While it was expected that the first bracelet of the 2014 World Series of Poker would be awarded on Wednesday, the WSOP curfew put the kibosh on that. Instead, the Casino Employees’ Event will finish off on Thursday as the $25,000 Mixed Max tournament heads into its Day Three play.
Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees’ Event
After blitzing through the 876 player field on Tuesday, there were still 51 players left when the Casino Employees’ Event came back to the felt on Wednesday. Similar to the rapid pace of Day One’s action, Day Two started off fast also, with the final three tables of players being determined within only three hours of play. After another five hours of play, the elimination of Cameron Tullis in tenth place set up the final table for the first tournament of the 2014 WSOP.
That’s where the brakes were hit on the tournament as the championship contenders slugged it out for the remainder of the day’s action. With Corey Emery atop the field with his half million in chips, it would take 30 hands to bring the table down to just six players. Emery and John Taylor were the most active players during this timeframe, with both of them jousting for the lead before giving it up to Charles Nguyen.
Taylor would choose the wrong moment to take on Nguyen as, on Hand 77, he pushed all in off the button. After the small blind got out of the way, Nguyen woke up with pocket sevens and had a decision to make. After making the call, Nguyen saw that he had made the right decision; Taylor was on a steal attempt with a measly 4-2 off suit and, while the flop brought a deuce to keep some interest, Taylor couldn’t find anything else to go with his hand and departed the Rio in fifth place.
Nguyen would lose the lead to a charging Roland Reparejo by the end of Level 20 as Reparejo quietly dominated his three opponents. By that break, Reparejo held 1.157 million in chips while his three competitors – Nguyen, Emery and Olivier Doremus – barely could combine their chips to have a larger stack. It would take well over 100 hands after Taylor’s departure before Doremus was eliminated in fourth place at the hands of Emery and, once Emery eliminated Nguyen in third, heads up play was set with Reparejo holding a 2:1 lead over Emery.
The twosome would only play a handful of deals, but the last one was important. Reparejo called a raise from Emery and the duo saw a 7-8-3 flop. After two checks, a King on the turn brought about a bet from Emery of 75K and a call from Reparejo. On the six river, Reparejo suddenly awoke and moved all-in against Emery and, after a count, Emery called and showed a K-10 for top pair. Reparejo had nailed the river, however, with his pocket sixes for a set to get a key double up. Following the completion of that hand, officials paused the action for the day with the stacks looking like this:
Roland Reparejo, 1.795 million
Corey Emery, 735,000
The two men will return at 2PM this afternoon (Las Vegas time), where the first bracelet will be awarded along with an $82,835 payday.
Event #2 – $25,000 Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em – Day 2
The final sixteen contenders (also the same number that will cash in the tournament) have been determined in the first “high profile” event of the 2014 WSOP, the $25,000 Mixed Max event. Al Decarolis heads an all-star field with his 1.261 million in chips, but 2013 “November Niner” J. C. Tran and Vanessa Selbst are within 40K chips of knocking him off his perch.
60 players returned from the 131 player starting field on Wednesday with Selbst and Brian Rast holding down the top two slots. After playing Day One in the traditional nine-handed format, Day Two would see the players switch to the six-handed format that guarantees more action between the competitors. That action developed early as, within an hour of the opening gun, Tim West, Bill Klein, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McCormick and Joey Weissman would head to the rails.
Decarolis started his run to the top after a devastating beat. Ashton Griffin would hit trip Jacks against Decarolis’ pocket Aces to drop Decarolis to only 25K in chips, but Decarolis wouldn’t be denied. Only 45 minutes after that beat, he had rebuilt his stack to 255K after doubling through Selbst. He would cruise for a while at that point before clashing with (and knocking out) Anthony Gregg to push his stack up to 750K.
Selbst wasn’t sitting on her laurels as, while Decarolis was making his upwards charge, Selbst cracked the one million mark in chips to maintain her lead. By the time that Robert Tepper eliminated John Juanda on the bubble in 17th place, however, Decarolis had inched past Selbst to take the lead heading to Day Three:
1. Al Decarolis, 1.261 million
2. J. C. Tran, 1.251 million
3. Vanessa Selbst, 1.224 million
4. Jason Mo, 1.214 million
5. Calvin Anderson, 812,000
6. Matt Giannetti, 676,000
7. Ryan Fee, 656,000
8. Barry Hutter, 524,000
9. Darren Elias, 506,000
10. Robert Tepper, 490,000
11. Aaron Jones, 306,000
12. Richard Lyndaker, 213,000
13. Nick Schulman, 207,000
14. Kevin Song, 198,000
15. Noah Schwartz, 193,000
16. Brian Green, 145,000
The final sixteen players will play Day Three in the four-handed format and some interesting draws were pulled. Tran and Selbst will have to do battle against each other on one table while Decarolis will contend with Giannetti, Hutter and Fee on his patch of felt. Mo and Anderson will square off against each other and, in one of the more interesting draws, the four short stacks of Green, Schulman, Song and Jones will see who survives. Everyone at this point is guaranteed a $54,945 payday, but the eyes of many are on the $871,148 up top and, of course, the cherished WSOP bracelet.
