WPT World Championship Reaches Final Table: Marvin Rettenmaier Holds Huge Lead
When Rettenmaier returns to his seat the first task he will face is un-bagging and re-stacking his massive haul of chips. The young German holds 6,715,000 of the 15 million in play.
It took just a little over 2.5 hours to reduce the last nine surviving players in the World Poker Tour World Championship to the final six but now the players have a day off before returning to the Bellagio to play out for the $1,196,858 first place prize. Leading the way going into Saturday's final tab;e is 'Mad' Marvin Rettenmaier.
When Rettenmaier returns to his seat the first task he will face is un-bagging and re-stacking his massive haul of chips. The young German holds 6,715,000 of the 15 million in play. His lead is that substantial that he has more than double the number of chips as the man in second place, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi on 2,560,000.
Rettenmaier added Hafiz Khan's chips to his stack around 30 minutes into proceedings yesterday afternoon to send the former chip leader to the rail in ninth. With blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000a Rettenmaier opened to 105,000 from under the gun, Mizrachi called in the small blind and Khan squeezed to 360,000 from the big blind. Rettenmaier counted out a pile of chips worth 670,000 and put in a four-bet, which folded out Mizrachi but Khan moved all-in for 1,500,000 and Rettenmaier quickly called. It was a classic coinflip with Jd-Jh versus Ah-Kc but a flip that Rettenmaier would win when the board ran out 9d-8h-7h-3h-6d. With that Khan busted and picked up $58,568 for his efforts.
Shortly afterwards Wil Wilkinson's hopes of becoming thus tournament's champion were dashed after running into a big hand from Mizrachi. Down to just 650,000 (13BB) Wilkinson found Ac-6c in the hole and moved all-in when first to act in middle position. Unfortunately for him Mizrachi had been dealt Qs-Qd and made the call from the cutoff. The Kd-Qc-3d flop left Wilkinson drawing all but dead and the 6h on the turn confirmed his exit. The 3c on the river completed the hand and Wilkinson headed to the cashier's cage to pick up $82,361.
Another 90-minutes passed before the seventh place finisher was decided and the tournament paused for the last time. On the 101st hand of the final table Moon Kim raised from the hijack to/ 160,000 (blinds 30,000/60,000/5,000a) and Mizrachi called in the small blind. Rettenmaier was in the big blind and he squeezed to 630,000 only to see Kim four-bet all-in for 1,200,000. Mizrachi quickly folded but Rettenmaier made the call with his red nines and found himself up against the As-Qs of Kim. By the river the board read Jh-7d-3h-4c-6d and the Bay 101 champion was eliminated on the TV bubble though the $118,966 prize money will help to soften that blow.
The final table, which will be given the full television treatment and will be streamed on the internet, kicks off at 16:00 Las Vegas time on Saturday and will continue until the final champion of the WPT Season X is crowned. At the moment it looks like Rettenmaier but as we all know this game can and will throw up some interesting scenarios!
WPT World Championship Final Table
Seat 1: Michael Mizrachi - 2,560,000
Seat 2: Marvin Rettenmaier - 6,715,000
Seat 3: Steve O'Dwyer - 2,035,000
Seat 4: Nick Schulman - 1,555,000
Seat 5: Trevor Pope - 1,480,000
Seat 6: Philippe Ktorza - 895,000
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
