Vitaly Lunkin wins the 40th annual NL Hold’Em tournament!

• Author: Qid
• Filed under: High Stakes News, High Stakes Results, Justin Bonomo, Poker, Ted Forrest, WSOP, ZeeJustin
• Date: Jun 1,2009

A Full Tilt Pro Vitaly Lunkin conquered the highly coveted 40th annual NL Hold’Em tournament bracelet after beating the final table stacked with poker super stars, including former world Champion Greg Raymer and a five-time bracelet winner Ted Forrest.

Lunkin won his second bracelet.

It didn’t take long until first player was out of the tournament. In the 19th hand of the tournament Ted Forrest was eliminated in 9th Place when he called a raise from Lunkin with J-T against a pair of threes. Forrest missed all the outs and was first to go out.

Just six hand later Noah Schwartz was eliminated in 8th Place. Schwartz moved all-in from early position with Ace-King, but unluckily for Schwartz Greg Raymer woke up with a pair of aces from the late position and re-raised all-in. Schwartz was in really bad shape and eventually busted out when the board ran 8-J-7-5-2.

Next player was eliminated in 47th hand of the tournament. Lex Veldhuis re-raised all-in from the small blind with A-7 suited after a raise from Raymer, but “The Fossilman” was not going to fold his kings. The deck didn’t give any help for Veldhuis and he was out in 7th place.

At this point of the tournament Raymer had the lead and was looking strong after busting out two players already. Next playet to go out was Alec Torelli. He open-shoved from the cut-off with A-2, but Isaac Haxton made the call with A-T and had Torelli dominated. Torelli couldn’t find any help and was eliminated in 6th place.

Justin Bonomo was next to go after a tricky play by Haxton. Bonomo opened 250k preflop with a pair of jacks and Haxton and Raymer called from the small and big blinds. The flop was T-9-3 with a flush draw and Haxton opened for 300,000 chips, Raymer folds and Bonomo moves all in for 2,775,000. Haxton makes the call and reveals his hand, a pair of aces! The deck gives no help for “ZeeJustin” and Haxton jumps to chip lead.

Shortstacked Dani “Ansky” Stern was eliminated in 4th place after he moved in with Q-T against a big slick of Haxton. Soon after that Haxton and Raymer played a huge hand worth of 16 million chips. Both players was holding a pocket pair, Haxton leading with his nines against a pair of fives. No help for who gifts the shiny fossil he had been using as a card capper to Haxton.

Haxton and Lunkin battled over 3 hours before Lunkin emerged victorious. In the final hand Lunkin raised preflop with a pair of aces and got a call from Haxton. The flop, Q-T-8 all diamonds, was quite good for Haxton who held 8-3 offsuit with the three of diamonds and all the money went into the pot. The turn and the river were both blanks though and Lunkin was crowned the champion of the 40th annual NL Hold’Em tournament!

Here is the final payout of the final table:

1. Vitaly Lunkin $1,891,012
2. Isaac Haxton $1,168,566
3. Greg Raymer $774,927
4. Dani Stern $548,315
5. Justin Bonomo $413,166
6. Alec Torelli $329,730
7. Lex Veldhuis $277,940
8. Noah Schwartz $246,834
9. Ted Forrest $230,317

Source: wsop