The 2016 World Series of Poker Championship Event saw the entirety of the field come together for the first time. The 2186 players who had been fortunate enough to battle through the alphabet soup mix of Day Ones and Twos were now faced with the challenge of surviving another large field and actually making it to the money. With only 1011 players taking home any cash from the Championship Event’s $63,327,800 prize pool, more than half of those sitting in the Rio on Thursday afternoon were going to depart disappointed.
As usual with the opening hours of a lengthy tournament, the smaller stacks in “double up or bust” mode populated the early action. Martin Staszko and Hasan Habib were a part of the early movers, with Habib forcing an opponent off a hand and commenting that he’d flopped a set. The story wasn’t as good for Matt Affleck, however, as he ran his pocket Jacks into Federico Butteroni’s Big Slick that ran the pair down on a K-Q-2-9-3 board.
The news also wasn’t good for some of the former World Champions in the field. Alive on Day 3, Phil Hellmuth was only on a stack of 57,000 to start the day, which put the “Poker Brat” in a rather foul mood throughout the day. Going from “declaring war” on his opponents to tossing his cell phone in the air after having to muck a hand, Hellmuth’s torturous journey was finally ended by WSOP Circuit ring-winner Sara Hall, whose pocket Jacks were better than Hellmuth’s A-J off suit on a King-high board.
Hellmuth wasn’t the only former World Champion to find his way to the doors of the Rio on Thursday. Defending champion Joe McKeehen had arguably the cruelest beat on his way to elimination when, holding pocket Aces, he got three-time World Poker Tour champion Anthony Zinno to commit his stack with only a K-Q off suit after an 8-3-5-K flop and turn. A Queen on the river saved Zinno and took a chunk of McKeehen’s stack; moments after that, McKeehen would take tens up against Dave Farah, whose pocket Aces finished off the 2015 champion.
These two gentlemen weren’t the only notable names who would leave without anything for their time at the tables. Adrian Mateos, Vanessa Selbst, Tony Dunst, Brandon Shack-Harris and Scott Seiver were eliminated prior to the money bubble popping. Another player who many assumed would be “in the money” on Day 3, Michael Mizrachi (who started the day ninth in chips), instead was long gone when it came to crunch time.
During the last level of play for the night, the money bubble would actually burst. Pushing all in for his last 6000 in chips, Adam Furgatch and his Q-9 was looked up by George Zisimopoulos’ A-7. After the board ran out sans a Queen or a nine, Zisimopoulos’ Ace played to send Furgatch out in 1012th place ($0, although he does receive a free seat to the 2017 WSOP Championship Event) and send the survivors of the day’s action to the money.
After that action, the second flood of the day – to the payout window – occurred for the players. Such names as Scott Clements, Alex Kravchenko, Shannon Shorr, Kitty Kuo and many others picked up a little money for themselves and a new entry on their Hendon Mob resume. By the end of play early on Friday morning, only 800 players remained with Kenny Hallaert (who masterfully avoided detection throughout the day) as the chip leader.
1. Kenny Hallaert, 1.709 million
2. Jared Bleznick, 1.607 million
3. Duy Ho, 1.48 million
4. Kilian Kramer, 1.4 million
5. Mark Zullo, 1.39 million
6. Myung “Mike” Shin, 1.385 million
7. Antonio Esfandiari, 1.381 million
8. Nolan King, 1.355 million
9. Jasthi Kumar, 1.351 million
10. Farhad Jamasi, 1.302 million
(tied) Marc-Andre Ladouceur, 1.302 million
The popular professionals bubbling under the Top Ten are numerous. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (11th place, 1.266 million), Eugene Katchalov (12th, 1.235 million), Ray Dehkharghani (17th, 1.184 million), Tom Marchese (22nd, 1.135 million), Jon Turner (23rd, 1.124 million) and Antoine Saout (24th, 1.111 million) are all in the Top 25 and have the potential to mount a significant threat to the top of the leaderboard. In fact, 40 of the final 800 players are above a million chips and well primed for Day 4 action.
That Day 4 play will begin at noon in the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, setting up for a long weekend of action that will determine the next “November Nine” that will contend for the 2016 WSOP Championship Event bracelet.