Mike Gorodinsky Wins Event #5 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better ($216,988)!
Three days ago, 374 of some of the best poker players in the world walked into the Rio with hopes of taking down the first mixed game event of the summer, Event #5: $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Eight-or-Better. By the beginning of Day 3, only 19 still had a shot at the bracelet, and after nearly 12 hours of play, that lucky player was Mike Gorodinsky. He will take home $216,988 to go with it, and the pride of knowing they beat one of the toughest fields at the Series.
Bracelet winner David “Bakes” Baker was the first player eliminated from the day when he couldn’t catch a straight or a low draw on seventh street in stud-8 against the trip kings of Kristopher Tong. From there, the field lost James Van Alystyne in 18th, David Levi in 17th, Ralph Perry in 16th, and Andrew Kelsell in 15th Place.
After those eliminations, we lost one of the most notable names in all of poker, Mike Matusow. Matusow busted in stud-8 in a sick cooler. He made a seven-high straight on seventh street, which was good for a high and a low. However, George Danzer had an eight-high straight, and Owais Ahmed had a seven-five low, rendering both Matusow’s high and low useless, and busting him in 14th place.
From there, there were four eliminations in a matter of 10 minutes to get us to the "unofficial" final table. One of those was five-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, who bowed out in 12th place. After being knocked down to just 40,000, Negreanu got it in good in Omaha-8, but got sucked out on the river by Gorodinsky.
After losing Alexander Lakhov in 11th place, and Roman Verenko in 10th, we quickly reached the "unofficial" final table of nine.
It didn’t take long to lose the first two players. Dustin Leary bowed out in ninth place in stud-8, and it was Tong who did the deed. Tong made trip aces on sixth street, and Leary was drawing dead.
A few hands later, Julie Schneider found herself all in out of the big blind in Omaha-8. On a board that read 
, Matthew Ashton held a monster with 
in his hand for a full house. Schneider revealed her cards one at a time, and never came close to beating Ashton’s boat. Schneider walked away with a shade under $20,000.
Half an hour went by before Mack Lee lost in seventh place. Lee got the rest of his money in on fourth street in stud-8 with a pair of deuces, but he was behind the kings of Tong. Tong never let go of the lead, and scored the knockout to get things down to six players.
George Danzer made quite the impressive run, making the final table of this event in back-to-back years after finishing runner-up last year. However, he wasn’t able to best that performance, as he was our sixth-place finisher. Danzer also busted in stud-8 when his pair of sevens and four to a low couldn’t catch up with the trip fives of Ashton.
Play was five-handed for over two hours before it losr George Fotiadis in fifth place. Fotiadis was as low as 15,000 at one point, before battling back to 400,000. However, he once again got whittled down, and met his end in Omaha-8 when he couldn’t beat the seven low of Ashton, and the seven-high straight of Gorodinsky.
Ahmed, the winner of this very event in 2011, fell in fourth place at the hands of Tong. He secured $62,631 for his efforts, and then Ashton went out in third for $86,437.
When heads-up play began, it was Tong who held the chip lead. Gorodinsky had so often been on top of the counts throughout this event, but he soon fell very short against Tong and was battling for his tournament life on many occasions. Eventually, Gorodinsky ran his stack back up to take the chip lead. After some back-and-forth battling from there, Gorodinsky chopped Tong down pot after pot before finally finishing him off.
On the final hand, Gorodinsky made a straight in a hand of stud-8 to bust Tong in second place. For his finish, Tong took $$134,017.