Players at World Series of Poker begin last summer card marathon to determine Nov. final table

World Series of Poker to determine final table

LAS VEGAS — Six eliminations stood between a group of card players and the World Series of Poker main event final table Saturday night after a chaotic five-and-a-half hours of play, with each card and wager twisting endgame fortunes for the top finishers in the marathon tournament.

Just 15 remained in the hunt to win millions at the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament, but only nine will make the final table in November for a chance at $8.94 million.

Benjamin Statz, a 32-year-old trader from New York, was trounced in 16th place after gambling about 4 million chips with an ace-five and getting called by Matthew Jarvis with a king-queen.

The flop came king, king, queen, giving the 25-year-old Jarvis a full house. A king came on the river to give him four of a kind.

Statz won $396,967 for his finish, bumping each of the remaining players to at least a half-million dollars no matter where they finish.

Filippo Candio, a 29-year-old Italian poker player, knocked out two players and later raked in a huge pot on a bad beat against then-leader Joseph Cheong to take an early lead in the session with 27 million chips.

But it lasted less than one level as Jarvis and fellow Canadian Jonathan Duhamel, were neck and neck with the top two chip spots by the dinner break. Jarvis had 32 million, while Duhamel had 30,940,000 chips.

Candio built most of his stack calling Cheong’s all-in bet with about a 13 percent chance to win. His two pair, fives and sixes, were behind Cheong’s aces and sixes.

But running cards — an eight and a four — saved Candio’s tournament with a straight and sent the Cagliari, Italy-native into a frenzy as he scurried around tableside press and kneeled and pointed upward in celebration.

Cheong, a 24-year-old poker player with two degrees from the University of California, San Diego, shook his head and shrugged at the result, which dropped him from the chip lead to the middle of the hunt.

Candio had dropped to 21 million chips two hours later.

Jarvis picked up 4.9 million chips by eliminating two-time gold bracelet winner Scott Clements, who moved all-in with ace-queen. Jarvis moved all-in over the top of Clements to push out Michael Mizrachi, who had opened the betting with a raise. Mizrachi folded, and Clements didn’t improve.

“You’ll be back next year,” 48-year-old Hasan Habib of Downey, Calif., told 27-year-old Ronnie Bardah of Brockton, Mass., after Bardah lost the last of his chips to another opponent.

“I hope so,” said Bardah, who won $317,161 for 24th place.

Bardah, Johnny Lodden, Matthew Bucaric, Mads Wissing, William Thorson, Robert Pisano, Redmond Lee, Patrick Eskandar and Michiel Sijpkens each were eliminated, winning $317,161.

Bardah lost to Candio, who called Bardah’s all-in bet with pocket aces, the best starting hand in the game. Bardah held a suited ace-king, but didn’t improve his hand with the community cards.

Lodden, a 25-year-old poker professional from Jorpeland, Norway, who is expecting his first child to be born in September, was eliminated within the first few hands of the day when his pocket eights lost to Matt Affleck’s ace-10. Affleck caught a 10 on the turn.

Bucaric was eliminated by Candio when Candio caught a river flush. Pisano, who took most of 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan’s chips earlier this week, lost most of his stack to a river straight and the rest one hand later to a pair of queens.

Thorson started the second level of the day with more than 5 million chips, but lost them all when he made a move against John Racener’s pocket kings.

Eskandar lost with an ace high; Lee busted with pocket fours.

Affleck, 23, of Mill Creek, Wash., picked up more than 5 million chips early, moving to third place in chips with 17,130,000. But he took a big hit in a hand against Matthew Jarvis, folding to an all-in wager of about 5 million chips with 17 million already in the pot. He won some chips back on the next hand after doubling up with pocket aces, and had 19.2 million chips at the dinner break.

Michael Mizrachi, the biggest name left in the tournament who won a $50,000 buy-in mixed game tournament at the series earlier this summer, chipped up early to 7.2 million chips but was down to 3.21 million chips by the dinner break.