WSOP Hands of the Week: Kessler’s Brutal Razz Elimination

Poker fans were treated to many exciting hands at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) the past week.

But there’s always a player involved in one of these juicy hands who doesn’t find it as interesting as the rest of us. Take Allen Kessler, for example, who took a cruel Razz bad beat to bust from the $3,000 Nine Game Mix event, a hand you’ll read about in just a bit.

“The Chainsaw” isn’t the only recipient of a bad beat or on the wrong end of a brutal cooler the past week at the WSOP, as you’re about to discover.

Juha Helppi Doubles Then Busts in Three-Way Clash

It’s tough to beat the feeling of doubling up when you’re short-stacked. But that feeling turns to disappointment when you double-up only to bust moments later. That’s precisely what happened to Juha Helppi in the $1,500 Five-Card Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.

Helppi, who had pocket kings in the hole, hit a flush to crack the aces held by Daniel Perkusic for a full double-up. On the very next hand, Helppi would have pocket kings again along with J♠9♦3♠. But this time, Ravi Shankar would have two aces among his five hole cards and both players flopped a set and turned a full house. Coincidentally, Perkusic was also in the hand but drawing dead on the turn.

Shankar, who went on to finish in sixth place, eliminated both players in the hand, Helppi out in 21st for $10,840 and Perkusic in 22nd place for the same amount.

Kessler’s Opponent Catches the Perfect Cards

Kessler, with 43 players out of 472 remaining in Nine Game Mix, had one heck of a start to his hand with 2xAx/5x3x7x for a seven-five low. He was in fantastic shape against Danny Noam, who had 10x4x/7x 7x before hitting the 3x, followed by the 2x and Ax for a triple-perfect. The Chainsaw, on the other hand, didn’t improve on his strong hand on sixth or seventh street.

As such, Noam’s perfect runout gave him the pot and sent Kessler home in 43rd place for $6,360. Noam would go on to finish in 12th place for $13,180 in the $1,500 buy-in WSOP event.

Eelis Parssinen won the $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha for $2,161,056. Along the way, he won a number of crucial pots, one of them taking place with 11 remaining players in a memorable three-way pot.

The hand saw Parssinen, the bigger stack, call an all-in bet on the flop of 8♣7♥3♦ with K♠J♥10♥9♦ against Chongxian Yang, who had A♥K♥5♥4♠, and Barrett Threadgill, whose A♣Q♣Q♦8♥ was ahead. The 2♣ on the turn gave Yang some hope. But the 10♦ on the river gave Parssinen the pot to send Yang home in 11th place and Threadgill in 10th place.

Player Just Calls on River with Quads?

Youness Barakat, in that same $25k PLO event, had Q♥Q♣ in the hole on a board of J♠10♠Q♠Q♦2♦. He had quads and faced a bet of 200,000 into a pot of 250,000 from Matthew Costanzo.

In some cases, a player with quads will come back over the top even in Pot-Limit Omaha. But with the payjumps massive in this event, he decided to just call the bet and leave himself 15 big blinds. After all, he could have been up against a straight flush or Royal Flush. And it turned out to be a smart decision because Costanzo flashed the 9♠8♠ for a straight flush to scoop the pot.

Joni Jouhkimainen Eliminates Four in One Hand

Joni Jouhkimainen pulled something off that is extremely rare in poker — eliminating four players in the same hand. He accomplished that in the $25k High Roller PLO in Level 10, before the bubble burst.

Yang Wang raised to 14,000 in middle position, and Jouhkimainen called in the hijack. Cary Katz then came along in the cutoff, which tempted Daniel Negreanu to call on the button. Sean Rafael saw an opportunity to squeeze and moved all in for 75,000 from the small blind.

Wang responded by announcing pot, making it 271,000, with just a few thousand left behind. Jouhkimainen then moved all in too, with the biggest stack at the table. Katz saw value and put his 175,000 into the pot, which tempted Negreanu for a second time, as he put his stack of 434,000 into the pot. Wang was the last to call, putting his remaining 7,000 into the pot.

Jouhkimainen, the biggest stack, had 6♣5♥5♣3♥ and would hit the nuts on the 7♥2♠4♦A♣K♠ board. His four opponents were all eliminated.