Sunday’s are traditionally a day of rest, but for us in the Poker Media, during the WSOP, days off are given the same standing as Unicorns and Bad Poker Players with limitless money reserves.
I haven’t had a day off in weeks. Given this, you would have thought I would be looking forward to the end of the series, but if I’m honest, I dread it, it’s just too exciting to stop now.
Event #51
The Ladies Event #51 has found it’s winner in Kristen Bicknell, who has won her first WSOP bracelet, along with $173,922. The heads up battle against Leanne Haas only lasted seven hands and we have a final table round up coming later today. Until then, this is how the money was divided at the final table:
- Kristen Bicknall – $173,922
- Leanne Haas – $107,616
- Julie Monsacre – $67,331
- Shana Matthews – $48,871
- Connie Bruce – $36,078
- Eleanor Gudger – $27,045
- Amanda Baker – $20,572
- Chris Priday – $15,858
- Cindy Kerslake – $12,389
Event #52
Steve Sung has taken down the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max Event #52 by beating Phil Galfond for the $1,205,324 first prize, in a heads up battle lasting around two hours. A full report on the action from the final table will be up later today, but if you need more information now, the final table payouts are just below:
- Steve Sung – $1,205,324
- Phil Galfond – $744,841
- Dani Stern – $509,473
- Stephen Chidwick – $353,780
- Max Lehmanski – $249,291
- Richard Lyndaker – $178,261
Event #53
The bubble burst during Sunday’s play in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event #53 and 297 of the 320 players starting the day will be walking away with some cash in their pockets. Only 25 players will be making the journey back to the Rio to play the final day of the event, and among those not making the trip will be Max Waxman (246th for $3,041), Chris Moorman (196th for $3,345), Barry Greenstein (128th for $4,181) and Matthias de Meulder (31st for $15,434). The final 25 players are not going to be a push over for whomever comes out on top of the field. I have a favourite in the race, but I’ll keep that to myself until he wins! the top ten chip stacks going into the final day are:
- Jonathan Cohen – 1,378,000
- Derek Dempsey – 920,000
- Sebatian Pauli – 897,000
- Sean Wallace – 844,000
- Jeffrey Johnston – 812,000
- Jevon Lam – 790,000
- Aritu Raekorpi – 778,000
- Mike Watson – 707,000
- David Vamplew – 697,000
- Tyron Krost – 596,000
The players will be back with the cards in the air at 1pm Las Vegas time, and will be playing to a winner.
Event #54
The $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Event #54 attracted 2,883 players to the party, and one of them will win a lovely shiny gold bracelet and $454,382 for winning the title. The bubble has already burst in this event, with 297 players getting paid, and only 239 left in the event. Players who are no longer in the running for the money and title include Randy “Nanonoko” Lew, Olivier Busquet, Viktor Ramdin, and Matt Stout. Some of the notables still with their sights set on the title are JC Tran (10,300), Erick Seidel (18,600) and Sam Grafton (63,300). The big stacks coming back for Day 2 are:
- Barry hunter – 211,000
- Marcus Aurelius – 150,800
- Ørjan Skommo – 125,200
- Warwick Mirzikinian – 111,700
- Fergal Nealon – 93,000
- Jessie Sylvia – 83,000
- Ira Basil – 77,700
- Raffi Soualian – 72,500
- Duy Ho – 68,300
- Matt Salsberg – 67,700
The players will be back in the Amazon Room of the Rio in Las Vegas at 1pm to play down to a field much nearer to a final table.
Event #55
The $50,000 Players Championship Event #55 is one of the most prestigious events of the series, some would say that it actually garners more respect from professional players than the Main Event itself. The 8-Game mix of the event, combined with the 5 day structure and high buy in ensure that there are very few fish swimming in this pool, and this leaves the sharks having to hunt each other to make any progress. 123 players took up the challenge to swim in these dangerous waters, and the deep structure let 119 of them made it into Day 2. Busting out were Vanessa Selbst (after she was crippled when Jonathan Duhamel had a better straight in a PLO hand), Ralph Perry (Jason Mercier crippled him when his two pair beat Perry’s Aces), Johnny Chan and Matt Glantz.
The field is almost too full of notable names to pull out a short list of players to keep an eye on, but Phil Ivey (31,800), Todd Brunson (82,000), David Williams (125,000), Daniel Negreanu (127,900) Jennifer Harman (128,000), Phil Hellmuth (206,300). Barry Greenstein (221,000) and making a surprise appearance after announcing he wasn’t going to play any more WSOP Events, Doyle Brunson (232,000).
The big stacks for the start of Day 3 are:
- Jonathan Duhamel – 401,300
- Jason Mercier – 340,600
- Justin Smith – 336,600
- Brian Rast – 319,900
- Jared Bleznick – 296,000
- George Lind – 294,200
- Calvin Anderson – 290,500
- Greg Mueller – 261,300
- Mike Leah – 248,000
- Tommy Hang – 240,000
The players will be back in action at 2PM on Monday to play the second of five days of action in this event.
Player of the Year
Daniel Negreanu must be starting to get a little more concerned about the 2013 WSOP Player of the Year Race as he has finally be caught, with David “Bakes” Baker finally being less than half a point behind him after his 15th place in Event #52.
- Daniel Negreanu – 475.84
- David “Bakes” Baker – 475.35
- Tom Schneider – 438.51
- Marco Johnson – 430.63
- Chris Klodnicki – 400.80
- Anthony Gregg – 390.00
- Jared Humby – 368.73
- Daniel Kelly – 344.70
- Jason Duval – 328.85
- Erick Lindgren – 328.82
This Monday is going to see the final table for the $1,500 NLHE Event #53 as well as continuing action in the $1,000 NLHE Event #54 and The Players Championship. the WSOP will also be throwing in the $2,500 NLHE Event #56 to start on Monday as well.
It’s going to be an interesting day, with a lot of the attention being focussed on the $50k Players Championship.