After four lengthy days of play, the $50,000 HORSE final table was set late last night with the elimination of Ralph Perry in 9th place. Erick Lindgren is the chip leader going into the final table today with 3.85 million, but Scotty Nguyen is not far behind with 3.55 million.
Barry Greenstein started the day at the top of the leaderboard, but spent the latter part of his evening battling a short stack. He appears to have recovered though—he will have 1.96 million to start the day with, which puts him 3rd in the chip counts. He also has experience on his side, as he finished 7th in this event last year. Huck Seed, Patrick Bueno, Michael DeMichele, Lyle Berman, and Matt Glantz round out the rest of the field vying to win the bracelet.
Daniel Negreanu also began today as one of the chip leaders, but after losing several pots, including two large ones against Raymond Davis and Michael DeMichele, Daniel was eliminated in 13th place. While he did not make the final table, he still earned $142,080 for the finish. Other notable players who made it to the money in the event include Doyle Brunson (16th for $124,320), Andy Bloch (15th for $124,320), and Phil Ivey (12th for $159,840).
Ivey came in as one of the shorter stacks at the beginning of Day 3, but he managed to grind his way up the chip counts and into the money before losing the rest of his chips to Scotty Nguyen in a stud hand where Phil’s threes in the hole failed to hold up against Nguyen’s overcards and straight draw.
Day 2 of the $2,000 No Limit Hold Em Event lasted over twelve hours before reaching the final table. While there was a general lack of known live pros deep in this event, a few notable players made a strong showing, including Poker Stars Pro Kirill Gerasimov and online player Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, who is the chip leader heading into play today with 1.4 million chips.
Ryan Hughes has racked up his second WSOP bracelet in as many years when he took down the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event yesterday evening. He managed to make a full house of sevens full of threes against Ron Long’s pair of kings. Neither player made a qualifying low, allowing Hughes to scoop the pot and the title.
While Hughes is not the defending champion of this specific event, his bracelet last year also came in a larger buy-in Stud Hi/Lo event. One might think that Hughes is a stud specialist, but he claimed it is a game he rarely plays. Considering the $176,358 he won last year and the $183,368 he took home yesterday, he may want to reconsider how much time he spends playing stud in the future.
The other bracelet winner determined yesterday was Joe Commisso, who won the $5,000 short-handed No Limit Hold Em event after a heads up battle that went on for nearly six hours. Commisso came into the day second in chips to Richard Lyndaker and the two ran over the other players at the final table until they were the last men standing. After a marathon heads up session in which both players got lucky during all-in situations, Commisso finally proved triumphant when Lyndaker moved in preflop with 9-7 and Commisso made the call with A-Q. A queen the flop and no help for Lyndaker on the turn or river brought Commisso his first WSOP bracelet and $911,855 in prize money.
The only new event to start today was Event #49, a $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event which found itself at capacity with just over 2,700 players. Many others were turned away as every corner of the Rio Convention Center was stuffed with players vying for the large prize pool. By the end of the day the money bubble had already burst and only 215 players remained. Greg “FBT” Mueller is one of the chip leaders going into Day 2 of play today, which kicks off at 2pm PST. Other notable players remaining in the field include David Pham, JC Tran, Kristy Gazes, Hevad Khan, and Andy Black.
