Matt Graham Defeats Survivor Bellande Heads-Up at 2008 World Series of Poker
823 players entered the 53rd event at the 2008 World Series of Poker. The Limit Hold'em Shootout had a buy-in of $1,500. With a total prize pool of $1,123,395, more than $275,000 was guaranteed to the first-place finisher. In a shootout event, the last person standing at the table moves on to the next round…and so on until the event is over.
As the final nine took their seats, the playing field was leveled once again. Each player began with the same number of chips. Bellande took the early lead by winning the first few pots and jokingly asked the table if they wanted to switch the game from limit to no-limit. He took out Michael Kachan in ninth place. Kachan earned $7,526 for his efforts.
Joe De Niro (no relation to actor Robert as far we know) then claimed the next two victims. At this point, Bellande, not one to be outdone, KO'd Spencer Lawrence with an As,9d. Lawrence took home more than $20,000.
With five players left, Danny Wong made some moves, but came up on the losing end. He hit the rail, leaving the spectators silent, causing Bellande, who eliminated him, to note, “You see that. Everyone was silent. That's mad respect for him. Mad respect.”
Matt Graham finally got his chance to knock a player out. He dispatched Brandon Wong (no relation to Danny as we understand it) in fourth position. Brandon earned nearly $70,000 for his finish. With three players left, Joe De Niro, Matt Graham and Jean-Robert Bellande went on a ten-minute break. Soon after they returned, Bellande knocked De Niro out with aces up on the river, giving Bellande an advantage as heads-up play began.
Almost everybody – well especially Bellande and his crew – figured it was Bobby's bracelet to win. After Graham lost a big pot, Bellande nearly had him on the ropes. However, Graham comes back and wins two nice-sized pots and evens up the chip count with the former reality TV contestant, causing Bellande some serious frustration.
Although the pendulum swung back to Bobby's side for a bit, Graham retook control of the match and didn't relinquish it. Much to the chagrin of Bellande and his crew, Matt Graham took the title and the bracelet, along with $278,180 in cash.
Here are the final results:
1) Matthew Graham - $278,180 2) Jean-Robert Bellande - $173,564 3) Joe De Niro - $107,845 4) Brandon Wong - $69,088 5) Danny Wong - $33,701 6) Spencer Lawrence - $20,221 7) John Kranyak - $13,480 8) Andrew Prock - $10,335 9) Michael Kachan - $7,526