/ Matthew Pitt / 06 June 2011 / Leave a Comment 
The first $10,000 Championship of the 2011 World Series of Poker is done and dusted and it is Amir Lehavot who has emerged victorious to win his first bracelet and $573,456 but the tournament will also be remembered for the fact another three British players went deep and another bracelet for one of our boys cannot be far away.
This year's $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship attracted 249 players, slightly down on the 268 of last year but still enough to create a prizepool of $2,340,600. Of the 249 who started Day 1 with high hopes only 129 survived the day with their chip stacks intact and they returned to the felt on Sunday and were whittled down to the final 27 players, which incidentally is how many players were paid out.
The final 27 was a star-studded affair with the likes of Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Owen Crowe, Nenad Medic, McLean Karr and Steve "gboro780" Gross. However, as in the $25,000 Heads Up event that Jake Cody won a huge crowd gathered on the rail once word spread that Toby Lewis, Chris Moorman and Stephen Chidwick had made it into the money and were in with a real chance of winning a coveted gold bracelet.
Moorman was the first British player to be sent to the rail, his 18th place finish worth $25,348 and then five and a half hours after the tournament started Lewis' luck ran out. The EPT Vilamoura winner opened to 43,000 from the button, Lehavot made it 110,000 to play from the big blind and then called when Lewis re-raised all in. The Brit's JhJc was narrowly ahead of his opponent's AdQd but he was soon a massive underdog as the flop came down 4d-9d-2d giving Lehavot the nut flush. The 6c on the turn ended Lewis' tournament and when the meaningless 3c arrived on the river Lewis was eliminated in 11th place, worth $40,890.
This left Chidwick as the lone British player left in the tournament and when Michael Benvenuti, Karr and Eric Cloutier all busted out with 15 minutes of each other, Chidwick only had five more players to outlast to scoop the title. Those five became four as Nicolas Levi, a Frenchman who resides in the UK exited in sixth place when his 7d7h was beaten by the AsQd of Lehavot and just five minutes later Tommy Vinas ran into a real cooler of a hand to see him eliminated in fifth place. Vinas got into a raising war with Jarred Solomon on a 9s-Qs-7s flop which resulted in the former being all in at risk. He proudly turned over 7c7d for bottom set but was devastated when Solomon turned over 9c9d for a higher set. The turn and river were the 8h and 8c respectively and play was now four-handed.
The support for Chidwick was second to none but it was not enough as the man known as "Stevie444" in online circles was eliminated in fourth place> He managed to get his money in good with Ah9c against the KcJh of Lehavot but Lehavot was running hotter than the sun that even when the flop came down 9d-Ac-Ts the rail knew a suckout could be on the cards. The turn was the 8h, which kept Chidwick in front but gave Lehavot an open-ended straight draw, and that was completed when the Qs landed on the river. A valiant performance from Chidwick who took away $198,927 for his efforts over the three days, nice work if you can get it.
Five minutes later and the tournament reached the heads up stages as Sam Stein ran his As6d straight down the throat of the AcKs of, yes you guessed it, Lehavot. Neither player made a pair but Lehavot's king-kicker came into play and it was time for a one-on-one encounter to decide the title. Lehavot lead Solomon by 5,415,000 to 2,160,000 and it did not take him long to reduce his opponent to just a few hundred thousand chips. Then about an hour and 20 minutes into the encounter the final hand took place.
With blinds now 25,000/50,000 (there are no antes in pot limit games) Solomon made it 100,000 to play. Lehavot re-popped the action to 265,000 then quickly called as Solomon put in the rest of his stack. Solomon's AhJs would usuall be a very strong hand in heads up but not when his opponent held AsQh! The Qs-Qd-Tc flop gave Lehavot trip queens but also gave Solomon an open-ended straight but any hopes of hitting that were soon made redundant as the Td on the turn improved Lehavot to an unbeatable full house, so when the meaningless 2d hit the river it was already game over, Lehavot had become the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship winner.
This is the second large cash in just a few months for Lehavot as he finished fourth in the recent WPT LA Poker Classic for a cool $421,680, meaning this latest score has made him a poker millionaire!
Final table payouts
1st: Amir Lehavot: $573,456
2nd: Jarred Solomon: $354,460
3rd: Sam Stein: $264,651
4th: Stephen Chidwick: $198,927
5th: Tommy Vinas: $150,453
6th: Nicolas Levi: $114,525
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