Despite Soheb Porbandarwala heading into the final table of the $10,400 buy-in WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas with a two-to-one chip lead over his nearest competitor, Schuyler Thornton came out of nowhere to eliminate all five of his competitors and claim the $2,258,856 top prize. Thornton topped the 1,865-entry field, more than doubling his career live tournament earnings in the process.
“I ran hotter than anyone could ever dream of running,” Thornton told PokerOrg following his incredible victory. “I had it every single time. And he made good falls a couple of times. Then I just dwindled him down. I think I made one bluff.”
Gone in a flash
Though there were a ton of chips on the table, the WPT World Championship final table would last less than four hours, stunning everybody associated with the tournament after they had geared up for an extremely long day of play. It only took 19 hands for the first elimination to be scored, with Maxx Coleman busting for $540,000.
With the blinds at 250,000/500,000, Thornton opened to 1,000,000 from the cutoff off his 42,550,000-chip stack with ace-queen offsuit. Coleman jammed his ace-ten offsuit from the big blind for 12,750,000, and Thornton quickly called. The board ran out a very clean K-2-9-A-A to send Coleman to the rail, while Thornton moved up to over 56,000,000, inching closer to Soheb’s massive 83,000,000-chip stack.
Soheb would continue applying pressure over the next 14 hands to accumulate nearly 100,000,000 and held over half of the chips in play. Disaster would strike for perennial Wynn Daily champion Jeremy Becker. In a blind-on-blind confrontation with Thornton, Becker limp-jammed 11,600,000 from the small blind with ace-deuce offsuit. Unfortunately, Thornton had the goods once again, holding ace-ten of hearts.
Becker picked up a lot of life on the A-K-5 monotone clubs flop, gaining a flush draw, a 41% chance to win, and a 19% chance to chop. The 8 of diamonds turn was a killer, reducing Becker’s chance of winning to 27% and the chop odds to just 12%. The river was the queen of hearts, which gave Thornton another knockout and sent Becker home in fifth place for a career-high $710,000. This came a few days after Becker finished 19th out of nearly 10,000 entries in the $1,100 WPT Prime for $53,000.
Then there were four
Thornton and Soheb had over 300 big blinds between them, while competitors Chad Lipton and Jeremy Brown had 19 and 33 big blinds, respectively. All signs pointed to a Thornton and Soheb heads-up battle, but few would have expected how quickly the field was reduced to three.
Just a couple of hands into four-handed play, Lipton was gone out of nowhere after trying to force the action against Thornton. Thornton opened with ace-queen offsuit from the cutoff and Lipton defended jack-ten offsuit from the big blind.
The flop came Q-J-4 with two hearts, giving Thornton top pair and the nut backdoor flush draw against Lipton’s second pair. Thornton put out a very small continuation bet, and Lipton called. On the deuce of spades turn, Thornton put out 2,550,000, a little under half pot. Lipton had 7,150,000 behind and went all in. Thornton snap-called and won after the nine of clubs hit the river. Lipton left the final table after collecting $940,000 for his efforts.
Brown earns huge double but collapses
After the blinds went up to 300,000/600,000, Brown picked up queen-nine of clubs with roughly 30 big blinds behind. Brown opened to 1,200,000, and Soheb found ace-jack of diamonds in the big blind. After Soheb, the massive chip leader, three-bet to 3,900,000, Brown stunned everyone by jamming. Soheb snap-called and found himself with a 61% chance to win the 37,900,000-chip pot and get heads-up with Thornton.
However, the board ran out 8-K-Q-J-3, and Brown suddenly found himself as a major force. Unfortunately for Brown, he would only hang around for another hour before he found himself out of the tournament.
Off a 38,000,000-chip stack, Brown opened jack-eight offsuit from the small blind for 2,100,000. Thornton called from the big blind with pocket fours.
The flop came 8-4-3 with two hearts, giving Brown a strong top pair while Thornton flopped middle set. Brown bet 2,000,000, and Thornton called. The turn brought an offsuit five, and Brown sized up to 7,500,000. Thornton called once again, and suddenly there was 23,800,000 in the pot.
The river was a board-pairing three, which improved Thornton to a full house. Brown jammed his top pair for 26,000,000, and Thornton couldn’t put the chips in fast enough. Brown exited for $1,250,000, and Thornton became a massive chip leader heading into heads-up play.
A heads-up sweep
Thornton and Soheb were due for an extremely long heads-up battle, with Thornton coming into heads-up play with a 187-124 big blind lead. Some people doubted whether or not the tournament could be completed that same day. However, after dinner break and a heads-up deal was made, Thornton would make quick work of Soheb.
Despite over 300 big blinds being on the table, heads-up play lasted just 13 hands, with Thornton winning the final 12 hands. The biggest bite was taken in just the third hand.
Thornton was dealt pocket aces and raised to 1,400,000. Soheb defended 4-3 offsuit from the big blind. The flop came 9-4-3 rainbow, and Thornton continued for 1,000,000. Soheb raised to 3,400,000 with his two pair, and Thornton called.
Thornton drilled an ace on the turn to give him top set and had Soheb drawing dead. Soheb bet 4,500,000, and Thornton raised to 16,000,000. Soheb understandably called, despite having absolutely no way to win the hand.
The river was the jack of spades, which put a potential backdoor flush on the board. With 42,200,000 in the middle, Thornton put out a bet of 22,000,000. Soheb was visibly befuddled and couldn’t make sense of what was happening. After tanking for about a minute, he made the call and was shown the bad news. All of a sudden, Thornton had a massive 155,700,000 to 30,500,000 chip lead.
After that, Thornton ran like a god, flopping a straight with four-deuce against Soheb’s pocket sevens, outflopping Soheb with queen-jack against his pocket tens. He wouldn’t lose a single hand for the rest of the tournament.
Soheb would be whittled down to a little over 20 big blinds before it all came to a sudden close. Thornton limped ace-king offsuit from the small blind, and Soheb jammed from the big blind with ace-six of hearts. Thornton snap-called and was in a prime position to win.
The flop was a very sweaty K-5-4 with two hearts, giving Thornton top pair against Soheb’s flush draw and backdoor straight draw. Despite having a 38% chance to double up back into the contest, Soheb bricked out, seeing a ten of spades and a ten of diamonds end his dream. Still, Soheb brought home a healthy $1,969,344, a new high score for the long-time pro. However, after dominating for the past few days, he would have been massively disappointed not to have won the WPT World Championship.
