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Jonathan Duhamel will face John Racener in the heads-up at the WSOP Main Event final table later today. Duhamel is in an enormous chip lead, he has over 180 million chips against Racener's 30 million.
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The event kicked off at exactly at 3 p.m. last Sunday when Bruce Buffer, renowned presenter announced the beginning of the finals.The Las Vegas Rio Casino was full by this time, many poker pros and celebrities visited the event, such as Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Tom Marchese, Sorel Mizzi, Carter King, J.C. Tran, Nam Le, Karina Jett, and of course the whole Mizrachi family, supporting the most successful Mizrachi.
Chips of players at the beginning of the final table:
Seat 1: Jason Senti - 7.625.000
Seat 2: Joseph Cheong - 23.525.000
Seat 3: John Dolan - 46.250.000
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel - 65.975.000
Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi - 14.450.000
Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis - 16.700.000
Seat 7: John Racener - 19.050.000
Seat 8: Filippo Candio - 16.400.000
Seat 9: Soi Nguyen - 9.650.000
The first to leave the final table was the rookie, Soi Nguyen, the player who only participated in 4 live tournaments befor the WSOP. He ran into Jason Senti's set of queens with his K pair.
Jason Senti
Soon the only European player at the table, the Italian Filippo Candio went all-in against the chip leader Jonathan Duhamel pre-flop. Candio doubled up with his pocket aces against Duhamel's A high on a neutral board.
The next to leave the table was Matthew Jarvis, who went all-in preflop, which Mizrachi called. Jarvis showed pocket 9s, Mizrachi A-Q. The board came Q-8-Q-9-A, giving The Grinder a higher full, eliminating Jarvis. Mizrachi soon became the chip leader as he continued to play well, he seemedhe would make it to the final heads-up.
Senti also tried to collect chips quickly, as he was down int the shortstack zone, but his end was near: he raised, got reraised by Cheong to 4,950,000, when he went all-in, Cheong called. Senti showed his A-K, Cheong pocket tens. The board was K-K-Q-J-9, which was unfortunate for Senti, who flopped a set, but was beat by Cheong's straigth on the river. Senti finished 7th.
Soon John Dolan, who quickly lost most of joined him, he went all-in from the small blind, Duhamel called from the big blind. Dolan's Q-5 couldn't improve on a neutral board against Duhamel's pocket 4s, he was out in 6th place.
Michael Mizrachi
The Grinder couldn't stay any longer, as he ran into Duhamel, who slowplayed his pocket aces. They soon were all-in, Duhamel's trap worked, Mizrachi's third queen didn't come and he was out.
Three hands later Candio went pre-flop all-in from the big blind, Cheong insta-called. Cheong had huge luck there, he won the hand with straight against Candio's K high.
Joseph Cheong
The 3-handed game continued for an hour when the biggest pot of WSOP history was on the table: Racener folded on the button, Cheong raised to 2,900,000. Duhamel's 3bet was 4betted by Cheong, which was 5betted to 22,750,000 by Duhamel, which was raised to all-in by Cheong. On a neutral board, Duhamel's pocked queens beat Cheong's A high.
Jonathan Duhamel
Two hands later it was the two of them again, they both went all-in pre-flop. On a neutral board Duhamel eliminated Cheong with A high. Only John Racener and Jonathan Duhamel were left, who are about to continue their epic battle today at 8 p.m. PT for the WSOP title. ESPN3.com [4] will again be broadcasting the event live, we'll soon see how long Racener's chips will last.
Results and prizes before the heads-up:
3. Joseph Cheong - $4.130.049
4. Filippo Candio - $3.092.545
5. Michael Mizrachi - $2.332.992
6. John Dolan - $1.772.959
7. Jason Senti - $1.356.720
8. Matthew Jarvis - $1.045.743
9. Soi Nguyen - $811.823