Chris Moorman is widely regarded as the best-ever online poker tournament player, having won a record 11 Triple Crown titles and over $7,000,000 in winnings. Until recently he had struggled to reproduce that form in the live arena, having “only” won $109,223 from live tournaments but since the start of the year he has been on a real tear that has seen him walk away with more than $1,200,000.
Moorman’s amazing 2011 started with a seventh place finish in the Aussie Millions Main Event but it has been his consistent performances at this year’s World Series of Poker that deserve a special mention. His first result of the WSOP came in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship event that netted him $25,348 and followed that result up a week later by cashing in on of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em events.
Just days after cashing for the second time, the Brighton-based pro came agonisingly close to winning his first WSOP bracelet when he came third in the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event for a career-best score of $271,800. Again, a day later he entered the $5,000 Six-Handed Pot Limit Omaha tournament and despite it not being his strongest game he made it all the way to 11th place. But the best, and worst some may say, was yet to come.
One of the strongest fields ever assembled took part in the $10,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em Championship that only came to a conclusion in the early hours of today. A total of 474 of the world’s best poker players swapped $10,000 for 30,000 tournament chips, creating a prizepool of almost $4,500,000 with the winner walking away with the largest win of the 2011 WSOP so far, a breath-taking $1,158,481.
By the time the 474 entrants had been whittled down to the final table of six, it was Moorman who was leading the way with 3,955,000 chips, though Joe Ebanks was hot on his heels with a 3,100,000 stack. And although Ebanks eliminated four of his five opponents, Moorman continued to do what he does best and constantly accumulated chips so when he did find himself heads up against Ebanks he held a 7,400,000 to 6,800,000 chip advantage. That lead was quickly reversed though as he called a 750,000 bet on the turn ,then a 1,500,000 on the river of a board reading Kh-Qh-Jd-6h-4d only to much when Ebanks turned over Th9c for a flopped straight, and from that point on Moorman simply could not find a way back into the match.
The one-on-one battle was brought to an abrupt end during Day 3 when the tournament was paused under the new “hard stop” ruling, which stops all WSOP tournaments after 10 levels of play have been completed. The high-stakes pair returned to their seats earlier today for the fourth and final day, but the match only lasted a further 15 minutes before being brought to a conclusion. The final hand saw Moorman raise to 240,000 preflop and Ebanks make the call. A flop reading 3d-Qs-Td was met with checks from both players but there was no such action when the Kh was put out on the turn. Ebanks first bet 250,000 only to see Moorman move all in for a shade over 2,000,000 chips. Ebanks took his time, which has lead to some accusing him of slowrolling the Brit, especially when he called and turned over Kd4d for top pair and a redraw to the diamond flush, nicely in front of Moorman’s Jc7d. The dealer placed the 9d out on the river, which although gave Moorman a straight, improved Ebanks to a flush.
Final table payouts
1st: Joe Ebanks: $1,158,481
2nd: Chris Moorman: $716,282
3rd: Bertand Grospellier: $447,074
4th: Tristan Wade: $292,866
5th: Taylor Paur: $198,400
6th: Mike Sowers: $138,801
