Match 20: Show Open recap

Dennis Oehring

The season finale of PAD's second season saw one of the best matches yet filmed as the six players seen during the opening of each show battled for the $120,000 winner-take-all prize. This highly anticipated match featured poker superstars Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and Gus Hansen. All but Hellmuth had previously won at least one PAD title.

The match went into the 4th episode before the first player was felted. With the blinds at $300/$600, Phil Ivey found pocket jacks and opened the pot for a raise to $1800. Action folded to a short-stacked Jennifer Harman in the big blind, who moved all in for her remaining $6750 in chips with Ac 9d. Ivey called, and when his jacks held up, Jennifer was eliminated in 6th place. Then with the blinds at $600/$1200, Gus Hansen was the next to depart when holding Ac Jh he called an all in preflop raise by Phil Ivey but did not improve against Phil's pocket sixes.

Four hands later, Ivey claimed another victim in Chris Ferguson, when holding the 9s 7s he called Chris' all in bet after a flop of 4s 10c 8s with Chris holding Ad Qc. Ivey, with many outs, caught one of them in the 6h on the river to complete a straight and send Ferguson home in 4th. A few hands later, Phil Hellmuth would bemoan his fate as only he can when he moved all in with pocket 8s against a pot committed Howard Lederer with Kh 8h. Phil's 8s were good through the turn, but the Kd appeared on the river, and Phil left steaming in 3rd place.

The heads-up battle between Lederer and Ivey lasted just six hands. To illustrate how fickle the cards can be, on the final hand Lederer again found himself with a suited K 8, this time in diamonds, and opened the pot for a raise to $4800. Ivey, with the chip lead, called with 8s 4s. The flop came 7c 3d 4d, giving Ivey middle pair and Howard a flush draw. Howard bet, Phil raised, and Howard went all in, sending Ivey into the tank for about 5 minutes before he finally made the call. The turn was the 4h, giving Ivey trip 4s and leaving Howard still drawing to his flush. But the 9h on the river gave Ivey the title, and he joined Lederer and Clonie Gowen as PAD's only two-time winners.