The 2015 World Series of Poker, like the venerable riverboats of yore on the Mississippi River, is steaming into its third weekend of action. On the schedule for Saturday is the completion of one event that was carried over from Friday night alongside two tournaments which will crown a champion on Saturday.
Event #24: $1500 H.O.R.S.E.
The 772 player field had been whittled down to the final 31 players by the time action started on Friday with Mike Watson looking to shake the title of “best player to never have won a WSOP bracelet.” His 634,000 in chips were slightly ahead of Arash Ghaneian (with 601K) and both men held a nice advantage over David Levi in third with 481,000. Down the roster of contenders were such names as Ted Forrest, Brandon Cantu and a short-stacked 14-time WSOP bracelet winner, Phil Hellmuth.
While he might have had visions of #15, there was little to no chance Hellmuth was going to do it on this day. His 51,000 in chips slipped through his fingers quickly, becoming the first player eliminated on the day only about a half-hour into play. Hellmuth was followed out the door by Omar Mehmood (26th place) and Esther Taylor-Brady (25th place) before the first level of the day was completed.
As the blinds and antes rose, so did the number of casualties. Lonnie Heimowitz (24th place), Steve Sung (22nd place) and Ian Johns (21st place) were the next players out the door as the tournament worked its way down to the final two tables. At this point, a short-stacked Cantu started a charge that saw his chip stack rise from only 70K to 440,000 in the matter of moments to give him a decent stack as the blinds rose again.
During the final level before the dinner break, there was action aplenty on both patches of felt. As fast as he rocketed up from the short stack, Cantu would plummet to earth in 13th place, losing his final chips to Ronald Schiffman when Cantu’s Ace was outkicked by Schiffman’s in the Hold’em round. Still, the tournament wouldn’t reach the final table before dinner as 11 players went to dinner with dreams of WSOP gold in their heads.
Coming back from dinner, Levi would take down Stuart Rutter in 11th place in Omaha Hi/Lo and Jeffrey Mitseff would send Jason Gola out in 10th in Stud Hi/Lo to bring the final nine men together at the “unofficial” final table. It would take nearly two hours to find the final table “bubble boy” and, once Mike Wattel was eliminated by Robert Campbell in ninth as the clock approached midnight, Ghaneian was on the point with more than two million of the chips in play.
By this point in the tournament, the blinds and antes were eating into every player’s stack, so there was still hope that the tournament would conclude as scheduled. That would prove to be the
case for the first two-thirds of the field as they were dispatched to the cashiers’ cage rather rapidly. The final three – Ghaneian, Levi and Campbell – would essentially shuffle the chips between each other as the WSOP curfew bell rung, but not until Campbell had picked up the lead.
1. Robert Campbell, 2.67 million
2. Arash Ghaneian, 2.27 million
3. David Levi, 855,000
These three men will be back on Saturday afternoon at 1PM (Vegas time), with the eventual champion walking off with the WSOP bracelet and $239,750 in cash.
Event #25 – $5000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em
In what turned out to be a relatively short day, the final table in Event #25, the $5000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, was determined in slightly more than four hours of play on Friday. The final table will line up with a talented cast of notable names as well as newcomers who are looking to make their name.
23 players came back on Friday with Tyler Cornell atop the leaderboard and a host of big names looking to hunt him down. Unfortunately some of those big names, such as 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (22nd place), Ty Reiman (21st), Michael Kamran (20th) and Jesse Sylvia (18th) were gone before the first break of the day. Once Sergey Rybachenko was vanquished in 17th place by Dominik Nitsche, the final two tables were determined.
Drawing ever closer to the final table, it was thought the action would slow. Instead, the players slung chips around the Amazon Room as if there were another poker tournament they’d rather be playing in. Joseph Cheong (16th place), Valentin Vornicu (15th) and Carroll (11th) left during the hour after the redraw and, once Ronald Lee was knocked out in ninth place courtesy of Jonathan Jaffee, the final table was set:
1. Pierre Milan, 3.031 million
2. Jonathan Jaffee, 2.205 million
3. Jonathan Little, 2.039 million
4. Jeffrey Tomlinson, 1.363 million
5. Dan O’Brien, 1.095 million
6. Anthony Zinno, 908,000
7. Andrius Bielskis, 905,000
8. Dominik Nitsche, 861,000
The final table features a team of previously unheard of poker players – Milan, Tomlinson and Bielskis – squaring off against a formidable roster of young professionals. Nitsche himself has three WSOP bracelets and is used to this type of pressure while Zinno, Jaffee and Little have World Poker Tour championships to their credit. It will be interesting to see which emerges on top – the “unknowns” or the “pros” – as the cards hit the air this afternoon at 1PM.
Event #27 – $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship
While only 91 players entered this tournament on Thursday, it was a stellar field of survivors who came back on Friday to continue the action. 51 players still had hope in Event #27, headed by Bryn Kenney on the pole position, while a veritable “Who’s Who” of poker were looking to take him down. Justin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Viacheslav Zhukov and Andrey Zaichenko (among others) were back in the pack to provide plenty of challenges.
With only 16 players taking anything home for their efforts, there was a great desire by pretty much the entire field to not finish worse than sixteenth. Unfortunately, players such as David Bach and former WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela would fall before reaching those final two tables, meaning that there would be one more player who would come back after dinner that wouldn’t be very pleased. It would take almost an hour following dinner before Kenney, the former chip leader, saw his final cards in 17th place to finish out of the money.
The final two tables featured strong poker players in every seat. Brian Hastings ruled over Rep Porter, Cory Zeidman and Mike Gorodinsky (runner-up to Hellmuth in Razz a few days ago) at one table while Scott Clements had 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Max Pescatori, Dan Kelly and two Davids – Chiu and Steicke – to deal with. Over the next three hours players such as Aleksandr Denisov (15th place), Steicke (14th), Smith (13th), Chiu (11th) and Porter (10th) would fall before Dan Kelly set up today’s final table by eliminating Gorodinsky in ninth place.
1. Brian Hastings, 770,000
2. John Thrower, 426,000
3. Mikhail Semin, 399,000
4. Scott Clements, 384,000
5. Chris George, 251,000
6. Max Pescatori, 207,000
7. Dan Kelly, 172,000
8. Oxana Cummings, 128,000
Play will resume at 1PM and play down to a champion, who will receive the WSOP bracelet to celebrate the Seven Card Stud world title and the $239,518 that goes along with the championship.
