Zac Fellows win bracelet – WSOP Event 21

Online poker affiliate, Zac Fellows scored the biggest victory of his young poker career last night when he took down 2009 WSOP Event 21, $3,000 buy-in HORSE. In his quest for the bracelet he needed to get through many big name pros including Steve Billirakis who finished in 23rd, Chau Giang (16th), Gavin Smith (10th), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (8th).

Those who follow online poker might know Zac Fellows better by his online poker user name Zacpacker where he plays both at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. While Fellows is primarily an internet player he does have plenty of live experience having final tabled the Aussie Millions Championship event earlier this year, and having finished runner up in a WSOP event last year. Fellows is currently 25 years old, he started playing poker at age 16, but did not start playing live tournaments until 2006.

“It’s unbelievable,” Fellows commented in his post match interview. “It’s surreal. Even right now, it’s not going to sink in for a couple of more days. This is something that everybody wants. It’s something everybody goes after. I feel really lucky and very fortunate to come out on top.”

Here’s how the days action unfolded:

2009 WSOP Event 21 – $3,000 HORSE – Day 3 Report

When this event started on Tuesday (June 9) there were 452 entrants, when that day was complete the field was narrowed to 197, and after day two there were just twenty-one players remaining. Yesterday (June 11) at 1PM these 21 survivors headed to the Rio for one final long day of poker, which would end with a bracelet being awarded. There were several big name players left in the field including Chau Giang (149K chips), Gavin Smith (121K chips), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (87K) each with stacks considerably smaller than chip leaders Zac Fellows (471K chips) and James Van Alstyne (455K chips).

These remaining players wasted little time getting the action started, and within the first hour of play five players were eliminated and play was consolidated down to two tables. These players were Jaren Okun (21st), Brian McKain (20th), Frank Debus (19th), Ylon Schwartz (18th) and David Backer (17th) each receiving $8,782. In the second hour the field narrowed further as Chau Giang (16th) and Adam Heller (15th) hit the rail receiving $11,477 and were followed by Aaron Steury (14th) and Bill Blanda (13th) who both received $14,209.

Once Asher Derei (12th) and Frank Cremen (11th) went out receiving $17,939 we were at the final table bubble. Perhaps the most well known name in the field, Gavin Smith, was the player who needed to settle for that spot as final table bubble boy when he started with trip eights in Stud, but was out drawn as his opponent Eikeng who started with (AK) K hit a third king on fourth. Smith received $23,777 for his tenth place finish.

When final table play began the round was 7 Card Stud with blinds at 8K/15K. Here’s how the seat assignments and chip counts looked:

Seat 1: Gabriel Nassif – 486,000
Seat 2: Timothy Finne – 444,000
Seat 3: Chris Amaral – 383,000
Seat 4: Stewart Yancik – 374,000
Seat 5: James Van Alstyne – 720,000
Seat 6: Michele Limongi – 520,000
Seat 7: Martin Eikeng – 285,000
Seat 8: Matt Hawrilenko – 230,000
Seat 9: Zac Fellows – 590,000

After nearly two hours of nine handed play, the streak of no eliminations broke when Chris Amaral rivered a flush in stud to crack Stewart Yancik’s Aces-up. When this hand was complete Yancik had only 24K, he did double up in the Stud Hi/Lo round to get back to 60K, but this comeback was only temporary. In the Holdem round Yancik was finished off when his Ah 6d was beat by Fellows Kc Ks on a board that read 9s 4d 3h 4c Kh. Yancik received $23,777 for his ninth place finish.

High-stakes cash game phenom Matt Hawrilenko would be the next to fall and he received $32,647 after Chris Amaral’s 7-4 low bested his 7-6 low in razz. In the Omaha Hi/Lo round (level 25) Gabriel Nassif got his money in with KcQcJc3h and was finished off by Chris Amaral’s As Ad 7s 4h when the board came 10d 9h 6s 4d 10s. Nassif collected $38,947 for his seventh place finish.

When six-handed play began the tournament was at Level 26 with 20K/40K blinds and 40K/80K stakes. James Van Alstyne was the chip leader with over 1.7 million in chips while Martin Eikeng and Zac Fellows were severely short stacked. Each got new life during 7 card stud as Eikeng doubled through Michele Limongi, while Fellows doubled through Van Alstyne.

The two former short-stacks who recently found new life, got involved in a massive pot while still in the stud round. On this hand Zac Fellows and Martin Eikeng were all in on fourth with Eikeng being the player at risk but in good shape holding As 9c Ac 9d against Fellow’s Jc Jh/ 4h Qs. On fifth street, Eikeng took what appeared to be an insurmountable lead when he caught the 9s, giving him nines full of aces, while Fellows received the 8d. Sixth street gave Fellows jacks and eights leaving him drawing to the two remaining jacks. Miraculously for Fellows, the Jd was dealt to him on the river, and when Martin Eikeng was received the case jack as his final card. Totally stunned Eikeng headed to the rail to collect $48,590 for fifth place while Zac Fellows was back in the game with 700K chips.

During stud hi/lo James Van Alstyne improved his stack and during this round would posses half the chips in play with stiff five players remaining. During Holdem a battle of the short stacks saw Timothy Finne’s Qh Jc outdraw Chris Amaral’s Kc3c when the Qs fell on the river, leaving Amaral to collect his $63,536 for fifth place. Next out was Michele Limongi ($87,264) when Zac Fellows made a ten-low in the razz round to finish him off in fourth place.

Timothy Finne had spent much of his time at the final table short stacked and after a long battle eventually needed to settle for third worth $126,199 when his Kc 9c was out kicked by Zac Fellows’ As Kd.

When heads up play began James Van Alstyne and Zac Fellows were close to even in chips. However, a short time later Fellows had captured all but 150K of James Van Alstyne chips. The short stacked Van Alstyne refused to give up as he managed to double up several more times, which was only good enough to stay alive as Fellows remained in control with a commanding chip lead. Finally in the end Fellows flopped a set of sixes to put his opponent away. James Van Alstyne added $192,866 to his impressive tournament resume for his runner up finish while Zac Fellows finished the marathon final table with his first WSOP bracelet along with the $311,899 first prize.

Also worth noting is as a Canadian player Zac Fellows captured Canada their first bracelet of the 2009 World Series of Poker.