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Somerville completes the "wheel" with first WSOP win15 June 2011Coming into the World Series of Poker, Jason Somerville had a resume that most players would swap for in a heartbeat. More than one million in WSOP winnings; 11 WSOP cashes; a fifth-place finish in the 2009 Triple-Chance No-Limit event; a fourth-place finish in last year’s $25,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit event; a third-place finish (semi-finalist) in last year’s $10,000 buy-in Heads-Up Championship' a second-place finish in a $1,500 No-Limit event in 2009. Detecting a pattern, here? There was just one thing missing. And on June 14, 2011 Somerville filled the void with half-a-million dollars in profit and his first WSOP gold bracelet. Somerville destroyed a near-record field in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship, officially classified as Event #20. He overcame a monster-sized field of 3,175 players en route to a remarkably fulfilling victory and a $493,091 haul. It’s hard to decide what is more astounding – Somerville’s tournament record playing amongst huge fields or the fact he now has a string of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place finishes. Or maybe it’s the fact he’s only 24-years-old. Talk about a bright future. Somerville is a professional poker player from Stony Brook, N.Y., on Long Island. Somerville has taken and perfected the “small ball” strategic concept. The gospel of small ball poker was first spread by proverbial high priest Daniel Negreanu, who was present at tableside for Somerville’s victory celebration. If Negreanu is the king of small ball, then Somerville is the concept’s most loyal prince. “When I met him, he mocked small-ball so much," said Negreanu. "Then, he finally became a believer. And then, he was like – ‘I love it. It’s so easy. It makes the game so easy.’ He small-balled the hell out of this final table. I am so for happy for him." The basic idea behind small ball poker is keeping pots small in an effort not to risk too many chips, which increases the peril of elimination. Small ball poker places consistent pressure on opponents in post-flop situations. In short, the better poker player usually wins small ball confrontations, since far more table decisions are required, rather than the standard apocalyptical all-in pre-flop shove-fests which now are now so common in many No-Limit tournaments. Yet oddly enough, the final hand of the tournament had nothing to do with patience, nor persistence. With a packed gallery yelling, screaming, taunting, and leering towards the final two of what had once been an expansive sea of hopeful dreamers, Somerville came to a final showdown against Yashar Darian. One final formidable opponent was all that stood between Somerville and poker destiny. Somerville burrowed in for a tough, long fight. Both players had plenty of chips. In fact, Somerville had just a slight chip lead. With fresh memories of four-hour heads-up matches and early-morning marathons, everyone in the crowd – most of all, Somerville – expected this final battle to be long and tough. The very first hand of heads-up play was dealt. There are dreams, there are fantasies, and then there are moments of cerebral ecstasy which invoke fears of hallucination. What am I seeing? Can this be real? I must be dreaming! Somerville looked down and saw two aces. Pocket rockets. Poor Darian never saw the roaring freight train coming that was about to steamroll his WSOP aspirations. It almost wasn't fair, like tossing a bunny rabbit into a cage with a pit bull. By the time Darian had put in his five-bet all-in pre-flop, Somerville almost beat his rival into the pot with his own massive stack, by bolding announcing “call” while rising from his seat in anticipation of victory. The cards fell. Aces held up. The final pot was pushed. And the tournament was over. And Jason Somerville was its champion. Which now begs the question….what comes after a numerical sequence of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1? Two, as in two gold bracelets – which is most certainly Somerville’s next ambition. While Darian's timing wasn't the best, he still walked away with a $305,009 consolation prize. Travis Atkins of Placerville, Calif., was third for $215,855, Richard Fridvalszki of Taszbereny, Hungary was fourth for $156,248, and Alexander Martin of London was fifth for $114,414. Spaniard Gian Oliveri was sixth, Diana Allen of Las Vegas was seventh, Shane Rose of Los Angeles was eighth, and James Schaaf of Culver City, Calif., was ninth. Tournament summary provided by Nolan Dalla, WSOP Media Director, reprinted by permission. |