If its “Colossus” tournament wasn’t enough for players and fans around the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, the 2015 World Series of Poker had three other tournaments that might have captured someone’s fancy. In these tournaments, a player was denied a bracelet after dominating the final table, one of Hollywood’s elite will take on the professional poker ranks and there’s still some work to be done before a champion can be crowned.
Event #2 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em
20 players came back on Friday to (originally) work down to the nine-handed WSOP final table and there was something for everyone along the rail. Former World Champion Greg Merson was in the hunt for his third bracelet while online notables David ‘Doc’ Sands and Kevin ‘ImaLuckSac’ MacPhee were also in the mix. The old guard was represented by Nam Le (short stacked in 20th place) and the leader of the tournament, 76-year old Carl Westcott, as the cards hit the air on Friday afternoon.
The action was rapid as, within the first three hours of play, the final nine players had been determined (among those eliminated were MacPhee, Alex Bolotin, Barry Hutter, Lee, Westcott and Sands in tenth) and a decision had to be made. The original plan for the final nine players to come back on Saturday to play out the final table was dumped in favor of playing it out on Friday. Thus, after a short break, the nine men returned to “The Mothership” to battle it out for a WSOP bracelet with Merson holding a slim lead over Kenney.
After the departure of Byron Kaverman in ninth place, a big hand would develop that saw another player leave the game in cruel fashion. After three betting Merson and getting a call, Long Nguyen would bet out on a J-K-A flop and saw Merson once again simply call. Another Jack came on the turn and Nguyen continued his aggression by moving all in. Merson immediately made the call and, when the cards came up, it was a stunner of a hand: Merson’s pocket Jacks were behind Nguyen’s pocket Aces on the flop (with both catching a set) but miraculously had caught the case Jack to take the lead in the hand. A thunderstruck Nguyen could only watch as a King came on the river to improve him to Aces full of Kings, but still not enough to beat Merson’s quad Jacks.
Merson’s unlikely elimination of Nguyen would fail to keep him in the lead, however. An active Kenney would take over the lead by the start of Level 25 (15K/30K blinds, 5K ante) and would work out to 6.105 million in chips by the dinner break. In comparison to the other three men on the table at that point – Merson, Artur Koren and Michael Wang – Kenney had all three covered by almost a 2:1 margin. After Kenney eliminated both Merson and Koren (in fourth and third places, respectively), he went to heads up play with a mountainous 9.245 million chips against Wang’s miniscule 1.31 million.
Wang wasn’t ready to coronate Kenney the champion, earning a double up only four hands into play to pick up some much needed chips. Ten hands in, Wang had drawn within 2 million chips of Kenney and, after another ten hands, the chip stacks were virtually identical. On Hand 166, Wang would flop a straight against Kenney to take over the lead and the very next hand would end the tournament.
While still stacking chips from taking over the lead, Wang looked at his hand and popped in a raise that was called by Kenney. A K♥ Q♥ 8♣ flop greeted the men, leading to a check from Kenney and a bet out of Wang. Kenney awoke with a check-raise to 415K and Wang made the call to see a 9♦ fall on the turn. Kenney led out this time and, after Wang simply called, the duo would see a 10♥ land on the river. Kenney pulled out another bullet, but Wang went over him with an all-in move that sent Kenney into the tank. Kenney would eventually make the call, tabling his 9♥ 6♥ for a baby flush, but Wang had the goods with a better J♥ 2♥ for a bigger flush to capture the WSOP bracelet.
1. Michael Wang, $466,120
2. Bryn Kenney, $287,870
3. Artur Koren, $208,177
4. Greg Merson, $152,126
5. Jason Wheeler, $112,339
6. Amir Lehavot, $83,838
7. Joe Ebanks, $63,210
8. Long Nguyen, $48,137
9. Byron Kaverman, $37,030
Event #3 – $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo Eights or Better
Befitting the split-pot nature of the tournament, there is still quite a bit of work to do in Event #3. While the 918 player field had been cut to 373 runners for Day 2 on Friday, they could only reach 49 players by the end of play yesterday, meaning it could be a long day on Saturday for the Omaha players.
It wasn’t until after the dinner break that the money bubble popped with the elimination of Scott Clements, guaranteeing the 117 remaining players a payday (and a note on their WSOP resume) of $2354. Players such as three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd, Steve Biliraikis and Vladimir Shchemelev picked up the minimum money, while the legendary Chris Bjorin, Gabriel Nassif, Eli Elezra, Ari Engel, Allen Cunningham, Tony Cousineau (adding onto his record for most WSOP cashes without winning a bracelet), Taylor Paur and “Miami” John Cernuto picked up bigger paychecks. When Tai Nguyen was knocked off in 50th place ($4573), the remaining 49 players bagged their chips for play on Saturday.
When they come back at 2PM on Saturday, Kelly Vandemheen will be atop the leaderboard with 466,000 in chips, far outdistancing Thomas Taylor in second with 288,000. There are some notables remaining in the pack, including Eric Crain (236,000), Robert Mizrachi (184,000) and veteran Don Zewin (165,000), and they cannot be counted out of making a run. When (if?) the champion is determined tonight, the winner will walk off with the WSOP bracelet and $251,022 in cash.
Event #4 – $3000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout
By far the most attention during Friday’s second day of the Shootout event was focused on actor/poker player James Woods, who was looking to wade through his four-handed table to join nine other players for the final table on Saturday. In a battle that outlasted every other setup for the day, Woods and WSOP bracelet winner Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk battled it out until after midnight before Woods emerged as the winner of his table and earned his ticked to the Shootout final table.
Woods will not have an easy time of it on Saturday. He will be facing a lineup of pros that also have the WSOP bracelet in their thoughts and, with a tight race among the chip stacks due to the Shootout nature of the tournament, it will be anyone’s tournament to take:
1. Nick Petrangelo, 474,000
2. Andreas Hoivold, 472,000
3. David Peters, 467,000
4. James Woods, 462,000
5. Brian Lemke, 460,000
5. (tie) Derek Bowers, 460,000
7. Loni Harwood, 446,000
8. Jeffrey Griffiths, 445,000
9. Leo Wolpert, 444,000
10. Jason Les, 443,000
The final table will gather together at 2PM (Vegas time) to resume the festivities, with everyone already comfortable in the fact they have a minimum of $13,150 in their pockets. The endgame for all, however, is capturing the WSOP bracelet and the $201,812 that awaits this tournament’s eventual champion.
