The Poker Lab Rat

Dario Minieri won his first World Series of Poker bracelet and $528,418 on Wednesday after his pocket queens held up to eliminate his final opponent in one of the wildest final tables of the 2008 WSOP.

Minieri won Event #31 ($2,500 No Limit Hold ‘em/Six Handed) after coming into the 6-handed final table as the big stack and dominated early on winning 21 of the first 50 pots.

Stuart Marshak, John O’Shea and Kevin Song were all eliminated during this early period. Minieri had opened up a massive chip lead when play reached three handed and it looked like the his two opponents, Seth Fischer and Justin Filtz, might be playing for second place.

But Fischer got a couple of big pot suck-outs to double up against Minieri and then eliminate Filtz to get into heads-up play at relatively even chip stacks.

Around 30 minutes into heads-up Fischer raised from the button with chip lead and Minieri moved all-in. Fischer called instantly and turned over pocket kings, while Minieri turned over 3-4 of spades, stood up and put on his coat, expecting the hand to be his last.

The flop came 2-8-J with two spades, giving Minieri a flush draw and pulling the crowd to the edge of their seats. The turn was the four of diamonds, giving Minieri even more outs, and the river was another four, sending the pot to Minieri.

Minieri picked up queens the next hand to increase his chip lead and the match was all over a few hands later when Fischer moved all-in pre-flop with K-10 and was called by Minieri, who once again held pocket queens.

The ladies held and Minieri had his his first WSOP bracelet and $528,418 in cash while
Fischer collected $330,519 for second.

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So remember - all you need to do to win a bracelet is to bust KK with a flush draw and then get the dealer to hand you pocket Queens often - simple huh?