WSOP 2008 Event 44 - Max Greenwood takes down his first WSOP bracelet

Saturday, June 28, 2008 | Francis Lee

879 players started out in the $1,000 no limit hold’em with rebuys event, the 44th at the World Series of Poker 2008. A prize pool of $3,387,000 was amassed after the field re-bought a total of 2,508 times, and the first place prize was set from this prize pool was $693,392.

During the rebuy period play was very loose as players started of with $2,000 per rebuy Once the madness of the rebuy period was over the eliminations came as frequent as the rebuys did, with over half the field was eliminated just before the dinner break. Play slowed down a little as the players returned and the first day finished with just 115 players still alive in the tournament.

Just 115 players returned for the second day which would end when there was just nine players remaining. Play was tight early on as the bubble approached, with the last 73 players cashing in. The bubble finally burst when J.C Tran eliminated Ken Hennum out in 74th place beating with when the board came down The eliminations started to flow more frequently and it was just after 3am when the final table was finally set. Jessi Chinni had a great day gathering a $2.1 million chip stack with his nearest rival Rene Mouritsen on just over $1 million. The rest of the final table looked like this.

Final Table Chip Rankings

• 1st Jesse Chinni $2,160,000
• 2nd Rene Mouritsen $1,007,000
• 3rd Albert Iversen $921,000
• 4th Max Greenwood $728,000
• 5th Scott Freeman $675,000
• 6th Phung Ngo $556,000
• 7th Alex Bolotin $308,000
• 8th Curtis Kohlberg $209,000
• 9th Aliaksandr Dinosaur $186,000

The first elimination on this final table came with in the first orbit of the table. Alex “Deisel” Bolotin started the action raising to $52,000 followed by a rerasie by Albert Iversen to $132,000. Bolotin called and the Flop came down All the money went into the middle after the Turn brought the and Bolotin found his dominated by Iversen’s The on the River confirmed Bolotin’s exit winning a healthy $63,183.

Two more players headed for the rail on the next orbit round the table. First of all Phung Ngo lost all his chips to Rene Mouritsen, loosing with pocket Eights against Then just three hands later Curtis Kohlberg moved his short stack in with This was beaten by Max Greenwod’s as the Flop gave Greenwood two pair. Kohlberg couldn’t recover and cashed in for $111,786 finishing in 7th place.

Aliaksandr Dzianisau nursed his short stack all the way to this point and picked up pocket Queens on the 21st hand of play. He moved All in and was pleased to see his caller, Albert Iversen table This was until the Flop put Iversen firmly in control coming down The rest of the board filled out with two Aces eliminating Dzianisau in 6th place winning $144,187.

The early chip leader Jesse Chinni didn’t have such a good start and lost his chip lead to Mouritsen. Chinni made a move against Mouritsen moving his million plus chip stack in to the middle with after the two exchanged pre flop raises. Mouritsen was only too happy to call tabling a huge favourite to win the pot. The Aces held up as the final board came down sending Chinni to the rail in a disappointing 5th place, considering his starting position and this only being the 22nd hand of play.

Four handed play lasted for 46 hands which saw Albert Iversen dominate play, catching Rene Mouritsen in the chip rankings. Mouritsen retook control when he eliminated Scott Freeman in 4th place, when he dominated with Neither player hit any piece of the board meaning the big slick was good to win the pot.

Third place was decided on the 96th hand of play to set up the heads up showdown. This came after Max Greenwood dominated play and took the chip lead, first doubling up against Mouritsen and then taking a big pot from Iversen. Iversen and Mouritsen then clashed when the Flop came down All the chips went in with Mouritsen having Iversen just covered. Iversen found his in the lead having a set against but was under threat from a possible flush and straight draw. The completed Mouritsen’s flush leaving Iversen needing the board to pair. The on the River dashed these hopes leaving Iversen to collect $267,314 in prize money.

This win for Mouritsen levelled him up with Greenwood in the chip rankings at the start of heads up. Greenwood continued his aggressive style constantly putting the pressure on Mouritsen. The end came for Mouritsen after Greenwood had took a $2 million chip lead after around 30 hands of play. All the chips went in after the Flop came down with Greenwood dominating Mouritsen with against The rest of the board filled out with the and confirming Max Greenwood as the winner of event 44, taking home the $693,444 first place prize and his first WSOP bracelet.

WSOP 2008 Event 44 Final Standings

• 1st Max Greenwood $693,444
• 2nd Rene Mouritsen $445,523
• 3rd Albert Iversen $267,314
• 4th Scott Freeman $223,572
• 5th Jesse Chinni $183,069
• 6th Aliaksandr Dzianisau $144,187
• 7th Curtis Kohlberg $111,786
• 8th Phung Ngo$87,484
• 9th Alex Bolotin $63,183

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