John Phan(credit: John Phan's Official Web Site)
John Phan went from no World Series of Bracelets to two in the span of a week at the 2008 WSOP. First, the “Razor”, as he’s commonly known as, took down the 29th tournament at the World Series of Poker. Now, poker’s perennial ‘bridesmaid’ is the bride once again in Event #40. This time Phan faced a tough final table which included Robert Mizrachi and David Sklansky to win the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Event.
As the final table got underway, Phan had the chip lead with nearly 300k. Sklansky, noted poker author, theorist and three-time WSOP bracelet holder, was bringing up the rear with about 78k. Unfortunately, Sklansky was also running card dead. Robert Mizrachi, The Grinder’s big brother and quite the talented professional in his own right, sent Sklansky to the rail in sixth place.
Mizrachi, however, suffers a reversal of fortune and watches from the sidelines as the fourth place finisher. The elder Mizrachi, who has a bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event from the 2007 WSOP, added $41,055 to his lifetime tournament earnings.
John Phan began to ride the short stack at this point. Both Gioi Luong and Shun Uchida took big chunks out of the Vietnamese-born player’s chips. Tensions ran high between Luong, a resident of Westminster, CA who has earned more than $2,000,000 in tournaments throughout his lifetime, and Phan. At one point, the two got in each other’s faces, screaming. Phan had the last word when he KO’d Luong with a 7,6,5,4,2. Luong received $61,583 for his efforts.
The elimination gave Phan a small advantage as heads-up play began. Less than an hour later, Uchida, a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, was toast as Phan toasted his victory.
These are the final results:
1) John Phan - $151,911
2) Shun Uchida - $95,795
3) Gioi Luong - $61,582
4) Robert Mizrachi - $41,055
5) Ben Ponzio - $28,738
6) David Sklansky - $20,527
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