Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! (Redux)

Australian poker pro Mark Vos wins $803,274

WSOP event attracts near record-field of nearly two-thousand players

Las Vegas, NV - Mark Vos has a plan. And, despite winning over three-quarters of a million dollars tonight, he's sticking to it. You see, Vos - at the tender age of 23 - made a personal decision that he will spend the next five years of his life'working' and the five years immediately after that'relaxing.' Vos' plan is to play poker (which he defines as'work') and then take the second-half of a decade off.

It's an unconventional career path to say the least. If'work' means coming to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker, overwhelming a near-record field of 1,919 players, and earning $803,274 in just three days, then - then, there are certainly worse jobs. One has to ask,'Are there any job openings left? Where does one sign up?' Indeed, Vos won the $2,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship and earned his very first WSOP gold bracelet.

Vos, a college student-turned-poker player from Brisbane became only the third Australian national ever to win an event at the World Series of Poker. He joins former Aussie champs Gary Benson (1996 -- Seven-Card Stud) and Joe Hachem (2005 - championship event) in the trifecta of poker winners from down under.

After two long days of play, the final table on Day Three started with nine players, including 2001 world poker champion Carlos Mortensen. Vos arrived a distant second in the chip count to Kevin Peterson, a poker pro from the Dallas area:

Name	    Chip Count	    Seat # 
David Wells	 $275,000	1
J.R. Reiss	 $222,000	2
Willard Chang	 $214,000	3
Kevin Peterson	 $1,130,000	4
Nam Le	         $323,000	5
Vanessa Selbst	 $492,000	6
Mark Vos	 $528,000	7
Thomas Hunt III	 $468,000	8
Carlos Mortensen $215,000	9

Despite being short-stacked, the first player eliminated was something of a surprise. 'The Matador,' Carlos Mortensen didn't last long. Mortensen's pocket sevens turned out to be an unlucky number when he was all-in and ran into ace-nine. An ace flopped and Mortensen waved farewell. Ninth-place paid $73,344.

Next, David Wells (no relation to the major league baseball player) struck out when he took a tough beat - king-ten against his opponent's king-eight. An eight flopped and Wells was yanked from the game. The stock trader from Scottsdale, Arizona collected $87,315 for eighth place.

Vanessa Selbst was the second female player to make a final table appearance at this year's WSOP. She had enough chips to be a force early, but was caught bluffing at the worst possible time. Selbst tried to move Kevin Peterson off of his hand with an all-in pre-flop re-raise, but she might as well have been standing on the railroad tracks staring at a roaring freight train. Peterson called instantly and flipped over pocket aces.

He caught two more aces on the board to make four-of-a-kind, flattening Selbst's chances to become history's tenth female WSOP gold bracelet winner (in open events). Vanessa Selbst, a Yale University graduate last year, received $101,285.

The end-result for Kevin Peterson had to be disappointing. The chip-leader at the start, Peterson went through a very rocky two hours and failed to survive. He lost most of his chips holding pocket queens against Nam Le's ace-king. A king flopped. That was the first serious hatchet chop into Peterson's stack. Others would follow. The final blow was Peterson's all-in move with queen-ten suited, losing to J.R. Reiss' small pocket pair. Peterson picked up $115,255 in prize money.

A short time later, Willard Chang went out with a weaker hand that he would have liked under the circumstances. With blinds and antes escalating, Chang moved in hoping not to get called holding king-three, which was covered by Nam Le's king-queen. Both players flopped a king, but the queen -kicker played and Chang was eliminated. Willard Chang, am engineer from Hawaii, received $136,211. Thomas Hunt must have felt like a gang victim when he moved all-in with his few remaining chips in the small blind and was called down by all three opponents.

The players checked on each successive round, and when J.R. Reiss revealed an ace to go with an ace on board, everyone mucked their cards - including Hunt, who ended up as the fourth-place finisher. Thomas Hunt, a physician from Las Vegas, billed the prize pool for $160,659.

Down to just three players, J.R. Reiss moved all-in with top-pair, top kicker (ace jacks to the board's - 10-8-4-J-6) and was called quickly by Nam Le, holding nine-seven, good for a straight. Reiss, a professional gambler from Omaha, Nebraska added $209,555 to his bankroll. When heads-up play began, Nam Le enjoyed nearly a 3 to 1 chip advantage - 2,775,000 to Vos' 1,065,000.

But great poker players shine in moments of adversity. It took Vos 45-minutes to seize the chip lead, plus another hour to lock down the victory. After Vos made a flush and took the chip lead, Le made one last valiant stab at the top prize, temporarily regaining the chip lead for a short time. He could have broken Vos when he had his opponent all-in with queen-jack to Vos' pocket sevens. But Le failed to connect with a pair, and that would ultimately spell doom fro the aspiring champ.

Vos picked away chips from Le's stack and gradually built up a 2 to 1 chip lead. The final hand was somewhat unanticipated as Vos was dealt queen-ten suited against Le's pocket sixes. After catching a queen on the flop, Vos bet out and Le called. A blank fell on the turn, and Vos bet again. Le called. The river brought a queen, giving Vos trip-queens. Vos moved all-in and Le, suspecting a bluff, called. That was a mistake. The trip queens gave Vos the championship.

Nam Le, the second-place finisher, collected $401,647.

“I prefer to play poker online,' Vos said immediately following his victory. 'I still prefer cash games online, but there is nothing like the experience of playing in a live tournament and making it all the way to the final table. Cash games are my day job, but the tournaments are for excitement and fun.'

Vos said he plans to stick with his game plan. '(Winning) does not really change things,' he said. 'I mean, it helps. But I still plan to play poker…..then (in five years) I'll relax, settle down, and find a place to live and decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.'

by Nolan Dalla

Overall Tournament Statistics (through end of Event #6):
Total Entries to Date: 9,165
Total Prize Money Distributed: $ 12,256,090
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World Series of Poker Commissioner - Jeffrey Pollack
Director of Sports and Entertainment Marketing (Licensing) -- Ty Stewart
Director of Sports and Entertainment Marketing (Communications) - Gary Thompson
Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum
WSOP Tournament Director - Robert Daily
WSOP Tournament Director / Director of Poker Operations for Harrah's Entertainment - Jack Effel