Event #24: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

After a very late night yesterday and a pretty early start today, we have come to the end of Event 24 at a surprisingly reasonable hour. After the initial few bustouts saw the tournament move to the ESPN feature table ten-handed, the pace slowed -- but once they got into the serious money, no-one wasted any time getting their chips in the middle. By the time Vilandos and Andy Seth went heads up, the stacks were very deep indeed, at roughly 75 big blinds apiece. Nonetheless, the chips went in and after the     vs     cooler it was a mere ten minutes work for Vilandos to finish off Seth. Congratulations to all our final tablists, and most especially to the eventual champion, Panayote "Pete" Vilandos. From Event 24, it's over and out.

Andy Seth raised his button; he made it 205,000. Pete Vilandos, however, reraised him to 500,000. Back to Seth -- and he upped the bet to 1.315 million. Silence descended on the room... With a wave of his hand, Vilandos announced all in, and a snap call later they were on their backs. Seth:     Vilandos:     Board:           Vilandos doubles up to 9,142,000, while Seth drops right down to 2,135,000.

Our heads-upsers limp/checked their way to a       flop, which Seth checked. Vilandos bet 150,000 from the button and Seth called. Seth check-called 250,000 on the   turn, and both players warily checked the   river. Vilandos flipped pocket threes -- but Seth's     was good to take the pot.

Looks like they didn't do a deal after all. Here we go...

Andy Seth: 5,875,000 Pete Vilandos: 5,345,000

Panayote 'Pete' Vilandos -- 6,404,000 Andy 'BKiCe' Seth -- 3,590,000 Michael Greco -- 1,250,000

A very curious thing has happened here: Glenn McCaffrey managed to get 870,000 of his chips in preflop with just 150,000 behind. It looked as though he raised his button and Andy Seth reraised from the big blind, and this is the point at which the McCaffrey 870,000 made its way into the middle. Seth quickly called and flipped over     -- he clearly thought that McCaffrey was all in. Nevertheless McCaffrey was not all in, and a       flop was dealt. Seth promptly bet out 200,000. "Well," said McCaffrey, "I'm behind..." A fold! Extraordinary. On the next hand, McCaffrey shipped it in under the gun and both Greco and Vilandos called. They checked down the           board, but neither of them could beat McCaffrey's     for a flush. Triple up for the short stack! The rail goes wild and no wonder -- this is all terribly exciting.

Glenn McCaffrey's buddies are vying for Loudest Railers In The Room with the pro-Greco camp now. The McCaffrey camp has had more beer, but the Greco camp has secret weapon Jesper Hougaard and his ooba ooba song. Who will win the volume contest? It's anyone's game.

A raise from Michael Greco on the button was called by Andy Seth in the SB before the       flop was checked through. The turn   saw Seth take the lead with a bet that Greco called. The river   saw Seth bet 245,000 before Greco moved all in for 945,000. A very long tank occurred and Greco spent the whole time out of his chair pacing or staring down his opponent. Seth then let it go. This prompted Jesper Hougaard to start up his "ooba ooba ooba" song. Just the one verse this time though from the Dane to make sure he isn't ejected again!

Chip counts, four handed: Glenn McCaffrey: 1.9 million Michael Greco: 1.75 million Andy Seth: 2.9 million Pete Vilandos: 5 million