As Vanessa Selbst was making history at the 2014 World Series of Poker on Friday, two other tournaments worked their way down to their final day of action. In one of the multitude of $1000 No Limit events, Kyle Cartwright will take the survivors to Day Three as the leader while Phil Galfond is atop the 12 men who cashed in the $10,000 Lowball tournament.
Event #4 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em – Day Two
186 players returned on Friday for action in Event #4 with the knowledge that they would receive at least $1981 for their efforts. With such a massive number returning from the 2224 player field, it was unlikely that they would reach the final table by the end of the night, but that didn’t stop the players from trying. By the dinner break, the field had been whittled down to only 33 players who would be in contention for the Event #4 WSOP bracelet.
Among the players who were part of the parade from the Rio during the afternoon were several notable names. Tristan Wade (145th, $2161), Amanda Musumeci (128th, $2401 after coming into Day Two as a severely short stack), Olivier Busquet (127th, $2401), Kevin Eyster (115th, $2401), Lauri Pesonen (68th, $4123), Joseph Elpayaa (63rd, $4843), Phil Collins (49th, $5744), Andrew Lichtenberger (46th, $5744), Jimmy Fricke (44th, $6905), Russell Thomas (42nd, $6905) and Shawn Rice (37th, $6905) all bought tickets for that parade as the dinner bell rang.
The carpet in the Amazon Room continued to get worn out as the numbers continued to fall in Event #4. Canada’s Mark Radoja’s shot at a third WSOP bracelet was derailed when he dropped in 29th place and, after a redraw for the final three tables, Jamie Kerstetter was eliminated by Steve Chanthabouasy in 27th place for a $10,308 payday. Tom Koral would depart in 16th place for a $12,830 and, as the final knockout of the night, Jeff Gross headed home in 13th place with $16,132 in his pocket.
The top of the leaderboard is packed tightly together, giving no one a clear advantage over the remaining 12 players:
1. Kyle Cartwright, 973,000
2. Daniel Dizenzo, 912,000
3. Ylon Schwartz, 832,000
4. Jeremy Dresch, 672,000
5. Blake Barousse, 634,000
6. Steve Chanthabouasy, 631,000
7. Robert Kuhn, 533,000
8. Michael Sortino, 422,000
9. Matthew O’Donnell, 406,000
10. Ken Weinstein, 261,000
11. Jason Paster, 234,000
12. Geoffrey Mooney, 163,000
The players will reconvene at 1PM (Las Vegas time) to determine a champion in Event #4, with the winner walking off with the $360,435 in cash and a shiny WSOP bracelet as their reward.
Event #5 – $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball – Day Two
52 players came back for another day of lowball action on Friday but 40 of those players would be unhappy with the trip back to the Rio. With 120 players signing up for the event, only 12 players would be able to claim a piece of the $1.128 million prize pool. With this in mind, there was a bit more aggression on the felt as players looked to chip their way up the leaderboard to Mike Peltekci, the Day One chip leader.
Jennifer Harman got out of the gates fast as, on one of the first hands of the day, she was able to nail the nuts (7-5-4-3-2) on her first draw and get some chips out of George Danzer on the way. As the two-time WSOP bracelet winner chipped up to 48K, four-time WSOP bracelet winner and former WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider staked his claim to the chip lead. After drawing two, two and one card, Schneider made a 9-7-5-4-2 low to pick up chips from Calvin Anderson and Mikail Tulchinskiy to push up to 182K in chips and the chip lead.
The news wasn’t as good for other top pros amongst the runners on Friday. Mike Watson, Ali Eslami, Shawn Sheikhan, Doyle Brunson and Scott Clements would find their way to the rail only about two hours into play as Schneider lost his lead to Sergey Rybachenko. Rybachenko would extend his lead in eliminating Peltekci, standing pat for the three draws on his 8-7-6-4-2 while Peltekci couldn’t muster anything to combat it.
As the dinner hour approached, Galfond would make his presence known in ripping his way to the chip lead through Todd Brunson. After both players stood pat on their final draws, Galfond pushed a bet into a nice sized pot and Brunson couldn’t find any way to make the call. With the hand, Galfond became the new chip leader with 320K in chips and Brunson, knocked down to only 10,500 in chips, would be eliminated soon thereafter.
With 18 players coming back from the dinner break, Galfond was summarily greeted with a table redraw that “only” featured Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, Matthew Ashton, Danzer and Rybachenko. Danzer would take over the chip lead in eliminating Greenstein, but Galfond responded by crippling Ashton in making the nut low to move over the 400K mark in chips. That lead was short lived as, on one of the other two tables, Justin Bonomo used an 8-7-5-4-2 to knock Tulchinskiy out of the tournament and blast past 565K in chips.
When Schneider was able to best John Hennigan, the tournament was down to the money bubble. For an hour and a half, the professionals put on a display of poker that is rare to see. Several were able to stave off elimination on many occasions as the chip lead fluctuated around the final three tables. Once Jason Mercier defeated Schneider (after both players had a ten, but Schneider had another ten to go with it) in 13th place ($0), the final two tables were set for Saturday’s play:
1. Phil Galfond, 520,000
2. Alexandre Luneau, 430,000
3. Tuan Le, 375,000
4. Justin Bonomo, 340,000
5. Michael Chow, 330,000
6. Jon Turner, 315,000
7. Jason Mercier, 250,000
8. Eli Elezra, 245,000
9. Nick Schulman, 235,000
10. George Danzer, 190,000
11. David Benyamine, 180,000
12. Sergey Rybachenko, 95,000
With the blinds at 3000/6000 when the players return on Saturday, the action early on Saturday will be key to watch. Can Galfond extend his lead over the pack? Can Bonomo, Mercier or Schulman (who was down to two bets at one point on Friday) continue to make their charge up the leaderboard? And, in an interesting sidelight, there is still the potential for a repeat champion as Elezra (the winner of this tournament last year when it was a $2500 buy-in) lurks in the pack. It should make for an exciting afternoon – and evening – of poker as the first weekend of the 2014 World Series of Poker kicks off.
