The 2016 World Series of Poker is lumbering to its featured tournament – the $10,000 Championship Event – but there’s still some work left to do with the preliminary events. The final table is set in the inaugural Tag Team tournament, while the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha field has been whittled down to the final 20 participants.
Event #61 – $1000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em
130 teams – comprised of at least two individuals and sometimes sporting as many as four – came back for Day 2 action on Thursday in this truly unique tournament. The guidelines for the tournament were pretty simple: the team would start with one of their members on the felt playing a singular stack and a teammate could literally “tag in” at any point to replace the player. The sizeable field was led by the tandem of Vladimir Geshkenbein and Tobias Ziegler at the start of the day but, with 10 levels of action ahead of them, who would be left standing was still a huge question.
With everyone assured of a min-cash for their teams, it was time to start building towards some real money. There were several teams, however, whose fight was for naught. Teams led by WSOP bracelet holder Andy Bloch, Poker Player’s Championship victor Brian Rast (with teammates Jeff Gross and Antonio Esfandiari), Leo Margets and Fatima Moreira de Melo, Hans Winzeler and the Mizrachi brothers (Michael, Robert and Eric) battled valiantly but were unable to make it late into the night.
As the clock struck midnight, there were still 14 teams vying for the final table. The duo of Doug Polk and Ryan Fee then went on a tremendous run, cutting that number in a double elimination. They would then knock off Eugene Todd and Alex Bolotin in 12th place to assume the chip lead. The Polk/Fee freight train kept rolling as they eliminated John Myung and his teammate in tenth place to set the final table for today’s play.
1. Doug Polk/Ryan Fee, 1.243 million
2. John Gale/T. J. Shulman, 606,000
3. Mohsin Charania/Marvin Rettenmaier, 505,000
4. Marco Caruso/Mike Padula/Daniel Urban, 475,000
5. James Dempsey/Chris Godfrey, 447,000
6. Niel Mittelman/Adam Greenberg/Gabe Paul, 425,000
7. Bart Lybaert/Adam Owen/Benny Glaser/Owais Ahmed, 293,000
8. Reuben Peters/Robert Altman, 209,000
9. Jonathan Little/Larry Little/Rita Little, 113,000
The teams will reconvene at the Rio’s Mothership at noon on Friday to complete the tournament. The eventual champions will all receive WSOP bracelets and divvy up the first place prize of $153,358.
Event #62 – $25,000 Eight Handed Pot Limit Omaha
One of the most difficult forms of poker – Pot Limit Omaha – has always been a haven for action. There will be plenty of it on Friday in the Amazon Room as the final 20 players return to determine a champion in this $25,000 buy-in tournament.
95 players came back on Thursday, faced with the arduous task of working down to the final table for the event. Michael Huntress led the way but players such as Scotland’s Ludovic Geilich, Cary Katz, Phil Laak, Galen Hall, Martin Kozlov and Yevgeniy Timoshenko were all looking to take him down. With only 28 of those in attendance actually earning a WSOP cash for their efforts, there was a great deal of work before even thinking of the final table.
Hall got to work quick, taking down Fedor Holz, while Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu would only be around for the first couple of hours of action. The real story of the tournament, however, were the Mizrachi brothers, Michael and Robert. Both were in action in this and the Tag Team event, spreading themselves thin but doing well in both arenas. Although they would depart the Tag Team event before the real money was up for grabs, both Mizrachis powered their way through the field, with Michael topping a million chips within a few hours of play.
Prior to the money bubble’s popping, the notable names began to rack up. Felipe Ramos, Jyri Merivirta, Bobby Oboodi and Martin Kozlov would all depart before the money could be sniffed and Noah Schwartz was eliminated on the money bubble…well, bubble in 30th place. Once Gary Bolden was sent to the rail in 29th place ($0), the field was assured of some reward.
Once the money bubble popped, the floodgates to the cash out cage opened. Will Durkee, Isaac Baron, Rep Porter, Taylor Paur and Andjelko Andrejevic were all casualties of the final level of the night, bringing the field to 20 players with Geilich as the chip leader.
1. Ludovic Geilich, 3.025 million
2. Michael Mizrachi, 2.435 million
3. Robert Mizrachi, 2.245 million
4. Ryan D’Angelo, 1.64 million
5. Sean Winter, 1.56 million
6. Paul Volpe, 1.43 million
7. Chris Lee, 1.245 million
8. Veselin Karakitukov, 1.215 million
Anyone below Dan Smith in 12th place (with 1.16 million in chips) is going to have a tough time making a run to the final table, let alone the championship, especially the two short stacks of Katz (275K) and Timoshenko (190K).
The champion is supposed to be determined tonight, but it will probably be a final table that stretches into the early morning hours. There’s a tremendous award awaiting the victor, though…a WSOP bracelet and a payday of $1,127,035.
