2018 WSOP:  Stavrakis Finishes the Deal in PLO, Extra Day in H.O.R.S.E.

Another active day at the 2018 World Series of Poker was expected to offer up the two latest gold bracelet Sportsbooks on Thursday. Instead, one tournament was dominated by its chip leader and the other fell victim to the “curfew rule,” requiring the final two competitors to come back today to finish their battle.

Event #26 - $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha

Fourteen players came back Thursday to Event #26, all with the chance to be the champion in the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament  at the WSOP in Las Vegas. Filippos Stavrakis came to the felt with a sizable stack of 903,000 chips, but a host of top players were looking to run him down. One of those, Brazil’s Felipe Ramos, was back in third place while another, Thayer Rasmussen, lurked in the middle of the pack. All were guaranteed $7,446 for coming back Thursday, but the top prize of $169,842 and the prestigious WSOP bracelet was the goal for everyone.

Stavrakis abused his opposition from the get-go, pounding pot bets on them to more than double his stack within the first two hours of action. He would knock out Ruslan Dykshteyn, Floyd Bangerter and David Caruthers in 13th through 11th places, respectively, to take his stack to 1.781 million, a million more chips than second place Jordan Siegel (643,000). It only got better for Stavrakis when he gutted Robert Cowen of most of his chips (before eliminating Cowen in ninth place) to become the first player to break the two million mark.

The run to the title for Stavrakis wasn’t a smooth one, however. Siegel slowly began to mount a charge, getting over a million chips in front of him also, and a clash between the duo saw a change at the top of the leaderboard. Stavrakis defended his big blind and, on a Q-4-5 flop, check called a bet from Siegel. A 10 on the turn was checked by both, but a 6 on the river saw the fireworks emerge.

Stavrakis checked his option and, once Siegel put a big bet of 375,000 in the center, went into the tank. The Q-4-5-10-6 looked innocent – no flush potential but a couple of sneaky straight draws – resulting in Stavrakis making the call. It turned out to be the wrong decision: Siegel tabled a J-9-8-7 for the rivered 8-high straight and, after Stavrakis sent his cards to the muck, Siegel had the chip lead.

That was the last mistake Stavrakis would make, unless he made a misstep ordering for dinner. Down to four players, he would double through Siegel and, in eliminating Ramos in third, took the lead to the final showdown with Siegel. In slightly over 30 minutes, Stavrakis was able to complete the task of winning a WSOP championship, taking out Siegel after flopping a set with his A-7-7-4 against Siegel’s A-8-6-2 on a 4-7-K-Q-10 board that teased Siegel with a flush draw to win.

Event #27 - $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship

There will be “overtime” played at the World Series of Poker on Friday. The “WSOP curfew” will force two-time bracelet Sportsbook David “Bakes” Baker and four-time bracelet Sportsbook and Poker Hall of Famer John “World” Hennigan to return to determine the Event #27 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

Both men were dominant Thursday as the 16 players in contention were whittled down to the final two. Hennigan had Baker on the ropes late but, using some fortunate cards and strong play, Baker was able to fight back. He will be on the short side of a 4:1 deficit, however, as Hennigan will look to put him away quickly on Friday. A full report on this tournament will be offered after its conclusion.