Online Poker > News Archive
Poker News
November 20th 2006
23-year-old wins $1.7 million at Foxwood’s World Poker Finals
A 23-year-old high-stakes cash game pro recently won the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, pocketing $1.7 million under the gaze of the World Poker Tour cameras.
Nenad Medic hails from Niagara Falls in Ontario, and took a laid back approach to the biggest final table of his career, sitting quietly and allowing his opponents to do most of the work.
The heaviest burden fell on 58-year-old amateur E.G. Harvin, who eliminated four of his five opponents at the final table, but couldn’t land the victory blow by knocking out Medic.
Harvin was the Cinderella story, or the Moneymaker story as such poker fairy tales should now be called. He won his entry into the tournament via a $150 online satellite and ended up leading the massive 609 player tournament from almost start to finish.
Besides the Harvin almost-Cinderella story there were other elements of this WPT final table to excite the crowd, not least the presence of two female professionals in the final six. Mimi Tran and Kathy Liebert are two of the best-known female players in the game, and they made history by making the final table together, the first time that a WPT final table has featured two female players.
For Liebert it was an experience she would rather forget. She was not the first to hit the rail, but was still gone inside 20 minutes, eliminated after losing two massive pots early on, the second of which was brutal. Liebert caught a flush on the turn only to run headfirst into “Marvellous” Harvin, who held the nut flush.
Mimi Tran was not put off by her fellow lady’s misfortunes, and proved by far the most aggressive player at the table, raising close to 80 percent of pots pre-flop. This allowed her to outlast three of her opponents, but in Harvin and Medic she encountered one stubborn and one patient opponent. That is not a good combination for untamed aggression.
Once play became three-handed it was clear Tran’s inability to switch gears would cost her, and after raising every pot preflop she was twice caught out with second pair, losing big pots to Harvin. The final blow was dealt when Harvin paired his ace on the turn and induced Tran to put all her chips in the middle with her Q-J (which was ahead on the flop).
Tran’s elimination left Harvin with a small chip lead over Medic, but the patient Medic turned the tables when in the space of three hands he twice made two pair on the turn, winning a $2.2 million pot followed by a $1.5 million pot. On the 14th hand of heads-up play the battle was won. After a flop of 5-5-3 Harvin bet $500k in chips and was quickly called by Medic. The turn card was a nine and again Harvin bet out, this time for $1 million. Again Medic called. The river was another nine, and this time Harvin went all-in. Medic thought for over a minute, and finally called with a 5 for a full house. The title was his.
Nenad Medic - $1,717,194
EG Harvin - $904,389
Thithi "Mimi" Tran - $472,228
Michael Omelchuk - $343,439
Kathy Liebert - $257,579
Michael Perry - $200,340
Submitted: 20/11/2006 16:00:58
Page 1 of 1
Monthly Archive