The first of June saw two WSOP bracelets won in the poker complex of the Rio casino in Las Vegas. The one won by Charles Sylvestre was for Event #3, $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry, and won him $491,360.

Across the two opening flights, 3,164 entries had joined the fray, building a prize pool of $2,847,600, with 324 players walking away with at least $1,907.

Players who cashed included Sam Razavi (141st for $2,961), Scott Seiver (33rd for $11,361) and Nam Le (17th for $17,598).

The first to bust from the final nine was Ping Liu, who busted when he shoved his AK into William Guerrero’s pocket kings. Guerrero faded the flush draw that came on the turn to eliminate Liu in 9th for $36,705.

Ruben Ybarra was holding the chip lead going into the final table, but that didn’t stop him being the second elimination from the final table. Ybarra had been bleeding chips since he had sat under the lights of the final table. His last hand saw him in the big blind calling a 60k bet from Seth Berger to bring the Q4K flop. Ruben check/called Berger’s fired out  c-bet for 65k. The turn card was the 5. This time Ybarra check raised to 500k over Berger’s 100k turn bet. Berger went into the tank, and came out to call. The river was the J, and almost before the card was positioned, Ruben was pushing all his chips over the line. Seth snapped off the call, and his turned nut flush with A2 was miles ahead of Ybarra’s top pair with K9. Ruben hit the rail with $47,925 for his trouble.

Darren Rabinowitz was down to his last 180,000 chips, and they went over the line pre-flop, and Binh Ta called from the small blind to put him at risk. Darren turned over Q8 and was only just behind Ta’s A4. The flop made it really hard for Rabinowitz when the board ran out 5A659 to eliminate the American in seventh place for $63,273.

Ryan Olisar was no stranger to final tables, having made the last final table for a WSOP re-entry event. He didn’t beat his 4th from the last attempt as he busted in sixth for $84,459 when he couldn’t hit with his AJ against Sylvestre’s pocket 44.

Binh Ta was caught shoving light with J7 when Michael Cooper called from the big blind with AcT. The board was nice and sweaty with the KQ2 bringing flush and backdoor straight draws to save Ta. The turn brought the 5 and the river was the 9 to eliminate Ta in 5th for $114,017.

The fourth place elimination saw Michael Cooper raise to 85k, only to see Sylvestre three bet from the big blind to 225,000. Cooper called, and the flop dealt was 97Q, and Sylvestre continued the agression betting out another 225k, but Cooper wasn’t intimidated, returned the favour, raiding it to 565,000. Sylvestre wasn’t fazed, and pull his whole stack across the line. Cooper ran the situation through his mind before making the call with T8 for the open ended straight draw. Sylvestre was holding the black bullets to be in front. The Turn of Q and the river 2s didn’t help Michael, and we was eliminated in fourth for $155,706.

Third place went to William Guerrero when he shoved from the small blind over Sylvestre’s button raise. Berger got out of the way, and Charles made the call with A4d. Guerrero was ahead with his 99, but that didn’t last beyond the flop as it came 4A6, and the turn and river combo of 5 and 5 didn’t help. William hit the rail with $215,107 for his third place.

The stacks were pretty even going into the heads up duel, but aggression won out the day. The last hand saw Sylvestre raise to 150k from the button, and Berger smooth call from out of position. The flop fell 3AK, and Sylvestre keep up the pressure by raising to 225,000 after Seth’s check. The turn saw the pattern continue but with another 500k from each player going into the middle. The river was the 8 and saw Berger check call Sylvestre’s shove.

Charles showed the AJ to take the pot, and Berger’s cards hit the muck.

The final table payouts were as follows:

  1. Charles Sylvestre – $491,360
  2. Seth berger – $303,952
  3. William Guerrero – $215,107
  4. Michael Cooper – $155,706
  5. Binh Ta – $114,017
  6. Ryan Olisar – $84,459
  7. Darren Rabinowitz – $63,273
  8. Ruben Ybarra – $47,925
  9. Ping Liu – $36,705

Today will see the final tables for Event #4 and Event #5, and we’ll be bringing you reports as soon as we can.