Thursday, July 16, 2009
Elias finishes 53rd in 2009 WSOP Main Event

By Chris Wheeler 

      

Halfway into his 50th hour of play, 26-year-old Charlie Elias from Riverwood in Sydney has bowed out of the 2009 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em Main Event.

Out of an initial starting field of 6494, Charlie finished in 53rd position – cashing for a remarkable $175,000 AUD after winning his event entry, flights and accommodation for free through APL

 It was one hell of a ride, and a journey shared by thousands nationally as this humble, gracious and charismatic character, a floor tiler by trade, proceeded to live out that same dream shared by most poker players around the world.

It was a remarkable performance by not only Charlie, but also the 22 other TeamAPL representatives who competed alongside him, and eventually cheered him on from the rail.
In the end, four TeamAPLer's made the cash - Emma Grace, Craig Ivey, Jonathan Wertheim and of course... Charlie Elias.

From a starting stack of 30,000, Elias played a steady, smart but aggressive brand of poker to see him through day 1A along with just 60 per cent of the initial starting field. From there, he continued to make his presence known on the table and built his stack to 230,000 by the end of Day 2B to rank him fifth overall.

Charlie remained the pacesetter throughout Day 3, reaching a healthy stack of 495,000 by midway through the day’s play. Then, with blinds at 1500/3000 and an ante of 400, (and an average chip count of just under 210,000), Elias jumped to 576,000 in a remarkable hand where held pocket 10s and flopped a set on a board of 6c-Tc-9h. The turn came 9c, which gave Charlie's opponent the nut flush but filled his full-house.

“I had to leave the room after (that hand), it was just too good. It was just too perfect – I needed to take some time out. I flopped my set of 10s and I knew he was chasing that flush so I tried to bet out enough to build the pot but not too much, so he didn’t have to think about calling,” Elias said.

“I just remember thinking that the ideal situation would be for the board to pair with a club. And then it did. The nine of clubs came down, and I knew everything was going to be alright.”

Elias was sharing the limelight with the likes of then overall chip leader and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier (1,100,000), 2008 Aussie Millions champion Alexander Kostritsyn (632,000), Kenny Tran (590,000) and 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (500,000).

Elias cracked a smile on Day 4 when he learned he was now guaranteed more than USD $21,000 along with team mates Emma Grace, Craig Ivey and Jonathan Wertheim, but Elias had his eyes firmly set on the November Nine, and wasn’t going to be letting the excitement of the bubble get in the way of his ultimate goal.

A few hands after the bubble burst, Charlie had pocket 8s and flopped a set. To his delight, the other big stack on his table pushed suddenly. Charlie snap-called to show his set – far ahead of his opponent's pocket aces.

The pot took Charlie to 1,615,000 in chips and placed him back in the Top 5 for the tournament. At the conclusion of the fifth day of the Main Event, Charlie’s stack stood at a monstrous 2,750,000, placing him ninth overall.

Charlie’s day played out very much like a poker highlights reel. After taking down a few monster pots early in the day, Elias found himself sitting opposite 1995 World Champion Dan Harrington.

It didn’t take long for Elias to get involved himself involved with the Pro, in the end making what has now become one of the most talked about reads of the tournament, calling Harrington for almost 500,000 on the river with pocket queens on a board that showed both an ace and a king.

After 5-6 minutes of thinking time, Elias exclaimed: “You don’t have the ace. You don’t have the king. I know you don’t have it. You can’t have it. I call.” Harrington flipped over 9-7 – a complete bluff, and replied simply “Good call, kid.”

Elias’ stack soared to 2.2 million before he was then moved to the ESPN feature table alongside pro player Antonio Esfandiari.

From here, Charlie built his stack to almost 2.8 million before the end of the day’s play and had become a heavyweight contender for the ‘November Nine’ (Final Table) which will be contested from November 7-10 later this year.

Elias kept pace early on in Day 6, winning three big pots in the first level of play to take his stack to almost 5 million and earn the title of chip leader above the 106 runners still remaining at that time in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship.

After being invited to play on the Official ESPN Feature Table late into Day Five, Charlie then conducted interviews with ESPN and Pokernews.com. The media frenzy had started.

Despite the incredible opportunities and life changing amounts of cash that were now hanging in the balance, Elias refused to lose focus on reality and the enormous amount of work that he knew he would need to put in over the two and a half days that would follow if he was to remain as one of the final 9 when the tournament breaks on Wednesday. “I’m just taking it one day at a time. Every morning I wake up and I think ‘I’ve just got to make it through today’, and I’m still here”, he remarked.

At dinnertime on Day Six of the 2009 WSOP Main Event – the first dinner break in three days – the field was down to 101 players. Elias took the chip lead as he took a stack of 6,000,000 to the dinner break. Again, the media are all over the humble Sydneysider and news coverage had spread across News.com.au, NineMSN, Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 7, WIN Network and The Australian.

The last level of Day 6 was a tough one for Charlie, he took a few hits to his stack through no fault of his own. In one ‘monster pot’ Charlie flopped a set of sevens, only to be run down by an opponent holding J-4 who miraculously made a full house on the river.

Charlie was approached by Full Tilt Poker Pro Mike Matusow and offered advice about playing the ‘business end’ of the world’s greatest poker tournament. Heading into day seven, his philosophy had not changed; “I just need to get through today.” It had certainly worked so far. The Main Event had kicked off on July 3, with Elias still standing within the top 15 for the start of play today.

Charlie Elias was now clearly within sight of a place in Australian poker history as the field progressed into the final 64 on Day 7 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. 
The TeamAPL player had, at this point, become the last Australian standing after the elimination of Daniel Neilson during the final level of the previous night.

While Australians have claimed five top-20 finishes in the Main Event – three of those coming in an era when the fields were much smaller – the Sydney APL qualifier was rapidly approaching a spot among the best five cashes in the history of the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship.

However, Charlie’s run came to an end early in the second level of Day 7. After losing 1 million in chips after flopping two pair against an opponent who had flopped a straight in the very last hand of Level 26, Charlie came back early in Level 27 and woke up to A-K. Looking to make his move, Charlie pushed his stack of almost 4 million into the centre of the felt and announced that he was all in.

He was called by an adversary holding pocket queens and was unable to improve against the better hand. Congratulations to Charlie Elias. You have done yourself, your league and your country proud. Over the past seven days, you have inspired Australia. Thousands have lived this dream with you Charlie, and it's been one hell of a ride. Well done.

Thanks to all those who followed TeamAPL on their incredible debut journey to Las Vegas and the WSOP - your support has been incredible and both the Team and the League greatly appreciate it all.

We'll see you all again, live.... from the 2010 WSOP in Las Vegas, USA!