NBC Poker After Dark Champions week featured players that has to meet just one requirement…you have to have a WSOP bracelet to sit down. Former champions Chris Ferguson, Johnny Chan, Berry Johnston, Jamie Gold, Phil Hellmuth and Huck Seed all sat down to this $120,000 winner take all TV tournament.
This game had a different feel than the others right from the start. First three hands saw raises and re-raises and aggressive play was the norm and Huckleberry Seed was mixing it up early but within the first dozen hands ran into a buzz saw. Chris Ferguson raises pre-flop with Qh Jh, Johnny Can calls with Ad 7d and Huck Seed calls from the big blind with 2s 4s.
The flop comes 3d 2d 2h and Huckleberry fires $1,500. Chris Ferguson (Jesus) folds and Johnny Chan re-raises his nut flush draw to $5,000 and for the second early in this tournament, Huck Seed goes all-in. Johnny without to much hesitation puts his tournament life in jeopardy with the call. The turn 9h brings Johnny that much closer to elimination but he is saved on the river by the 5d and cripples Huck Seed who has gone from the chip lead to just 1,000 in chips. Seed does double up against Jamie Gold the next hand with AK and a few hands later is all-in again with A T and gets no callers.
Huck builds his chip stack back up to $6,000 but it was Jamie Gold finally getting the best of him to eliminate Seed first. The next big hand also involved Jamie Gold and ended with a very unique decision method by Chris Ferguson.
It starts with Jamie Gold limping with 4d 2d and Ferguson calls from the small blind with 5c 3h and a check by Johnny Chan in the big blind with Td 8h. The flop comes Qd 3c 3d and Chris and Johnny check while Gold takes a shot and bets $800 into the $1800 pot. Ferguson re-raises to $2,500, Chan folds and Gold calls. The turn brings the Tc and Chris bets $5,000 into a $6,800 pot and gets instantly called by Jamie Gold. The river brings the Qc and Chris checks and Jamie instantly goes all in on the busted flush draw putting Chris’s tournament at stake if he calls.
After close to 5 minutes of thinking, analyzing and calculating Chris asked Johnny Chan for a coin. He tells every one he trusts his luck over his thinking and says if it is heads he will call. The flip comes up heads and Chris Ferguson doubles up into second place and Jamie Gold falls to last.
That double up didn’t help though as Chris Ferguson went all-in in the small blind with Qc Jh and was called by Johnny Chan in the big blind with pocket sevens. The brought an ace and a king but no more face cards and the man nicknamed Jesus, Chris Ferguson was sent home in 5th.
It was another blind battle later between Johnny
Chan in the small blind raising enough to put the big blind, Berry Johnston all-in. Berry called and it was a race between Chan’s Ah 8h to Johnston’s 5s 5c. The flop was heavy in Chan’s favor coming 7h 9h 8c , the turn was the 3d and the river was the 8s eliminating Berry Johnston in 4th.
The next elimination was again a blind battle as Johnny Chan folded the button and instantly Jamie Gold goes all-in for his last $14,300. Phil calls and see’s his Qh 4c go up against the As 8c of Gold. The flop was all Phil though with a 4 on the flop. No more help came and Phil eliminates Jamie Gold in 3rd.
So it came down to heads up play against Johnny Chan who one the first PAD Champions week and finished second in the second one, going up against Phil Hellmuth who is looking to make it 3 PAD tournaments in a row. They enter into the heads-up play with Johnny Chan almost 2:1 in the lead.
Johnny Chan – 76K
Phil Hellmuth – 44K
So with the scene set and two former WSOP champions with over 20 bracelets between them get ready for battle…it took just one hand to decide the champion. Phil limps with Ah Th, Johnny Chan raises all-in with the Kh Jd and Hellmuth instant calls. The flop was Kc Js 2h and no queen came to help Phil and it was all over that quick. Johnny Chan wins the $120,000 and another Poker After Dark Champions Week title.
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