Chino Rheem Wins!
by Court on 12.20.08, 5:49 am
After pulling ahead to a lead it wasn’t long before Chino Rheem (pictured) saw his lead vanish and found himself drawing to a flush to stave off elimination in second place at the hands of Justin Young. Young was able to get a couple of key double ups before getting Chino all in on an A
6
3 flop where Young had the A3
for two pair while Chino was drawing with the T4. Chino hit his flush with the 6 on the turn, but Young still had 6 outs for a full house to win the tournament. He didn’t hit on the river and Chino was able to double back to the chip lead and an 18 million to 4 million chip advantage.
After that the two continued to battle but Young was never able to get over 6 million chips. In the last hand Chino raised to 720k and Young made the call. On the Q83 flop Young check raised all in over the top of a 1.2 million bet from Chino. Rheem called and when the hands were turned up Justin had flopped top pair with the Q5 but Chino was in control with pocket kings. The kings held up on the turn and the river and with that Chino Rheem claimed the title at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and the $1,538,730 that goes along with it.
After playing a great tournament Justin Young is left with a runner up finish, but still gets almost a million dollars for his effort. His $936,760 cash is his largest to date and a great score for the solid pro.
Rheem and Young put on a heads up battle worth remembering, playing for hours and battling back and forth with neither giving an inch and both playing solid, patient, aggressive poker in their quest for the title. In the end Chino came out on top, but Young was 2 cards away from the title and can have no regrets about his play from start to finish in this tournament.
Chino Pulls Ahead
by Court on 12.20.08, 4:31 am
After hours of heads up play with the two players hanging pretty close to dead even Chino Rheem has pulled out to a real chip lead. It took hours and over 100 hands of heads up action, but on a K
73 flop Chino checked to Justin Young who bet 300k and then Chino raised to 1.4 million. Young announced another raise before putting in a total of 4.4 million prompting Chino to put the rest of his chips in the pot.
Young went into the tank for an extended period to consider this huge decision. After almost 5 full minutes of thought he folded, leaving himself only 4.1 million behind while Chino was able to build his stack to just over 18 million and a more than 4 to 1 chip lead, by far the largest margin so far in heads up play.
Once Young had folded Chino showed his hand, the A4 for ace high no pair, but the nut flush draw.
Locked Up
by Court on 12.20.08, 2:13 am
After over 35 hands of heads up play, Justin Young and Chino Rheem (right) are in a dead heat. Rheem was able to pull even early on in heads up play and since then the two have both hung right around the 11 million mark with neither player being able to pull away to any sort of lead. They are deeped stacked relative to the blinds of 50k / 100k with a 10k ante and the two are taking advantage of the structure and playing a careful and cautious heads up match.
The action at the final table has come in spurts. Five handed play took a while and them all in one hand young was able to bust two players and before the crowd had settled down from that monster hand Chino had crushed the hopes of Evan McNiff leaving play in a heads up battle that has been a slow back and forth battle so far. In no limit hold’ em one hand can make all the difference and both players are doing all they can to make sure when the big hand happens they come out on the winning end.
Ship It To NC: Young Busts Two and Chino Rallies
by Court on 12.20.08, 12:04 am
After a slow and grinding level of 5 handed play the action has dropped to 3 handed all in one deal of the cards. Justin Young (left) was able to eliminate both the short stack Amnon Filippi and Steve Sung who started the day as the chip leader. All the chips went in preflop, with Amnon moving in for just under a million and Steve Sung calling. Justin Young then moved in over the top and Sung snap called with his pocket kings. Amnon had pocket nines and Young was in the catbird seat with pocket aces.
Sung’s all in call was worth over 3.5 million so add that to Amnon’s million chip all in and Young was able to grab a commanding portion of the chips in play after winning the three way all in. Young now has almost 12 million chips with under 22.5 million total chips in play.
Amnon was the short stack going into the hand so he ends up with the 5th place finish for $288,235 while Sung (right) is officially the 4th place finisher for $396,206.
After the bustouts Young is left as the chip leader with Evan McNiff and Chino Rheem hoping to overtake him in the battle for the title. Here is how they stacked up after the big 3 way hand:
Justin Young - 12 million
Evan McNiff - 6 million
Chino Rheem - 4.5 million
It wasn’t long before another all in brought out the red lights on the WPT stage as Chino and Evan tangled in a pot. Justin Young had opened the pot and after McNiff raised Chino moved all in and McNiff called. Chino got it in bad with his A9 against the AJ of McNiff but was able to hit a 9 on the turn to win the pot and double up to 7.5 million while leaving McNiff with only 500k chips and in critical shape.
A few hands later Chino was able to continue his run after sucking out on McNiff. A short stacked Evan was all in for the last of his chips and Chino called with the T9 and turned out to be in great shape against the T4 of McNiff. Rheem’s hand held and McNiff found himself out the door after being a dominating force in the tournament since the early days.
Evan McNiff (left) ends up in 3rd place for $540,440 but has to be left thinking about what could have been had Chino not hit his 3 outer.
While Evan is making his exit, Chino Rheem and Justin Young are preparing to play a heads up battle for the title and the $1.5 million first prize. Young has a chip lead going in, but Chino has closed the gap by eliminating McNiff. Young has 14 million to Chino’s 8 million.
Young To The Lead, Hoyt Out 6th
by Court on 12.19.08, 10:37 pm
Justin Young, Amnon Filippi and Hoyt Corkins were all piled up at the bottom of the chip counts with around 2 million each, but the three have now went in different directions. Justin Young was able to get a big double up through Chino Rheem after he flopped top two pair on an A-5-2 rainbow flop and Chino flopped top pair with his AJ. Young’s A5 for two pair held up and Young was able to pull himself out of short stack status and move to the middle of the pack.
It wasn’t long before he was able to do more than that, and when his AK held up against Hoyt Corkin’s AQ in an all in preflop pot Justin was able to take the chip lead and at the same time eliminate Hoyt in 6th place. Corkins (right) earns $216,175 for his finish while Young got to rake in enough chips to put him over 6.5 million and in the chip lead.
Chino Rheem then found himself as the shortstack and moved all in and was called by Evan McNiff. Rheem had the QJ and needed to outrun the pocket nines of McNiff. A flop of AKT did the trick, flopping broadway for Chino and leaving McNiff needing runner runner to win the pot. It didn’t happen and Rheem found himself right back in the mix, while Amnon Filippi was left at the bottom of the chip counts by himself with under 2 million.
Here are some rough counts at this stage of 5 handed play:
Justin Young - 6.3 million
Even McNiff - 6 million
Steve Sung - 4.2 million
Chino Rheem - 4 million
Amnon Filippi - 1.9 million