Tuan Le defends $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw title, $10,000 Heads Up Championship underway

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Tuan Le became the first player to defend his WSOP title since 2009, winning back-to-back WSOP bracelets in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship. Meanwhile, the $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Championship has also started, the field played down to the best 16.

57 players returned for Day 2 of Event #7 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship and the 12 paying spots were reached with the elimination of Alan Richardson. He was soon followed by Paul Volpe, Mark Gregorich, Viacheslav Zhukov, Greg Mueller and Bruno Fitoussi.

On Tuesday the remaining seven players continued the battle for the bracelet in one of the toughest final tables in WSOP history with high stakes cash game pro Phil Galfond, online MTT legends Calvin "cal42688" Anderson and James Obst, mix-game specialists Ismael Bojang and Max Casal, live tournament regular Rep Porter and last year's winner Tuan Le playing for the $322.756 first place prize.

Seat 1: Rep Porter - 303.000
Seat 2: Phil Galfond - 355.000
Seat 3: Calvin Anderson - 552.000
Seat 4: James Obst - 207.000
Seat 5: Ismael Bojang - 404.000
Seat 6: Tuan Le - 1.100.000
Seat 7. Max Casal - 431.000

Play began on Level 21 (6,000/12,000 blinds) but the first elimination didn't happen until Level 22 (8,000/15,000). Ismael Bojang opened to 30,000, Anderson, who has lost most of his chips to Tuan Le in a big pot, shoved all-in for just 42,000 and Bojang called.

Bojang swapped two cards, Anderson swapped three. In the second draw Anderson only drew one card, Bojang drew two again. On the final draw both players drew one card, before the swap Anderson had 9-6-3-2 while Bojang had 9-7-5-2. Bojang drew a five, meaning Anderson only needed to fade a 6 or 9, unfortunately for him he drew a 9.

Not much later Le opened to 30,000 from the cutoff, Porter 3bet from the small blind and Le called and drew three cards. Porter drew one card, and bet 15,000. Le called, then both players drew one card. Porter bet 30,000, Le raised to 60,000.

Porter shoved all-in for 83,000 after a short deliberation, Le called and both players stood pat. Le showed 8-5-4-3-2 for the win while Porter had 9-7-6-5-3.

During Level 24 (13.000/25,000) Obst doubled through Bojang but he was still eliminated in fifth place, in his last hand he lost with 9-7-6-4-3 against Casal's 8-5-4-3-2.

Tuan Le - 1.995.000
Max Casal - 705.000
Ismael Bojang - 320.000
Phil Galfond - 265.000

After the dinner break Le opened to 60,000, Galfond 3bet to 90,000, Le 4bet and Galfond called all-in for 120,000. Galfond drew one card, Le drew two. On the next betting round Galfond stood pat, while Le drew two cards for both the second and the third draw. 

Galfond had 9-7-4-3-2 but Le got a 7 and a 5 to his 8-6-2, winning with 8-7 low.

Bojang was eliminated in third place by Casal, but Le still had a massive chip lead when heads-up play started.

Tuan Le - 2.570.000
Maximilian Casal - 715.000

Le built his lead even more and on Level 26 (20,000/40,000) he delivered the finishing blow. In the final hand he raised to 80,000 then 4bet after Casal 3bet to 120,000. Casal called all-in for 140,000 and drew one while Le drew three.

In the second draw Le drew two cards, Casal drew one. On the final draw Casal drew one card and Le stood pat with J-8-6-5-2 and Casal got a 3 for his 9-7-5-3.

Tuan Le defended his 2014 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship title, the last player to defend his title was Thang Luu, who won the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo in 2008 and 2009.

Le received $355,324 for last year's victory and $322,756 for defending his title.

"I feel like this win is 10 times bigger than last year's title. Defending your title puts you in a completely different league. It's proof that you are doing something right. Anyone can get there once, but if you defeated the field the following year aswell, that definitely shows something. Last year the money was more important, this year it's the glory and the bracelet."

Final table results:

1. Tuan Le - $322.756
2. Max Casal - $199.438
3. Ismael Bojang - $130.851
4. Phil Galfond - $89.939
5. James Obst - $63.863
6. Rep Porter - $46.813
7. Calvin Anderson - $35.389

143 players registered for Event #10 $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Championship, creating a prize pool of $1.344.200. On Day 1 they played down to the final 16. All the players are in the money now, the following matches will be played on Wednesday.

Andy Philachack vs. Matthew Cooper
Timothy Adams vs. Simon Lam
Paul Volpe vs. Barry Hutter
Isidro Sifuentes vs. George Danzer
Jake Schindler vs. Keith Lehr
Byron Kaverman vs. Valeriu Coca
Olivier Busquet vs. JC Tran
Max Silver vs. Dee Tiller

Payouts

1. $334.430
2. $206.620
3-4. $111.525
5-8. $54.545
9-16. $26.490