Begleiter busts in 6th from World Series of Poker main event after Moon hits river ace

Ivey, Begleiter bust from World Series of Poker

LAS VEGAS — One of poker’s most famous faces was bounced from the World Series of Poker early Sunday as two quick eliminations inched those left up the money ladder at gambling’s most prestigous event.

Phil Ivey, a 32-year-old poker professional from Las Vegas, got unlucky against a 46-year-old logger from Maryland for his last 6.5 million chips.

Ivey gambled with an ace-king and found himself ahead of Darvin Moon’s ace-queen, but Moon hit a queen on the flop and Ivey failed to improve.

“It is definitely just about winning, so it’s disappointing I did not win,” Ivey said. “But I am happy with the way I played. I think I made pretty good decisions with the amount of chips that I had and I think I gave myself as much possibility of winning it as I could.”

Minutes later, Moon was behind again with ace-queen against Steven Begleiter’s pocket queens, but a river ace eliminated Begleiter in sixth place and gave Moon a chip lead.

Begleiter, a 47-year-old former Bear Stearns Cos. executive, won $1.59 million for sixth place. Ivey won $1.4 million for seventh.

“I was one card from being back in the thick of it. I really thought the hand was mine,” Begleiter said. “I’d almost prefer to go out like that — it’s way easier.”

When asked what he planned to do after the final table, Begleiter said: “I want to go somewhere and cry a little bit.”

The rapid-fire eliminations by Moon quickly changed a final table that had developed into a slow grind after Kevin Schaffel and James Akenhead were eliminated early in the day.

Joe Cada, 21, of Shelby Township, Mich., was on the brink of elimination before clawing back to outlast Begleiter and Ivey, while Antoine Saout of France surged into contention from a start near the bottom in chips.

Saout briefly took the chip lead after hitting a flush against Begleiter to double his stack. The hand propelled Saout — who began the final table eighth among nine players with less than 5 percent of the chips — to a lead with 52 million tournament chips, 27 percent of those in play.

Eric Buchman soon inched ahead by more than 2 million chips.

The unusually long session saw hours of bets and raises but no players eliminated once seven were left.

Kevin Schaffel, a 52-year-old cash game player from Coral Springs, Fla., was eliminated in eighth place with the best starting hand in no-limit Texas Hold ‘em after he took out London pro James Akenhead in ninth place.

Schaffel got all his chips in the pot with pocket aces against Buchman, who called with pocket kings — the game’s second best starting hand.

A king on the flop put Buchman in the lead, and the fourth king on the turn made it impossible for Schaffel to win the hand.

“There was nothing I can do. It was a sick flop,” Schaffel said. “It’s just poker. That’s just the way it is.”

Akenhead delayed his elimination early on by tripling his chips, but he lost most of the stack on two hands to Schaffel. He busted out when his pocket pair of threes couldn’t improve against the pocket nines held by Schaffel.

“That made it a bit more harsh,” Akenhead said. “I’m very disappointed to be out.”

He took home $1.26 million for ninth place, nothing beyond what each final table player was awarded in July when they made it to the top of a field of 6,494 entrants in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament.