Yorky Pud

Back in April we brought you the news that at this year's World Series of Poker there were going to be three rematches of historical WSOP heads-up encounters. Johnny Chan was to take on Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker would face Sammy Farha and the public voted for Chan to have a rematch with Erik Seidel. Two of these rematches took place yesterday but the Chan versus Seidel has had to be postponed due to the fact the latter was deep in Event #3 the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 of Better tournament at the scheduled start time.

Johnny Chan versus Phil Hellmuth

The original meet between these two players was back in 1989 where a fresh-faced Phil Hellmuth locked horns with one of his idols, Johnny Chan in the final stages of the Main Event. Chan was looking to become the first-ever player to win three consecutive Main Events whilst Hellmuth had the chance to write his name in the WSOP record books by being the youngest-ever Main Event Champion. Hellmuth emerged victorious on that day, his 9c9s beating Chan's As7s when the board ran out Kc-Th-Kd-Qs-6s but who would win in the rematch.

The pair, who have 21-WSOP bracelet between them, met at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and sat down armed with 890,000 chips and played with blinds of 5,000/10,000/1,000a to a 30-minute clock. Both players began quite passively but Chan then ramped up the aggression, with one hand in particular showing that he was in control of the man known as “The Poker Brat.”

Chan raised on the button to 32,000 and Hellmuth made the call. The dealer put out the Kc-Jd-6h flop and both players elected to check their option to bet. Rather uncharacteristically, Hellmuth decided to make a bet of 32,000 in the dark, before the turn card had been dealt. When the 7d was put out on the turn Chan wasted no time in moving all in, which prompted a fold from Hellmuth who was then shown QdTc for just an open-ended straight draw.

By the time they had played for an hour Hellmuth found himself down to just 155,000 chips but after doubling up with 5c4c against Chan's 8s2c when the money went in on a 8c-6c-2s and Hellmuth turned a flush, The Poker Brat went on a real heater and even managed to take a 2-to-1 lead over Chan! This comeback was rather short-lived however and Chan once again put his foot firmly on the gas. He rode his luck by getting his money in with 4s3d on a Ad-4d-2h-Ts board against Hellmuth's Td9d and spiking the 5c on the river and from then on always looked like the man in control.

Then, after two hours of play the final hand took place. Hellmuth, down to 125,000 or three big blinds, moved all in with KsTc and was snap-called by Chan and his 8h8d. No king or ten for Hellmuth on a 3h-5s-9s-Jc-9c board and with that Chan had exacted revenge for his defeat 22 years previously!

Chris Moneymaker versus Sammy Farha

The second of the three encounters was a rematch of what is arguably the most important heads-up battle in poker history. When Chris Moneymaker, an accountant by trade, entered a $33 satellite tournament online he had no idea that the poker gods had decided that he would go on to win the 2003 WSOP Main Event, the $2,500,000 first place prize and spark what is now known as the “poker boom.” Since Moneymaker's unlikely win, the WSOP has increased in size each and every year as poker hopefuls travel to Las Vegas hoping to emulate his success.

This particular rematch was played to a best-of-three format, with the first round starting with exact chip counts as they were back in 2003, Moneymaker leading 5,490,000 to 2,900,000 and blinds of 20,000/40,000/5,000a. Round 1 last slightly less than an hour and went the way of Moneymaker after Farha, trailing by more than 3-to-1 in chips, moved all in preflop with AhTs and was called by the Ac8d of Moneymaker. The 5h-Qd-5c flop changed nothing at all but the 8c on the turn put the ball firmly in Moneymaker's court and there it stayed as the Qs on the river completed the hand and made it 1-0 to Moneymaker.

The second round of saw the original chip counts reversed and Farha was able to take advantage of this, though he needed a suckout of his own to level up proceedings. On a flop reading 6d-7h-6c Moneymaker  lead out with a bet of 375,000 and Farha, like he had done on numerous previous occasions moved all in. Moneymaker called and turned over 8s8c, nicely in front of Farha's As7d. The 4d on the turn kept Moneymaker in the lead but the Ah on the river saw the chips shipped to Mr Farha and a deciding match, with even stacks, would need to be played.

Half hour into this final encounter a huge hand took place that shifted the momentum Moneymaker's way. On a flop that read Jh-2h-Td both players entered a raising war that saw Moneymaker all in and at risk of elimination. He turned oer Js2d but was in a whole world of trouble as Farha held JcTh, which quite ironically was his holding in the final hand of the 2003 meet. The 8s on the turn put another nail in the Moneymaker coffin but the 2c rescued him with the kiss of life, much to the disappointment of Farha's fans and Moneymaker's haters.

Just ten minutes later and it was all over. Moneymaker raised on the button to 200,000 then called Farha's 1,500,000 three-bet shove. Moneymaker tabled KcJh and it was up against Farha's KhTc. The board ran out 7d-3c-7h-6h-2d and Moneymaker won by two games to one.

As mentioned at the start of this article the third and final WSOP rematch has been postponed as Erik Seidel, who was due to face Chan in a remake of their 1988 match, was deep in Event #3 but he busted earlier this morning in 32nd place so they could potentially play their televised game at any point.