At times life gets in the way of life. This may sound like a misguided rhetorical statement, but to Mike Spegal, this statement makes a lot of sense right now. Spegal won his first gold bracelet last night in the $1,500 pot-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. It also happened to be the evening of his ninth wedding anniversary. "I had reservations at the Eiffel Tower [restaurant]. I also had two tickets that I purchased to see Howie Mandel at nine o'clock. Of course, that didn't happen," said Spegal.
With his wife at his side to cheer him on, Spegal defeated an impressive final table that also featured Marco Traniello, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Jon Friedberg, and Gavin Smith. "I just wanted to play the best cards I possibly [could]. I wasn't going to try to bluff the pot. I wasn't going to try to bluff these players at what they do for a living," said Spegal. He took home the gold bracelet and $252,290 after defeating Smith in a heads-up face-off.
Here is how the action played out during the heads-up match from the CardPlayer.com hourly logs:
Heads Up!
The heads-up match was set after the elimination of Jon Friedberg and the chip counts were as follows:
Mike Spegal: $1,245,000
Gavin Smith: $1,105,000
Both players were introduced to the crowd, and the fans went wild with applause when Smith was introduced. The massive stack of cash sat between the two players, with $252,290 and a gold bracelet on the line.
Smith struck the first blow of the match when he picked up a substantial pot with a $250,000 bet on a board of A
10
6
8
2. Smith centered a very focused stare on his opponent while Spegal pondered the call. Smith cupped his hands over his mouth and only removed them when Spegal conceded his hand.
Spegal Increases his Lead
Over the next 10 hands, Spegal was able to increase his chip lead over Smith to $1.4 million against $900,000. Many hands went to a flop, but there were no showdowns as the players traded punches during the stretch.
Million Dollar Pot…Not!
With A 8 6 3 8 sitting on the board, Smith bet the pot, which was currently $180,000. Spegal then re-popped to $360,000. The pot was now its very own millionaire and Smith stood up to count his chips. A call would put his tournament life at risk. He decided to take this risk and Spegal flipped over 8 4. The crowd made a combined sound that can best be described as a combined gasp, cheer, sigh, and scream in unison when Smith also turned over 8-4. They chopped up the pot and the two players would continue their quest for the third bracelet of the WSOP when the dinner break concluded an hour and a half later.
