If it’s a slow Monday at work, check out the conclusion of Event #37 of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a $3,000 HORSE tournament. Not only is 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda on top of the leaderboard with 25 players left, but fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey is also in the hunt.
Ivey, who has been busy multi-tabling WSOP events, sits in seventh entering the HORSE tournament’s finale with a stack of 205,000. Juanda, meanwhile, amassed a mountain of 393,000 during play on Sunday and is searching for his fifth WSOP bracelet. Amazingly, Juanda has already made three final tables during the tournament series, logging two fifth place finishes and one fourth place finish for a combined haul of over $600,000. His largest cash so far has come by virtue of taking fourth in the $50,000 Player’s Championship for $436,000, a tournament won by Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.
Ivey, who finished seventh in the 2009 Main Event for $1.4 million, has three cashes in this year’s WSOP for $22,000 total. All told, he has over $5 million in career WSOP earnings and been dubbed by WSOP reporters as “immortal.” He’s topped ESPN’s “The Nuts” poker rankings ever since their inception and is in the hunt for his eighth bracelet.
Sunday featured the departures of Steve Sung, Chris Reslock, PokerStars pro Katja Thater, tournament director Matt Savage, and Italian poker sensation Max Pescatori, all of whom made the money. Talk about one of the tougher finales to play out at the 2010 WSOP. Here are the final 25 in Event #37:
1. John Juanda – 393,000
2. Dave Baker – 373,000
3. Ryan Hughes – 354,000
4. Daniel Makowsky – 312,000
5. Kenneth Aldridge – 257,000
6. Brent Wheeler – 256,000
7. Phil Ivey – 205,000
8. Jeffrey Lisandro – 193,000
9. Mitch Schock – 189,000
10. Alexandre Luneau – 182,000
11. Dan Heimiller – 180,000
12. Ming Reslock – 173,000
13. Jordan Siegel – 161,000
14. Bill Chen – 158,000
15. David Benyamine – 137,000
16. Yuebin Guo – 109,000
17. Chad Brown – 108,000
18. Scott Seiver – 105,000
19. Albert Hahn – 100,000
20. Farzad Bonyadi – 98,000
21. David Singer – 93,000
22. Zachary Milchman – 71,000
23. Dale Phillips – 57,000
24. Mark Johns – 31,000
25. George Trigeorgis – 15,000
Harold Angle bested Michael Minetti to take down the $1,000 Seniors’ No Limit Hold’em Championship and earn $487,000. Angle, 78 years young, paced the largest Seniors’ field in WSOP history and will return to Florida with nearly a half-million dollars in cash and his first gold bracelet. In the final hand of the tournament, Minetti got his money in ahead pre-flop with pocket jacks against K-J. However, Angle hit a king on the flop and the case jack failed to fall on the turn or river.
Here’s how the final nine cashed out in the Seniors’ No Limit Hold’em Championship:
1. Harold Angle – $487,994
2. Michael Minetti – $301,839
3. John Woo – $213,612
4. Eric Stemp – $154,624
5. Daniel Camillo – $113,225
6. Preston Derden – $83,872
7. Jack Ward – $62,833
8. Carlos Pianelli – $47,591
9. Jay Hong – $36,450
The $10,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship was paused after one match in the best-of-three battle between Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal. After six and a half hours, Mahmood recorded a 1-0 lead and the pair will return to the Rio at 7:00pm PT on Monday to determine a winner.
Mahmood defeated Jason “JCarver” Somerville in the semis, while Schmejkal outlasted Alexander Kostritsyn. Both players defeated in the semifinals picked up $220,000 and the tournament’s winner will earn $625,000. Falling in the round of eight were 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner-up Vanessa Rousso and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 candidate Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Both picked up $95,000 for their efforts and joined Ludovic Lacay and Kido Pham as those not advancing out of the quarterfinals.
No one has a case of the Mondays in Las Vegas today, as a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout (Event #39) will kick off at Noon PT. The three-day event is capped at 2,000 players. In a shootout format, players must outlast their entire table in order to advance. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest action from the 2010 WSOP.
