Cash game specialist Chang Lee had only ever played one tournament before coming to Vegas for the WSOP. Now the South Korean has a gold bracelet and almost $2million to his name.
With 392 entries at $25k apiece, Lee responsible for two of those after some day 1 coolers, the prizepool for Event #26: $25,000 High Roller was set at a whopping $9,212,000, with two $million+ cashes awaiting up top.
Trouble on the bubble
The all-important 59 spots paid cut-off was reached on day 2…
Noel Rodriguez: K♥ K♣
Brandon Wittmeyer: 6♣ 6♠
Flop: 8♥ A♣ 4♠
Rodriguez’s ‘chip behind’ went in on the turn…
Turn: 6♦
…but the river was of no help…
River: 3♦
Fallen Stars
By then a number of huge names in the poker world had already departed, with Benny Glaser, Martin Kabrhel, Phil Ivey, Adrian Mateos, John Hennigan and John Juanda among them.
In the money but failing to trouble the final table were such luminaries as Erik Seidel (45th for $50,645), Jeremy Ausmus (22nd for $73,639), and Jim Collopy (14th for $89,566).
Back for day 3 came 18 players, led by Russia’s Anatoly Nikitin, with Orpen “Orp the Turk” Kisacikoglu, 2015 Main Event champ Joe McKeehen, and Brazilian crusher Joao Simao all in the mix.
The latter fell in 10th for a six-figure cash…
Simao: 10♠ 10♣
Ostapchenko: 6♠ 6♦
Flop: 6♥ 4♦ 5♦
Turn: kd:
River: 9♥
Ostapchenko also took out the ever-dangerous Kisacikoglu in 7th place and then McKeehen was ousted by Lee, his final 10 bigs going in pre-…
McKeehen: K♣ Q♠
Lee: A♠ J♠
Flop: 6♣ 7♦ 2♠
Turn: 2♣
River: 5♠
5-4-3-2-1
Down to five contenders and cash game specialist Lee was showing no signs of slowing down, despite playing only his second tournament ever.
Ostapchenko too was on fire, felling Yokosawa, and when Frankland was tag-teamed out by Berg and Ostapchenko, we had our podium trio – but which order would they finish?
The pay jumps were worth $400k and then $650k so there was plenty to play for but Berg just couldn’t get out of the bit, eventually falling to Ostapchenko.
Heads-up was a relatively short affair,
Ostapchenko: A♦ K♠
Lee: K♥ 4♥
Flop: 6♣ 5♥ 3♥
Turn: K♦
River: 4♠
The Russian quickly went all-in on the river but Lee had just hit two pair and made the call for the bracelet.
Final table results
1 | Chang Lee | South Korea | $1,949,044 |
2 | Andrew Ostapchenko | USA | $1,299,333 |
3 | Elijah Berg | USA | $894,265 |
4 | Matthew Frankland | England | $626,823 |
5 | Masato Yokosawa | Japan | $447,613 |
6 | Joe McKeehen | USA | $325,757 |
7 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | $241,701 |
8 | Byron Kaverman | USA | $182,902 |
In his post-victory interview, Lee explained: “Four days ago, I came to the United States to register for this WSOP game.”
“I wanted to win this tournament, I really studied the GTO.”
Despite having a headache from jet-lag, he managed to hold on and then played aggressively on the final day: “I had a lot of chips and the other players were so tight, they didn’t open as much, so I thought if I bet big bets to them, they would fold.”
As to whether we will see the tournament rookie again this WSOP, Lee stated: “Let me think about it. I need to check the stream and see if my play was good or not, and I need to decide which game is more profitable for me, cash games or tournaments.”
