The tournament rooms of the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino were abuzz on Friday, with two tournaments in Day Two play working close to their final tables that will be played today.
Event #39 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship
88 players returned from the original 293 contestants, looking to work the field to the money (the top 36 would be paid) and get as close to the final table as possible for Saturday’s action. Benjamin Sage held the pole position as play began on Friday, with Joe Kushner in a close second. Lurking down the leaderboard were such notables as Jason Mercier, Daniel Alaei and 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Naoya Kihara.
Kihara, who became Japan’s first bracelet winner earlier this week, got off to a great start when he turned a straight against Michael Shklover to push his stack up to 250K in chips. Another mover in the early action was Omaha specialist Robert Williamson III, who would flush Stephen Ladowsky out of the tournament after Ladowsky had hit a set of Aces on the flop. On the other end of the spectrum were Shawn Buchanan, Ben Grundy, Joe Cada and John Racener, all eliminated within the first two hours of the start of Friday’s play.
Mercier was able to make some moves up the leaderboard around this time, using the elimination of Aubin Cazals to bump his stack over the 300K mark. He would yo-yo that stack throughout the day, however, being one of the more active players on the felt. Another active player was another noted Omaha tactician – someone by the name of Sam Farha (you might have heard of him) – whose chip stack steadily increased as the tournament entered the evening hours.
By the time dinner came, the money bubble hadn’t popped, but players were positioning themselves for that momentous occasion following the sustenance break. At this point, Farha had bumped himself over the 600K mark, while Mercier held 425K in chips and Sage had spun his wheels in maintaining virtually his starting stack for the day (258K) in the early going.
Once the combatants were back on the green baize battlefield, hand for hand play would take center stage. Fourteen hands were played before Huck Seed pulled down a dubious honor for this year’s WSOP by being the “bubble boy” for a second tournament. Seed got his chips in against Matthew Kirk after flopping two pair, but Kirk would turn a flush to eliminate the former World Champion.
Once the money bubble popped, the shorter stacks in the event relaxed and made their way out of the Amazon Room. Nenad Medic (36th), Williamson (34th), Tristan Clemencon (31st), Michael Binger (28th) and Kihara (25th) took home some cash for their efforts while a new contender emerged by the night’s end to take the lead into Saturday’s final day of play.
Andrew Brown went on a late night surge that saw him bump some pretty notable players from the tournament. Brown would eliminate Alexander Kravchenko (20th), Konstantin Bucherl (16th) and Keith Lehr (15th) to push his stack near the two million mark, earning him the distinction of chip leader heading into today’s play with thirteen combatants remaining.
1. Andrew Brown, 1.774 million
2. Sam Farha, 1.129 million
3. Benjamin Sage, 1.013 million
4. Jan-Peter Jachtmann, 895K
5. Steven Silverman, 668K
6. Joe Kushner, 571K
7. Andy Seth, 569K
8. Adam Kornuth, 568K
9. Nikolai Yakovenko, 528K
10. Jason Mercier, 408K
11. Ville Wahlbeck, 247K
12. Micah Smith, 215K
13. John Kabbaj, 210K
Even though Omaha is thought to be more of a European game, the Americans are out in force for this World Championship. Only Jachtmann (Germany), Wahlbeck (Finland) and Kabbaj (the U. K.) hail from across “The Pond,” with the rest raising the U. S. flag. Tonight’s eventual champion will take the WSOP bracelet and a $661,000 payday.
Event #40 – $2500 Six Handed Limit Hold’em
Vincent Gironda led the 101 players to the line for the continuation of hostilities in the Six Handed Limit Hold’em tournament on Friday and, perhaps surprisingly considering the volatile nature of Limit, maintained that lead through the day.
While Gironda would flourish during the Day Two action, some of the shorter stacked pros would end up with nothing in their pockets for their entry into this tournament. Bracelet winners Daniel Idema, John Monnette, Bill Chen and Eugene Katchalov wouldn’t make it to the dinner break (when the bubble popped with the final 36 players in action), but Scott Seiver (35th), John Hennigan (31st), Jeff Lisandro (30th) and Jon Turner (23rd) would come back after dinner to pick up some cash for Friday’s labors.
On one of the last hands of the night, the field lost the final woman in the tournament. Maria Ho, looking to make another big run for a WSOP bracelet (she barely missed in 2011, finishing runner-up to Allen Bari in the $5000 NLHE), nursed her stack until early Saturday morning, but she would fall at the hands of Terrence Chan. With her elimination in eleventh place, the final ten players was determined for Saturday afternoon’s battle:
1. Vincent Gironda, 550,000
2. Terrence Chan, 418,500
3. Sorel Mizzi, 314,500
4. Joep van den Bijgaart, 273,000
5. Hans Minocha, 176,500
6. Brent Wheeler, 163,000
7. Chad Brown, 137,500
8. Rep Porter, 97,000
9. Marco Johnson, 71,000
10. Ronnie Bardah, 64,000
There are several familiar names on that table and many of them have been having excellent WSOP runs. Chan has seemingly cashed in everything he has entered at this year’s WSOP, while van den Bijgaart is coming off his fourth place run in the $2500 Mixed Hold’em event. Wheeler and Porter also have final tables to their credit during the 2012 WSOP, while Mizzi and Brown are threats to take any tournament they are in. Tonight’s champion will have definitely earned their WSOP bracelet and the $182,088 that will come with it.
