JOSEPH WYNN

There were 129 entrants in the $2,500 Buy-In, Stud Hi-Lo for a total prize pool of $322,500. 2 tables were paid, a total of 16 players.

One card at any time could have made the difference for Mallory Smith, but the card didn't come. Instead Raymond Miller squeezed into the last seat as the music stopped Thursday night.

Coming back Friday afternoon, this looked to be a battle of two bracelet winners as the chip leaders. Nat Koe won this year's Event #7. Mike Matusow won in 1999 and could talk a deaf person out of a pot.

THE FINAL TABLE: 78 mins left of 80. The ante is $5300, bring-in $1,000, playing $3000/$6000

Player	Hometown	Chip Count
Seat 1 Andreas Krause	Weinsberg, Germany	$33,500
Seat 2 Nat Koe	Irvine CA	$82,000
Seat 3 Mark Gregorich	Las Vegas NV	$37,000
Seat 4 Raymond Miller	Jacksonville FL	$10,000
Seat 5 Rich Chiovari	Park Ridge IL	$32,000
Seat 6 Mike Matusow	Henderson NV	$57,500
Seat 7 Gino DiPeppe	Glen Burnie MD	$15,500
Seat 8 Joseph Wynn	Winnetka CA	$55,000

If you are going to go all-in for your case chips, the 2 3 8 of Clubs isn't too bad place to start in Stud Hi-Lo. But the A 4 5 Raymond Miller needed for a wheel were in Joseph Wynn's hand and two more Clubs didn't materialize, meanwhile Raymond caught a brickyard for 8th place.

'Mouth' is a fitting nickname for Mike Matusow. The popular Matusow never takes a breath. He'll tell you, and everyone else within earshot, how his hand should have been played and how everyone else's hand should have been played. "I had two huge hands and both of them got ironed out," Mike moaned. Matusow expected to win this event, instead he as out in the first half hour. Mike got run over by two wheels. Andreas Krause made the first one on Matusow when Mike started with A B C, which is A 2 3 in Stud Hi-Lo parlance. Then before Mike could get back up, Joe Wynn ran over him with the second wheel when Matusow started with A A 5, made Aces up and an 8 6 low. All-in with a low draw, the 'Mouth' was silenced in 7th when all Mike could make were a pair of 6's while Andreas Krause made Kings.

In Stud Hi-Lo it can get real ugly for the high side when the low straight and flush draws don't get there. Rich Chiovari had the world's fair for a draw all-in for his last $13k. When none of his multiple outs came, Rich was poorer in 6th for having only a pair of 5's for high. Mark Gregorich didn't do much better on his draws but Mark had a pair of 8's.

"Where were these cards when I had chips!" Gino DiPeppe shouted in frustration. While going all-in repeatedly with his last few chips, Gino made quads, nut straights and flushes. These hands netted Gino almost nothing as they only won the high side of small pots. What DiPeppe really had needed earlier was for Joe Wynn not to have caught a third 8 all-in on the river when Gino had 6's and 4's in a giant pot. In Gino's final hand for 5th place, DiPeppe made a low but Andreas Krause made a better low with Aces for high.

The chips were fairly even with four players, so they took most of the money off the table. With two events the night before that lasted until 6 am Friday morning, an exhausted tournament staff started thinking that there may be an early out tonight. Guess again. Never underestimate the desire of poker players for a World Series bracelet. Nat Koe had his, but that's not why he finished 4th. Nat had pocket Jacks against a 10 showing for Mark Gregorich. Koe was correct; he was leading. Nat made Jacks up on the river, where Mark made trip 10's.

A disappointed Mark Gregorich was 3rd as he bet his Queens all-in, only to have Andreas Krause make Kings up.

Nearly three hours later and we are still here. Limited space doesn't allow a rundown of all the dramatic hands between these two courageous players for all that time. Suffice it to say they both had several chances to win that they were unable to take advantage of. It took a betting level of $30,000/$60,000 to get Joseph Wynn and Andreas Krause to play a final hand. That's how even this match-up was. And they played $30k/$60k for nearly a half hour! Too bad only one of these fine players would get a bracelet, because they both played brilliantly under extreme duress. Neither deserved to lose as they each threw away cards, with a lot of their own money in the pot, that most players would have gone broke with long before.

But if someone wins, then someone has to lose. If you have to lose, as a gracious Andreas Krause did, at least lose massively. When the low draw was gone for Andreas the final hand was over. There was no catching Joe Wynn for the high. Joe started with pocket 9's and caught two more for quad 9's. What a hand to win a bracelet on!