21

• 1^st Karga Holt $1,211,000
• 2^nd James Mackey $1,074,000
• 3^rd Nick Schulman $1,045,000
• 4^th Stuart Fox $718,000
• 5^th Tex Barch $709,000
• 6^th Michael Gracz $534,000
• 7^th William McMahon $524,000
• 8^th Jan Sorensen $349,000
• 9^th Michael Binger $240,000

The table started off slowly with not to much action happening in the early stages until the 16^th hand of play. Michael Gracz moved All In holding pocket Nines for $500,000 and was called by James Mackey holding pocket Queens. Mackey hit a set of Queens on the River eliminating Gracz in 9^th place winning $43684. Mackey took the chip lead at this point holding just over 2 million in chips.

That knockout hand sprung the table into life when only two hands later, Tex Barch found his dominated by Stuart Fox’s All In pre Flop. The Flop gave both players a pair coming down giving Barch practically no chance of winning the pot, needing a Ten to win or a running straight to split the pot on the last two cards. The Turn and River both came down with low cards confirming his exit in 8^th place.

This trend continued when we lost three players in the space of four hands, and by the time we reached hand 24 of this final table we were down to only four players.

First Jan Sorensen’s were busted by Michael Binger’s with Binger hitting a set on the very first card out. Only an Ace would save Sorensen but it never came with the board showing Sorensen won $81,343 for his 7^th place finish.

The very next hand Nick Schulman found himself dominated with against James Mackey with Neither player hit  any piece of the board with it coming down and Mackey’s 10 kicker took down the pot. Schulman going out in 6^th place winning $108,457.

This exciting sequence of play was complete two hands later, when Karga Holt the early chip leader headed for the rail. Trying to steal the blinds on the button he moved All In with but ran into Michael Binger in the big blind with pocket Jacks. The pocket pair held up eliminating Holt in 5^th winning $140,091.

James Mackey at this point held a sizeable chip lead over his rivals with 3.6million in chips compared to Michael Binger on 1.8m. William McMahon was on the short stack with $340,000 not too far behind Stuart Fox on $500,000

James Mackey extended his lead eliminating the two short stacks with in the space of half a dozen hands. First he dispatched William McMahon out of the tournament calling an All In move holding against Mackey was in the lead after the Flop came down leaving McMahon needing help to survive. The on the Turn and on the River gave Mackey a full house eliminating McMahon in 4^th place winning $194,319.

It was Michael Binger who was Mackey’s next victim in a race with Binger, having pocket Tens and Mackey having two over cards with Again Mackey got lucky on the Flop pairing his Ace leaving Binger needing one of the last two Tens in the deck to win. Bingers elimination was confirmed with the rest of the board all coming down low, going out in 3^rd place winning $295,245.

We didn’t expect heads up play to last long with James Mackey holding a commanding chip lead over Stuart Fox holding over 5.5million more in chips than his opponent, with the blinds set at $60,000-$30,000 with a $5,000 ante.

James Mackey won the first four pots in a row at the start of the heads up showdown, before taking down the win in this event. Mackey with called an All In move from Fox with Neither player hit the Flop with it coming down but the on the Turn put Mackey in pole position. The on the River confirmed Mackey’s win knocking Fox out in 2nd place.

James Mackey became the third ever youngest winner of a WSOP event at the age of just 21, the second 21 year old to win an event at this year’s WSOP, who is more well known in the online poker scene nicknamed Mig.com. One to watch out for in the future.

WSOP 2007 Event 22 Final Result:

• 1^st James Mackey $730,740
• 2^nd Stuart Fox $448,892
• 3^rd Michael Binger $295,245
• 4^th William McMahon $194,319
• 5^th Karga Holt $140,091
• 6^th Nick Schulman $108,457
• 7^th Jan Sorensen $81,343
• 8^th Tex Barch $60,254
• 9^th Michael Gracz $43,684

Win your seat at this years WSOP 2007 main event, by entering the many online freerolls on offer at Full Tilt, Pacific Poker, and Party Poker over the next couple of weeks.  Check out our Freerolls page for full details.