John Juanda is already regarded as one of the best all-round poker players of his generation and he has added extra weight to claims he may actually be the best all-round player by winning a star-studded $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball Championship (No Limit) at the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker, his fifth WSOP victory.
There were 126 players who were prepared to part company with $10,000 of their cash in exchange for 30,000 tournament chips, the chance to win $367,170 and a WSOP bracelet. This particular event always seems to attract the biggest names in poker and this year’s was no different with a splattering of seasoned live pros and online poker biggest names.
The final 14 places, where the money was awarded, were reached at the end of Day 2 and those who still had chips in front of them shared between them a staggering 33 WSOP braclets, going to show how tough the relatively short field actually was. Only three of the 14 players had not won a bracelet before, Joe Cassidy, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier and David “Chino” Rheem.
Despite the talent on show all eyes were on Phil Hellmuth as he was looking to break his own record for titles won by taking down his 12 WSOP title. Many argue that the game has passed Hellmuth by and mock him for only winning bracelets in Hold’em events but in his illustrious career so far he has made 16 WSOP final tables in non-Hold’em events, finishing second or third on four occasions, well five after this event as he fell just short of a non-Hold’em victory but lost out heads-up to Juanda.
Going into heads up Hellmuth held a massive 3,000,000 to 780,000 lead over Juanda but that did not deter the latter as he slowly chipped away at Hellmuth’s lead and almost literally battered him into submission. Daniel Negreanu, who has played many times with Juanda in cash games and tournaments, revealed that Juanda made the majority of his starting bankroll by playing heads-up Deuce-to-Seven at the Commerce Casino and he never recalled him losing. Although he started the one-on-one stage as a huge underdog he never looked like losing this one either and it was no surprise when he won all of the 3,780,000 chips in play.
All Hellmuth had to say to Juanda was “Well played buddy, well played. You’re just so f***ing scary!” before heading to the cashier’s cage to pick up another $226,907 in live tournament winnings, taking his total past the $11,600,000 barrier. Juanda’s win, his fifth in WSOP events, earns him $367,170 and means he has now won more than $11,700,000 in his live tournament career so far.
Final table payouts
1st: John Juanda: $367,170
2nd: Phil Hellmuth: $226,907
3rd: Richard Ashby: $143,833
4th: Steve Sung: $97,416
5th: Nick Shulman: $69,216
6th: David Baker: $51,485
7th: Hasan Habib: $40,020
8th: Joe Cassidy: $32,440
9th: Greg Raymer: $27,928
