Robert Peacock Wins First Gold in Event #34: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK ($644,224)
The first-ever World Series of Poker double stack event concluded on Thursday with local high-stakes poker pro Robert Peacock claiming his first gold bracelet, along with a bankroll boost of $644,244.
Peacock marched to victory armed with a rowdy rail, complete with signs and champagne bottles. His supporters, comprised mostly of other local cash game pros including Danielle Anderson, Mike Del Vecchio and Jesse Sylvia, was so dedicated in fact, that they all returned for today's unscheduled Day 5 noon restart to watch Peacock finish it out, chanting and popping bottles along the way.
“I ran so good to get here," Peacock admitted after the win. "I came into Day 2 with 12 big blinds and then just won all my all-ins for my tournament life.”
After busting his first bullet just before the end of Day 1a and getting short but doubling just before the end of 1b, Peacock proceeded to run good on Day 2 and started feeling like this might just be his tournament to win coming into the third day.
Used to high-stakes cash games both in his home state of New York and in Las Vegas for the last six years, Peacock seemed very calm and unaffected by the high-pressure final table situation. He stayed cool and collected throughout the final table, continuing to run good in important spots. Couple that with his boisterous supportive rail, and the win seemed inevitable.
Event #34 Official Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Robert Peacock | United States | $644,224 |
| 2nd | Nicholas Salimbene | United States | $397,908 |
| 3rd | Joshua Turner | United States | $294,760 |
| 4th | Jacky Wong | Hong Kong | $219,952 |
| 5th | Ralph Wong | United States | $165,342 |
| 6th | Daniel Eichhorn | United States | $125,215 |
| 7th | James Ostrowski | United States | $95,538 |
| 8th | Pfizer Jordan | United States | $73,446 |
| 9th | Takao Shizumi | Japan | $56,891 |
Double Stack Overview
Event #34: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold’em drew a massive 5,700 entries that all received 10,000 starting chips rather than the typical 5,000 for typical $1K events. A total of 855 players would finish in the money to get a piece of the $5,130,000 prize pool, with all final tablists guaranteed a minimum of $56,891.
After two starting flights and three full days of play, only 20 remained with Keith Ferrara sitting atop the counts and Peacock third in chips. Some big names to not make the cut on Day 3 included Jake Bazeley (141st place), WSOP bracelet winners Phil Hui (107th place), Anthony Spinella (101st place), Nipun Java (87th place), and Tony Dunst (69th place).
Also busting in the money on the third day were Maria Lampropulos (79th place), Isaac Baron (66th place), Mike Del Vecchio (51st place), and Matt Berkey (24th place).
Only three players would survive the fourth day of play. Falling short of the final table were bracelet winner Andrey Zaichenko in 18th ($27,689), Ramin Hajiyev in 15th ($34,929), Matt Stout in 12th ($44,407) and Ferrera in 11th ($44,407). With the elimination of Tomas Teran Paredes in tenth, the official final table was set.
Final Table Action
The final table got off to a slow start, taking three hours to send out the first casualty which was Takao Shimizu, who busted just before the dinner break. Pfizer Jordan hit the rail in eighth, followed byJames Ostrowski, who ran pocket sixes into the nines of Daniel Eichhorn to knock him down to five big blinds and he was out the next hand.
Down to six, Eichhorn found himself riding a short stack and got in his last 11 bigs with king-eight when it folded to him in the small blind. Unfortunately for him, Ralph Wong woke up with pocket queens in the big blind and snapped him off, sending him out in sixth for a six-figure payday.
After several rounds, Wong dwindled to around ten big blinds and got it in from the small blind with jack-seven, only to run into Joshua Turner’s king-jack in the big blind. Turner found a king on the turn to lock up the hand and Wong had to settle for fifth.
Jacky Wong became the fourth-place finisher after getting in his remaining stack with pocket sevens against Peacock’s ace-six. Peacock flopped a six and rivered an ace though to get them down to three, Peacock holding a sizable lead over Turner and Nicholas Salimbene.
Though Turner was vying for the chip lead, a couple big confrontations with Peacock didn’t go his way, and he became short. Though he found a triple-up with a flopped set of nines to get him out of the danger zone, he was the shortest of the three when play was halted at the end of 10 levels.
Peacock came into the unscheduled fifth day as the overwhelming chip leader with 38 big blinds to Salimbene’s ten bigs and Turner’s eight. Turner got it in on the sixth hand of the day with king-queen, called by Peacock’s pocket threes. He couldn’t find help from the board, though, and the six-time WSOP Circuit ring winner had to settle for third place and his best live cash of $294,760.
Although a very short Salimbene found a double-up heads-up, he was soon at risk again after shoving with king-deuce on the button, called by Peacock with king-queen suited in the big blind. Both made two pair with a pair and a king on the board, but Peacock’s kicker played to end it all.
Peacock ran to his rail and celebrated, with Salimbene also getting some love from the crowd before heading to collect his $397,908 payout for the runner-up finish.
As for Peacock, he’ll be sticking mostly to his high-stakes cash games just like before, armed with some extra ammo. We can, however, expect him to show for the Main Event, hoping to improve on his one min-cash in 2015.
"I'll play a few [tournaments] here and there, but I still prefer cash," said Peacock.
While Event #34 is a wrap, there's plenty more WSOP action underway and still to come. Keep it at PokerNews for more live updates from the Rio through the conclusion of the series.