chip counts were:

Jacobo Fernandez — 790,000
David Singer — 665,000
Gregory Alston — 335,000
Robert Lipkin — 220,000
Russell Harriman — 120,000
Joseph Tehan — 80,000

With in 90 minutes time we would lose the bottom half the players mentioned above and the three players on top that list remained in the same order on the chip count leaderboard.

Joe Tehan got 6th place and $43,796 when his Jack Ten suited was out raced by David Singer’s pocket nines. Russ Harriman got 5th place and $55,474 when Greg Alston who held Ace Jack found an ace on the flop which bested his pocket queens. David Singer managed to take out yet another player when he snap called Robert Lipkin over the top all in raise. Singer had pocket Jack which held up against Robert Lipkin who was caught bluffing with 75 suited. Lipkin received $67,640 for his 4th place finish.

When play reached 3 handed the chip counts were:

Jacobo Fernandez — 960,00
David Singer — 935,000
Gregory Alston — 215,000

The next significant hand was between Greg Alston and Jacobo Fernandez. Alston made it 34K and Fernandez came over the top all-in. Call!

Greg Alston: Pocket Jacks
Jacobo Fernandez: Pocket Eights.

The board runs 7 K 6….. eek the turns and 8!
Gregory Alston, a 33 year old poker veteran, is eliminated in 3rd place receiving $82,725 which brings his career tournament winnings well past the $500K milestone.

When heads up play starting Fernandez had 1.25 million chips to Singer’s 935K. Based on the players talent levels and the relatively low blinds we figured this would make for a great heads up match up. Fernandez was the lesser known of the two finalists, but he is no slouch having had close to $700K in career winnings heading into this event. Singer on the other hand, despite the chip disadvantage was a for sure favorite heading into this matchup. He has over $4,000,000 in career winnings including runner up finishes in both the WSOP and WPT and recently had won the $25,000 buy-in heads up tournament at Full Tilt Poker, where he happens to be a sponsored pro.

The two went at it for about 40 minutes and drew close to even in chips. They then decided to take their previously scheduled 90 minute dinner break reversing the decision to skip it they had made a while earlier.

After the break Fernandez slowly but surely built himself a nice chip lead and after close to three hours of play it appeared he’d be the WSOP’s newest champion. David Singer refused to die without a fight and managed to gain himself a nice chip lead on the second to last hand of the tournament which played out like this.

Fernandez min-raised to 80K from the button and David Singer Min raised him back to $160K to which Fernandez immediately declared himself all in. It did not take Singer long to call and table Ah Kd, Fernandez turned over 5h 5d and we had ourselves a classic race situation. The board ran Ks, Ad, Ts, bringing a smile to Singers face, and the turn and the river were both blanks doubling singer up to 1.7 chips.

On the very next hand the board read 3d 5s 7d 6c.Singer bet 40K and Fernandez re-popped to 180K, to which Singer bet enough to put Fernandez all in. Fernandez took a while to make the call and eventually did shows 3 7 for two pair, but Singer had Q 4 for the straight. The river was a blank sending Fernadez out as the runner up; good for $136,643.and David Singer is the 2008 WSOP of poker Event #3 champion for which he received $214,131 and to him more importantly the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.