Poker Tournament Results

Legends of Poker / WPT Event Season 8

Prahlad Friedman

Tournament Report

Prahlad Friedman Wins 2009 WPT Legends of Poker Main Event Event #27 of the 2009 Legends of Poker was the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Poker Tour (WPT) main event. A total of 279 players vied for a prize pool of $2,625,500 with a first prize of over a million and a $25k seat into the WPT Championship. Final table play began with 1:10:46 remaining at level 20 with blinds at 8-16k with a 2k ante. Todd Terry arrived as the chip leader holding 1,400,000 of the 8,370,000 chips in play. The first step to earning the million dollar first prize was to make it to the remaining 6 players and play the next day in front of the television cameras. No one wanted to play this far and finish on the 'TV bubble' which explains the relatively tight play early on. It was not until hand #34 when Todd Terry raised under the gun to 50k. Steven Begleiter calls and Sergei Veytser goes all in. Terry goes all in and Begleiter folds. Veytser has A-Q while Terry has Ac-K. The board came 5-7-K-9-10 all clubs giving Terry an Ace-high flush sending Veytser out in 10th place for $32,700. On hand #55 Todd Terry raised from the button to 50k. Steven Begleiter goes all in with K-3. Terry called with A-Q and after the board came 4-8-10-9-5 Terry makes a consecutive knockout sending Begleiter, one of this year's November Nine, out in 9th place for $39,240. With blinds at 12-24k with a 3k ante, Mark Marafioti, who was short stacked after losing most of his stack to Vigen Manukyan the hand prior, had his remaining 78k in with J-10. Todd Terry called with Q-J. The flop came A-K-2 giving both players a Broadway straight draw. The turn came a 7 and river a 5 as Terry’s Queen high was enough to send Marafioti out in 8th place for $52,320. Hand #96 saw Vigen Manukyan raise to 54k. Prahlad Friedman raised to 200k and Manukyan went all in with pocket deuces. Friedman called with pocket Queens. The board came 3-K-3-8-10 as Manukyan is eliminated in 7th place for $64,400. The remaining six players came back the next day for the WPT television taping of the final table. Chip counts at this point: Kevin Schaffel 2.234M, Todd Terry 2.219M, Prahlad Friedman 1.476M, Mike Krescanko 1,209M, Sam Stein 743k, Toto Leonidas 580k. Blinds were at 12-24k with a 3k ante. There were made for television fireworks on the first hand has Mike Krescanko raised on the button to 58k. Sam Stein reraised to 206k from the big blind and Krescanko called. The flop came Q-8d-5d and Stein goes all in with Ad-K and Krescanko called with Q-10. The turn brought a 7d giving Stein a flush draw. Now Stein needed any Ace, King or diamond to stay alive. The river brought a Jd giving Stein the flush and the double up leaving Krescanko short stacked. A few hands later Prahlad Friedman raised from the small blind to 65k and Mike Krescanko went all in with A-Q. Friedman called with pocket Kings. The board came K-9-2 giving Friedman a set of Kings. The turn brought a Q and the river an 8 as Krescanko was the first player eliminated finishing in 6th earning $89,220. It was quite a while before we had another elimination. With blinds at 30-60k with a 10k ante Kevin Schaffel raised to 150k. Sam Stein moved all in from the big blind for 600k more with K-Q. Schaffel made the call with pocket 7’s. The flop came 7-3-8 giving Schaffel a set of 7’s which left Stein drawing dead. The meaningless turn deuce and river deuce were dealt as Stein finished in 5th place for $116,225. Toto Leonidas had been nursing the short stack during the whole final table. After doubling through Kevin Schaffel a couple times Leonidas found himself with a decent stack. Prahlad Friedman raised to 200k from the cutoff and Leonidas called. The flop came K-6c-2c and Friedman bet 350k. Toto went all in with Ac-9c and Friedman called with A-K. Friedman held the lead with a pair of Kings but needed to fade Leonidas’ club flush draw. The turn brought the Js and the river came a 2s as Leonidas’ hand failed to improve sending him out in 4th place earning $144,260. With blinds at 40-80k and a 15k ante Prahlad Friedman raised to 200k from the small blind. Todd Terry goes all in with pocket 4’s from the big blind. Friedman called with Ac-Qc. The flop came Q-J-6 giving Friedman the lead with a pair of Queens. The turn was a King as Terry needed a 4 to stay alive. The river was another King and Friedman’s Kings and Queens sent Terry out in 3rd place for $231,300. We were now heads up between Kevin Schaffel and Prahlad Friedman. Friedman had just over a 3 to 1 chiplead with 6,605m in chips against Schaffel’s 1.85m Heads up play began with blinds at 50-100k with a 20k ante. Just a few hands into heads up play both players see a flop of Ac-Qc-3d. Friedman bet 100k and Schaffel went all in for 1.7m Friedman took some time to think about it before making the call with Jc-4c. Schaffel held Q-3 for two pair and needed to fade Friedman’s flush draw to double up. The turn was an 8s and the river came a 2d as Schaffel doubled up to pull close to even in chips with Friedman. The final hand of the tournament came when Schaffel raised to 300k and Friedman reraised to 800k. Schaffel then went all in with K-J. Friedman gave it some thought and called with A-Q. The flop came 10-3-2 as Friedman’s Ace high was still in the lead. The turn came a 4 and now Schaffel needed a King or a Jack to stave elimination. The river was a 9 and Friedman wins the pot as Kevin Schaffel, one of this year’s WSOP November Nine, out in 2nd place for $471,670. Prahlad Friedman is the winner of the WPT Legends of Poker earning $1,009,000 and a $25k WPT Championship seat. -- O.J. Alcaraz BIOGRAPHY Prahlad Friedman has been playing poker professionally for 10 years. He has a WSOP bracelet from a 2003 Pot Limit Hold’em event to now go with his new WPT championship. His favorite games are No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. He lists his greatest poker accomplishment as not going broke for years.