Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Wynn Classic - Final


And so Las Vegas can breathe again. After a gruelling four days of play, the main event of The Wynn Classic has finally spat out a winner. The player that managed to avoid the fold catastrophe was Chicago’s Chris Moore, whose ability to ride the cusp has now left him enriched by $692,286.

He had started the heads-up action with 1,470,000 to Ryan Young’s 2,100,000 but within five minutes, there was a hand that left Moore nostril-deep in chips. Young, on the button, decided to make it 50k to go and Chris called. The flop landed J-8-5. After a check from Moore, Young bet 100k. He was smacked back with a check-raise for 400k.

Some see the check-raise as a sneaky move - they are wrong: timed well, it can become a piece of brilliance. It often offends the opponent’s sense of propriety that he or she does something irrational.

So, pondering a check-raise, Young decided to push. He was instantly called and flipped over AJ. Chris had J5. The turn and the river provided no help for Young and he was left with just 400k. AJ was a hard fold but, at the time he was suckered, he had only committed 150k: had he folded, he would still have had the chip lead.

Fifteen minutes later, it was Chris Moore’s title, when a set of kings ravaged his opponent’s A5. Ryan Young was left with the silver medal, or $355,020. The heads up proved to a tale of two plays – it was the best of raises, it was the worst of raises.


The Wynn Classic Main Event – Final Standings

1. Chris Moore - $692,286
2. Ryan Young - $355,020
3. Blake Cahail - $177,510
4. Ardavan Yazdi - $95,855
5. Jace Margraf - $71,004
6. Larry Wright - $53,253
7. Ricky Chow - $44,378
8. Alemu Tesema - $35,502
9. Eugene Todd - $31,952

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most enjoyable artcile, this one.
Liked the description of the killer hand.

KSP

Jeremiad1971 said...

Thanks for reading and leaving a comment KSP - always good to see.