Rahul Chaudhar Wins Event 4 in Tournament Play Debut

 

Among the final nine was poker dealer, Michelle Chase. Chase regularly deals at the annual WSOP and WSOP Circuit events. She decided not to deal the Circuit Events at Harrah’s St. Louis near her hometown of Hiawatha, KS, opting instead to try her own skills on the felt.

Chase had the chip lead heading into the final table.

 

 

Name	Hometown	Seat	Chip Count
Rahul Chaudhari	Ballwin, MO	1	184,000
Jonny Mings	Columbia, MO	2	247,000
Richard “Damian” Gum	Granite City, IL	3	277,000
Marthen Bone	Indiana	4	150,000
Kevin Manley	Arlington Heights, IL	5	210,000
Konstantin Beylm	St. Louis	6	301,000
Michelle Chase	Hiawatha, KS	7	309,000
Preston Baxley	Huntsville, MO	8	259,000
Don Rousseau	Orlando, FL	9	87,500

 

 

Ninth Place
Final table action got underway shortly after 2:00 pm with blinds and antes at 8,000/16,000/2,000. In contrast to the start of the seniors event the day before, there was a barrage action early in play.

Much of it involved the short stack, Don Rousseau, who doubled up against Konstantin Beylm with AQ vs. Beylm’s pocket deuces. A couple of hands later, Rousseau would double again, this time through Kevin Manley, who called Rousseau’s pocket aces with AK off-suit.

Having taken a huge hit to his stack, Manley was all-in for the rest of his chips with     against Preston Baxley. The 51-year old retired insurance executive from Arlington Heights, IL was left needing much help after Baxley tabled   . The jack-high board was no help to either player and Manley was the first player to be eliminated.

Eighth Place
Within twenty minutes into play, there were five all-ins. In three of them, the all-in player tabled pocket aces for the double up. The fifth all-in of the day was between Baxley with    and Jonny Mings, who showed   .

The board came       to end Baxley’s tournament run. Baxley is a 27-year old online grinder whose largest payday was a $24,000 online cash back in March.  Eighth place paid Baxley $1,841.

Seventh Place
With blinds now at 15,000/30,000, Marthen Bone moved his stack all-in from late position. Chase suspected a hijack and paused for a minute before making the hero call. Her instincts were right as she was ahead with    vs. Bone’s   , but a flop of       opened up a number outs for her opponent. A   on the turn completed Bone’s flush for the double up.

Crippled, Chase could only go all-in a couple of hands later with   . Unfortunately for her, Don Rousseau was sitting on pocket kings and made the call. A nine on the flop gave Chase a bit of hope, but aces on fourth and fifth streets resulted in an early exit for the Day Two chip leader. Seventh place paid $2,268.

Sixth Place
The sixth place finisher was Jonny Mings, who moved all-in with    and got a call from Rahul Chaudhari with   . Having quadrupled up a few hands earlier, Mings was on track for an incredible comeback when the flop came     with a harmless   on the turn.

One would only need a pair of ears to know what the river brought when the players and large crowd of spectators reacted loudly when the   hit the river.

Along with a pretty cool name, Jonny Mings walked away with $3,401. Mings is a 24-year-old construction worker from Columbia, MO. This was his second cash of the Harrah’s St. Louis Circuit Events.

Fifth Place
Blinds and antes moved up to 20,000/40,000/5,000. Damian Gum, a 65-year-old retired TWA crew chief from Granite City, IL was eliminated after being outflopped on an all-in with AJ off vs. Chaudhari’s    . Gum pocketed $4,535 for his two-day effort.

Fourth Place
After a roller coaster of doubling up and being doubled through, Rousseau’s ride came to a halt after an all-in with A10 off vs. Beylm’s dominating AQ.  A nine-high board sent Rousseau to the payout table.

Rousseau is a 57-year-old real estate appraiser from Orlando, FL. He has a number of major tournament cashes, including a 2008 5th place finish at the WPT in Tunica, three prior WSOP Circuit cashes and a cash at the 2008 WSOP.  Fourth place paid $5,669.

Video of the final three playing it down to a winner.

Third Place
After doubling up Bone twice for over half of his million-chip stack, Beylm was all-in for his remaining 420,000 with A3. After tanking a bit, Chaudhari made the call with pocket fives. The fives held through the river to give him a dominating chip lead over his remaining opponent. Beylm, a 24-year old economist from St. Louis, MO., walked away with $7,937.

Second Place        
Heads-up play began shortly before 5:00 pm with blinds and antes at 30,000/60,000/5,000.

Chaudhari tried a number of times in earnest to persuade Bone to yield his short stack and take a deal for the ring, but Bone held steadfast to his hopes of a win. Chaudhari tried to convince Bone to take a deal all the way to the final hand.

“$2,000 and I keep the ring.” said Chaudhari.

Bone made a counter-offer.

“All-in,” he declared.

Chaudhari looked down at    before making the call. Bone had the lead with    when the flop showed    . A   hit the turn before a   hit the river, saving Chaudhari a cool two grand.

Second place paid Bone, a 39-year-old cook from Evansville, IN., $11,169 while Chaudhari took the full $18,325 along with a WSOP Circuit Event ring.

This was the first major tournament that Chaudhari has ever played in. He says he played basic early, mid and late-game strategy.
    
“I felt confident this morning and knew I had a good shot of winning it all,” he said.
    
Chaudhari joins two other Indian players, brothers Vineet and Mukul Pahuja in enjoying success on the 2009/2010 tournament Circuit.

This past December, Mukul shipped Event #15 at the Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City WSOP Circuit for $51,169 while Vineet has made waves over the past couple of years with nearly $900,000 in tournament winnings.

Chaudhari says he is a fan of the Pahuja brothers and follows them on the poker blogs. He says that he would like to see more of his countrymen on the felt.

“I want to promote more Indians in poker,” said Chaudhari. “Especially the many of us who are math and tech-savvy who I think would be successful in the game.

“But there is a stigma among a lot of Indians about gambling.”

“I’m thrilled,” said Chaudhari about his first major tournament victory.
    
Still to come are 8 more events and nightly (single-day) non-ring $230 and $340 buy-in events which begin at 4 pm and 7pm.   The WSOP Circuit at Harrah’s St. Louis runs through April 15th.