Shulman busts in 5th from World Series of Poker main event, wins $1.95 million

Shulman busts 5th from World Series of Poker

LAS VEGAS — Three of four players left at the World Series of Poker main event early Sunday had tasted the lead at the final table as they traded chips and wagered their tournament lives in hopes of a multimillion-dollar payday.

French poker professional Antoine Saout continued a surge that began Saturday afternoon by eliminating Jeff Shulman of Las Vegas in fifth place, bringing him and three others closer to an $8.55 million top prize.

Shulman gambled his tournament life early Sunday with pocket sevens against Saout’s ace-nine. Known in poker as a race, the hands had nearly an equal chance of winning against each other.

But Saout, 25, picked up a nine on the flop and Shulman failed to improve on the turn or river.

Shulman, the 34-year-old president of Card Player Media, won $1.95 million for fifth place.

Left in contention for the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em title were Saout, Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman and Joe Cada. The table had played nearly 250 hands after about 10 hours, excluding breaks, unusually long for a World Series of Poker finale.

One of poker’s most famous faces was bounced from the event about three hours earlier, one of two quick eliminations that 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 Moon, 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, Ivey and Shulman, while Saout surged into a chip lead after starting on Saturday eighth of nine in chips.

Saout began the final table with less than 5 percent of the chips in play, but a flush against Begleiter gave him 52 million tournament chips, 27 percent of those on the table.

Buchman soon inched ahead by more than 2 million chips.

Schaffel, a 52-year-old cash game player from Coral Springs, Fla., was eliminated in eighth place with the game’s best starting hand after he took out London pro James Akenhead in ninth place.

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 tournament.