The 2019 World Series of Poker is off to its second weekend of action, but there is plenty left over not even looking to the weekend. That “little” $500 buy-in event called the “BIG 50” has finally reached its final table and five other events will be at some point in their action. That doesn’t even begin to broach the tournaments that will start this weekend, promising another active (and busy) weekend for all at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino.
Final Seven Battle It Out for “BIG 50” Championship
Even though it may have started in the first week of this year’s WSOP, the “BIG 50” hadn’t reached it climactic moment. With 28,371 entries and 17,970 individual players, it took more than a week to whittle away the players. The finale of the “BIG 50” will come today, however, as the final seven men from the final table will convene in the Amazon Room to battle it out for the honor of winning this special 50th anniversary tournament.
With more than 1.3 BILLION chips in play, to say that someone has a significant chip advantage is a bit of a misnomer, but Femi Fashakin is looking to make that statement. He is the only player over the 300 million mark (314 million) and has a decent lead over Walter Atwood (297 million). They’ve been able to put some distance between them and the remainder of the field but, especially with the number of chips in play, that these men are out of the event.
1. Femi Fashakin, 314 million
2. Walter Atwood, 297 million
3. Rafi Elharar, 227.5 million
4. Paul Cullen, 191.5 million
5. Nicholas Chow, 170 million
6. Adrian Curry, 126 million
7. Daniel Ghobrial, 101 million
Two men have already been knocked out from the final table and will earn an official WSOP cash:
8. Morten Christensen, $141,126
9. David Rasmussen, $109,922
Everyone left is guaranteed a minimum payday of $182,192, but the real prize is the WSOP bracelet and the $1,147,449 awaiting the eventual champion.
Five Tournaments Continue on Friday
There will be five tournaments that will continue Friday. In two of those tournaments, the plans are to play to a champion. The others will be looking to cull some more players from their fields as they creep closer to an eventual winner.
In the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, 28 players are still alive and will look to play down to the final six players. In that event, Jason Acosta holds the lead over Jason Stockfish and multiple WSOP Circuit ring winner Valentin Vornicu. The eventual champion will take home the gold WSOP bracelet and a $207,003 bounty.
The $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em tournament, Event #15 on the calendar, should be one of the two to crown a winner tonight. The semifinal matches are set as such:
Benjamin Yu v. Keith Lehr
Cord Garcia v. Sean Swingruber
Swingruber is the only one of the Final Four who doesn’t have a WSOP bracelet and, if he’s able to change that tonight, he’ll get the jewelry and the $186,356 first place prize.
The $1500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event is down to the final 21 players and hopes are there will be a champion crowned tonight. Leading the way is Romain Nussman, whose 8.095 million in chips is more than a million in front of Ong Dingxiang’s 7.08 million. If the champion is crowned tonight, that person will have definitely earned their new WSOP bracelet and a $407,739 block of cash.
The other two events – the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout and the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better – have some work left before they can award a bracelet. Joe Cada, Kane Kalas, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Jennifer Tilly, former World Champion Qui Nguyen, Upeshka De Silva, Cary Katz and Greg Mueller have all found their way to the final 100 of the Shootout, while registration is still open in the Omaha event with the clock currently showing 173 players entered and 90 players remaining.
And if THAT’S Not Enough for You…
If six tournaments weren’t enough for you, then how about we toss in the “Millionaire Maker,” too? The seventh running of the “Millionaire Maker,” which guarantees a million-dollar payday to the eventual champion for a $1500 buy-in, will see Day 1A take off at 10AM on Friday (late registration will go through the first 10 levels of play). With players allowed to re-enter once if eliminated on this or Day 1B (10AM on Saturday), there should be a good opportunity to improve on the 7361 entries that came out for the tournament in 2018.