Two tournaments at the 2012 World Series of Poker were slogging through their fields on Thursday, with one of those events reaching its final 18 players and the second tournament finishing just short of the money bubble.
Event #27 – $1500 H.O.R.S.E. – Day Two
165 players returned on Thursday, looking to whittle the field down to the 96 players who would take home some cash for the tournament and getting as close to the final table as possible by the end of the evening. Leading the way for the players was Karle “Skip” Wilson, but plenty of professional players, including Daniel Idema, Allen Cunningham, Huck Seed and Chip Jett (to name a few) were in pursuit of both the cash and the opportunity to play on Day Three today.
The early action saw several notable names, sitting on their short stacks, soon walking out of the Rio without anything to show for their efforts. Ivo Donev, Max Pescatori, Alex Bolotin, Jason Mercier and Marcel Luske would depart before the money bubble burst when Anthony Dick knocked off Andrew Prock in Stud to bring the field to the cash.
Over the span of the next eight and a half hours, the field would work its way down to the final 18 who will come back today for action. In the last half hour, 2008 “November Niner” Ylon Schwartz would make a stirring charge towards the front of the field, knocking off David Williams and Nick Kost to catapult over the 400K chip mark. On one of the last hands of the night, Jett would be eliminated in nineteenth place to set the stage for Friday’s action.
1. Ylon Schwartz, 416,000
2. Brandon Guss, 368,000
3. Sanjay Pandya, 353,000
4. Robert Rasmussen, 315,000
5. Benjamin Lukas, 285,000
6. Elior Sion, 282,000
7. Jason Brown, 267,000
8. Bryce Yockey, 265,000
Although they aren’t in the Top Eight (the number of players at a H.O.R.S.E. table), Zimnan Ziyard, David Chiu, Cliff Josephy, Rep Porter and Cunningham are still in the mix. They will have their work cut out for them if they are to take the winner’s prize of $267,081 and the WSOP bracelet, however.
Event #28 – $2500 Four Handed No Limit Hold’em – Day One
A new event on the 2012 WSOP schedule, the Four Handed No Limit Hold’em event, looked to be one for the “action junkies” in the Rio and it didn’t fail to deliver. By the time late registration for the event had completed, 750 players had put up their buy in to create a slightly more than $1.7 million prize pool.
The field was replete with pros looking to earn some WSOP jewelry for their wrists, but many would fall victim to the action-packed four handed game. Daniel Negreanu, Praytush Buddiga, Layne Flack, Melanie Weisner, Allen Bari and Terrence Chan all would be gone within the first three hours of play. As the night wore on, the question of whether the field would pop the money bubble by the end of Day One became an extreme possibility.
As the WSOP ten round curfew hit, the players just barely missed making the cash out level. 86 players will return on Friday, with six players that come back not getting anything for another trip to the Rio’s tournament rooms. The Top Ten will line up as such when the cards hit the air this afternoon:
1. Steve Weiss, 171,000
2. Brian Rast, 168,400
3. Tony Dunst, 162,800
4. Sam Stein, 154,200
5. Jason Koon, 139,000
6. Shankar Pillai, 130,000
7. Darryll Fish, 125,700
8. Mustapha Kanit, 121,200
9. John Andress, 119,400
10. Daniel Hirleman, 116,000
Bubbling under the Top Ten are players such as Lex Veldhuis (17th, 102,200), Joe Tehan (19th, 96,600), poker “Triple Crown” holder Jake Cody (21st, 91,800), and Nick Schulman (22nd, 91,700). At the bottom of the table, Annette Obrestad, Mohsin Charania and Humberto Brenes will have to see if they can charge from the short stacks to make a decent profit off of the tournament, not unimaginable considering the action packed four handed format.
The championship for Event #28 will be determined on Saturday, with one fortunate individual taking down $392,476 and the WSOP bracelet for their three days of work.
Two events are slated for their Day One action on Friday. One of the more popular tournaments on the WSOP schedule, the $1000 Seniors’ No Limit Hold’em Championship, begins at noon, while those under the age of 50 will have the $1500 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw event for their entertainment. It promises to be another action packed day at the 2012 WSOP as the third weekend of action commences.