The Second Time is the Charm
Sunday, June 28, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When last we left Brandon Cantu he was walking out of the Amazon Room after losing a heads-up battle to Ray Foley for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em bracelet. Brandon had Foley in bad shape twice in that tournament, A-Q to A-7 preflop and with Foley needing a ten on the turn or river to stay alive (he caught one on the turn). Cantu came so close, this close to his second bracelet, and it slipped through his fingers.
Flash forward five days. After entering the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/8 event Brandon spent much of the tournament obliterating the field, racing to a huge chip lead as the final table started this afternoon. PLO8 is a swingy game and “swingy” is also a word that could be used to describe Brandon’s game, as he slipped from the top spot as the final table played down and at one point was the short-stack with five players left. But he survived (the first rule of tournament poker) as the other players were sent to the rail, including Jacqmin Mathieu, who went from chip leader to out in ten short minutes.
That left Brandon heads-up against the extremely tough Lee Watkinson, who has a $10K Omaha bracelet to his name. Watkinson started off with a 2.5 million-900,000 chip lead and before long extended it until he had Cantu outchipped by a 6-1 margin. The situation looked bleak for Brandon, but I remembered that when Matt Graham won his Omaha bracelet (on the same night Brandon came runner-up) he’d trailed even worse at one point. As I said, Omaha (in any variant) can be a swingy game. There was nothing for it but to batten down and get to work.
There were a couple of hands where the chip went in the middle and everyone along the table would stand and crowd close to see if this would be the decisive hand. A few of those pots ended up chopped. But Brandon doubled once and then quartered Watkinson in a huge pot when Brandon’s Ac-10h-8c-2s took the high against Lee’s As-Kc-9h-2c when Brandon flopped an eight and Watkinson couldn’t beat it.
There were a few more hands like that, Watkinson all in and the crowd pulling close, only for the pot to be chopped and everyone to return to their seats. But one last time the two wouldn’t share the pot–after a 6h-4c-Qc flop the rest of the chips went in and Cantu showed Ah-10c-7c-4d to Watkinson’s 2c-3c-5s-7h. For those of you without an abacus Brandon had a pair of fours with a flush draw, while Watkinson had straight draws and the best low draw. Any baby card that didn’t pair the board would’ve won Lee the pot, but the turn brought the 9s and the river the 4h and just like that, Brandon Cantu was the champion. Well, it wasn’t exactly “just like that”–with Omaha (and split-pot games) it can take a second or two to decipher what happened. There was a pause before everyone figured it out and this is what Brandon looked like when he realized the truth:
After falling just short less than a week ago, Brandon Cantu came from behind to win his second World Series of Poker bracelet. And his grandfather was there to watch him do it:
And then it was time for the usual photo ops:
And:
“I can’t believe I just won a PLO8 bracelet…How does that happen?” he tweeted an hour after his victory. Who knows how anything happens, but Brandon Cantu won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/8 event by crushing the field early then fighting back when his back was against the wall. And this time there was no heartbreak at the end.
Related posts:
- Another Series Ends The end of the World Series came early for Brandon...
- Tightening Up They’re down to six-handed in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/8 tournament...
- Quick Update The $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event has gone on a one-hour...
- That’s What We Call a Big Stack It’s a poker axiom that no chip lead is ever...
- The Glass Half-Full The $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event was nearing the bubble and...
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Brandon Cantu, brandon cantu bracelet, brandon cantu wsop, ub, ub bracelets, ultimatebet, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop bracelet
June 28th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Congrats great game , was following till you dropped to third ( 4am bst )great comeback.