Phil Ivey Wins 10th WSOP Bracelet in Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix ($167,332)!
History was made late Friday night as Phil Ivey claimed his 10th World Series of Poker gold bracelet. Ivey rose to the top of the 485-player field in Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix and ultimately defeated Bruce Yamron heads up to claim the title and $167,332 in first-place prize money.
As the WSOP celebrates 10 years hosted in the halls of the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, it's only fitting that one of poker's most celebrated characters claimed his historic 10th championship bracelet. Ivey joins the likes of fellow 10-time winners Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. While Ivey seemingly plowed through the day, things weren't always easy on his path to glory.
The day began with 14 players returning to the felt with the hopes of winning the 50th event on this summer's schedule. Ivey came into the day third overall in chips and seemingly became a magnet for chips early on in the day. Players like Devin Looney, Christian Pereira, Yehuda Buchalter, Amnon Filippi, and Abdel Hamid all fell during the early stages of the day. All the while, Ivey rose to the top of the chip counts and left his opponents in the dust. Six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu fell in ninth place, allowing the field to re-draw to the unofficial final table of eight.
When the two remaining tables combined, Ivey held a significant chip lead over his competition. Shortly after the redraw, Alex Rocha became the official final table bubble player when he fell by the hands of Dan Heimiller.
Christoph Haller was the first casualty of the official final table, eliminated during a round of limit hold'em. Haller was eliminated by Yamron and collected $15,720 in prize money. Yuebin Guo followed Haller out the door in sixth place, unable to catch up to Heimiller during a hand of stud eight-or-better.
After a lengthy five-handed match, Stephen Chidwick was the next player eliminated. On Chidwick's final hand, he went head-to-head with Ivey in a hand of 2-7 triple draw. By the final draw, Ivey tabled an eight-perfect, leaving Chidwick drawing thin. He was ultimately unable to get there and was forced to settle for a fifth place finish.
The battle continued four-handed with short stacks doubling several times and the chip lead changing hands. All of the while, Ivey relentlessly clawed back toward the top of the counts. Eventually, the four-handed match came to a head when 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Aaron Steury got the rest of his stack in against Heimiller during a hand of limit hold'em. Heimiller flopped top pair and left Steury drawing looking for a queen on the turn or river to stay alive. He did not find help on the final streets and was eliminated in fourth for $44,286.
Heimiller was the next to go, finding elimination by eventual champion Ivey during a no-limit hold'em round. A short-stacked Heimiller open-shipped from the button and Ivey called out of the big blind. Ivey flopped top pair and there was no looking back for the the nine-time champion. Heimiller collected $66,246 for his finish and left Ivey and Yamron to go heads up for history.
Ivey began heads up play with a slight chip disadvantage but gained the chip lead on the very first hand. From there, Ivey dominated an entire round of seven-card stud, winning most of the pots and pulling ahead by a significant margin. Despite doubling up once, Yamron was never able to gain any footing against Ivey. The match finally came to a head during a round of Omaha eight-or-better. On the final hand, Yamron's chips went in on the turn with two pair only to find that Ivey held a better two pair. Yamron failed to improve and he was eliminated in second place for $103,375. The rest, as they say, was history.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Ivey | $167,332 |
| 2 | Bruce Yamron | $103,375 |
| 3 | Dan Heimiller | $66,246 |
| 4 | Aaron Steury | $44,286 |
| 5 | Stephen Chidwick | $30,488 |
| 6 | Yuebin Guo | $21,692 |
| 7 | Christoph Haller | $15,720 |
PokerNews extends its deepest congratulations to Phil Ivey for claiming bracelet #10. That does it for our coverage of Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix. Be sure to check out our Live Reporting page for live updates from all of the remaining events at the 2014 WSOP. Goodnight!