Nearly 500 players entered the $2,500 8-Game tournament at this year’s WSOP and when all the dust settled it was mixed-game specialist John Monnette who took down the title and a $278,144 payday. For the California-native Monnette, this was just one of many strong showings in non-Hold’em tournaments over the past few years at the WSOP. However, until early this morning he had yet to turn any of those deep runs into a victory. He came incredibly close back in 2009 before falling heads-up to Phil Ivey in the $2,500 2-7 tournament and later that year made a deep run before busting in 155th place in the Main Event.
Monnette was joined at the final table by another poker giant in John Juanda. Juanda notched a bracelet just a few days earlier by winning the $10,000 2-7 lowball championship for $367,170. The win was one of many for the FullTilt poker pro who has also won the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event as well as the $100,000 Speed Poker Challenge in Melbourne. Juanda currently ranks 5th in all time earnings and realistically is in 4th for those discounting Jamie Gold’s massive $12,000,000 win in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. While most like to talk about Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda could very well be the best tournament player of their generation. Unfortunately for the railbirds Juanda was unable to gain much momentum and busted in 6th place for a paltry $42,897 by his standards. Juanda busted during a Limit Hold’em round where he had just a few bets left and got all his chips in PF with King-Deuce offsuit only to lose to Eric Buchman’s Six-Eight suited.
Next to bust was Desmond Portano who fell during a round of Razz. Much like Juanda, Portano found himself holding only a few bets and got them all in before 4th street with a rough Razz hand, Qc-4h-4d. Unfortunately things got much worse and his opponent, John Monnette, made a Ten-low on 5th street. Still, Portano had a chance to make a 9-low or better on 6th and seventh but ultimately found himself holding a Q-T-8-6-4 against Monnette’s 10-7-5-3-2. His 5th place finish earned him $57,682 ranking as his 3rd best score in his WSOP career. The action then became fast and furious with Brent Hanks busting in 4th place during a Stud 8/b round. Michele Limongi was next to go in 4th and that left John Monnette and Erich Buchman heads-up for the title.
Monnette started heads-up play with a 4:1 chip advantage. This lead coupled with his great experience in high-stakes mixed games, was going to make a comeback for Buchman awfully difficult. The match only lasted a few hands as Monnette took an ever bigger lead after a round of Stud and finished his opponent off during Stud Hi/Lo play. The final hand saw Buchman bring-in with the Ten of clubs and Monnette completed with the Ah. After an interesting raise from Buchman, Monnette decided to call and see 4th street. With just a single bet remaining Buchman put himself all-in on 4th and the hand went down as follows:
Buchman: (Qc 2c) Tc Js 8d 6s 6h
Monnette: (3d 2d) Ah Jc Jd Kd 8c
Buchman needed a 9 or Queen on 7th street but whiffed with the Six of Hearts and had to settle for a 2nd place finish and $171,855. Monnette finally earned a coveted WSOP bracelet and took down the biggest score of his career.
2011 WSOP Event #23 $2,500 8-game
489 Entrants; $1,112,475 prize pool
1. John Monnette $278,144
2. Eric Buchman $171,855
3. Michele Limongi $109,245
4. Brent Hanks $78,774
5. Desomnd Portano $57,692
6. John Juanda $42,897
7. Adam Mornuth $32,373
8. John Racener $24,797