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<\/a><\/p>\nThe final table was reached fairly quickly with the blinds at 200\/400\/50.\u00a0 Troy Soult entered the final table as the chip leader.\u00a0 Sheng Xie, Michael \u201cGordo\u201d Gordon, and Eric Grady were bunched together with middle sized stacks and John Marsh, Dennis Koeller, Ash Showeb, and Bharad Parthasarathy on the short stacks.<\/p>\n
The first hand of note was played between Eric and Gordo at 200\/400\/50.\u00a0 Eric raised in middle position to 1,100.\u00a0 It folded to Gordo in the small blind and he called.\u00a0 Troy also called from the big blind.\u00a0 Gordo and Troy checked a flop of T98 to Eric who made a continuation bet of 1,225.\u00a0 Gordo called and Troy folded.\u00a0 Gordo checked a turn A and Eric bet again, this time 2,600.\u00a0 The pot was now 11,400.\u00a0 The river brought a 7 and Gordo checked yet again.\u00a0 Eric went all in for about 14,000.\u00a0 Gordo took a moment before eventually calling.\u00a0 Eric turned over AT for a turned two pair and Gordo turned over a rivered set with 77, having been calling down with an open ended straight draw.\u00a0 Eric had Gordo covered by 1,050 and was still alive but on the extreme short stack.<\/p>\n
Eric would double up twice in the next several hands, first jamming Q2 suited for 1,000.\u00a0 It folded to Sheng in the big blind who called with A3.\u00a0 The board ran out TQK88.\u00a0 After the big blind passed him Eric jammed when it was folded to his small blind for about 2,500.\u00a0 Dennis called in the big blind.\u00a0 Eric had 750 with the 5 of diamonds.\u00a0 Dennis had K9 of spades.\u00a0 The flop came out 8AK all diamonds giving Dennis a pair to strengthen his lead but gave Eric two streets to hit his flush.\u00a0 The Q of diamonds came on the turn and Eric would double up once more.<\/p>\n
The first bust out of the final table came on the last hand of the 200\/400\/50 level.\u00a0 Ash shoved in middle position for 4,000 and was called by Gordo in the big blind.\u00a0 Ash turned over A9 and Gordo showed the dominating AT.\u00a0 Ash outflopped Gordo on a 94Q board but a turn K and river J gave Gordo broadway.<\/p>\n
On the next hand at 300\/600\/75, Shen raised to 1,400.\u00a0 Eric next to add moved his remaining 5,400 into the pot.\u00a0 It folded back to Sheng who made the call.\u00a0 He turned over A5 of spades and Eric turned over AA.\u00a0 Eric was leading after the J97 flop but two spades left him a lot to sweat on the turn and river.\u00a0 The turn was an offsuit 6 but the 3 of spades sealed the victory for Sheng.<\/p>\n
Sheng\u2019s rise to dominance would come later in the level.\u00a0 Gordo opened in early position to 1,500.\u00a0 It folded to Sheng who made it 4,600.\u00a0 Gordo moved all in for around 30,000 and Sheng snap called.\u00a0 Gordo turned over QQ and Sheng AA.\u00a0 The board ran out 2847T and gave Sheng the chip lead and left Gordo with just 600.<\/p>\n
Gordo set poker back 20 years on the next hand by folding his less than 1 BB when Dennis raised and he tossed KQ.\u00a0 I apologized to all at the final table for having to witness that.<\/p>\n
He finally moved all in for his final 425 on the next hand with T5 of diamonds.\u00a0 Troy was next to act and made it 1,700.\u00a0 Everyone else folded and Troy turned over AQ.\u00a0 The board was T4A with one diamond. The turn brought the K of diamonds and the river the 3 of diamonds giving Gordo the miracle flush and a little bit of life.<\/p>\n
Bharad limped the next hand in early position to 600.\u00a0 It folded to Gordo who this time somehow found KQ good enough to play and moved all in for 1,450.\u00a0 Troy called and Bharad called as well.\u00a0 The board ran out A83Q5.\u00a0 Bharad turned over AT for the win and Troy had the same second best hand of KQ that Gordo did.\u00a0 Gordo was out in 7th<\/sup> place and was the points bubble boy for Event 18.<\/p>\n The next bust out came a few orbits later but now with the blinds 400\/800\/75.\u00a0 Bharad opened the pot to 1,600.\u00a0 It folded to John who moved in his remaining 8,500.\u00a0 Bharad was covered by John and called his remaining 5,600, putting himself all in.\u00a0 He turned over A9 and John QQ.\u00a0 The flop of 2J9 gave Bharad two more outs on the final two streets but the board ran out K8 and have John the win.\u00a0 Bharad got 4 points to add to his league leading total for his 6th<\/sup> place finish.<\/p>\n Dennis was now the short stack and moved in for 4,600 from early position at 500\/1,000\/100.\u00a0 It folded to Sheng in the big blind who called.\u00a0 Dennis turned over K9 and Sheng 77.\u00a0 Sheng held the lead on the A3Q flop.\u00a0 He held still on the J turn but Dennis opened up 4 more outs.\u00a0 The river found a K and Dennis doubled up.<\/p>\n A few orbits later Sheng opened to 2,200 from the small blind.\u00a0 Dennis moved all in for 9,200 and Sheng called.\u00a0 Sheng turned over A6s and Dennis held QQ.\u00a0 The flop of A45 put Sheng in the lead.\u00a0 An A on the turn and a J on the river brought an end to Dennis\u2019 solid season.\u00a0 He earned 8 points for his 5th<\/sup> place victory and is potentially in line for a partial WSOP buy in, currently sitting at 8th<\/sup> place in the standings.<\/p>\n Joe was next to go just a few hands later.\u00a0 In a blind versus blind battle, he moved all in from the small blind when the action folded to him with A5 and was called in the big blind by Troy who held 66.\u00a0 Joe picked up some outs on the 7K5 flop but the board ran 2Q and Troy held.\u00a0 Joe earned 14 points for his 4th<\/sup> place effort.\u00a0 Joe is still mathematically alive and still within striking distance of a WSOP package with 2 events left.<\/p>\n John was the short stack against Troy and Sheng as three handed play began.\u00a0 With 11,300 left John moved in from the button with KJ.\u00a0 Troy folded and Sheng called with A9 in the big blind.\u00a0 The board ran out K454K giving John the full house and a much needed double up to continue the fight.<\/p>\n Only a few hands later and the final hand of 500\/1,000\/100 John limped, Troy completed his small blind, and Sheng raised to 4,600.\u00a0 John moved all in for 21,000.\u00a0 Sheng called.\u00a0 John turned over QQ and Sheng held KT.\u00a0 The board ran K9764 and John was finished in 3rd<\/sup>.\u00a0 He received 23 points and like Joe, is still mathematically alive and within striking distance with the final two events left to play.<\/p>\n At the start of heads up play Sheng held a 3 to 1 chip lead over Troy, which he stretched to about 4 to 1 winning most of the early pots at the 600\/1,200\/200 level.\u00a0 Troy managed a couple of double ups with 99 versus Q8 and K2 versus A7 but Sheng again started to pull away and regained a 3 to 1 chip lead.<\/p>\n Troy was finally vanquished when he moved in with KQ and Sheng called with a dominated QT.\u00a0 The flop came JT3 giving Sheng a pair but also providing Troy an up and down straight draw for Sheng to sweat.\u00a0 The board ran out 84.\u00a0 Troy got 34 points for his 2nd<\/sup> place finish and Sheng 47 points for the victory.<\/p>\n Troy\u2019s second place finish catapulted him into 5th<\/sup> place overall for the season and locking up his WSOP package.\u00a0 Sheng moved up to 3rd<\/sup> in the overall standings and also locked up his seat.<\/p>\n Depending on the turnout in Events 19 and 20, we could see some movement for the last few WSOP prizes up for grabs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 26 players came to battle on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, with 10 making their final stand in Season 12. The final table was reached fairly quickly with the blinds at 200\/400\/50.\u00a0 Troy Soult entered the final table as the chip leader.\u00a0 Sheng Xie, Michael \u201cGordo\u201d Gordon, and Eric Grady were bunched together with middle sized … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":635,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2265,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2262\/revisions\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/piranhapokerteam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n