As anticipation for the beginning of the $10,000 Championship Event this weekend builds, there are still a few bracelets out there for the masses in the Amazon Room. Three tournaments were in different stages of their play through Wednesday as players look to pick up some last minute cash to make their way into the 2012 World Series of Poker Championship Event.
Event #57 – $10,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day Two
Only 167 players came back on Wednesday from the 474 runners that showed up on Day One of the tournament, and they were facing several challenges for Wednesday’s action. First would be the determination of the 48 fortunate souls who would take home a WSOP cash from the event and the second – and more difficult – task would be to get as close to the final table as possible.
Stanislav Barshak was at the helm of the Event #57 ship for Day Two and he would make the most of the pole position, driving players from hands and chipping up throughout the day to earn the right to come back today for the final day of play in the tournament. Some others, however, weren’t as fortunate, not even making the money in the tournament. Before the money bubble popped, such names as Lex Veldhuis, Nick Schulman, Taylor Paur, Jean “Prince” Gaspard, Justin Bonomo and Liv Boeree would head to the rail with nothing to show for their $10K buy-ins.
It wasn’t until well after the dinner break that the money bubble popped. After Canada’s Sam Chartier made a raise, Ryan D’Angelo pushed his stack in from the big blind. Chartier made the call, tabling his pocket Jacks against D’Angelo’s A♣ K♠, and the race was on. The board wouldn’t cooperate with D’Angelo, coming down ten high, to knock him out in the unlucky 49th place slot.
After that, the players began to stream from the Amazon Room. Joseph Elpayaa, Dimitar Danchev, Jonathan Duhamel, Marvin Rettenmaier and Chartier would all depart before play was stopped at slightly past 1AM this morning, leaving 27 players in contention for this championship.
The United Kingdom’s Christopher Brammer will be at the head of the pack, with Barshak holding the second place slot, but a host of big names will be looking to take them down today. Nick Maimone (third, 1.003 million chips), Carter Phillips (4th, 928K), 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Timothy Adams, Andrew Lichtenberger and Roberto Romanello (hunting poker’s “Triple Crown”) are in the Top Ten, while Jason Mercier, Kyle Julius, Layne Flack, Eugene Katchalov and Tony Hachem lurk down the leaderboard.
The champion of this event will be well compensated for his three days of play. The WSOP bracelet and $1,136,197 will be awarded tonight and the top eight places all earn a six figure cash.
Event #58 – $3000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo – Day Two
526 players started this event on Tuesday but only 173 were back to continue the battle during yesterday’s Day Two play. Just like Event #57, they were tasked with getting to the money and getting to the final table. Considering the split pot nature of PLO8, however, the second one was going to be highly unlikely.
From the bell, the eliminations from the tournament were rapid, with Allen Kessler, Bruno Fitoussi, Jennifer Tilly, Chip Jett, Tony Cousineau and Huck Seed left during the first level of the day. They were soon followed by Humberto Brenes, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Mike Matusow and David Bach, all gone before the remaining players would step away for dinner.
Following some sustenance, only five players were left to pop the money bubble. The defending champion of the event, Nick Binger, was one of those who would depart at this time, but the bubble proved to be stubborn as the players battled it out for well over an hour before the 54 cashers were determined just after 11PM.
Over the next two hours, the field would be whittled down to the 31 contenders who will come back today to determine the champion. Felicia Johnico holds the lead with 397K in chips, but Yuval Bronshtein, David “ODB” Baker, and Chris Bell are in the Top Ten. Bryan Devonshire and Antoine Saout both have six figure stacks just outside the Top Ten, while Antony Lellouche and Scotty Nguyen will have some work to do today to drive deeper into the tournament.
When (if?) the victor is determined tonight, the survivor will walk off with the WSOP bracelet and $330,277 in cash for their efforts.
Event #59 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em – Day 1A
You might think that some of the bigger name players would be taking this event off to prepare for the Championship Event, but that wasn’t the case. Perhaps looking to get a taste for the marathon that will be the $10K, several top pros were in action among the 1740 players who turned up for Day 1A of Event #59.
One of Europe’s top young players, Dominik Nitsche, battled through the day to take the second place slot behind Ronald Lee. Many of the eyes in the Brasilia Room, however, were focused on Phil Ivey as he makes a potential drive towards a record-setting sixth final table at this year’s WSOP. Ivey is just off the Top Ten in eleventh with 50K in chips. Leo Margets, Terrence Chan, Konstantin Puchkov and Joanne “J. J.” Liu are also in the mix.
The 256 survivors now have a day off to see how many players will join them on Friday. Day 1B of this tournament kicks off at noon today and will play the same amount of time that Day 1A played.
Event #60 – $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball World Championship – STARTING TODAY
For those looking to get some last minute action before the start of the Championship Event on Saturday, Event #60 (the next to last event on the WSOP schedule) will begin at 5PM. 126 players took on this difficult poker variation in 2011, with John Juanda taking the championship down over Phil Hellmuth to secure his fifth WSOP bracelet. This tournament should be replete with big name players looking for their final “big score” as the 2012 World Series of Poker reaches its penultimate event.
