Online Poker

$2,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better Final Table

The game of Omaha, a mystery to a good number of casual poker fans, drew a solid crowd of die-hard WSOP viewers, old-school Vegas rounders, and the faithful loved ones of players, for the final table of its $2,000 eight-or-better event.

The chip counts coming into the final table were as follows:

1. Jeff Madsen - $225,000
2. Jack Zwerner - $189,000
3. Daniel Negreanu - $166,000
4. Bob Mangino - $165,000
5. Robert Collins - $156,000
6. Florante “Rusty” Mandap - $156,000
7. Russ Salzer - $142,000
8. Cuong Do - $99,000
9. Steve Lustig - $31,000

Action began with $3,000-$6,000 blinds and $6,000-$12,000 stakes. Steve Lustig, the short stack, needed to make a move quickly and the forced action caused him to bow out first. Jack Zwerner’s full house sent Lustig to the rails in ninth place ($24,388).

Chopped pots usually mean no casualties in card games, but Russ Salzer exited the tournament on a hand split by two other players. Rusty Mandap took half the pot with trip aces and Bob Mangino raked the other with the A-2-4-5-8 low. Salzer mucked his hand and finished the day in eighth place ($36,582).

Daniel Negreanu, easily the biggest name at the table, suffered two big hits in a row that left him with only $10,000 in chips. He moved all in with two pair, but was eliminated when his opponent rivered a straight. Negreanu walked away from the final table as the seventh-place finisher ($48,776).

A mere five minutes later, Robert Collins (sixth place, $60,970) and Mangino (fifth place, $73,164) were eliminated from tournament play.

Cuong Do, who lived on a short stack all day, finally saw his tournament run come to an end after his two pair failed to improve against Zwerner’s trip queens. Do’s fourth-place finish ($85,385) set up a three-way showdown between Zwerner, Mandap, and Jeff Madsen.

Mandap held half as many chips as his opponents but managed to win a number of key pots and moved into first place. Madsen suffered a different fate as his stack dwindled from $500,000 to less than $65,000.

For the second time at the final table, a player went out on a chop when Zwerner took half the pot with a king-high flush and Mandap won the rest with the low. Madsen raked no chips, and his tournament life ended with a third-place finish ($97,552).

Zwerner took a $300,000 lead into heads-up action, but within half an hour built his chip stack to over $1 million, nearly 10 times Mandap’s. With his demise all but guaranteed, Mandap doubled up a number of times but simply could not close the gap.

Zwerner took Mandap out when his A-8-7-4 defeated Mandap’s A-A-10-3 on a 7-6-5-3-2 board. Mandap’s second-place finish netted him the biggest cash prize of his career ($176,813).

While Zwerner might not have been the most recognized face in the Amazon Room, let alone his final table, T.J. Cloutier, on hand to M.C. heads-up action, called his friend of 25 years “the best heads-up Omaha player ever.”

With a $341,426 first-place prize and a WSOP bracelet, Zwerner may just have proved Mr. Cloutier right.

Shane @ Poker.com