Ah, it seems like yesterday when over 22,000 entries were racked up for “The Colossus” at the 2015 World Series of Poker. Last night the field was cut down to the final 39 players as, in the very same Amazon Room, the players in the Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship reached the edge of their final table.
Event $5 – “The Colossus”
With 506 players returning for Day 3 of “The Colossus,” there was still a great deal of work to be done before anyone could start thinking about the REAL money in the tournament. Perhaps one player who could at least entertain the thought was chip leader and seven-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Valentine Vornicu, who was the only player over the million chip mark with his 1.237 million stack. Due to the rapid pace of the tournament and the aggression of the opposition, Vornicu had to feel particularly vulnerable as the horse out in front.
The field continued its pace from the previous two days of play, basically cutting anyone to ribbons and making some thin plays along the way. For example, in one of the last hands of the night Shivanraif Abdine made a raise and Wing Wong reraised out of the small blind, which was called by Abdine. Wong would bet out on a 6♥ 10♣ 5♣ flop only to see Abdine push all in over the top of Wong’s bet. Commenting, “I don’t think I can lay this down” (the prime indicator someone has pocket Aces), Wong made the call and tabled…pocket Aces. Abdine could only show a J♣ 7♣ that pre-flop was thin but now had a shot against Wong. No help came for Abdine on the turn but a Q♣ on the river sent the more than four million chip pot to Abdine’s side of the felt.
Abdine’s late night heroics barely get him into the Top Ten, however. That list is headed by a known pro in Ray Henson while the remainder of the field is pretty much an unknown commodity:
1. Ray Henson, 7.42 million
2. Aditya Prasetyo, 6.88 million
3. David Farber, 5.625 million
4. Ibrahim Naim, 5.29 million
5. Billy Graybeal, 5.005 million
6. Frank Williams, 4.36 million
7. Lance Garcia, 4.05 million
8. Shivanraif Abdine, 4.02 million
9. Jose Cavazos, 3.9 million
10. Paul Lentz, 3.75 million
While many of these names are a mystery to most, there are some notable pros still slugging it out in the pack. Belgium’s Kenny Hallaert is in the mix with his 2.99 million in chips while last year’s WSOP Asia/Pacific High Roller champion Mike Leah hangs with 2.225 million chips. Even the short stack in the tournament, the Netherlands’ Janno Cazemier, still has hope with his 1.115 million chip stack.
“The Colossus” will resume at 2PM today with hopes of getting to the final table of the event late tonight/early Wednesday morning.
Event #7 – $10,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship
The stars were out in the daytime once again as the crème of the tournament poker world came out for the second day of the Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship. Coming into the day’s play, Craig Hartman was holding off a throng of top professionals, including Rep Porter, Ismael Bojang, Layne Flack and Phil Galfond, to sit atop the standings. With 56 players remaining – and hopes of whittling the field to the official WSOP final table of six for this event – the players had a great deal of work ahead of them.
There was friendly banter going on between the veteran players early on Day 2, but once the event reached three tables (18 players), suddenly the joking was put aside and some serious faces were put into place. With only 12 players taking anything home for their efforts, no one wanted to take the “long walk” from the Rio with only the chit indicating that they had participated in the event. Such players as 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi, Billy Baxter and Phil Hellmuth would expire from the tournament before the bubble popped with the elimination of Alan Richardson at around 1:30AM (Vegas time).
After everyone was guaranteed a minimum payday of $22,110, the players still had some time to play out on the “10 Level Rule” (all tournaments at the WSOP will go through a maximum 10 levels per day unless there are special circumstances). In the remaining hour and a half before the ten level curfew Paul Volpe, Mark Gregorich, Viacheslav Zhukov, Greg Mueller and Bruno Fitoussi (twelfth through eighth places, respectively) were eliminated, leaving seven men (one more than the “official” final table) to come back on Tuesday to pick up where they left off.
1. Tuan Le, 1.1 million
2. Calvin Anderson, 552,000
3. Max Casal, 431,000
4. Ismael Bojang, 404,000
5. Phil Galfond, 355,000
6. Rep Porter, 303,000
7. James Obst, 207,000
Le, the defending champion of the tournament, has a significant lead but it can disappear quickly if he isn’t careful. Anderson has proven that he’s a strong non-Hold’em player despite being weaned on the online game and Galfond, Porter, Bojang and Obst have plenty of credentials to back up their games. Casal is the “wild card” in this mix; while he does have four WSOP cashes to his credit, he hasn’t had a tournament cash since 2011 (488th in the WSOP Championship Event). The unexpected could be the norm when this tournament resumes at 2PM in the Amazon Room, with the eventual champion picking up the WSOP hardware and the $322,756 first place prize.
