WSOP Event #36; $1,500 No Limit Hold’em: Hougaard Notches One for Denmark
A successful week for the Europeans continues as Jesper Hougaard wins Event 36
Monday 23rd June 2008
It sounds all too familiar; a Dane goes to the final table with a chip lead and pounds relentlessly, winning pot after pot with sheer aggression. While Gus Hansen might have pioneered their reputation, it seems the feisty approach to poker is very much a Danish thing, as Jesper Hougaard proved in Las Vegas last night.
The Dane encountered the hardest part of the trip from chip lead to bracelet came at the heads-up, when he faced Cody Slaubaugh of America. Initial skirmishes saw Slaubaugh take the chip lead just coming into the dinner break – a time out which came at an idea moment for Hougaard. After the interval he regained his composure to take control of the match once again before eventually closing Slaubaugh out.
The final hand of Event 36 saw all of the money go in preflop, with Hougaard’s pocket queens only having to avoid the one overcard of Slaubaugh and his A-T. The doorcard queen meant it was a matter of hitting running King-Jack for the American, and when the blank landed on the turn, Hougaard was left collecting his bracelet and a little over $610,000.
