Norway’s Sigurd Eskeland earned his first ever World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet on Tuesday morning, defeating Steve Sung heads-up in the $2,500 Mixed Event. The former school teacher won $260,497 in his third career WSOP cash.
The Mixed Event features eight different games: No Limit Hold’em, Fixed Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha 8/b, Razz, Stud, Stud 8/b, and 2-7 Triple Draw. Day 3 began with 20 players still remaining and Eskeland had a ways to go, sitting in 12th place. Aside from the chip leader, Nikolai Yakovenko, who had 310,000 chips, it was a fairly tightly grouped field.
Eskeland waited patiently through several eliminations before surging into the chip lead thanks to a series of double-ups. After eliminating Alex Wice in third place, Eskeland went into heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Sung. He expanded his lead quickly, but after about 40 minutes, Sung had pulled to even and looked like he was poised to make a run at the bracelet when he took the lead shortly thereafter.
Sung’s lead didn’t last long, though, and just over two hours into the heads-up match, he had all of his chips in the middle in a No Limit Hold’em round with Qd-Qs against Eskeland’s Ac-9s. The flop was harmless – 3d-9c-4c – and it looked like Sung still just needed to dodge an ace to double-up. The Jc on the turn gave Eskeland a flush draw, though, and the river was heartbreaker for Sung: 2c. That brought Eskeland a flush and the title.
2010 WSOP Event #48 $2,500 Mixed – Final Table Results
1. Sigurd Eskeland – $260,497
2. Steve Sung – $160,952
3. Alexander Wice – $102,314
4. Nikolai Yakovenko – $73,776
5. Stephen Su – $54,032
6. Scott Seiver – $40,175
7. Jared Jaffee – $30,319
8. Kirill Rabtsov – $23,223
Elsewhere around the Rio, the Tournament of Champions (TOC) wrapped up Day 2, albeit behind schedule. The plan was to play Day 1 last Sunday and Day 2 on Monday, at which point the final nine players would be determined. Play would then resume on July 4th. However, after Monday’s action, there were still 17 players left. Therefore, WSOP officials decided to bring everyone back on July 3rd to play down to the final table, which will still be played on July 4th. The schedule may be modified even further, though. There are two events taking place on July 3rd – the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament and the $25,000 Six-Max – so there is a chance that one or more of the TOC players will already be playing in an event. If that is the case, the TOC will resume on July 4th at 9:00am so that there is enough time to determine a champion. Here is a look at the current standings:
1. Mike Matusow – 85,500
2. Huck Seed – 73,000
3. Johnny Chan – 68,600
4. Scotty Nguyen – 64,700
5. Joe Hachem – 64,300
6. Erik Seidel – 58,900
7. Allen Cunningham – 58,900
8. Phil Hellmuth – 44,100
9. Annie Duke – 42,600
10. Daniel Negreanu – 39,900
11. T.J. Cloutier – 38,800
12. Jennifer Harman – 34,200
13. Howard Lederer – 30,800
14. Chris Ferguson – 30,100
15. Barry Greenstein – 29,900
16. Antonio Esfandiari – 24,400
17. Bertrand Grospellier – 21,400
There were three other tournaments running on a busy day at the Rio on Monday. Event #47, $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, completed its second day with just 33 of the original 3,128 players remaining. Manuel Davidian tops the field with 889,000 chips, 176,000 more than his next closest competitor, Adam White. Of note is recent bracelet winner Scott Montgomery, who in 24th place is gunning for his second win of the 2010 WSOP. Here is what the top ten looks like:
1. Manuel Davidian – $889,000
2. Adam White – $713,000
3. Jason Riesenberg – $635,000
4. Owen Crowe – $607,000
5. Justin Young – $449,000
6. Laurence Stein – $442,000
7. Paulus Valkenburg – $439,000
8. Pekka Ikonen – $435,000
9. Shawn Busse – $432,000
10. Olivier Busquet – $377,000
Event #49, $1,500 No Limit Hold’em, is entering its second day with 315 of 2,543 players remaining, so the field is still 45 players away from the money. Giuseppe Zarbo leads the chase to the $609,493 first prize with 156,500 chips. Other players of note are still alive, including George “Jorj95” Lind III (96,400), David “The Dragon” Pham (83,300), J.P. Kelly (61,600), Mark Gregorich (55,600), Shane Schleger (54,800), Liv Boeree (43,400), Roland de Wolfe (38,400), Matt Matros (36,600), and Andy Bloch (35,000). Play will resume at 2:30pm local time.
Finally, Event #50, $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha, also concluded its first day. Almost half of the original 460-player field is still alive, so it is a long way until the cash bubble bursts. Kevin Schaffel, a member of last year’s November Nine, leads all players with 178,900 chips. Also among the leaders are Jarred Solomon, who just made the final table of the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em event, 2005 Main Event final tablist and this year’s $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha champ John “Tex” Barch, 2010 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8/b runner-up Dan Shak, and inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event champ Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad. First place pays over $500,000. The players will be back at 3:00pm local time to continue their quest for a bracelet.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more updates from the 2010 World Series of Poker.
