WSOP Main Event Day 8 – Finalists In Place
Day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event has been completed, and we have our final nine players. These players will return in November to compete for the coveted Main Event bracelet and a huge final table prizepool. Ninth place is already guaranteed $782,115, with first place taking home $8,711,956.
Before reading our report below, you may want to have a look back at Main Event day 5 or Main Event day 6. You can also try and qualify for the 2012 WSOP. The best place to qualify is Bodog Poker. Use this link to get up to $1100 in free poker money from Bodog.
2011 WSOP Final Table and Chip Counts
Martin Staszko 40,175,000
Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000
Matt Giannetti 24,750,000
Phil Collins 23,875,000
Ben Lamb 20,875,000
Badih Bounahra 19,700,000
Pius Heinz 16,425,000
Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000
Samuel Holden 12,375,000
Players Eliminated in Day 8 (With Payouts)
10 John Hewitt $607,882
11 Khoa Nguyen $607,882
12 Bryan Devonshire $607,882
13 Konstantinos Mamaliadis $478,174
14 Scott Schwalich $478,174
15 Andrey Pateychuk $478,174
16 Ryan Lenaghan $378,796
17 Sam Barnhart $ 378,796
18 Kenny Shih $378,796
19 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov $302,005
20 Gionni Demers $302,005
21 Chris Moore $302,005
22 Lars Bonding $302,005
As you can imagine, there were tons of big stories from day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. With 22nd place taking home over $300,000 and first place taking home over 8.5 million, the tension was thick all day long. Below we will present what we think are three of the biggest stories from day 8 of the 2011 WSOP.
Hewitt Makes Worse Call in WSOP History?
John Hewitt will forever be remembered for his terrible call with ten players left in the 2011 Main Event. The hand occurred against the tightest player remaining, Badih Bounahra. Though this hand didn’t eliminate Hewitt, it left him crippled. He would be eliminated soon after.
John Hewitt opened the pot with a raise to 1.1 million. Badih Bounahra moved all in for 9.3 total. After a bit of tanking Hewitt finally called and tabled K-Q. Wow, what? Call an 8 million chip raise against the tightest player at the table? Calling this hand on the November 9 bubble? Bounahra tabled K-K, with the only surprise being it wasn’t aces.
This hand from the 2011 Main Event will go down as one of, if not the, worst calls in the World Series of Poker. We will never know for sure, but Hewitt likely makes the final table if he doesn’t make this call. The bubble from 10th to 9th is huge in the Main Event. All of the players are heavily promoted for a few months until they return for play in November. This was a blowup of epic proportions.
Staszko Runs 6.4 Million into Over 40 Million
Martin Staszko is perhaps one of the least talked about chip leaders in Main Event history. He started the day on a short stack of 6,380,000. He ended the day as the chip leader with over 40 million. His chip lead is more than 6 million, and he has almost double the chips of 5th place Ben Lamb.
To make such a move on day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event is incredible. Staszko played excellent poker all day and all night. He was a beast at the table, and the rest of the players seemed to fear him. His reads seemed to be spot on all day, as he raised and re-raised his way into the chip lead.
Pius Heinz Huge Suckout Leads to 2011 Final Table
Unfortunately for John Hewitt this is our second of two stories that include him. This one didn’t end well for him either, though he got his money in great. The other half of this story is Pius Heinz. I have to say I have been rooting for Heinz. I watched most all of the broadcasts, and I thought Heinz played great poker up until this point.
However, Heinz got it in really bad on this hand. In this hand Hewitt opened with a raise to 650,000. Heinz then reraised all in for 8.06 million. Hewitt called and revealed A(hearts)-K(spades). Heinz revealed K-J of clubs and was in terrible shape.
The flop was a pretty good one for Heinz. It was 10-8-7 with one club and two hearts. Heinz picked up a straight draw, and a backdoor flush draw. He could win with a 9, a jack, or running clubs.
The turn was a bad one for Heinz as the 6 of hearts hit the felt. This card meant that the 9 of hearts or Jack of hearts were no longer good cards for Heinz. Both of those cards would now complete the flush for Hewitt. This left Heinz drawing to five outs. The only cards that could help him were three of the nines (diamonds, spades, and clubs) and two of the jacks (spades and diamonds).
The river was dealt, and it was the nine of diamonds. Heinz had been on the brink of elimination, but was now up to almost 17 million. Hewitt dropped down to 18 million and continued to tumble until the blowup we listed above.