Vitaly Lunkin wins 40k event

Vitaly Lunkin Wins 2009 WSOP 40k Event #2

June 2nd, 2009

Vitaly Lunkin Image

When Harrah’s announced the $40,000 NL Holdem Event for the 2009 World Series of Poker, they knew they were going to have a strong field. However, nothing could have prepared them for what occurred over the 4 days of the event.
201 players turned out for this 40th Anniversary Event. Most of the big names of both the live and online poker world were in attendance. Among them were Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, Phil Gaffond, and Vanessa Rousso.
The big surprise of Day 1 was the rise of Chris Moneymaker to the top of the leaderboard. While Bruno Fitoussi lead after Day 1, Moneymaker was 2nd in chips and seemed poised to make a deep run in this event.
However, Day 2 would paint a different picture. As the money bubble loomed, Moneymaker still had a decent chip stack, but lost most of it to Tony G when Tony’s A-K outdrew Moneymaker’s pocket queens. Moneymaker would go out soon after when he ran pocket 10’s into the pocket 10’s of Ted Forrest.

As the money bubble loomed, it was another Main Event champion that would take the chip lead. Greg Raymer skyrocketed up the leaderboard to take the top spot for a while. The money bubble burst when the Alec Torelli filled his open ended straight draw against Neil Chriss. 27 players would receive payouts in this event. Vanessa Rousso was the last woman standing in the event and would be the first to go out after the bubble burst. Her pocket queens were outdrawn by the A-K of David Lehr.
Justin Bonomo would take the chip lead into Day 3. Among those eliminated on Day 3 were Andy Black, David Chiu, David Baker, Andrew Robl, and Neil Channing. Tony G would become the final table bubble boy, finishing the event in 10th place. This is how the final table shaped up for the event:

Seat 1 – Ted Forrest 560,000
Seat 2 – Noah Schwartz 660,000
Seat 3 – Alec Torelli 2,340,000
Seat 4 – Isaac Haxton 5,955,000
Seat 5 – Greg Raymer 3,345,000
Seat 6 – Justin Bonomo 1,685,000
Seat 7 – Lex Veldhuis 3,805,000
Seat 8 – Dani Stern 1,300,000
Seat 9 – Vitaly Lunkin 4,565,000

Ted Forrest was the short stack going in and was the first knocked out. Behind him followed Noah Schwartz, Lex Veldhuis, Alec Torelli, Justin Bonomo, and Dani Stern. With three players left in the event, Greg Raymer had a legitimate shot of taking this event down as he and Isaac Haxton were around 8 Million in chips, with Haxton having the slight advantage.
The turning point came when Raymer moved all-in with his pocket fives against the pocket nine of Haxton. All of the money went in on a board of Q-3-3 and Raymer needed one of the two remaining fives to win. Neither five came and Haxton held a commanding chip lead.

At this point, Haxton led Vitaly Lunkin 16.5 Million to 7.7 Million. However, Lunkin was not ready to leave quite yet. First, he took a nice pot off Haxton with a straight to move up to 10.7 Million in chips. He then proceeded to chip away until he held the chip lead.

Haxton would come storming back and retook the chip lead, but then a big confrontation between the two turned the tide in Lunkins favor. On a board of A-4-5, all clubs, Haxton came over the top of a bet from Lunkin and pushed all-in. Lunkin called with Qc-10s and was in the lead of Haxton’s Qs-8c. The turn fell the 8d and it seemed that Haxton would suck out to take the title. However, the river fell the 2c to give Lunkin a flush and a nearly insurmountable chip lead.
On the final hand saw Haxton pushed on a flop of Qd-10d-8d with 8c-3d. Lunkin called with As-Ah. Haxton failed to catch a three, eight, or diamond, and Vitaley Lunkin became the $40,000 NL Holdem Champion. He received the championship gold bracelet and $1,891,012 in cash.

Congratulations to Full Tilt Poker Pro Vitaly Lunkin, 40k Event #2 Champion.