What does it take to steal some of the poker world’s attention away from the World Series of Poker’s Main Event?  Put simply Phil Ivey at a final table battling for his second WPT title.  Sure the concept was the same afterall it was just another group of guys who had sat down to play pokerbut the stakes were quite different. First place was one tenth the win of the World Series Main Event in cash value and no telling how much less in prestige.  With a pay out of 875k to first, Phil Ivey would have made less than all of the November Nine even if he had won the event, and whoever wins the almost $9 million in November certainly won’t rue not be able to play the Bellagio Cup WPT event because of his prior engagement.

None of that mattered to the six men at the final table in the Bellagio though it was all about Holdem poker.  Five of them were thinking what do I need to do to beat Phil Ivey and Phil Ivey was wondering if his superior talent would win out.   When they got to three handed Ivey was able to extend his lead over Daniel Negreanu in the all time tournament poker money list by more than $360k and padding his lead to just short of 1 million (800k).   That is a pretty healthy and substantial number when you consider Ivey has only won a little over 13.5 million in his lifetime.  That’s 17% of his total and an even bigger piece of Negreanu’s lifetime winnings.

Moritz Kranich, incidentally was the winner and while the man name Moritz has the look of a bohemian it was no easy rhapsody for the player.  Facing Phil Ivey would never be described that way.  Kranich may have had his eyes exclusively on first place and the money that went with it, but what we can all be sure of he was not under-estimating Phil Ivey. 

The Bellagio Cup VI would have had a dream final two matchup if Justin “BoostedJ” Smith a recent up and comer, but more ably described as a player who has arrived, vs. Phil Ivey.  The less known Kranich would throw a wrench in the works of that dream.  Kranich has won before but not on American soil.  Moritz won the EPT Deauville main event in 2009.  That win was good for a bankroll boosting 1.13 million dollars (American).   Justin Smith meanwhile felt like he had unfinished business in the Bellagio.

Was that because he left money on the table in the cash games?  Owed a room service bill?  No, to both.  Smith in this same event last year (that would be the WPT Bellagio Cup III for those keeping track at home) finished third and just missed out on winning his first and only WPT title.  The two of them with very different chips on their shoulders were able to go head to head after they dispatched of Phil Ivey.

Kranich drove the blade into Ivey and Smith finished him off.  The big pot that crippled Ivey’s stack came in three handed play.  Between Kranich and Ivey sat a board with two Aces, two clubs, two diamonds, a Jack, a four and a three.  Also, the pot was a heavy 2.2 million.  With just the river to go Ivey pushed out a stack of 700k.  Kranich went into deep contemplation.  After a spell, Moritz called.  What a call it was.

Ivey revealed two pair Aces and Jacks with a nine kicker.  Kranich did him one better with two pair Aces and Jacks but a queen kicker.  Ivey’s stack was mostly gone and it didn’t take long for Justin Smith to deliver the deathblow.  With Smith and Kranich staring down each other it was almost anticlimatic yet they had to settle who was going to win a little over 500k and who would win a little over 880k.  Kranich came out on top and Smith who was two away from the title last year got one step closer to it this year.