Tournaments - Juanda wins marathon WSOPE title

Eurosport - Mon, 13 Oct 10:02:00 2008

John Juanda captured his fourth World Series of Poker bracelet by claiming the European Series Main Event in London.

POKER 2008 WSOP money chips - 0

It was an historic victory for Juanda as the final table lasted 484 hands and over 22 hours!

The final table shattered the WSOP's previous record for most hands played which was 354 at the 2006 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event, won by Chip Reese.

The heads up between Juanda and Russian Stanislav Alekhin itself lasted 240 hands before the 38-year-old, who was born in Indonesia but now lives in California, collected the £868,800 top prize.

362 players lined up for the £10K buy-in event, including a wealth of household names, and the final table included multiple World Series of Poker bracelet holders Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman as well as Ivan Demidov, one of the November Nine who will return to Las Vegas next month to contest this year's WSOP Main Event final table.

38 other former WSOP gold bracelet winners - Josh Arieh, David Benyamine, Chris Bjorin, Farzad Bonyadi, Doyle Brunson, Brandon Cantu, Allen Cunningham, Freddy Deeb, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Hachem, Sherkahn Farnood, Chris Ferguson, Layne Flack, Barry Greenstein, Thor Hansen, Phil Hellmuth, Dan Heimiller, Theo Jorgensen, Phil Ivey, Alexander Kravchenko, Ted Lawson, Kathy Liebert, Jeff Madsen, Mike Matusow, Carlos Mortensen, Nenad Medic, Scotty Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Max Pescatori, John Phan, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Tilly, David Ulliott, Jen Voertmann, David Williams, Robert Williamson III and Steve Zolotow - fell by the wayside over the opening days.

Juanda started the final table at lunchtime with the chip lead, his stack of 1,349,000 placing him just ahead of Alekhin (1,278,000).

Demidov and Negreanu were just over the million mark with Robin Keston (849,000) and Fischman (732,000) also well in contention and Toni Hiltunen (386,000), Bengt Sonnert (385,000) and Chris Elliott (281,000) short stacked.

Elliott was the first to depart in ninth place for £81,450. The 33-year-old online specialist from Alloa went All-In on the turn, holding two pair but Alekhin held a naked flush draw and a King on the river gave him the hand.

Demidov was the chip leader as play reached level 21 and Finland's Hiltunen exited in eighth for £108,600. The 31-year-old former United Nations-sanctioned peacekeeper got his short stack All-in pre-flop with a pair of Jacks only to met by Alekhin's pair of Queens who compounded the misery by gaining another queen on the turn.

The Russians continued to eliminate their rivals, this time it was Demidov who sent Keston to the rail in seventh place for £135,750.

Keston, a 44-year-old from London who also made the final table of the 2007 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha, went All-in over the top of Demidov's opening raise with Ace, eight only to be called by the Russian with a pair of nines who saw his hand hold up on the board.

Fischman, who at the 2004 World Series of Poker became the youngest person ever to win two bracelets, winning one bracelet in a no limit Texas hold'em and a second in a H.O.R.S.E. tournament, exited to the other Russian Alekhin in fifth place for £171,950 after the pair got involved in a raising war after an Ace, Jack, Ten flop.

Fischman went All-in with Ace, Queen against the stone-cold nuts of King, Queen and Alekhin's straight held up.

Negreanu went out in Level 23, earning £217,200 for his fifth place position with Alekhin again the executioner.

The Canadian professional, with four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles, went All-In with Ace, nine against Alekhin's pair of Jacks. An Ace wasn't forthcoming on the turn or river and Negreanu departed.

Shortly after Negreanu's departure, 27-year-old Swedish professional Sonnert had his bracelet hopes ended by destroyer Alekhin. Sonnert, who began the final table ranked only eighth in the chip count, went All-in pre-flop with Ace, five only to be called by Alekhin's Ace, eight and a further eight on the flop sealed the deal.

Three-handed play went through the entirety of Level 24 and into Level 25 until heads-up play was finally reached with Demidov's elimination in third place for £344,850.

Demidov, who became the first player in history ever to make it to a final table of the WSOP Main Event and the WSOP Europe Main Event, couldn't usurp Juanda's pair of Aces despite having flush and straight draw outs on the river.

With the demise of Demidov, his 23-year-old Russian compatriot Alekhin stood in Juanda's way.

Juanda was short stacked several times in the heads-up and at his lowest point, he was down by a seven to one margin.

But once he drew level, a topsy-turvy heads-up finally swung the Americans way when a pair of Kings beat the Russian's flush draw.

The end came quickly after when Alekhin pushed All-In and was called by the American who flopped trip sixes and then rivered quads to seal victory.

The final hand was dealt at 10:32am the day after the first hand was dealt and although the two-hour dinner break was not factored into the length of play, it still broke the previous record by three hours and ten minutes.

Juanda becomes the first American player in history to win a WSOP gold bracelet at WSOP Europe and it took his lifetime tournament winnings over $8 million with his fourth WSOP bracelet coming over five years since his last.

His previous victories coming in the 2003 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha (where he won $203,840), the 2003 $2,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split ($130,200) and the 2002 $1,500 Triple Draw Lowball Ace to Five ($49,620).

He said: "For the last few years, it has been very frustrating not to win a gold bracelet. It is not as easy as it used to be."

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport

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