It is a full slate Monday at the 2014 World Series of Poker as four events pick up where they left off over the weekend and one event gets underway. Enough of the formalities, though; let’s have a quick look around the Rio to see what will be going on today.
Event #19 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Just 233 players of the original 2,086 who began the always popular $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament were still alive entering play on Sunday and after a long, long day, only a dozen remain to chase after the bracelet. After just 30 minutes yesterday, everyone left could breathe a sigh of relief as the money bubble burst and everyone was guaranteed at least a small profit for their efforts. Hiren Patel closed Day 2 as the chip leader, well ahead of everyone else with 1,873,000 chips. He got many of them as the clock ticked down the final seconds of the night when he eliminated both Max Silver (13th place) and Matt Dintonto (14th place) with Aces versus Nines versus Queens.
The $514,027 first prize and WSOP bracelet will be awarded today.
1. Hiren Patel – 1,873,000
2. Mustapha Kanit – 1,183,000
3. Ted Gillis – 1,118,000
4. Jaime Kaplan – 984,000
5. Jacobo Fernandez – 827,000
6. John Hennigan – 746,000
7. Dylan Thomassie – 692,000
8. Ron Mcmillen – 603,000
9. Gregg Merkow – 517,000
10. Dejan Divkovic – 360,000
11. Darin Stout – 272,000
12. Edison Shields – 155,000
Event #20 – $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout
The $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout Event will also see a champion crowned on Monday. The tournament began Saturday with 389 players and, as it is a shootout tourney, one player emerged from each table to compete on Day 2. Those 40 players were split into ten four-handed tables and from those, ten (naturally) made it to today’s Day 3. It is a strong final table, featuring some of poker’s best young players, including Taylor Paur and Phil Galfond. The players below are sorted by seat at the final table rather than chip count, as their stacks are so close because of the nature of the event.
Seat 1 – Chris Bell – 346,000
Seat 2 – Taylor Paur – 339,000
Seat 3 – Kory Kilpatrick – 344,000
Seat 4 – Jack Duong – 338,000
Seat 5 – Noah Bronstein – 354,000
Seat 6 – Michael Stonehill – 346,000
Seat 7 – Dylan Linde – 346,000
Seat 8 – Eric Wasserson – 345,000
Seat 9 – Narendra Banwari – 346,000
Seat 10 – Phil Galfond – 347,000
Event #21 – $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Sunday was the first day of another well-populated event, one of several $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournaments. Despite the huge field of 2,043, the tournament hit the money by the end of the night and just 168 players will return to compete this afternoon. Some big names are still in the running, including eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel (11th place), JC Tran (15th), and 2004 Main Event runner-up David Williams (45th). Dave D’Alesandro leads the way with 154,400 chips.
1. Dave D’Alesandro – 154,400
2. Bronson Tucker – 108,700
3. David Lucchesi – 107,300
4. Jonathan Neckar – 98,300
5. Thayer Rasmussen – 91,200
6. Zo Karim – 88,100
7. Jeffrey Flannery – 87,700
8. Christophe Gross – 86,000
9. Soi Nguyen – 83,700
10. Vasil Medarov – 83,100
Event #22 – $10,000 H.O.R.S.E.
The neat thing about $10,000 events is that even though the fields are usually smaller than other events (Main Event being the big exception), they are dense with strong players. The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event that began yesterday is no exception. Just look at the top ten on the leaderboard: Jeff Madsen, Greg Mueller, Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, and Michael Mizrachi are all there. 200 signed up, 121 are still alive, and just 20 get paid. Should be a good battle.
1. Jeff Madsen – 129,200
2. Greg Mueller – 121,400
3. Eric Rodawig – 112,000
4. Francesco Barbaro – 108,500
5. Jon Turner – 106,000
6. Erick Lindgren – 105,600
7. Vladimir Shchemelev – 104,600
8. Phil Hellmuth – 100,900
9. Michael Mizrachi – 98,200
10. Cory Zeidman – 95,500
One event begins Monday: $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em.
