Huge Heater Sees Serget Sergeev Win First WSOPC Ring

Russia’s Sergey Sergeev experienced a heater of a lifetime in the WSOPC Hammond High Roller. Sergeev was one of three players massively trailing Tom Brachowski when play was four-handed. The Russian went on a massive heater that saw him bust all three opponents to claim his first WSOPC ring.

Sergei Sergeev Wins WSOPC Hammond High Roller

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Sergey Sergeev	Russia	$49,518
2	Jorden Helstern	United States	$30,605
3	Sami Shurbaji	United States	$20,526
4	Tom Brachowski	United States	$14,277
5	Mike Moncek	United States	$10,312
6	Pete Maizy	United States	$7,746
7	George Pappas	United States	$6,061
8	Kevin Andriamahefa	United States	$4,949
9	Daniel Sepiol	United States	$4,225

A compact field of 80 players exchanged $2,200 for the chance to become the WSOPC Hammond High Roller champion. Only 24 of those starters punched their tickets for Day 2.

The aforementioned Brachowski finished Day 1 with the chip lead, while Sergeev was down in 10th place.

Those returning players were reduced to the final 12 in quick time, before the end of the 17th level.

David Moses raised to 12,000 at the 2,500/5,000/5,000a level, doing so with ace-king. Michael Hahn three-bet to 100,000 before Moses shoved on him. Hahn called off his last 25,000 chips and turned over pocket queens.

Those queens remained true on the flop, but fell behind to an ace in the turn. The river was a king, which busted Hahn in 13th place and burst the money bubble at the same time.

Sergeev In The Middle of the Pack As Payout Begin

Sergeev was cruising in the middle of the pack when the tournament hit the payouts.

Moses didn’t put the bubble boy’s chips to good use because he fell in 12th place. Todd Sladek followed suit soon after with Frederick Conforti busting in 10th place, setting the final table.

Mike Moncek held 405,000 chips as the title of the final table chip leader. The chasing pack was hot on his heels, however, including Sergeev on 300,000 chips.

The final nine became the final eight when Daniel Sepiol was eliminated. Minutes later, Kevin Andriamahefa’s ace-king lost a coinflip against the jacks of Sami Shurbaji. A flopped full house left Andriamahefa drawing almost dead.

Seventh-place when to George Pappas who got his chips into the middle in fantastic shape. Pappas’ pocket aces were miles ahead of Brachowski’s red nines on a 6d-6c-2h flop. That was until a nine landed on the river to bring Pappas’ world crashing down.

Sergeev was short-stacked, but he continued laddering up the payouts when Pete Maizy crashed out. Brachowski was Maizy’s executioner and now looked unstoppable.

Brachowski continued his one-man wrecking spree with the scalp of Moncek. Again, Brachowski came from behind, his ace-eight beating Moncek’s ace-queen thanks to an eight on the flop.

Huge Chip Lead for Brachowski When Four-Handed

Blinds during Level 21 were 6,000/12,000/12,000a and Brachowski held 1,170,000 chips. Jorden Helstern was his closest rival with 600,000 chips, then Sergeev on 430,000. Shurbaji brought up the rear with 185,000 chips.

The leader extended his lead and him winning looked a forgone conclusion.

Sergeev’s heater began almost immediately after Level 22 kicked into action. He won a trio of pots from Brachowski during the first 20-minutes of the level.

The third was also the largest and resulted in Brachowski busting in fourth-place! Talk about hero to zero!

Sergeev opened to 37,000 with pocket deuces, Brachowski three-bet to 100,000 with ace-seven, and Sergeev called. A flop reading Ah-Qs-2c saw Brachowski lead for 100,000 and Sergeev jam for 718,000. Brachowski called. The set of deuces held, Brachowski busted, and Sergeev claimed the chip lead.

Now armed with the big stack, Sergeev put his foot firmly on the gas. A flopped flush sent Shurbaji home in third-place; Shurbaji only mustered top pair. This gifted Sergeev a 1,985,000 to 415,000 advantage over Helstern.

That huge gap proved too far for Helstern to bridge. The final hand saw Sergeev open to 40,000 and call when Helstern moved all-in for 383,000. Helstern showed ace-king and was ahead of the ace-jack of his Russian opponent. A jack on the flop flipped the hand on its head. Helstern busted despite picking up a straight draw on the turn. What a comeback!

The $49,518 Sergeev won is his largest-ever score. We’ll see him back in action at the tournament tables sooner rather than later, no doubt.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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