A Good Day For Georgia
2007-08-27 13:46:51
By: Gene Bromberg
Folks from the Peach State had reason to cheer yesterday as a team from Warner Robins, GA won the Little League World Series, thanks to a game-winning home run in extra innings. And if any Georgians were watching the final table of last night's $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament, they saw another native son take down the title. In 2006 Jeff "YelloSub86" Williams, a student at the University of Georgia, won the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo. He won the $1.1 million first prize when he was just 19 years old--only seven years older than the Little Leaguers who won the World Series yesterday.
Williams and nine others fought their way through 889 runners to make the final table, with "YelloSub86" holding a precarious chip lead:
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But YelloSub86 won a big confrontation against gezun (who was second in chips) when his pocket Jacks held up against gezun's pocket fours. He kept his dominant chip position until we reached three-handed play, when klslcz went on a tear. He was close to taking over the chip lead when he sent pokerRx to the rail in third place. Holding A-5, klslcz flopped trip fives to best pokerRx's pocket Fours, and that gave him about a 200K lead over YelloSub86 going into heads-up play.
And then, just as the Little League team did earlier in the afternoon, some last-second heroics brought the Georgian the title. After exchanging a series of raises the two players got all the money in the middle, with klslcz holding a slight advantage with Ah-5s against YelloSub86's Kd-10d. The 9d-4d-2h-9s board meant Williams was down to his last card...and he got what he needed when the Kc spiked on the river.
That reversal gave YelloSub86 a 2-1 chip lead, and after he extended his lead the two played the decisive hand. Before the flop YelloSub86 raised enough to set klslcz all-in, and he called with Qd-5d. This time it was YelloSub86 in the lead with Kd-3c, but after the 7s-4s-2h flop klslcz made a pair when the 5h turned. But once again the river brought the card YelloSub86 needed, this time the Ah, and that gave Jeff Williams the win and the $45,000 first prize. And those two brutal suckouts on the river meant that klslcz had to settle for second-place and $27,000.
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