For the second day in a row, 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey bagged up the chip lead in the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship at the 2019 World Series of Poker. But he isn’t the only story among the 12 men left in the event, with a nominee for the Poker Hall of Fame, the defending WSOP Player of the Year and other top-flight pros vying to knock Ivey off the top of the mountain.
Small but Quality Field
Once late registration was done in the tournament, there was one concern for “the powers that be” with the WSOP. There were only 74 players that entered the tournament, a vast drop from the 143 players who came out for the inaugural event in 2006 (then a H.O.R.S.E. tournament with the $50K buy-in) and even coming up short against 2017’s 100 player field. This seismic drop in players must concern WSOP officials, who envision the PPC as the true test of poker skills with the eight games involved.
Part of the issue with the PPC is that it hasn’t been getting the same attention that it used to get. In the beginning, it was a focal part of the broadcasts of the WSOP on ESPN, making it a tournament that the crème of the poker world wanted to take part in. Even a few short years ago, it was still a staple of the streaming action, whether on WSOP.com or on Poker Central. Another part may well be that players don’t want to put up $50K against the finest players in the world when they can fleece other sheep somewhere else, but that’s an argument for another time.
From those 74 players, 38 were still left on Wednesday afternoon when the tournament reconvened for Day 3. Ivey was at the helm of the ship, sitting as one of four men over the million-chip mark in the tournament. Along with Ivey (1.253 million) were defending champion John Hennigan (1.209 million), Chris Vitch (1.103 million) and 2019 Poker Hall of Fame nominee David Oppenheim (1.062 million). Toss in other players like defending WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb, Jason Mercier, Lyle Berman, David Benyamine, Dario Sammartino, Josh Arieh and others and it promised to be an exciting day of action.
Oppenheim Showing His Skills
While Ivey was able to stay in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, Oppenheim showed the skills of his poker game that have earned him nomination to the Poker Hall of Fame. During a round of No Limit Hold’em, Deeb would put out a raise and, after Berman made the call, former PPC champion Matthew Ashton slid a three-bet out from the small blind. In the big blind, Oppenheim popped it again to 165K and everyone believed him; the resulting folds from the trio gave Oppenheim 1.35 million in chips and pushed him into the lead.
Ivey would soon strike back, however, and Hennigan was the victim of his attack. In Seven Card Stud, Hennigan showed up cards of J-9-8-4 against the showing two pair (5-2-2-5) of Ivey, which proved to be the best of the matchup and saw a chunk of Hennigan’s chips slide Ivey’s way. It also pushed Ivey over the three million mark and back into the lead as the final 18 players headed to the dinner break.
As the money bubble approached (12 players remaining), it was Josh Arieh’s time to shine. After Oppenheim knocked out Timofey Kuznetsov, the 2004 WSOP Championship Event final tablist took it upon himself to bring about the end of the tournament day. Arieh punished Vitch in a hand, forcing him out with an all-in move, and took out Chris Klodnicki moments later.
In No Limit Hold’em, Arieh called an all in from Klodnicki and the cards went to their backs. Klodnicki was ahead with his A-3 against Arieh’s K-Q, but the K-10-J flop had other ideas. Klodnicki still had outs, however, to the three Queens in the deck (the Aces were dead because it would give Arieh a straight). It was all rendered moot, though, when a four came on the turn and a six peeled on the river to keep Arieh in the lead, determine who would cash in the tournament and send the final 12 men to Day 4 action this afternoon at the Rio.
1. Phil Ivey, 4.775 million
2. Josh Arieh, 4.029 million
3. Shaun Deeb, 2.45 million
4. Bryce Yockey, 2.386 million
5. David Oppenheim, 2.108 million
6. Dario Sammartino, 1.721 million
7. Phillip Hui, 1.54 million
8. John Esposito, 1.2 million
9. Talal Shakerchi, 785,000
10. Chris Vitch, 623,000
11. Dan Cates, 319,000
12. Andrew Brown, 210,000
Every player left in the tournament is guaranteed a $72,078 payday and the official final table (eight players) will all get a six-figure payday. The top prize of $1,099,311, the WSOP bracelet and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy (given to the champion of the PPC) will be awarded at the conclusion of the tournament on Friday night.