WSOP Hand of the Day: Matt Jarvis vs. Justin Filtz

World Series of Poker / Short-Stacked Shamus / 27 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

The final hand of Event #40 (Photo credit: PokerNews / WSOP.com)

Sunday's WSOP Hand of the Day comes from Event #40, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event won by 2010 November Niner Matt Jarvis (see final table report here). This tournament featured a tough field of top pros among the 732 who entered. After outlasting 730 of them, Jarvis found himself up against an especially difficult final challenger to the bracelet in Justin Filtz. The pair battled for three solid hours Saturday night, then returned Sunday afternoon to finish out their match. It was the final hand between them that provides our Hand of the Day.

When heads-up play began on Saturday, the Canadian Jarvis enjoyed a better than 2-to-1 chip advantage over Filtz. Early on came a hand in which Jarvis, after raising preflop and Filtz just calling, fired three barrels at a 4h-3h-Kd-Ac-9h board. But Filtz wouldn't go away, and when he turned over Ad-7h, the Wisconsin resident claimed the pot.

That was somewhat typical of Filtz' approach during much of the three hours the pair went at it on Saturday. Both players were deep in terms of stack size, and thus generally exercised caution with each other, such as here where Filtz -- playing from out of position -- didn't take the initiative once despite being dealt an ace and pairing up on the turn. Jarvis was also generally careful, the barreling here notwithstanding. There was no need to risk it all just yet.

In fact, neither player was all in until the third hour of heads-up, after Jarvis had retaken the lead back from Filtz. Both were dealt pocket pairs -- 9d-9s for Filtz and 4c-4d for Jarvis -- and subsequently got it all in preflop. Filtz' nines held and he took the lead.

A little later Jarvis was all in with As-10h versus Filtz' 7c-7h and managed to pair his ten and claim the large, better than 3.5-to-1 chip advantage he'd carry over to Sunday.

It really wasn't until the pair reached Level 30 (blinds 40,000/80,000, ante 10,000), then, that we saw the shorter-stacked player choose to commit to a preflop all-in. Filtz had about 3.4 million (over 40 BBs) when he shoved with pocket nines, and Jarvis a little over 4 million (about 50 BBs) when he decided to gamble with As-10h.

Play ended without a winner on Saturday thanks to that "hard stop" rule that says players cannot play more than 10 levels in a day. In contrast to Saturday's battle, the sequel on Sunday was short and sweet. Sweet for Jarvis, anyway.

When they started back Sunday in Level 31, the blinds had bumped up to 50,000/100,000. By the fifth hand, Jarvis was approaching 9 million and Filtz was down to 2 million when the latter open-shoved from the button with Kd-9d and Jarvis instacalled with As-8h. As I noted over on PokerNews, the board ran out 5h-3h-6d-2s-3d, and just like that Jarvis had won the bracelet and a cool $808,538 to go with it.

Down to 20 BBs, Filtz felt he had to commit with a hand like Kd-9d to get back into the game, and unfortunately for him he couldn't catch to improve against Jarvis' better starter. However, both players exhibited an impressive balance of caution and aggression throughout their match, a fitting end to such a high-quality tourney that attracted so many eilte players.

For more from the World Series of Poker, check out PokerNews' live reporting as well as WSOP.com.