Kovalchuk is the second Ukrainian to win a bracelet in 2011

Oleksii Kovalchuk almost didn’t make the final table of the $2,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event at all.  He was one out away from the dubious honor of seventh place, but thanks to one of the more memorable bad beats of this WSOP, he not only staved off elimination, he won the whole thing.  Kovalchuk vaulted to the chip lead with his one-outer and plowed through the competition to win the title, not to mention $689,739.

Kovalchuk knows he got very lucky to win that pot and he was ecstatic that his “one time” came at just the right time.

“It is the first time in my life [I hit a one outer].  It was a one chance in a lifetime thing,” Kovalchuk said with a laugh following his win.

Anthony Ruberto came to the unofficial final table of seven high in the counts, but thanks to Kovalchuk’s one-outer, he was the short stack when official final table play began. Ruberto tried to rally, doubling through Anton Ionel once, but he would not have the same luck the second time around. The two players clashed again, getting it all-in on a flop of 982. Ruberto held the overpair with KK, but Anton flopped the best of it with 22 for a set. Ruberto didn’t improve and exited in sixth. Mazin Khoury was the other short stack at the start of the final table and it wasn’t long before he clashed with Ionel in a big pot, running AQ into Ionel’s pocket aces to go out in fifth place.

That left Dan O’Brien as the short stack at the table. O’Brien came into the final six with one of the bigger stacks, but dropping a big pot to Chris Moorman early in the final table action left him as the short stack. Kovalchuk put pressure on O’Brien by shoving all-in on a K55 flop. O’Brien called with KQ for kings up, while Kovalchuk held 68 for a diamond flush draw. He hit that flush draw with the 3 on the turn, and when O’Brien failed to fill up on the river, O’Brien exited in fourth place.

Kovalchuk took his big chip lead into three-handed play, while Ionel was holding strong and Moorman was looking to gain some ground. It looked as though Moorman would do just that when he got it all-in preflop against Kovalchuk holding KJ to Ionel’s K9. The QT5 flop gave both players straight draws, and the 7 on the turn left Moorman one card away from a double up. However, the river brought the J, completing Kovalchuk’s gutshot and sending Moorman home in third place.

The big pot gave Kovalchuk an even bigger chip advantage going into heads-up play against Ionel, but Ionel won a big flip early in heads-up to bring the match closer to even.  Kovalchuk grinder Ionel back down to the short stack though and the match came to conclusion when Ionel shoved with A6 and Kovalchuk called with 77.

The 975 flop gave Kovalchuk a set and left Ionel drawing to a gutterball.  The T changed nothing on the turn and the river T gave Kovalchuk the winning full house to claim his first WSOP tournament victory.

For Kovalchuk, the money is nice, but the bracelet is all he wanted.

“I don’t think about [the money].  I played the game to win the bracelet.  The money is for second place.”

Here are the final table results from the $2,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Event:

1st: Oleksii Kovalchuk- $689,739
2nd: Anton Ionel – $428,140
3rd: Chris Moorman – $271,800
4th: Dan O’Brien – $179,162
5th: Mazin Khoury – $121,416
6th: Anthony Ruberto – $84,549

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