The second Sunday of action in this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured a stirring comeback by an online player against a top professional and some of our first complaints about the 3:00am curfew rule.
The $2,500 Short-Handed Limit Hold’em tournament, Event #14 on this year’s schedule, drew a field of 367 players to the tables. Play began on Sunday with 11 runners remaining and PokerStars sponsored pro Daniel Negreanu at the head of the pack. Negreanu, who has been close to taking a bracelet in a couple of other tournaments early on during this WSOP, controlled play in the early going and entered the final table in the lead with Barry Shulman and Kevin Hong as the other notable names at the table.
Shulman was eliminated in fifth place by Tommi Horkko and Hong – who entered the final table as the short stack – left in fourth at the hands of Brock Parker. The three-handed battle began with Negreanu holding a considerable lead and Parker and Horkko seemingly battling for the runner-up spot. Once “Kid Poker” eliminated Horkko in third place, the crowd was behind the popular pro, who held a 1.6 to 1.0 million chip advantage over the online specialist.
The heads-up fight took just short of two hours and included a remarkable turn of events. Negreanu, who had been hitting anything he played during the trek to the final two, suddenly couldn’t make any of his hands and Parker seized control. When Negreanu moved his final chips in on a board of A-10-6-4 board and showed a K-10 for second pair, Parker topped him with A-J. Once the river blanked, the championship went to Parker, who doubled his career WSOP earnings with the $223,688 prize.
In other action around the Amazon Room on Sunday, the first controversy erupted over the “3:00am Rule,” which designates that no tournament plays beyond that time. With 17 players left in Event #15, the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, action was halted at 3:00am rather than playing down to the final table. Due to the fact that this is one of the tournaments scheduled to be shown online, the players were ordered to return to the felt at Noon today rather than the normal restart time of 2:00pm. Several players, including professionals Lars Bonding and Thomas “Thunder” Keller, were displeased with this decision. When action picks up today, online player Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron will hold the lead with David “The Dragon” Pham, Full Tilt Poker $25,000 Heads-Up Champion David Benefield, and Keller in hot pursuit.
The $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament, Event #16 on this year’s schedule, stopped much earlier than the 3:00am curfew when the final table was determined. There are plenty of top professionals vying for this championship, with Jeffrey Lisandro heading the list. Nick Frangos and John Juanda are also in the hunt, but a rare occurrence is drawing attention to this tournament. Double bracelet winner Rod Pardey is joined by his nephew Eric at the final table, potentially a first for a World Series event. Play will continue at 2:00pm today with $124,959 and the WSOP bracelet on the line.
The female poker world came out in force for the $1,000 Ladies’ No Limit Hold’em Championship (Event #17). A total of 1,060 women started the event, with defending champion Svetlana Gromenkova able to survive the first day of battle with a decent chip stack of 62,800. However, Gromenkova is looking up at chip leader Tamara Tibbles, who is sitting with slightly under 130,000 in chips. Other notable names that will come back for Day Two are Maria Ho, Erica Schoenberg, and J.J. Liu.
The $10,000 World Championship of Omaha High-Low kicked off with 179 players in the Brasila Room at the Rio. On Day Two, 133 will return for action in Event #18, with defending champion David Benyamine leading the tournament. He has some serious competition to go through, however, with Chris Bjorin and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements close behind.
With all of these tournaments still in progress, there will be another event kicking off on Monday. Event #19, a $2,500 Short-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, is set to begin its three days of play at Noon today. Poker News Daily will continue to keep an eye on the action and report on the 40th Annual WSOP.
