Rep Porter’s 17th cash is good for his 2nd WSOP bracelet.

Event 44 at the 2011 World Series of Poker featured the only appearance of Razz as a stand-alone event. A total of 363 players put up $2,500 going for the worst hands in an effort to earn a coveted WSOP gold bracelet. The tournament appeared a foregone conclusion with four players remaining as Tommy Chen held over half the chips in play. However, Chen could not make hands when he needed succumbing to Rep Porter, who eventually went on to victory, winning their second career WSOP bracelet and $210,615.

The final table of eight players barely settled into the table when Scott Epstein was the first player eliminated as the nine-low of Chris Bjorin bettered Epstein’s ten-low. Tommy Chen started the final table as the chip leader, and he added more chips to his impressive stack, knocking out Matt “SamENole” Smith in seventh place, making a six-low on sixth to leave Smith drawing dead.

Chen appeared ready to lose his chip lead, but he regained control by crippling Chris Bjorin to hold over one million chips, putting the two-time bracelet winner on life support. The rest of Bjorin’s chips went into the stack of fellow bracelet winner Rep Porter, sending Bjorin off to collect his sixth place winnings at his second final table of the WSOP. Andreas Krause and his dwindling stack were no match for Chen either. The German’s tournament was over on sixth as Chen made an eight-low to leave four players in contention for the bracelet.

Chen appeared to have the bracelet locked up after scooping a giant pot that involved Stephen Su and Porter. All three players remained in the hand until seventh street with a series of bets and raises among the trio. Porter eventually got out of the way after the last card was dealt, but Chen and Su fought it out one more time. When the cards were revealed, Su showed a 7-5 low but Chen turned over a 7-4 low to give him over half the chips in play.

The jovial Robert Williamson III is known as “Mr. Omaha”. The opportunity to add the “Mr. Razz” moniker fell short when Porter sent Williamson to the rail in fourth place.

Tommy Chen’s aggressive play worked during most of the final table until his opponents started making hands as Chen’s stack eroded. The first hand after Williamson’s elimination, Porter took the chip lead and, for the first time all final table, Chen was not the big stack. Stephen Su also relieved Chen of some chips to eventually take the lead from Porter. The final level of scheduled play would be Chen’s downfall, finishing in third after Su made an unbeatable nine-low on sixth to finish off the former chip leader.

Chen’s elimination left Su and Porter to play for the bracelet as the “hard stop” rule ended Day 3 with Su holding the chip lead. Play resumed Tuesday afternoon with Porter winning nearly every hand that went past fourth street in the nearly two hours of heads-up play. If ever there was a hand that typifies how frustrating razz can be, Stephen Su experienced it in the final hand. Su committed all of his chips with A-2-3 in the first three cards to Porter’s 9-8-6. Su improved on fourth street with a 4, giving him what appeared to be an unbeatable A-2-3-4 to Porter’s 9-8-8-6. However, Su would catch a T-K-Q on his final three cards to finish with a ten-low. Porter’s final three cards were 2-Q-4 to finish with a nine-low in an amazing final hand to determine a bracelet.

“That was crazy, I was thinking we were just going to play another hand,” Porter said about the final hand. “I just figured he’d have about 250,000 and we’d play again. Razz happens like that all the time. I can’t tell you how many times in the tournament I started with 6-5-2-A against two opponents who were drawing to eight’s and then hit paint cards. All you could do is say ‘Nice hand.’ That is part of the game. You start with the good cards and you still have to make the hand, it’s a drawing game. You have to catch cards at the right time, and I was fortunate to do that in this tournament. I was short throughout and every time when I put them in I caught.”

Here are the final table results from the $2,500 Razz Event:

1st: Rep Porter – $210,615
2nd: Stephen Su – $130,075
3rd: Tommy Chen – $83,895
4th: Robert Williamson III – $60,788
5th: Andreas Krause – $44,693
6th: Chris Bjorin – $33,338
7th: Matt Smith – $25,228
8th: Scott Epstein – $19,365

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