Most of the attention on Thursday was grabbed by the $111,111 One Drop Event #47, but we also had our eyes on the two final tables booked for the day, and the two new events starting during the day.
Event #45
The $1,500 Ante Only No Limit Hold’em Event #45 has played down to a final winner, and that player is Ben Volpe. This is his first bracelet, and beats his previous best WSOP finish of 6th in a $1k event in 2011. He also takes home his biggest pay day for $201,399. We’ll have a full report on the final table coming up later for this unusual format event. Until then we’ve brought you the payouts from the final 9:
- Ben Volpe – $201,399
- Paul Lieu – $124,352
- Louis Bonnecaze – $80,839
- Blair Hinkle – $59,375
- Chris Moorman – $44,227
- Horacio Chaves Cortes – $33,371
- Adam Stone – $25,472
- Daniel Johnson – $19,660
- Samuel Panzica – $15,331
Event #46
In the second final table of the day, the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better Event #46 saw a winner crowned for the $279,094 first prize. It went to Vladimir Shchmelev, who beat Mel Judah in a quick heads up battle. A report of the final table action will be coming up later today, but if I’ve wet your appetite, we have the final table payouts as hors d’oeuvres for you to snack on as you wait for the report.
- Vladimir Shchmelev – 339,000
- Mel Judah – $172,361
- Ashly Butler – $124,645
- Brain Hacker – $91,085
- John Cernuto – $67,262
- Tyler Nelson – $50,197
- Andrey Zaichenko – $37,847
- Allyn Jaffrey Shulman – $28,821
- Alexey Makarov – $22,171
Event #47
The $111,111 One Drop Event #47 has played through two days, taking us down to two off the money, with some big names in trouble at the bottom of the chip counts. Players who no longer have this issue, probably because the busted out, are Daniel Negreanu, Steve O’Dwyer, Vanessa Selbst, Elky, John Juanda and Eugene Katchalov.
The players most concerned about the impeding bubble are Mike Sexton (740,000), Jeremy Ausmus (995,000) and Dan Shak (1,020,000). Some of the players don’t have much to worry about when it comes to the bubble, as they are leading the race in chips:
- Martin Jacobson – 3,255,000
- Connor Drinan – 3,250,000
- Brandon Steven – 3,140,000
- Matt Glantz – 3,005,000
- Antonio Esfandiari – 2,970,000
- Martin Finger – 2,910,000
- Bill Perkins – 2,750,000
- Chris Klodnicki – 2,570,000
- Olivier Busquet – 2,275,000
- Nick Shulman – 1,940,000
The blinds will be at 30k/60k with a 10k Ante when the players come back at 1pm, with the aim to play down to a finish. With such a big bubble, and pay jumps being big, the players may have to come back for a fourth day.
Event #48
The $2,500 Limit Hold’em 6-Max Event 48 played down from 119 players at the start of Day 2, all the way to just 2 full tables of six by the end of play. The bubble burst at 36 players, and players who got to take some cash home included Jeff Lisandro (30th for $5,579), Jonathan Little (29th for $5,579) and Calvin Anderson (21st for $6,781).
When the players come back at 14:00pst, the chips stacks will be:
- Danny Le – 421,000
- Danny Warchol – 41,600
- Marco Johnson – 340,000
- Maria Ho – 291,000
- Juha Helppi – 200,000
- David “Bakes” Baker – 178,000
- Jeff Thompson – 171,000
- Paul Mattioda – 150,000
- Mike Shiffman – 144,000
- Mike Watson – 115,000
- Jason Rivkin – 88,000
- Jon Seaman – 59,000
Event #49
The first day of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event #49 saw the wheat separated from the chaff, when 2,247 players were harvested to just 257 viable players going into Day 2. Part of the chaff were “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier, Liv Boeree, Jason Duval, Jennifer Tilly, Sam Holden, Sam Grafton and David Vamplew. Player who will considering themselves part of the wheat will be Matthew Waxman (4,400), Melanie Weisner (17,700), Neil Channing (18,000), Barny Boatman (33,000) and Matthias De Meulder (48,000).
The big stacks coming back for the second day of action are:
- Brent Becker – 108,400
- Tripp Kirk – 101,300
- Thomas Butzhammer – 92,900
- Lily Newhouse – 90,000
- Ryan Riess – 84,600
- Govert Metaal – 80,900
- Sergei Stazhkov – 80,000
- Derek Dempsey – 80,000
- Russell Cane –79,700
- James Anderson – 77,000
The players will be back in action at 2pm Las Vegas time, and will trying to get as near to a final table as possible.
Event #50
Mixed games are usually the reserve of the old school professional. It takes time to learn 8 or 10 games to a level where you can play mixed games without haemorrhaging money like a stuck pig, which is why I wasn’t surprised to see only 372 players sign up for the $2,500 10 Game Mix 6-Max Event #50. With the One Drop event going on in a different part of the Rio, some of the players you might expect to turn up here were absent or late in registering. Players hitting the rail included Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, and Jesse Sylvia.
Notable players who will be making it back for the second day of action include Andy Bloch (4,000), Huck Seed (6.325), Steve Zolotow (15,500), Gavin Smith (16,000) and Freddy Deeb (25,850).
The biggest stacks coming back on Friday will be:
- Howard Smith – 61,625
- Bruno Fitoussi – 57,525
- Danny Dang – 57,000
- Christopher George –53,450
- Scott Fischman – 38,575
- Dario Alioto – 37,550
- Konstantin Puchkov – 33,800
- Marcel Luske –32,000
- Shawn Buchanan – 29,150
- Greg Raymer – 28,300
The cards will be back in the air at 2pm local time, and the players will trying to get closer to the 50th bracelet of the year.
Player of the Year
Another day with no changes yet on the leaderboard, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed this will be updated later. With Negreanu bombing out of the One Drop Event #47 before the money, he’s probably going to need to pick up another title to keep in the hunt for the title.
Friday is going to see the continuation of all the events currently in action, including two final tables expected, although that may changes depending how long the One Drop event runs.
We’ll also see the start of the Ladies Event #51 and the $25,000 NLHE 6-Max Event #52. As usual, we’ll have reports from the final tables and our usual daily update of the rest of the action.