The Main Event of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe schedule is in progress from the Casino at the Empire in London. With six players remaining, Ronald Lee leads the way with a stack of 3.4 million.
The pace has been fast and furious so far. In fact, it took just 25 hands for a rare double elimination to occur. Marc Inizan shoved all-in for his last 313,000 and Brian Powell re-shoved over the top. Lee made the call, having both of his opponents covered, and the cards were turned up. Lee held A-K, while both Inizan and Powell tabled pocket eights.
The flop came J-6-10, potentially leading to double ups for both all-in players, but Lee spiked a king on the turn to put the hand away. With no eights left in the deck, Inizan and Powell were drawing dead to the river, which was a meaningless four. Lee catapulted to over three million in chips following the double execution, while Inizan banked £54,000 for his ninth place finish and Powell collected £69,000 for eighth. Lee owned the second largest stack coming into the day.
Nicolas Levi then put a dent in Lee’s chip stack after doubling up with K-Q of spades against pocket fives. The action flop came 6-3-4 with two spades, giving Levi a flush draw in addition to his two overcards. Lee held an open-ended straight draw and the best hand with a pair of fives and the turn paired the board. However, Levi struck lightning in a bottle on the river when a red king hit to give him the critical double up. Levi shot up to one million in chips following the hand.
Danny Steinberg also doubled up on Tuesday after getting it all-in with pocket kings pre-flop. Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman made the call with A-Q and the flop came 10-10-10, giving Steinberg a boat. A running 8-6 sealed Steinberg’s double up and crippled Fleyshman.
The Victory Poker front man found the exit in seventh place after getting it in with J-10 of diamonds before the flop on the 76th hand of final table play. Lee called, turned over K-5 offsuit, and promptly hit a king on the flop to claim a stranglehold in the hand. The turn was an eight, giving Fleyshman a straight draw to a nine, but an ace on the river sent him packing with a £118,000 payday in tow.
Steinberg now sits in second in chips with 2.2 million. However, he still falls short of Lee’s stack by over one million. Here’s how the leaderboard looks with six players remaining:
1. Ronald Lee – 3,465,000
2. Danny Steinberg – 2,171,000
3. Nicolas Levi – 1,660,000
4. Roland de Wolfe – 1,500,000
5. Fabrizio Baldassari – 895,000
6. James Bord – 800,000
Lee has just one WSOP cash to his name, a $3,600 haul for finishing 108th in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event in Las Vegas this year. The student and poker player from New York is in prime position to make a run at the £830,000 first place payday.
Roland de Wolfe has completed the live poker Triple Crown, winning a WSOP bracelet to go along with World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour titles. He became the just second person ever to accomplish the feat (Gavin Griffin is the other) after taking down a bracelet in 2009 in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better event. De Wolfe also finished fifth in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em contest last year for $113,000.
Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event.
