Poker Tournament Results

40th World Series of Poker 2009

Zachary Fellows

Tournament Report

Tournament Highlights: Event Headlines – 1. Zac Fellows Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet 2. Canada Joins Circle of WSOP Winners – Vancouver’s Zac Fellows Takes HORSE Event 3. Attendance Up for Another WSOP Event Over Last Year The Winner -- The 2009 World Series of Poker $3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. champion is Zac Fellows, from Vancouver, BC (Canada). Fellows is also listed under the name “Zachary Fellows” at some poker sites. Fellows is 25-years-old. He started playing poker at the age of 17. Fellows is an Internet affiliate. He earns most of his living from marketing and referring players to various online sites. Fellows is an avid table tennis player. He is highly-competitive, which is what led to his interest in poker. Fellows is a huge movie fan. His favorite movie of all-time is “The Shawshank Redemption.” Fellows earned some redemption in this event. At his last final table in the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em championship last year, Fellows came in second. He vowed to win given another chance and accomplished that feat in this tournament. Fellows collected $311,899 for first place. He was also awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet. According to the official records, Fellows now has 1 wins, 2 final table appearances, and 3 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP. Fellows currently has $481,284 in WSOP winnings. At the poker table, Fellows wore his lucky hat. His baseball hat says “Lucky” on the bill. Winner Quotes -- On winning his first WSOP gold bracelet: “It’s unbelievable. It’s surreal. Even right now, it’s not going to sink in for a couple of more days. This is something that everybody wants. It’s something everybody goes after. I fell really lucky and very fortunate to come out on top.” On luck versus skill in poker tournaments: “You have to run good and you have to play good. A lot of guys do one, but not the other. I was fortune to do both today.” On his heads-up strategy: “I don’t play a lot of heads-up HORSE. But a lot of the guys who are here with me do. I talked to them and developed a strategy. I would be aggressive with the good steal card in the Stud games and just try and put the pressure on (my opponents).” On what it takes to win: “I ran really good. I have to be honest. James (Van Alstyne) is an excellent player. If we ran this ten times, he might come out on top more than me. He didn’t run good heads-up against me – it’s as simple as that. At the end, I flopped top set and I got the bracelet for it. I can’t complain. Things went very well today.” On his opponent, James Van Alstyne: “James definitely has a gold bracelet in his future.” On the stamina required to win this event: “I was pretty sleep deprived. In HORSE there is so much memorizing of cards. Your brain is working overtime. I think in No-Limit you can relax a little more. There was one point where I looked at the tournament clock and it was literally like a blur. I have 20/20 vision. I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on.” On finishing second at his last final table, and finishing first this time: “I think the experience is important. You learn to take it a little better. I remember that I ran really bad when I lost before. I was sort of like James last time. I ran bad and I could not get a hand. Nothing was going for me. This time, when that sort of thing happened to me at the final table, it did not rattle me as much. Experience is always good.” The Final Table -- The final table contained no former WSOP gold bracelet winners. This was the eighth of 21 finales held so far this year with no former winners -- which guaranteed a first-time champion. Five different nations were represented at the final table – including Canada, France, Italy, Norway, and the United States. Five of the nine finalists were aged 30 and under. The runner up was James Van Alstyne, from Las Vegas, NV. Van Alstyne has a long history of success at the WSOP, but no wins. His first cash came back in 1994. Van Alstyne was chip leader during much of the finale, but ran poorly late in the event. This was his fifth final table appearance and 12th time to cash at the WSOP. Van Alstyne said afterward: “I fell alright. I mean, I ran unlucky at the end, but then again I was lucky to be in that spot (playing heads-up for a bracelet). I ran very well for three days – right until the heads-up. So, I really cant’ complain too much.” The third-place finisher was Timothy Finne, from Fanwood, NJ. Up to this point, Finne had played mostly in local nightly tournaments at various casinos. This was his highest finish at the WSOP after four previous in-the-money finishes. The fourth-place finisher was Michele Limongi, from Naples, Italy. He previously made two final tables in the Italian Poker Championship. This was his highest WSOP finish ever. The fifth-place finisher was Chris Amaral, from Fall River, MA. Two months ago, Amaral won a WSOP Circuit gold ring at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. The sixth-place finisher was Martin Eikeng, from Oslo, Norway. He previously finished as the runner up in the Norwegian Poker Championship (HORSE). The seventh-place finisher was Gabriel Nassif, from Paris, France. Nassif is another Magic the Gathering player (a growing list which includes former winners such as Brock Parker, Eric Froehlich, David Williams, and many others) who has converted to poker. The eighth-place finisher was Matt Hawrilenko, from Boston, MA. He concentrates primarily on high-stakes cash games played online. The ninth-place finisher was Stewart Yancik, from Blue Springs, MO. This marked his first time to cash in a WSOP event. Other In-the-Money Finishers -- Other former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Chau Giang (3 wins) who finished 16th, Steve Billirakis who finished 23rd, David Singer who finished 27th, Pat Poels who finished 39th, David Sklansky who finished 40th, and Berry Greenstein who finished 43rd. Three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Chau Giang finished 16th. He now has 47 lifetime cashes, which ties him for eighth on the all-time list. Gavin Smith (Las Vegas, NV) remains snake bitten at the WSOP. On everyone’s list as one of the top players yet to have won a WSOP gold bracelet, Smith took 10th place in this event. James Van Alstyne, the runner up, also belongs on this short list. Ylon Schwartz, who finished fourth in last year’s WSOP Main Event, finished 18th. He currently ranks 20th on the all-time money-winnings list at the WSOP, with nearly $4 million in earnings. Daniel Shak, perhaps best known as the co-winner of the 2007 “Ante-Up For Africa” Charity event at the WSOP (he donated his entire six-figure cash prize to the cause) finished 24th. The defending champion from 2008 was Jens Voertmann, from Dortmund, Germany. He entered this year’s tournament, but did not cash. Odds and Ends -- Attendance for this tournament increased by 9 percent over last year. This year’s event attracted 452 entries. Last year’s event attracted 414 entries. H.O.R.S.E. is an acronym for the five most popular poker games played inside American cardrooms today. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments include a rotation of the following games -- Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split (also called Eight-or-Better). Many purists consider H.O.R.S.E. to be the ultimate test of poker skill, since it requires that players play all games well in order to win. This claim was perhaps best illustrated at the 2006 World Series of Poker, where H.O.R.S.E. returned to the tournament schedule after a long hiatus. For more than two decades, the late poker legend Chip Reese had been widely regarded as the best all-around player in the world. Appropriately, he won the inaugural tournament which cost $50,000 to enter and became the first H.O.R.S.E. world champion. The rotation of games in this tournament lasts eight hands. In other words – following eight dealt hands of Hold'em, there are eight hands of Omaha High-Low followed by eight hands of Razz, and so forth. This is the first of three H.O.R.S.E. tournaments on the 2009 WSOP schedule. There is the $50,000 buy-in world championship and a $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament still to come. The tournament was played over three consecutive days. On Day Three, the final table was dealt out on ESPN’s secondary table. The feature table, located nearby, hosted the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em final table. Most days at the WSOP this year will include two final tables. The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory. The ceremony takes place on at center stage of the main tournament room and begins during the break of the noon tournament. The ceremony usually starts around 2:20 pm. The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played. The entire presentation is open to public and media. Video and photography is permitted by both media and the public. The Event -- The $3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship attracted 452 entries. The total prize pool amounted to $1,247,520. The top 48 finishers collected prize money. The chip leader at the end of Day One was Rob Amereno, from Tucson, AZ. He did not cash in this event. The chip leader coming into the final table was James Van Alstyne. He ended up finishing second. The final table lasted about ten hours, making it the second-longest finale of this year’s WSOP, so far. Zac Fellows was second in chips during most of the finale. Once heads-up play began, he gained momentum and mostly dominated play during the final hour. Once Fellows had the chip lead, he never lost it. When heads-up play began, Fellows and Van Alstyne were close in chips. They battled heads-up for nearly two hours. The final hand of the tournament came in Limit Hold’em when Fellows was dealt 6-6 and made a full-house when the final board showed 6-5-3-J-3. Van Alstyne’s last chips were committed on the turn and he revealed A-5, which was a pair of fives with a straight draw. The board paired, which sealed Van Alstyne’s fate as the runner up and gave Fellows the title. The tournament officially began on Tuesday, June 9th, at 5 pm. The tournament officially ended on Thursday, June 11th, at 2:40 am. WSOP Statistics – Through the conclusion of Event #21, the 2009 WSOP has attracted 21,505 entries. $43,129,625 in total prize money has been awarded to winners. Top Ten Ranked WSOP Players (Ratio Cashes/Entries) – Through Event 20: Wahlbeck Ville 3 4 0.75 Woelfel Wade 3 4 0.75 Tunkel Jeffrey 3 4 0.75 Schock Mitchell 3 4 0.75 Bartlema Wolbert 3 4 0.75 Fish Darryll 4 6 0.67 Mabuchi Motoyuki 3 5 0.6 Parker Brock 4 7 0.57 Players Who Have Earned $500,000+ at the 2009 WSOP – Through Event 20: Lunkin Vitaly $1,907,667.00 Haxton Isaac $1,171,870.00 Parker Brock $784,527.00 Raymer Greg $774,927.00 Sung Steve $771,338.00 Lemke Brian $692,690.00 Wahlbeck Ville $676,930.00 Johnson Travis $666,853.00 Harb Anthony $571,472.00 Stern Daniel $548,315.00 Stammen Keven $506,786.00 Through Event #21 – the nationalities of winners reads as follows: United States – 16 Russian Federation – 1 Finland – 1 Australia – 1 United Kingdom – 1 Canada – 1 Note: Last year 19 of the 59 gold bracelet events were won by non-Americans (32 percent). Event #21 winner Zac Fellows is to be classified as an amateur player. Accordingly, the “Pro-Am” gold bracelet scoreboard (excluding Event #1 – Casino Employees) currently reads: Professionals -- 13 wins (Thang Luu, Steven Sung, Jason Mercier, Phil Ivey, Rami Boukai, Anthony Harb, Ville Wahlbeck, Keven Stammen, Brock Parker-1, Jeffrey Lisandro, Daniel Alaei, Brock Parker-2, John-Paul Kelly) Amateurs -- 4 wins (Freddie Ellis, Ken Aldridge, Travis Johnson, Zac Fellows) Semi-Pros -- 3 wins (Vitaly Lunkin. Brian Lemke, Lisa Hamilton) Six of the 21 winners this year (28 percent) were previous gold bracelet winners. In the WSOP “Player of the Year” standings, Brock Parker (Silver Spring, MD) is the current leader. Second place belongs to Ville Wahlbeck (Helsinki, Finland), who at the time of this report is going deep in Event #23. Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas, NV) remains within striking distance. John Monnette and Jeffrey Lisandro are also very much in the running. Still, with 36 events still undecided, the race remains wide open.