The mixed holdem event is always a fun one to watch as you have two totally different styles of poker going on at the same time. There are few players that can master both limit and no limit poker and the winner of this event can truly call themselves a great poker player. The final hand had McGuiness waiting far too long to make a move as he did not have enough chips to fight off Ahmadi with his pockets 10’s. Ahmadi ended up drawing out a flush and scooping the championship. He will collect a first place prize of $278,793.
In other tournaments…
There are only 20 players left in the Omaha Split tourney, but nobody is even close to Brandon Cantu at this point. He has had an unbelievably dominating day and is almost seems as though he is the only player winning big hands. While he entered this day with a very close leader board, he has since taken over the tournament and accumulated almost a million in chips. With the next closest player only having 280,000, this is his tournament to lose.
The $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. Tournament may have a short field, but the first place prize is anything but. The winner of this very prestigious tournament will walk away with $1,276,802 and the title of the best all around player in the game. Justin Smith has made some early moves and currently leads the tournament with 290,000, but he is going to have to fight off the likes of Jeff Lisandro, Daniel Negreunu and Scotty Nguyen if he wants to take down this tournament. Nobody has been eliminated yet, but there are some amazingly short stacks from the 150,000 starting point.
The Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament has gotten underway and has a surprisingly small field of 571 players. This format is very popular and you would have thought that they would have hit the 1,000 player max on this one. Perhaps everyone is catching some rest before the Main Event gets here or they are enjoying the H.O.R.S.E. tournament. This one has just gone to dinner break.
Van Alstyne almost got a taste of glory in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, but fell a little short. He did not waste the opportunity this time as he finally wins his first bracelet in Event 31. Apparently he learned a huge lesson from the previous tournaments as he did not play it safe this time around and used constant pressure and aggression to literally act like an 18 wheeler on the road with a bunch of VW’s. The rest of the table was no match for the player that showed up at last night’s final table. He ends up adding another $246, 997 for the win and is the most recent member of the millionaire club for Circuit Tour and WSOP winnings.
In other tournaments…
Event 32 continued to move in the mud and still has 19 players to go to get down to a champion. Once again, they are coming in to start the session early to ensure that a champion is achieved by the end of the day. The current chip leader is Jason Boyes with 976,000.
While the rest of the field moved forward, Jennifer Harman stood still in the World Championship Limit Hold’em Event. She started the day around 165,000 and ended the day at just over 120,000. She was actually all in near the end of the session and managed to double up to stay in the tournament. Todd Brunson was also making noise in this tournament and was in the top 5 at one point and then went on a horrible run and ended up out of the tournament before the end of the day. The overall leader is Kenny Hsuing with 831,000.
Event 34 eliminated almost 90% of the field in the first day. The infamous poker Brat is still hanging tough and has about 75,000 in chips to start off day 2. All in all, there are 243 people left vying for the first place prize of over half a million. Play will resume today at 2pm to try and get down to the final table.
Leo Wolpert knows the daily grind of a poker player all too well. He traded in the life of a professional poker player and decided to return to school to pursue his law degree. However, this summer he was doing an internship in Las Vegas and decided to enter some tournaments. The decision paid off and he will now have a very nice start to paying off all of that tuition with his first $625,682.
The final hand of the heads tournament had Wolpert on the button and limping in to a check from Duthie. The flop came out 10s3s5c and while Duthie was looking to see a free turn, Wolpert fired at the pot with a 120,000 bet. Duthie immediately came right back over the top to push all in and was called by Wolpert who was looking to finally put this tournament away. The cards were turned and while Duthie had hit top pair, he was behind the bottom two pair of Wolpert. The turn and river produced a JhQh and Duthie was out with a second place prize of $386,636.
JC Tran also collected a bracelet on Tuesday Night by winning the Pot Limit Omaha tournament. JC Tran started making his move about half way through the final session and never looked back. This is his second WSOP bracelet overall and will now put him over the $2 million mark in career earnings in the WSOP.
In other tournaments…
The $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. Tournament is still going strong and will likely be playing until the early hours of the morning. There are currently still 4 players left and all are still in relatively good ship as far as chips are concerned. Mitch Schock is the current leader with 1,015,000.
Event 32 is still running a little slow and has not made it down to the final table and it is unlikely that they will by the end of the playing session tonight. With 42 players still alive at this late hour, they are going to have to come back a little early tomorrow to finish this one off. Rui Cao is the current leader at 467,000.
The World Championship Limit Hold’em is also struggling to get down to their number, but there has been some large movements on the overall leader board. Jennifer Harman started the day off as the chip leader with about 165,000 and is currently sitting at 155,000 after about 10 hours of play. As predicted, there are still some very big name professionals still going strong in this one. Kenny Hsuing is the current leader with $410,000.
Well, if you are going to cash, you might as well make it a big one and Mike Eise did exactly that by bursting into the World Series of Poker stats with a huge $639,331 first place win in Event 28. The unknown player was in a groove from day one as he ousted seasoned veterans Amarillo Slim and JC Tran. He continued on his ways right up and through the final table. If destiny has a child, Mike Eise was it on this day.
The final hand of the tournament had Eise on button and doubling the blinds. Chang called the small raise to see a flop of 3c6d3s. Chang checked it down, but Eise stayed aggressive and moved all his chips to the middle of the table. Chang immediately called and everyone thought he was sitting on a monster, but he only turned over AhJd. Eise did not have anything either, but he hid have two live cards with his 8h7d. When the dealer turned a 7h and the room full of Eise supporters let out a roar that would have made a football crowd happy. The river was a harmless 5s and Eise Wins. Change would receive $392,494 for second place.
In other tournaments…
The Heads-Up Championship reached its final table after the shocking upset of Johnny Chen. He had his opponent dead to rights and all in and somehow he managed to hit a 3 outer. From that point on, it was all downhill. While he still had a huge chip lead at this point, momentum was clearly shifting. He had his opponent all in again with the best of it and lost not only the hand, but the chip lead as well. He never saw the better of it again and was soon out of the tournament falling short of his quest for an 11th bracelet.
The final table was reached in Event 30 and while John Juanda is still alive, he is the short stack at the table with only 129,000 left in his stack. JC Tran is also alive with 387,000, but the overall chip leader is Ross Boatman with 718,000 in his stack.
The H.O.R.S.E. event failed to get down to a final table and still has a rather large field of 23 players remaining. With this being a limit event, these players are coming back early and better dig in for a marathon session. This one will end in the wee hours of the morning. The overall leader is Fabrice Soulier with 351,000, but Shannon Shore is hot on his heels with 323,500.
Event 32 has shrunk from its initial 1534 person field down to 261 and should continue down to the final table today. However, if it follows the recent trend of tables slowing down dramatically on day 2, we could see another long session for the eventual champion. The bubble on this one is 171 player and we should see that fairly early in day 2.
The World Championship of Limit Hold’em did not even come close to where they needed to be. With only 185 players starting, they still have 157 left in the field. These late starting tournaments are creating very long day 2 and day 3’s for the field. This is something they are going to have to look at next year and possibly get these going a little earlier. Notable players that have already been felted are Jeff Lisandro, Gabe Kaplan, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow and Gavin Smith. Jennifer Harman is the day one leader with 127,600 in chips.
The mixed holdem event is always a fun one to watch as you have two totally different styles of poker going on at the same time. There are few players that can master both limit and no limit poker and the winner of this event can truly call themselves a great poker player. The final hand had McGuiness waiting far too long to make a move as he did not have enough chips to fight off Ahmadi with his pockets 10’s. Ahmadi ended up drawing out a flush and scooping the championship. He will collect a first place prize of $278,793.
