Frankenberger celebrates with the Royal Flush Girls

Andy Frankenberger’s goal in life was to have no goals. Then he won a World Poker Tour title. The New York derivatives trader is the latest player to claim a WPT victory, defeating Kyle Wilson heads-up for the Legends of Poker Main Event title late Wednesday night at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California. Frankenberger earned $750,000 as well as a seat in the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship for his efforts while Wilson collected $370,000 for second palce.

Frankenberger held the chip lead going into the six-handed final table, but fellow big stacks Wilson and Tom Lee were hot on his heels. After smaller stacks Franco Brunetti and Jared Jaffee busted in sixth and fifth places respectively, that left the three big stacks and online poker pro Tom “titantom32” Braband to fight it out for the title.

Braband was the short stack during four-handed play. He doubled through Brunetti early in the day to stay alive and doubled again after that. Wilson would not let Braband double a third time though. He eliminated Braband when his pocket nines held up against Braband’s K-J.

That left only the big stacks, who traded around chips for several hours with little movement, save for Wilson and Lee trading the chip lead back and forth while Frankenberger grinded out the short stack. Then Frankenberger went on a tear, doubling through Wilson holding A-9 to Wilson’s A-7. That hand sparked a series of pots that saw Frankenberger go from short stack to chip contender while it was Wilson who was running low on chips.

Lee battled to regain the chip lead, but ended up relinquishing the vast majority of his stack to Frankenberger when they got it all-in on a Q75 board with Frankenberger holding J5 for a flush draw to Lee’s Q5 for top and bottom pair. Frankenberger hit his flush on the turn and when the board failed to pair on the river, Lee was left with just four big blinds and busted out the very next hand.

That left the two players who clashed the most over the final two days of play going heads-up for the belt. Wilson was at a more than 3-1 chip disadvantage and it took only six hands before he found a spot to get his chips in the middle. Once again, he found his smaller ace (A-3) up against Frankenberger’s A-9. Once again the bigger ace prevailed and Frankenberger claimed the victory in only his second WPT event.

The past couple of days have been a roller coaster for Frankenberger, who had stretches of play where he seemed virtually unstoppable and stretches of play where he laid low at the table. Frankenberger offered some insight into his style following his big win:

“I ended up playing a lot of very big pots. When I had edge I took advantage of it and I wasn’t afraid to get my chips in when I felt I had a little edge,” he explained. “I wonder if there was ever a WPT final table where the winner won as few hands as I did.”

As for that whole “no goals” thing….well, $750,000 might change Frankenberger’s thoughts on the matter.

“Not having goals for the near future was last year,” he says with a chuckle. “I left Wall Street a year and a half ago. I’m considering various things, but I will definitely be playing a lot of poker in the very near future.”

Here are the complete final table results from the Legends of Poker Main Event:

1st: Andy Frankenberger – $750,000
2nd: Kyle Wilson – $370,000
3rd: Tom Lee – $174,772
4th: Tom Braband – $109,000
5th: Jared Jaffee – $86,000
6th: Franco Brunetti – $63,000

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. WPT: Kyle Wilson Makes Second Career Legends Final Table Wilson is looking to improve upon his '08 finish at...
2. WPT: Flowers and Frankenberger Go For Two at Festa Flowers is the youngest winner in WPT history Day 5...
3. WPT: Obrestad, Frankenberger Lead Festa Final 13 Will Obrestad make her first WPT final table this week?...
4. WPT: Jonathan Little Eyes Third WPT Title Little won WPT Player of the Year in Season VI...
5. Acclaim for Des Wilson?s Book on British Professional Poker As Macmillan prepare for an unprecedented demand for a book...