After a 20-hour final table and four-hour heads-up marathon, Sammy Farha defeated James “Flushy” Dempsey to take home his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in the $10,000 Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better Championship (Event #25). All of Farha’s accolades have come in Omaha events. Farha also claimed nearly $500,000 for the win, while Dempsey, a U.K. native and 2010 bracelet winner, walked away with just over $300,000.
Farha is only one of five players to have nabbed a pair of Omaha High-Low Split bracelets. The other four represent an elite group: Thang Luu, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen, and Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson. On the competition he barreled through in order to capture his third bracelet, Farha told WSOP officials, “There are a lot of great players. The whole field is amazing. Every year. I think this is the toughest field in the entire WSOP. It is 212 players and they are all good players.” Here’s how the final table shook out:
1. Sammy Farha – $488,237
2. James “Flushy” Dempsey – $301,790
3. Yueqi Zhu – $225,326
4. Sergey Altbregin – $169,368
5. Tony Merksick – $128,097
6. Michael Chow – $97,508
7. Eugene Katchalov – $74,670
8. Abe Mosseri – $57,552
9. Steve Wong – $44,619
The big Omaha High-Low Championship wasn’t the only tournament going on at the WSOP. In fact, three other events were being contested at the same time. The furthest along at the end of Monday’s action was Event #24, $1,000 No Limit Hold’em. On Monday, the two starting days, during which 3,289 people played, were combined, with the 507 remaining players battling down to a final 30. The money bubble burst more than 300 players ago, so nobody needs to worry about cashing.
With blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 1,000 chip ante, Joseph Grenon leads the way heading into Day 3 with 857,000 chips. Ireland’s Denis Murphy is the only other player above 700,000, sitting in second place with 751,000. Let’s also not forget about PND’s very own J.D. McNamara, who owns the 17th largest stack at 230,000. Here is the current top ten:
1. Joseph Grenon – 857,000
2. Denis Murphy – 751,000
3. Greg Pohler – 698,000
4. Jim Jeffrey – 656,000
5. Jaymes Rosenthal – 472,000
6. John Tolbert – 423,000
7. Kiet Tran – 407,000
8. Gordon Johnson – 402,000
9. Edgar de la Torre – 399,000
10. Yordan Mitrentsov – 373,000
Event 26, the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed tournament, has completed Day 1 with 156 players left. On top of the field is Will Haydor with 180,300, followed by Canadian Erik Cajelais with 163,000. CardPlayer Magazine editor and 2009 November Nine member Jeff Shulman sits in seventh place with 122,000. We also have a Jerry Yang appearance, as the 2007 WSOP Main Event champ is lurking in ninth place, just ahead of CardRunners instructor David “Raptor” Benefield.
Other notables still playing include DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Chris “Moorman1” Moorman, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Titan Poker’s Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Ferguson, Amnon Filippi, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Alan “The Usher” Sass, “Captain” Tom Franklin, Daniel Negreanu, Marco Traniello, and Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby. Here are your leaders for the event:
1. Will Haydor – 180,300
2. Erik Cajelais 163,000
3. Richard Robinson – 152,100
4. Al Barbieri – 133,000
5. Farhad Madhani – 125,800
6. Joseph Baldwin – 122,300
7. Jeff Shulman – 122,000
8. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – 119,400
9. Jerry Yang – 110,600
10. David “Raptor” Benefield – 99,200
Event 27, $1,500 Seven Card Stud High-Low Eight or Better, could develop into an interesting story, as a female, Odette Tremblay, ended Day 1 as the chip leader, although she is just 400 chips ahead of David Levi. Dutch Boyd, who just won the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event, is in sixth position, last year’s WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, is in eighth, and John D’Agostino, a name we haven’t heard much from lately, is in tenth. There are currently 208 out of 644 players remaining, with the top ten looking like this:
1. Odette Tremblay – 43,700
2. David Levi – 43,300
3. Daniel Studer – 42,600
4. David Warga – 37,000
5. Debbie Hickok – 33,500
6. Dutch Boyd – 26,000
7. Mark Provenzano – 25,500
8. Jeffrey Lisandro – 23,000
9. Felipe “Mojave” Ramos – 21,000
10. John D’Agostino – 20,000
