Friday’s action at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas saw two WSOP bracelets awarded, one in PL Omaha event #22, and the other in Seven Card Stud event #23. Other action included day 2 play in Event #24, a No Limit Hold’em $1,500 tournament, and Event #25, an Omaha Eight tourney with a $5,000 buyin. While the competitors battled it out in those tournaments, two new and interesting tourneys were just starting their first day of play. Event #26 is the seniors event, which attracted 4,407 entrants. Event #27 is a Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em event, in which the table size changes as play progresses. We’ve brought you updates on all these events below.
Event #22
Josh Pollock won this $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event, capturing the win in his first ever WSOP final table and taking home $279,431. We have a full report of the final table action here. The final table earned the following amounts:
1. Josh Pollock – $279,431
2. Noah Schwartz – $172,931
3. James Park – $108,196
4. Michael Park – $78,532
5. Shawn Silber – $57,974
6. Eric Shanks – $43,460
7. Nicholas E. Blumenthal – $33,057
8. David Greene – $25,483
9. Brandon Crawford – $19,909
Event #23
The third day of play at this $2,500 Seven Card Stud event saw the 10 remaining competitors battle it out until David Chiu emerged as the champion. Defeating a surprisingly experienced final table that included Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Chiu won his fifth WSOP bracelet and $145,520. Check out our final table report for an overview of all the action. Here are the final table payouts:
1. David Chiu – $145,520
2. Scott Seiver – $89,980
3. Freddie Ellis – $59,127
4. Michael Mizrachi – $43,188
5. Frank Kassela – $31,978
6. Gary Benson – $24,003
7. Matthew Ashton – $18,266
8. Adam Friedman – $14,086
Event #24
The second day of play in this $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event saw 198 players start out in the money and play until there were only 17 players left. Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke (185th for $2,640) and Victor Ramdin (22nd for $12,618) are two well-known players who will not be returning for day 3. The chipleaders going into day 3 are:
1. Salvatore Dicarlo – 984,000
2. Paul Spitzberg – 957,000
3. Mohsin Charania – 940,000
4. Corey Harrison – 542,000
5. Daniel Cascado – 541,000
6. Robert Brewer – 511,000
7. Zimnan Ziyard – 461,000
8. Anthony Antico – 396,000
9. Arshin Gamini – 381,000
10. Ryan Franklin – 354,000
Play will resume at 1 PM Las Vegas time and continue until there is a winner
Event #25
Day 2 of the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low event started with 152 competitors, who were winnowed down to only 27 who will be returning for Day 3. The star-studded field lost some of its luster with the eliminations of Ekly (128th), Layne Flack (120th), Todd Brunson (116th), Phil Hellmuth (106th) and Phil Ivey (38th). Despite the fate of those luminaries, there yet remain several well-known players who will be trying to chip up when play resumes today: Brian Hastings (259,000), Jonathan Duhamel (133,000), Mike Matusow (95,000) and Maria Ho (87,500). The players currently with the most chips are:
1. Robert Mizrachi – 339,500
2. Francesco Barbaro – 278,000
3. Shawn Buchanan – 263,500
4. Brian Hastings – 259,000
5. Danny Fuhs – 249,500
6. George Danzer – 242,500
7. Arthur Kargen – 186,500
8. Ryan Lenaghan – 180,500
9. Viacheslav Zhukov – 172,500
10. Christopher George – 162,500
Play is scheduled to resume today at 2:00 PM PST on the third and final day of the event.
Event #26
The WSOP Senior’s Event, a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event that is only open to those 50 years old and over, began play Friday with an amazing 4,407 entrants. Some familiar names busted out early, including Johnny Chan, Chad Brown, and Men Nguyen. Other notable players still remain in the running, like Hoyt Corkins (48,100) and TJ Cloutier (29,400). Day 2 will start with 640 competitors, of whom the following are in the lead:
1. Alex Kunichoff – 151,400
2. George Wright – 129,700
3. James McClendon – 82,000
4. Gary Margolis – 79,400
5. Larry Wright – 74,300
6. Steve Lamb – 71,500
7. Young Ji – 51,800
8. Hoyt Corkins – 48,100
9. Tom Franklin – 48,100
10. Robert Cheung – 47,740
Day 2 begins today at 11AM local time and continues for 10 levels.
Event #27
This $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Mixed Max event opened with 593 players, with 234 remaining by the end of the day. “Mixed Max” means that the table size is variable – the first day played 9-handed, but the second is set to play at 6-max tables, and the final day will be heads-up play. Unfortunately, many of our favorite players will not be continuing, having been already eliminated. Phill Hellmuth, Vanessa Selbst, Dario Minieri and Ben “Sauce1234” Sulsky all hit the rail. The current chip leader of this tournament is a man who has bizarrely chosen to remain anonymous, therefore his name is not reported anywhere. The largest stacks look like this:
1. DID NOT REPORT – 122,375
2. Issac Hogerling – 83,975
3. Calvin Anderson – 79,425
4. Dominik Nitsche – 72,000
5. John Hennigan – 71,600
6. Darryll Fish – 61,000
7. Simon Charette – 59,650
8. Brandon Cantu – 57,000
9. Ana Marquez – 52,825
10. Chris Moorman – 51,275
Day 2 will start at 2 PM and will last for 10 levels.
Player of the Year
Matthew Ashton jumped from 9th to 5th on the leaderboard, due to his appearance at the event #23 final table. Apart from that, the leaderboard remains the same as yesterday.
1. Daniel Negreanu – 435.90
2. Daniel Kelly – 323.70
3. Benny Chen – 300.00
4. Mark Radoja – 292.50
5. Matthew Ashton – 289.75
6. Charles Sylvestre – 260.00
7. Matthew Waxman – 253.25
8. Daniel Marton – 252.00
9. Athanasios Polychronopoulos 241.00
10. Davidi Kitai – 240.72
Saturday June 15th will see the start of a couple of events. Event #28 ($1,500 No Limit Hold’em) will start at noon PST, while Event #29 ($5,000 HORSE) will begin at 5PM PST. We’ll be sure to bring you updates on all the exciting WSOP action in Las Vegas.