David Ormsby Wins WPT Fallsview Poker Classic

By Ryan Lucchesi (@Luccrazy)

It looked like the final table at the World Poker Tour Fallsview Poker Classic was going to be the Robert Forbes show. His aggressive play dominated the early stages of the final table, and he held the chip lead all the way to the start of the heads-up final despite all three of Forbe’s opponents doubling up through him during four-handed play. He held a 3-1 chip advantage when the heads-up final began against David Ormsby.

Ormsby was able to steal the chip lead from Forbes for the first time at the final table, and then he held the 3-1 advantage. “He was the big stack coming in, and he was the wild card because you never know how he is going to play with the big stack … When it got three-handed and heads-up he had a lot of (bet) sizing tells. I just grinded him down slowly and won a flip in the end,” said Orsmby about playing Forbes in the final stages of the tournament.

This is the first major tournament victory for Ormsby, who now holds $378,865 in career tournament earnings. Ormsby is primarily a $10-$20 and $20-$40 hold’em cash game player at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, so he rarely jumps into tournaments, but this time everything went the right way. “It’s crazy, I didn’t even think it was possible. I just played the tournament last minute and didn’t really expect to go that far because I always bust in tournaments. This time I won all of the flips I guess,” said Ormsby about his tournament run.

Here is a look at the chip counts when cards got into the air this afternoon:

Seat 1: Robert Forbes – 4,015,000 (80 bb)
Seat 2: Soren Turkewitsch – 1,830,000 (36 bb)
Seat 3: Mike Bui – 2,860,000 (57 bb)
Seat 4: David Ormsby – 1,550,000 (31 bb)
Seat 5: Thomas Archer – 880,000 (17 bb)
Seat 6: Derek Verrian – 1,565,000 (31 bb)

Things started fast at the final table when Thomas Archer busted in sixth place on the third hand of play. He moved all in with a pair of fives on the flop, but he ran into the pocket queens of Robert Forbes. The turn and river brought no help and Archer took home $76,874 CAD in prize money.

Season V Fallsview Casino WPT Main Event champion Soren Turkewitsch was the next player to get all of his chips into the middle of the table on Hand 32. His A-4 was dominated by the A-7 of Forbes, and a seven on the flop sent Turkewitsch home fifth place, good for $95,949 CAD.

Forbes moved his chip stack close to 10 million before he doubled up all three of his remaining opponents. Forbes maintained his chip lead throughout this chaos, and he scored his third straight knockout punch at the final table when he took out Mike Bui in fourth place. Bui was all in preflop with K-10, but he ran into the pocket aces of Forbes. The board didn’t change the outcome for Bui, and he took home $127,805 CAD.

David Ormsby then scored two double ups during a long stretch of three-handed play. While his fortunes grew, Derek Verrian was falling in the standings. On the 131st hand of play, he moved all in for 2.51 million on a flop reading  with  in the hole. Forbes called with  and the turn and river fell  to give Forbes a straight. Verrian was eliminated in third place, good for $172,823 CAD.

Forbes held a 3-1 chip advantage at the start of the heads-up final, and he slowly but surely evened up the stacks and then took the lead. There was only one all-in confrontation between the final two players, and it came on the 166th hand of play at the final table.

Ormsby limped on the button and Forbes moved all in for 2,925,000. Ormsby called with  and he would need some help to beat the  of Forbes. The board was dealt and Forbes was eliminated in second place, good for $268,773 CAD. Ormsby won the tournament and top prize worth $383,407 CAD. Ormsby also took home the WPT title, a seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions, a WPT trophy, and he will have his name etched on the WPT Champions Cup. Congratulations to our champion – David Ormsby!

Final Table Results

1: David Ormsby – $383,407 CAD
2: Robert Forbes – $268,773 CAD
3: Derek Verrian – $172,823 CAD
4: Mike Bui – $127,805 CAD
5: Soren Turkewitsch – $95,949 CAD
6: Thomas Archer – $76,874 CAD

That concludes our coverage from the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic. Thanks to the Fallsview Casino Resort for hosting a great event. The next stop on the tour will take us to Los Angeles, California for the L.A. Poker Classic. The event runs from Ferbruary 27-March 3 and it will kick off the California Swing. The WPT live reporting team will be there to bring you all of the action from Southern California.