WSOP: “Hoss_TBF” Boss of $5,000 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em

Brett Abel | July 3, 2009 at 1:10 am

Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko won his first bracelet by taking down the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em (Event 56) and a $1 million first place prize.

Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko is the 2009 World Series of Poker’s latest millionaire and last bracelet winner before going into the Main Event on Friday.

By winning the $5,000 Six-handed No Limit Hold’em (Event 56), “Hoss_TBF” locked up a gold WSOP bracelet and $1,003,163.

“I’m super excited,” he said. “It’s really vindicating for the work I put in.”

Hawrilenko took down the last hand when his opponent Josh Brikis moved all in with A 9 and Hawrilenko made the call with two red jacks. Brikis raised from the button to 300,000 and Hawrilenko made it a smooth million before Brikis moved all in and was called by the 27-year-old with J J. The board came down 8 8 2 3 T for Hawrilenko’s first WSOP bracelet. Brikis won $619,609 as the runner up.

The win, which was just before midnight on Thursday, comes on the eve of the Main Event. Hawrilenko said the timing of the win gives him a lot of confidence and breathing room going into the $10,000 World Championship.

He said he remembered WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack say before the event, it was the 56th of 57.

“That really hit home,” Hawrilenko said.”It’s so much better going into the Main Event (with the win.)”

Hawrilenko eliminated Faraz Jaka to face Brikis heads-up for the title and seven-figure pay day. Faraz, who had been the most active of the three, raised from the button, Brikis passed and Hawrilenko re-raised. Jaka moved all in with Q Q and Hawrilenko called holding A K. Hawilenko took the lead on the A T J flop. Jaka no longer needed a queen to win, but a king to make a straight and double up. The turn was another jack — J — and the river bricked for Jaka bringing the 5. He collected $400,526 for the showing.

Three tables were set up for the remaining 16 players on Thursday in the Amazon Room of the Rio Hotel, but after a few hours, the original 928-player field was down to the final six — Hawrilenko, Brikis, Jaka, Sean Keeton, Matt Waxman, and Jonas Wexler.

Waxman was the first step out of the last survivors when he pushed his small stack all in after an early raise with A T and was called by Brikis in the big blind holding K K. The board ran 3 J 7 8 7 and the two black cowboys of Brikis held. Waxman earned $138,394 for the sixth-place finish.

Less than an hour later, the slow and methodical Wexler was eliminated in fifth. After a button raise, Wexler moved all in from the small blind with K Q but Brikis was there again, this time with A Q and he too moved all in to force out the Jaka on the button. The two hit a queen on the turn when it came down 5 8 4 Q and Wexler would need to catch a king to keep from going to the rail, but the 7 on the end sent him out. He took $189,555.

The next to leave was Keeton, losing a coin flip. He re-raised an early position raise all in and Hawrilenko came over the top of the short stack and Jaka, the original raiser, mucked to leave the two heads up. Keeton showed A Q and Hawrilenko tabled J J. The flop was no help for Keeton, coming down 2 T 4, and the turn and river were also no help to him — T, 3. Finishing in fourth, Keeton won $269,983.

Final table results and payouts