The 2014 World Series of Poker has hit the quarter pole as Wednesday marked the tenth day of the 42-day summertime grind in Las Vegas. There will be two more bracelets handed out on Thursday as those tournaments sit at their final tables, ready for their “close-up” that will determine the champion.
Event #12 – $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em – Day Two
69 players waltzed back into the Amazon Room at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino on Wednesday with dreams of championship glory floating through their heads. David Martirosyan was the lead dog as the day started out, but he was being hunted by big name pros such as Joseph Cheong, Phil Collins, Keven Stammen and defending champion Barny Boatman. There was some rather messy business to take care of first, though, as the field determined the 58 players who would take home some cash from the tournament.
Boatman was one of those early casualties as he ran his 10-6 into Jesse Yaginuma’s pocket Aces on a 3-10-2 flop to leave the Rio empty handed. After an hour of play, two players – Geffrey Klein and Jacob Bazeley – were eliminated on the same hand-for-hand play to split the 58th place money and send the remainder of the field to the cash. After the popping of the money bubble, the parade of players to the cashier’s cage began in earnest.
Tony Cousineau (54th place for $2872, his 60th lifetime cash at the WSOP), Marvin Rettenmaier (53rd), Ryan D’Angelo (50th), Anthony Gregg (making the pay jump to $3421 with his 45th place finish), Cheong (40th) and Stammen (37th) would all be a part of that procession as new contenders moved into position. By the time the tournament was down to three tables, such names as Phil Ivey, Dylan Linde, Tom McCormick and Collins were still around for the fight but were looking up at chip leader Dean Bui.
Linde would be a quick elimination following the redraw, falling in 24th place, while Ivey’s demise was much more painful. On a K-6-3 flop, Ivey and Anton Smirnov were the only players left to contest the pot after Smirnov called an Ivey bet. On the ten turn, Smirnov check-called another bullet from the nine-time WSOP bracelet winner and, when a deuce hit the river, checked again. Ivey moved all in and Smirnov once again called. Ivey turned up his pocket sixes for the flopped set but was stunned to see that Smirnov caught a set of his own on the turn with his pocket tens, sending Ivey to the rail in 22nd place.
After Kazu Oshima eliminated Dominic Rossookh in 19th place, the final 18 redrew for new tables and the fight continued. Smirnov would knock off another player, Benton Blakeman, in 16th place as Oshima took the lead from Bui just before the players went to dinner. Oshima ramped up his aggression after the sustenance, moving up over the half million chip mark as the final eleven men strived to reach the final table.
By the time the final break of the Day Two action was reached, the tournament was one elimination away from setting the official final table. That was achieved when Smirnov’s pocket eights were caught by Collins’ Big Slick after a King hit the flop. Rather than stop for the night following Smirnov’s departure, the nine men played on to the end of the tenth level of the day.
The final elimination of the night would occur on one of the final hands of the night and crown a new chip leader. After a raise from Oshima, Gregory Kolo flat-called on the button and Dan Goldman came along from the small blind. Collins, in the big blind, wasn’t ready to let his action go and pumped the pot for a 120K bet. Oshima got out of the way but Kolo potted Collins’ action, Goldman stepped aside and Collins called off the Kolo bet. When the hands were revealed, it was a cooler for Collins.
His pocket Queens, looking so good with the action pre-flop in front of Collins, was the underdog to Kolo’s pocket Kings and it didn’t get any better post-flop. A King was in the window, leaving Collins drawing to runner-runner Queens to best him. An eight on the turn ended the hand and, following a meaningless river, Kolo knocked out Collins in ninth place to take over the chip lead.
1. Gregory Kolo, 663,000
2. Kazu Oshima, 425,000
3. Dan Goldman, 335,000
4. Ryan Schoonbaert, 322,000
5. David Martirosyan, 266,000
6. Ahmed Amin, 242,000
7. Dean Bui, 151,000
8.Tom McCormick, 137,000
Action continues on Thursday afternoon in Event #12, with the eventual champion taking down a $169,225 first place bounty and the WSOP bracelet.
Event #13 – $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball – Day Two
36 players stepped back to the baize on Wednesday for the “World Championship” of No Limit Lowball with many familiar faces in the crowd. Atop the leaderboard was one of those faces, that of Jennifer Harman, who held a 133,800 chip stack to start the day. Other popular pros such as Greg Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Phil Hellmuth and Barry Greenstein were among those that were chasing the elusive Harman as the cards hit the air.
With only 12 players earning anything for their efforts from the original 87 player field, many of the short stacks came out firing with differing results. Nick Schulman and Michael Mizrachi were early departures, but George Danzer would find a double through Harman to resuscitate his stack. That hand sent Harman down the table as Brian Rast emerged as the new chip leader.
The chips continued to fly as several players held the lead at one point or another on Day Two. Ashton Griffin, Mercier and Negreanu all would take turns leading as the money bubble approached and, once Mueller and Joe Cassidy exited in twelfth and eleventh places respectively and Ashton Griffin was ousted in tenth by Larry Wright, Mercier was back atop the nine players left. By the time Abe Mosseri’s Jack-low beat Darren Elias’ paired hand, though, Negreanu would hold a slim edge over Wright as the final eight came together.
Once seated around the final table felt, Paul Volpe took command of the proceedings. He took a hand off of Negreanu to inch close to the 500K mark and, when he was able to eliminate Rep Porter in eighth place, saw his stack jump to 783,000 to take over the lead heading to Day Three action this afternoon:
1. Paul Volpe, 783,000
2. Jason Mercier, 469,000
3. Daniel Negreanu, 426,000
4. Brian Rast, 390,000
5. Larry Wright, 203,000
6. John Monnette, 169,000
7. Abe Mosseri, 162,000
This should be an exciting final table as Negreanu has plainly stated he is out to win more WSOP titles this year while Rast (a former Poker Players’ Championship winner), Mercier, Monnette, Mosseri and Wright all have WSOP gold in their trophy cases. The only player without a bracelet win is Volpe, although he has over $2.4 million in career tournament poker winnings to his credit. Play kicks back up at 2PM (Las Vegas time) as the remaining seven men decide who gets to take home the WSOP bracelet and a $253,524 payday.
