It's all going Rep Porter's way so far today. That's bad news for Rony Jazzar, who keeps playing pots with Porter. Porter opened a pot to 75,000, then called when Jazzar re-raised the small blind to 150,000.
It was quick action on the flop and the turn, with each player checking. Jazzar's check on the turn was particularly fast and loud. At the river, the board was . Jazzar checked again. Porter took that as his cue to finally bet, putting 150,000 chips over the betting line. Jazzar looked agitated, banging chips together faster and faster and shaking his head.
Yet in the end Jazzar called. Porter showed for two pair, aces and jacks. Jazzar mucked, once again on the short end of a heads-up showdown.
Rep Porter just took down the final table's first million dollar pot, and with it, the chip lead, in a heads-up hand against crowd favorite Rony Jazzar.
Jazzar opened the pot with a raise to 80,000 from the cutoff and Porter responded with a reraise to 280,000 from the small blind. Jazzar made the call and the flop came .
Porter passed the first option to Jazzar, who stacked up a big pile of chips and looked as if he was about to slide them across the betting line, before pulling the stack back and checking behind.
The then fell on the turn and Porter led out with a 200,000 bet that Jazzar called in a heartbeat.
The last card off the deck was the and Porter passed the final action to Jazzar, who stacked up a 300,000 bet and held it in front of him, staring candidly at Porter, before pump-faking once and then making the bet.
While Porter considered his decision, Jazzar took a full bottle of water and place it on top of his head, duplicating a balancing act he performed earlier in the tournament.
"Cooling system," he explained.
His clowning around seemed to help Porter come to a decision a bit quicker, as he stacked up 300,000 in chips and made the call.
"You win," Jazzar confessed, tabling the for air. Porter tabled a pocket pair of tens to claim the pot.
After the hand, Jazzar was left with just under a million in chips, while Porter surged to 1.93 million.
Rep Porter wasted no time getting involved. On the very first hand of the day, Porter opened the preflop action to 60,000. Action passed to big blind Uri Keidar, who called to an ace-high flop of . Keidar checked to Porter, who bet 70,000. Keidar called.
Both players checked the turn. Keidar checked a third time when the river fell . That prompted Porter to bet 110,000. Keidar thought about his decision for approximately sixty seconds before mucking his hand.
At long last, after six days of poker, we've reached the final table of the 2009 WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. From a field of 181 only six remain. One of them will take down the tournament and the $579,000 in prize money that goes with it.
With blinds to go up to 15,000 / 30,0000 / 4,000 just after play begins, it really is anybody's tournament to win. Who will it be? It can only be one of these six players:
Rony Jazzar - 1,796,000
Uri Keidar - 1,753,000
Rep Porter - 1,115,000
Thomas Bichon - 1,079,000
Steven Fung - 732,000
Janar Kiivramees - 727,000
We've been informed by tournament staff that the start time for the final table, originally scheduled for noon, has been pushed back to 2pm. Join us then for the conclusion of this inaugural Cypriot tournament.
While you wait, check out the scouting report for the six finalists in Lynn's Final Table Preview: