On day six of the World Series of Poker, the underdogs were angry. Doug Polk defeated Chris Brewer in an epic semifinal to pursue a fourth title and advance to the final of Event 8: $25,000 NL Hold’em Heads-Up Championship. Despite his experience in the game, the American surprised Canadian Chanracy Khun, who had never FT at a festival. The winner took home $507,020, while the runner-up added $313,362 to the bankroll.
Before facing Polk, Khun also defeated Marko Grujic, Alexandre Vuilleumier, Gabor Szabo, Landon Tice and Sean Winter.
The showdown with Polk was the longest of all the games at just over three hours. Chasing his opponent for most of the final, Khun gave a heroic cry and took a one-shot lead. Here’s how it turned out:
With the blinds at 80,000/160,000, Khun limped all-in and Polk just checked. The flop came 6♦5♣3♥, Khun bet 160,000, Polk then checked and called, seeing the K♣ on the turn. Faced with a bet of 250,000, Polk announced a check-raise to 900,000. Khun called and the river was the 9♥. With more chips in hand, Polk pushed his chips into the center of the table. Khun thought for a while before calling with 8♠6♣. With Q 4 ♦, Polk has 15 Bbs and Khun has 44 Bbs.
Polk was out with K♥8 ♦ shortly thereafter and called all-in. When the dealer flipped the A♣5♣2♦7♠9♠ side, Khun called immediately and put K♠10♠ on the table to take the pot.
A total of 64 players participated in the event 8. See how it works The breakdown of the prize pool is:
1. Chanracy Khun (Canada) $507,020
2. Doug Polk (USA) $313,362
3. Chris Brewer (USA) $192,513
3. Sean Winters (USA) $192,513
5. Roberto Perez (Spain) $74,648
5. Anthony Zinno (USA) $74,648
5. Landon Theis (USA) $74,648
5. Eric Wasserson (USA) $74,648
