One of the unique things about the 2013 World Series of Poker (and is true every year) is that it is the one event where the entirety of poker’s disciplines can be played out (especially in this day and age of all No Limit Hold’em tournament schedules). Wednesday’s action was a prime example of that as three tournaments were in different stages of their play throughout the day.
Event #11 – $2500 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em – Day Two
122 players came back on Wednesday, but only 108 of them would be able to put down a WSOP cash on their tournament resumes. Tammie Tibbles was atop the leaderboard (the first time a woman had achieved the feat this year), while short stacks such as Mike Leah and 2013 WSOP bracelet winner John Beauprez tried to make it into the money. Leah and Beauprez wouldn’t achieve that goal, but they weren’t the only ones: Thom Werthmann fell at the hands of Chris Moorman and, once Corey Burbick was zapped by Andrew Lichtenberger on the bubble, the final 108 players were determined.
From there, the field gradually began to work its way through the day. David Sklansky, Steve O’Dwyer, Erick Lindgren, Steve O’Dwyer, Andreas Hoivold, Vanessa Rousso and Humberto Brenes would all take the minimum cash of $4183, while Allen Kessler, J. C. Tran and Manuel Bevand all took the next step up. While the players streamed to the cash out cage, others made their statement for the title.
Levi Berger was extremely short at one point, all in against James Carroll, and it didn’t look good for Berger. Berger would call a six bet all in from Carroll and (naturally) saw his pocket Queens completely crushed by Carroll’s pocket Aces. The 2-7-J rainbow flop didn’t change anything, but the Queen on the turn certainly did, pushing Berger into the lead. Once no Ace came on the river, Berger was alive in the tournament and Carroll plummeted with his 97K in chips (he would eventually be eliminated in 18th place).
Berger would ride those chips to the lead, but there is still some work to do on Thursday before a winner is decided:
1. Levi Berger, 1.42 million
2. Tuan Le, 873,000
3. Scott Clements, 842,000
4. Eddy Sabat, 694,000
5. Jacob Bazeley, 638,000
6. Tammie Tibbles, 418,000
7. David Gonia, 405,000
8. Peter Turmezey, 397,000
9. Clifford Goldkind, 318,000
10. Luke Vrabel, 226,000
11. Gary Pearce, 188,000
(tied) Marcio Cid, 188,000
13. Ben Palmer, 178,000
14. Mickey Petersen, 145,000
Once the champion is determined this evening, that person will be $473,019 richer and add their name to the roster of players who can call themselves a WSOP champion.
Event #12 – $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em – Day One
After a whirlwind Day One, Robert Corcione has emerged as the Day One chip leader, with only 62 players remaining from the original 535 who stepped up on Wednesday.
With the nature of PLHE, the pros were out in force to take their shots. One table in particular had a formidable lineup of Faraz Jaka, Shannon Shorr, Kevin Vandersmissen, Alexander Puchkov, Greg Raymer and Kevin MacPhee, but none of those men would be among the survivors by the end of the night. There will be some familiar faces when the cards fly on Thursday as Jason Mercier, Allen Cunningham, Adam Geyer and Johannes Strassmann will be in the Top 25.
Running rampant over the field was Corcione, who was a deep finisher in last year’s Championship Event. He will enter Day Two sitting on a stack of 144,600, joined only by Mike Carson over the 100K mark.
1. Robert Corcione, 144,600
2. Mike Carson, 111,400
3. Blake Purvis, 94,900
4. Jeannicolas Fortin, 92,500
5. Sunny Chattha, 81,000
6. Vincent Bartello, 76,800
7. Eric Crain, 76,000
8. Pim de Goede, 74,500
9. Timothy Reilly, 66,600
10. Lev Rofman, 65,200
Only 54 of the remaining 62 players will take down a cash in this tournament, but all eyes are on the big prize that will be awarded on Friday of $166,136.
Event #13 – $5000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo – Day One
The first “big” buy in non-No Limit event of the 2013 WSOP would bring in a field of 210 players to do battle. Due to the split pot nature of the game, only 80 players would be eliminated by night’s end, leaving 130 to take up the fight today.
Former WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, John Monnette, Chris Tryba, Alexander Kostritsyn, Vanessa Selbst and Phil Ivey were some of the casualties of the day but other notable names will be in action on Day Two. Gavin Smith was able to bag up 51,900 in chips (good for fourth place), while David Bach, Mike Leah, Maria Ho, Matt Glantz and Farzad Bonyadi are also alive in a tightly bunched field that is led by Matt Woodward.
1. Matt Woodward, 59,700
2. Yuval Bronshtein, 57,200
3. Ilya Gorodetskiy, 56,300
4. Gavin Smith, 51,900
5. Matt Lefkowitz, 50,300
6. David Bach, 49,700
7. Toby Hausen, 49,300
8. Sanjay Pandya, 49,000
9. Kevin Vo, 48,500
10. Mike Leah, 46,900
The nearly million dollar prize pool will be chopped up amongst the top 24 finishers, with the champion taking home the WSOP gold and $266,503 for three days of work.
Starting Today – Event #14 – $1500 No Limit Hold’em
Another $1500 No Limit event is the only tournament scheduled for action on today’s WSOP roster, but it should bring out the players in droves. The Six Handed version of this tournament that concluded Sunday drew out 1069 players and it can be expected that the numbers for Event #14 will top that due to the “normal” format of play.
