Although the attention of Phil Ivey’s run at Bracelet #9 may have sidetracked some of the railbirds from the rest of the action at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino, two tournaments held their second day of play yesterday at the 2012 World Series of Poker. One final table is set, while there is some work left to be done in the second to determine a champion.
Event #25 – $1500 Limit Hold’em Shootout
Fifty players came back on Wednesday to test their mettle in the Limit Shootout event. Over the span of ten five-handed tables, the players would go until there was one ultimate winner at each table. Those lucky victors would get to come back on Thursday to determine the champion of this event.
One of the first out of the Amazon Room on Wednesday was Greg Mueller, whose pocket Aces were cruelly cracked by the pocket sixes of Victor Ramdin. Ari Engel would join Mueller on the rail soon afterwards, taking home the $3088 that all those eliminated on Wednesday would receive. Mike Leah, Leonid Bilokur, Omar Mehmood and Roland Israelashvili would be some of the other early casualties as each of the ten tables began to shrink.
One table draw was in particular highly difficult. Ramdin was joined by Justin Bonomo and Joanne “J. J.” Liu, with Bonomo responsible for knocking the veteran Liu from the table. The heads up fight between Ramdin and Bonomo was just as entertaining, with Ramdin eventually wearing down Bonomo to take one of the seats for Thursday’s play.
It won’t get any easier for Ramdin today as he has some difficult opponents if he is to take down the WSOP bracelet. Two time WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker has made his second final table of the 2012 WSOP schedule. The chip stacks are pretty much even in this tournament, although some of the players will be starting with less due to the shootout format:
Seat 1: Darin Thomas, 155,500
Seat 2: Preston Derden, 157,500
Seat 3: Christopher Hartman, 162,500
Seat 4: Victor Ramdin, 165,500
Seat 5: Brock Parker, 164,500
Seat 6: Christopher Vitch, 162,000
Seat 7: Sean Rice, 160,000
Seat 8: Brian Meinders, 162,500
Seat 9: Ian Johns, 159,000
Seat 10: Matthew Schreiber, 154,500
The eventual champion of this tournament on Thursday night will take down the WSOP bracelet and a $116,118 payday for his efforts.
Event #26 – $3000 Pot Limit Omaha
Of the 589 players who waded into the Omaha waters on Tuesday, only 138 came back on Wednesday to get as close to the final table as possible for todays play. In the lead at the start of Day Two was Joseph Ressler, who made the final table of this tournament last year when it was a $5000 Six Handed event.
The efforts of some of the best female players in the game have been quite evident through the early weeks of the 2012 WSOP, but this Omaha tournament would knock two of them out before the money bubble burst. Annette Obrestad and 2012 European Poker Tour Grand Final runner up Lucille Cailly were two of the early casualties of the Day Two carnage, joined by Lee Watkinson, Philippe Boucher, Kevin Saul, Nam Le and Chance Kornuth, who would take the ugly tag of “bubble boy” with his elimination.
Over the span of the next six hours, the field would work their way down to the final eighteen players who will vie for the championship today. On the way to those fortunate 18 souls, such names as Shawn Buchanan, Padraig Parkinson, Ted Lawson, Joe Beevers, David “Chino” Rheem and Ressler would be eliminated from the event.
The 18 men who are vying for the championship today feature some of the best Omaha players in the world. Vadzim Kursevich will head the pack with Robert Williamson III stalking him in sixth place. Dutch Boyd is positioned in the middle of the pack, while Galen Kester, John Racener, Erik Seidel and Raul Paez are all on short stacks that will need some help in the early action today to have a shot at contending for the title.
The winner of this epic Omaha fight today will walk off with a $361,797 boost to their bank account but, most importantly, will take home the cherished prize of tournament poker, the WSOP bracelet.
If this isn’t enough action for poker fans, Day Two of Event #27, the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, will be back for its Day Two play, while Event #28 will feature the debut of a unique tournament format. The $2500 Four Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament opens up Day One play at noon today, giving the “action junkies” something to do and plenty for those in atttendance at the 2012 WSOP to watch.
