History may be in the making in one of the most historic cities in the world. Doyle Brunson is in search of his record-tying 11th bracelet in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event and is sixth in chips with 92 players remaining.
Brunson holds a stack of 210,900 and is in pursuit of the £801,603 first place prize. “Texas Dolly” has 10 WSOP bracelets to his name, tied with Johnny Chan for second most all-time. He needs one more to move into the lead with 11, a record currently held by Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth. Brunson has been shut out since 2005, when he took down a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event for $367,000, defeating a competitive final table that also included Minh Ly, Layne Flack, and Scotty Nguyen.
Brunson will captain Table 10 on Tuesday at the Casino at the Empire, where he’ll be joined by online poker players Justin “Boosted J” Smith and Christian Kruel. Smith is fresh off a third place effort in the Bellagio Cup, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). He earned $464,000 at the Las Vegas casino back in July. Kruel can be found on the virtual felts of PokerStars under the screen name “C.K.” He won a $530 buy-in $80,000 Guaranteed High Roller tournament on PartyPoker in mid-August for $22,000.
Also in the Top 10 in London is Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier. In May, he took down a tournament held during the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000 and then followed up that performance with a bracelet win in a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event during the 2009 WSOP. Mercier recorded four cashes overall during the WSOP and was quickly scooped up by PokerStars to join their pro team. He also competed in the star-studded field of the Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament, which aired on ESPN. Mercier owns the 10th largest stack at 202,300.
Liz Lieu doubled her stack holding pocket aces on Monday in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Entering play on Day 3, she sits at 16th in the chip counts with 184,400. Meanwhile, November Nine member James Akenhead also remains in contention. Akenhead, a Brit on his home turf, sent Nick Bleeker packing after coming out on the winning end of a race holding pocket jacks against A-K. The board ran out 9-7-Q-Q-7, pushing Akenhead to 250,000 in chips. He ended the day with 178,000, which was good for 17th overall. Fellow November Nine member Antoine Saout, who held a Top 10 stack entering Day 2 play on Monday, fell back to 50th on the leaderboard with 90,100.
Here are the Top 10 stacks in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event entering Day 3 on Tuesday:
1. Ian Munns – 528,300
2. Praz Bassi – 299,000
3. Oyvind Riisem – 255,300
4. Arron Eric Filippi – 216,500
5. David Docherty – 216,200
6. Doyle Brunson – 210,900
7. Shandoi Demjan – 209,000
8. Markus Ristola – 205,000
9. Ram Vaswarni – 202,500
10. Jason Mercier – 202,300
Other notable names remaining in the hunt for the £801,603 prize include:
12. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 192,100
13. Steve Zolotow – 191,100
16. Liz Lieu – 184,400
17. James Akenhead – 178,000
18. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 174,000
19. Antonio Esfadiari – 173,300
20. John Tabatabai – 160,100
38. Daniel Negreanu – 113,100
39. Barry Shulman – 111,200
49. Annette Obrestad – 90,500
50. Antoine Saout – 90,100
55. Teddy Sheringham – 74,800
65. Freddy Deeb – 61,200
67. Andre Akkari – 58,300
69. Todd Brunson – 51,600
70. Eric Liu – 51,100
79. John Juanda – 38,900
85. Men “The Master” Nguyen – 27,500
The top 36 players will finish in the money, with the minimum payout being £21,142. Every member of the nine-handed final table will walk away with at least £66,533. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WSOP Europe Main Event.
