Final Table Comebacks

BIG:W:ith the final table of the WSOP Main Event about to start, it’s not the chip leaders who attract my attention, but rather the inexperienced Spaniard Fernando Pons who is sitting on 12 big blinds and may last only a few hands until he is forced to shove and pray for his tournament life!

Play will start back at 75,000 ante /250,000/500,000 blinds, so his chipstack of 6,150,000 doesn’t leave any room for manoeuvre – it’s basically a shove/fold policy as soon as the lights, camera action hits the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Vegas.

However, although the bookmakers rightly have him as a 40/1 outsider to lift the bracelet and the $8 million first prize – it doesn’t mean it can’t happen! A quick double-up or two puts him right back in the pack, and who knows what might happen then for the surprise story of the tournament so far?

Anyway, here are two of the best final table comebacks in Main Event history – can Pons somehow ride his luck and join them?

2009

Back in 2009, Joe Cada was one of the least-experienced players to make the final nine, facing off against the likes of Phil Ivey as well as Jeff Shulman and a couple of European stars who had been on a heater that summer.

Although his situation wasn’t as dire as that of Pons’ 12 BB at the start of play, Cada was expected to quickly drop from his 5th spot in chips and exit early – the pressure and standard of the table way beyond anything he had ever faced before.

But, ‘cometh the hour cometh the man’ is a well-known saying for good reason! The ‘Cada’ hour was actually several hours long– but saw him sitting dead last after two players had exited, and now with just a few rounds of chips left in front of him when the unimaginable run started. A double-up, then another quickly followed – and his momentum took him all the way to heads-up against Darvin Moon – another ‘tale of the unexpected’.

With the favorites out of the way – Ivey in a disappointing 7th – it was Cada and Moon who duelled until 3am. To-and-fro went the chip lead until finally Cada KO’ed his rival with a classic race between an underpair and two overcards, the huge crowd rising to their feet to see above the stacks of dollar bills piled high upon the felt.

Cada: 9♦ 9♣

Moon: J♦ Q♦

In a strange co-incidence, Cada couldn’t watch the cards fall – burying his head in the shoulder of this year’s final table chip-leader Cliff Josephy!

The flop came

8♣ 2♣ 7♠

and the stoic arms-crossed pose of the grizzled Moon contrasted with the youthful exuberance of Cada with his rail. When the turn and river bricked for the elder man…

K♥ 7♣

Cada had risen from the ashes and scooped the holy grail of poker! An unbelievable feat and pure poker drama!

♠ ♦ ♣ ♥

2005

When Aussie Joe Hachem reached the final table 11 years ago, he was not only short-stacked but also inexperienced - and facing a persistent attack whenever he tried to make a move as Aaron Kanter raised and re-raised behind him.

However, Hachem took fate into his own hands by shoving with Q♦ 7♦ pre-flop against yet another raise – and when Kanter called and tabled 9d 9s it was in the lap of the poker gods. Hachem hit his queen on the flop

Q♥ 2♥ 8♣

and when the board ran out

A♥ 2♣

The Australian finally had a stack to play ‘proper poker’ with, and he did exactly that – reaching a heads-up battle with the likeable Steve Dannenman. The final hand saw one of the luckiest flops in the history of Main Event final tables.

Hachem’s

7♣ 3♠

had hit the

4♦ 5♦ 6♥

flop perfectly, and Dannenman’s luck ran out on the turn – the A♠ pairing his A♦ 3♣ and sealing his fate with the 4♣ river when only a 7 could save him.

And so Joseph Hachem had come from nowhere to take down the crown and the $7.5 million prize, returning to a hero’s welcome in his native Australia and legendary status in poker’s annals.

So, Fernando Pons will be seeking inspiration from these amazing turn-arounds and who knows – come the end of play he may yet hold aloft the championship bracelet and the $8 million in cold hard cash!