Still no bracelets at the world series yesterday but the money time approach!
In the $1,000 Event #52: SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship, 148 players remain and the bubble has popped a long time ago. David Kluchman ($663K in live earnings) has taken the chip lead and has legend Eli Elezra a few steps behind him with the 7th stack. Barry Greenstein will also come back today in the 51st position.
Eli Elezra
The $25k Event #53: High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed) gets close to crown its champion as five players will return to battle for the $1,2M prize. Ka Kwan Lau currently has the chip lead and is closely followed by John Beauprez, owner of a NL Hold’em bracelet. The biggest name of the table is clearly Shaun Deeb (4th) but he will have to battle hard to make his short stack grow.
Shaun Deeb (11 cashes this year)
Seventeen players are left in the $2,500 Event #54: Nine Game Mix 6-Handed, including John Racener (10th), 2005 Main Event winner Joe Hachem (13th) and Robert Mizrachi (14th). 319 entries have been recorded and $169k will be up for the winner.
Joe Hachem
Elsewhere in the Rio, the $400 Colossus has started with already more than 4000 entrants in day 1A, and 113 remain in the $10k Event #56: 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship, featuring Matt Berkey with the 3rd stack.
Lots of tournaments have ended these last few days and unfortunately it’s time to catch our breath, but let’s have a quick look at the events currently running.
The $1,000 Event #52: SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship has weirdly enough collected the most entries in the whole series at this moment at 5,404 for a total prizepool of $4,8M! There might be a lot to say about this but we won’t run the debates!
Current chip leader Dany Georges
Maybe a little more exciting is the $25k event #53: High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed)? The tournament had 170 entries and now 39 players remain. Currently chip leading is Ben Lamb, notably followed by Joao Vieira (4th), Shaun Deeb (5th) and many more. Our $10k PLO championship winner Tommy Le still has a chance to grab the trophy with the 22nd stack. All these guys will play for the biggest prize up to date this year of $1,2M.
Daniel has lots to do at the 25k, losing 114th
The last tournament currently underway is the $2,500 Event #54: Nine Game Mix 6-Handed, currently in day 1. There is not a lot to say about it yet but we’ll give you updates about all these tournaments tomorrow!
Gershon Distenfeld has won his first bracelet in the $1,500 Shootout event and $204k, which Distenfeld pledged to donate various charities, as he did last year when he finished 8th in the $10k WSOP.com No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.
Distenfeld tries to inspire more players to do so: “I’d love to offer a challenge to every bracelet winner to give away 1% of their money to the charity of their choice. There’s no lack of needs out there. If I could have a lasting impact in the poker community, it would be that.”
Gershon Distenfeld
Event #49: No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship
Farzad Bonyadi probably smelled something when he decided to play his first tournament this year and enter event #49. The player could not hope for better as he’s now joining the closed club of 4-times bracelet winners, now at the 43rd place in the WSOP bracelet rankings!
Bonyadi after the win: “We used to play this game 20 years ago and there was no drawing to the ten or jack. Like any other game, the young blood is changing this game too. I kinda like it. I used to play the same way 20 years ago. You can say I’m an action player. I’m definitely not tight. Maybe they think I’m old and that I can’t play [aggressively]. I’m very satisfied with the way I played.”
His previous success was 16 years ago when he won a $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $594k. The Iranian born player now has more than $4,5M in live earnings.
Recreational Chicago player Darrin Wright punched his way to victory to win the $600 tournament yesterday and win $127k. Wright only live cash until then was a 20th place for $503 two years ago on the WSOP circuit.
“I just felt it. You know how sometimes you can feel something and you can feel it in your stomach, they say that’s your gut. I felt it in my gut,” Wright said, adding: “I was crashing them. If you had seen me, it was like, I knocked out so many players.”
Darrin “Tyson” Wright
Event #51: 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Poker legend Brian Rast won his 5th bracelet in the $3,000 event! He now sits 19th in the WSOP rankings and is 26th in the all time live earnings list with more than $21M. Brian last bracelet was in 2018 when he won the Event #23: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship.
Rast had words about how he sees himself in the poker hall of fame: “I turn 40 in a couple weeks and it was on my mind to make the Poker Hall of Fame. I think I have a pretty good claim. I’ve played the biggest cash games in the world for over a decade and I’ve done a lot in tournaments as well. I just don’t think there are too many people. I wanted to come back here this year to the WSOP and show myself that I can still play great poker and be around and enjoy it and hopefully add more.”
Things will probably calm down for a few days as only two events are currently underway: the $1,000 SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship and the $25k High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha (8-Handed). See you!
After 5 days of play, Anthony Denove won the $1,000 event and its 3,991 entries for $446k. Denove, who had been playing cash since 6 years, had until then many small stakes tournaments cashes but never won more than $6,330 in a single tournament.
Denove crossed path with Michael Wang who started the day with the chip lead but an unfortunate turn of events made him lose in 9th place. Poker commentator Jeff Platt, starting 9th, climbed a few spots in the ladder to grab the 4th place and $160k.
Anthony Denove
Event #45: Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
Tommy Le is definitely one of the best PLO tournament player of the planet! After winning the championship in 2017, Le won the tournament again for a second bracelet. The player is truly in top form: he finished second in the $1,500 PLO event #39 this year, and now totals eight WSOP final table appearances since 2010, showing how solid he is in Omaha.
Le said that “No Limit is more soft but PLO is still unknown and you kinda just play based on instincts,” also adding that “not playing conventional makes him tough to play against.”
Tommy “9652” Le
Event #47: Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
In the $5,000 freezeout event, Alexandre Reard came out on top to grab a nice $428k prize. The player is no stranger to the felt as he’s the proud owner of two WSOP Circuit rings and more than $3M in total live earnings. After the win, Reard talked about an “indescribable feeling”, “a sincere and strong moment” but truly came here for business: “I won’t party today, there are too many beautiful tournaments to play but we’ll definitely organize a big party with the french community at the end of the series to celebrate. I need to keep working and stay focused for now!”
On WSOP.com for Nevada and New Jersey, the $1,000 event counted 854 entries, including nearly 300 rebuys. In the end, Kazuki “hyahhoo3” Ikeuchi deployed the best combination of skills and luck to win his first bracelet and $152k. Kazuki Ikeuchi is now 6th in the Japanese total live earnings list, his best performance was in 2019 when he finished runner-up of the 2019 Millionaire Maker for a solid $830k.
The 2,053 entries $800 tournament ended with an unexpected win for Chad Norton, casually booking a win for his first ever WSOP participation.
Norton told the media: “To be honest I’ve only played in one WPT event and this was my first ever live WSOP tournament. I play mostly online but I came in on such a down swing so to be able to come in and win my first ever WSOP tournament feels amazing.”
“Winning bracelets is pretty easy right?”
Event #43: DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold’em
The third largest event this year with 3,991 entries now counts 17 players. The $1,000 event has gathered a prizepool of $3,5M and the top prize is $446K. Michael Wang ($3M in live earnings), holder of one bracelet, will return with the chip lead and poker commentator Jeff Platt, currently 9th in chips, will try to win his first bracelet.
Michael Wang
Event #45: Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
There are now 5 players left in the tournament, lead by Tommy Le, winner of the event in 2017 for $900K. Day 3 chip leader Jonathan Witz failed to qualify and ended twelfth. Our most familiar names also all fell yesterday: Mike Matusow (17th), Daniel Zack (13th) and Eli Elezra (6th – $124K) will not be able to grab the $746,477 prize.
Tommy Le
We will return to see how all these events unfold today!
