Saturday WSOP Round up – Kabbaj Triumph

Experienced Londoner John Kabbaj flew the British flag as he clinched victory in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament. Kabbaj is a veteran on the UK scene, with regular appearances on the Grosvenor UK tour and PartyPoker open heats. Past notable achievements include a 1^st place at the £1,500 NL European Poker Classics in London, for a cool $236,988.

Kabbaj has already enjoyed two cashes at this years WSOP, where British success has been frankly muted. His final table break came when he eliminated J.C. Alvarado in 5^th, as his A10 ousted Alvarado’s 66 in a coin flip. Heads-up play ensued between Kabbaj and canny Russian Kirill Gerasimov. Despite holding the chip lead going into heads-up play, the Russian took a severe hit when his 33 succumbed to Kabbaj’s A4, which flopped a full house. His luck failed to improve, as his KK was ‘coolered’ by the Brit’s AA. Kabbaj becomes the second Englishman to scoop a bracelet at the WSOP, and earns a handsome $633,335 for his efforts.

Final Top 3 Standings:

1^st John Kabbaj $633,335

2^nd Kirill Gerasimov $391,369v

3^rd Eric Baldwin $259,534

Meanwhile, the showpiece $50K H.O.R.S.E event has kicked off, albeit with a noticeably smaller field. Only 93 players took to the green felt, compared to 138 last year – perhaps an indication of the troublesome economic climate. It will be interesting to see if Main Event numbers, which are usually in the excess of 8,000, dwindle as well. The $50K H.O.R.S.E still boasted a stellar field, arguably the toughest of any tournament worldwide, with multiple bracelet winners Erik Siedel, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson all forking out for the hefty buy-in. The slow structure meant that only 4 players were eliminated in Day 1 – including David Singer and Steve Zolotow. Ten times bracelet winner Johnny ‘The Orient Express’ Chan needed the aid of the poker gods to accumulate a strong stack of 234,000. He was struggling when, holding Ah-Jh to Billy Baxter’s Ad-Kc, a Ks-Jd-9d flop hit. However a Jc on the river gifted a significant pot to Chan. Other pros in a commanding position include Chris Ferguson, whose patient, methodical approach suits the slow tournament structure. He lies behind French high stakes player David Benyamine and Full Tilt pro come Buddhist monk Andy Black, who also star in the top ten.

Credit: Sam M