Around the bustling Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino on Friday, the 2014 World Series of Poker attempted to bring two tournaments to their final tables for play on Saturday. Both would fail, but both also should provide some excitement as they reach their conclusions later this evening.
Event #27 – $1500 H.O.R.S.E. – Day Two
144 players returned on Friday from the large 743-player field that began the event on Thursday, making it a difficult challenge for the players to reach the final table. The one thing they would reach was the money, as 80 players would take home a little something to show for their efforts in this tournament. At the start of action, Jason Risenberg held 72,600 chips for the lead but he faced challenges from a host of top pros including Huck Seed, Dutch Boyd, John Monnette and 2014 WSOP Seniors’ Champion Dan Heimiller.
With the five games of H.O.R.S.E. arguably presenting the best challenge a poker player can face, there were some early departures that were familiar faces. Phil Ivey, Matt Glantz, Xuan Liu and Mike Wattel left before the money bubble burst at the hands of Huck Seed (eliminating a player who didn’t give his name). Safe in the knowledge of having at least $2577 in their pockets, such luminaries as Andy Bloch, Barry Shulman, Chris Tryba, Richard Ashby (making the pay jump to $2798), Edward Nassif, Toto Leonidas (up to $3039) and Roland Israelashvili would all make their way to the rail prior to the dinner break.
With roughly 50 players remaining, there was still a great deal of work to do to even get close to a final table for Saturday. The field would see Jeff Shulman, “Miami” John Cernuto and Seed depart (among others) as the final three tables came together at 11PM with a tightly bunched field led by Stewart Yancik’s 255,000 in chips. Only 12 more players would be eliminated over the course of the next three hours, but they were some of the brighter stars still in the game.
Yancik would knock off Joe Cassidy in 21st place and Chris Klodnicki headed home in 19th place as the wee hours of Saturday came to the WSOP. After the two table redraw was completed with 16 players left, Monnette’s run to the final table was ended by Brandon Guss. Following Monnette’s elimination, the remaining 15 players decided against playing out the level and will instead come back on Saturday to decide the champion.
1. Kristan Lord, 475,000
2. Stewart Yancik, 468,000
3. Brandon Guss, 371,000
4. Jim Collopy, 336,000
5. Chris George, 311,000
6. Joe Villella, 287,000
7. Dutch Boyd, 209,000
8. Michele Limongi, 199,000
9. Tommy Hang, 163,000
10. Lonnie Heimowitz, 161,000
11. David “ODB” Baker, 127,000
12. Jon Turner, 113,000
13. Jared Talarico, 77,000
14. Adam Friedman, 39,000
15. Mark Gallo, 9,000
The top of the leaderboard is very close together as the top six are separated by only about 200K in chips. Then there is Boyd, looking for his third WSOP bracelet, who seems to be in a good zone at this time. You also can’t count out Baker or Turner (even though they are on the shorter stacks) to make their way into contention for the WSOP bracelet and the $230,744 that awaits the winner of this event.
Event #28 – $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em – Day Two
A star-studded 160 player field was cut down to only 66 survivors as Day Two began in Event #28 on Friday. Tony Ruberto was ahead of such names as John Juanda, Antonio Esfandiari, David ‘Chino’ Rheem and Amit Makhija as the day began. With only 18 players taking home any money from the tournament, the players aggressively attacked the day.
Phil Ivey was one of the early departures, followed soon afterwards by Di Dang, Dwyte Pilgrim and Kathy Liebert as the first hour concluded. They had more company over the next hour span as Sam Stein, Jason Mercier and 2014 WSOP bracelet winners Ted Forrest and Davidi Kitai all would meet the end of their tournament runs. It was the demise of Mike Matusow, though, that seemed to capture most of the attention.
After earlier this week being involved in a controversial “celebration penalty” that saw him unable to defend his stack late in a tournament, Matusow was this time the victim of just bad fortune. After climbing as high as 170K in chips, Matusow would double up Erik Seidel as his pocket Kings were coolered by Seidel’s pocket Aces. A few hands later, his tournament life would close when Matusow ran Big Slick into Alexander Venovski’s pocket Aces.
By the time the dinner break arrived, there were three tables remaining with Ruberto still the class of the field. He stretched that out in eliminating Benjamin Pollak during a round of Hold’em. Seidel, however, would move into the chip lead when he flopped trip fours against Ruberto as Alex Bilokur emerged as a contender in eliminating J. C. Tran. When Scott Seiver popped the money bubble in eliminating Timothy Adams, the final 18 cashers were set with Bilokur in the lead.
The pace of departures continued to be steady as the midnight hour approached. Ruberto fell at the hands of Rheem in 18th place and Rheem would do the same with Dani Stern in 17th place. Bilokur would maintain the lead, however, in knocking off Juanda in 15th place as the numbers counted down.
A big clash on one of the final hands of the day would bring about a new leader, though. Seidel would get his last chips in with pocket eights against Matt O’Donnell’s pocket Aces and the A-J-9 flop eliminated much of the drama. It would return a bit with an eight on the turn but another nine on the river sent Seidel out in 11th place. Once the unofficial final table was redrawn, the players decided to shift the final 20 minutes of the level to today’s action as O’Donnell’s victory over Seidel put him in the chip lead.
1. Matt O’Donnell, 849,000
2. David ‘Chino’ Rheem, 739,000
3. Alex Bilokur, 614,000
4. Alexander Venovski, 538,000
5. Dan Shak, 477,000
6. Ismael Bojang, 459,000
7. Pratyush Buddiga, 319,000
8. Todd Brunson, 307,000
9. Barny Boatman, 302,000
10. Richard Lyndaker, 201,000
This is arguably one of the more talented “unofficial” final tables at this point of the 2014 WSOP. One more player will have to be eliminated before it is set as these 10 men will determine who walks off with the WSOP bracelet and the $398,567 champions’ payday.
