(Credit: Photo courtesy of pokernews)Ben Yu denies Shaun Deep his third WSOP gold bracelet in event #34 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship in the heads-up-play.
Having amassed over $2 million in total live earnings, Yu adds a second WSOP gold bracelet to his belt after besting a field of 80 players at the $10,000 limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship, which ended with a star-studded final table.
Two-time bracelet winner Shaun Deep led the way at the start of the final day. The final six had 9 bracelets and $37.7 million in combined live earnings between them. Along side Yu were four-time bracelet winner Mike Matusow, World Poker Tour Mandalay Bay Poker Open champion Shawn Buchanan, WPT and EPT main event winner Michael Watson and two-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman.
Mike Matusow said at the beginning of Sunday that he was looking to “bring the pain” at the final table, but ended up eliminated by Yu as the 6th best man after a couple of mistimed bluffs. He walked away with #35,532. Following Matsusow was Buchanan whose nine-low fell to Deeb’s eight-perfect, netting him a total of $48,854. Fellow Canadian Watson was next in line as his pat-ten got knocked out by Deeb’s seven, leaving him $68,601 better off than when he entered the event. The last to leave before the heads-up was two-time 2-7 Lowball bracelet winner Schulman who survived as long as possible despite being shortstacked, but was denied a chance at his 3rd bracelet by Yu’s eight-perfect. He left the tournament with $98,337.
After fighting it out for the chips lead over and over, Yu went into the heads-up with the advantage, and maintained it throughout the hour-long match, dominating Deep with a one-sided heads-up affair. He takes home $232,738 for his efforts along with his second WSOP gold bracelet. Deep finished the day with $143,842.
In what was arguably one of the most challenging final tables we’ve seen so far at the 2017 World Series of Poker, Yu shared with WSOP reporters what he thought about the event.
“It was actually a very tough final table. I think the media often overblows it and says that every final table is hard. Even a lot of the name players, the ones you’ve seen have some success aren’t always that great. But this final table and this field was actually really tough.”
He goes on to talk about his tough competitors at the final table. “You have Nick Schulman, who is one of the end bosses of Bobby’s Room – very, very good, winning at everything he plays, good at everything. You’ve got Shaun Deep who is one of the few players who can get away with playing so loose because he’s so good post-flop. I don’t have many people in poker who I look up to, but Mike Watson is definitely one of them.”
Even being faced against two two-times bracelet winners at three-handed did not phase Yu.
“I knew that I was up against tough competition because of who they were and watching them play the last two days. Against these two I was either break-even or slightly losing. It wasn’t the bracelets that intimidated me, it was knowing how they play and knowing how great they are at poker!”
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