The game has been going on for four long days and these players have to be exhausted. When you are playing a multi-day tourney and only have to worry about one game, you can get into a zone at times and almost go on auto-pilot. When the game changes at every level, you have to continue to be sharp or you risk sending your chips across the table. The marathon will continue to today and we will see who wins what is arguably the most prestigious title of the season. Here is your final table:
Erik Sagstrom – 3,675,000 Vitaly Lunkin – 2,490,000 David Bach – 2,345,000 John Hanson – 1,700,000 Huck Seed – 1,380,000 Chau Giang – 1,075,000 Erik Seidel – 965,000 Ville Wahlbeck – 645,000
Lunkin has been having a marvelous WSOP and you would have to think that he will continue to remain among the leaders of this tournament. He is a pretty well rounded player and has shown little weakness this year. Sagstrom is an interesting player and his name has been popping up quite a bit this year. This will be his first cash in a WSOP Event and it will be interesting to see if he can hold up to the pressure. We also have a few specialty players in here who excel at one or two of the variations. Don’t be fooled by the big chip lead, this is still anyone’s tournament.
In other tournaments…
The Triple Chance Tournament heads into day 3 with 16 players fighting it out for the bracelet. This is the second of 3 bracelet tournaments that we are going to see on Tuesday. Early on it appeared that this tournament was going to be dominated by some of the pro’s, but they have fallen by the wayside in day 2 and it is pretty much an unknown field that is left alive. An Tran is the only bracelet winner left and Eric Lynch is the only other player of note. The current leader is Jason DeWitt with 1,599,000.
The third bracelet will be given out in the Seven Card Stud Hi Low 8 or Better Event. They are down to 14 players and for once, Jeff Lisandro nowhere to be seen on a 7 Stud final table. Lots of fresh meat in this tourney and it would appear as though we will get a first time winner here. Brian Swinford will start the day off as the chip leader with 292,000.
Events 54 and 55 finished off their days way short of where they needed to be to get to a final table by the end of day 2. Event 54 started with 2818 and still has almost 400 players sitting down when they start the next session. Event 55 did not do any better as they started the day with 258 players and now have 75 left. Lots of big names hit the rail early in this one including Todd Brunson, Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren and Barry Greenstein. These guys have to be wearing down as you see their names in almost every tournament at the start. Main Event kicks off in 3 days!
The game has been going on for four long days and these players have to be exhausted.When you are playing a multi-day tourney and only have to worry about one game, you can get into a zone at times and almost go on auto-pilot.When the game changes at every level, you have to continue to be sharp or you risk sending your chips across the table.The marathon will continue to today and we will see who wins what is arguably the most prestigious title of the season.Here is your final table:
Erik Sagstrom – 3,675,000 Vitaly Lunkin – 2,490,000 David Bach – 2,345,000 John Hanson – 1,700,000 Huck Seed – 1,380,000 Chau Giang – 1,075,000 Erik Seidel – 965,000 Ville Wahlbeck – 645,000
Lunkin has been having a marvelous WSOP and you would have to think that he will continue to remain among the leaders of this tournament.He is a pretty well rounded player and has shown little weakness this year.Sagstrom is an interesting player and his name has been popping up quite a bit this year.This will be his first cash in a WSOP Event and it will be interesting to see if he can hold up to the pressure.We also have a few specialty players in here who excel at one or two of the variations.Don’t be fooled by the big chip lead, this is still anyone’s tournament.
In other tournaments…
The Triple Chance Tournament heads into day 3 with 16 players fighting it out for the bracelet.This is the second of 3 bracelet tournaments that we are going to see on Tuesday.Early on it appeared that this tournament was going to be dominated by some of the pro’s, but they have fallen by the wayside in day 2 and it is pretty much an unknown field that is left alive.An Tran is the only bracelet winner left and Eric Lynch is the only other player of note.The current leader is Jason DeWitt with 1,599,000.
The third bracelet will be given out in the Seven Card Stud Hi Low 8 or Better Event.They are down to 14 players and for once, Jeff Lisandro nowhere to be seen on a 7 Stud final table.Lots of fresh meat in this tourney and it would appear as though we will get a first time winner here. Brian Swinford will start the day off as the chip leader with 292,000.
Events 54 and 55 finished off their days way short of where they needed to be to get to a final table by the end of day 2.Event 54 started with 2818 and still has almost 400 players sitting down when they start the next session.Event 55 did not do any better as they started the day with 258 players and now have 75 left.Lots of big names hit the rail early in this one including Todd Brunson, Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren and Barry Greenstein.These guys have to be wearing down as you see their names in almost every tournament at the start.Main Event kicks off in 3 days!
In a show of genuine emotion, Ville Wahlbeck celebrated his countries first win of a WSOP event. He could not have picked a better year with the new bracelet ceremony reminding everyone of the Olympic presentation of a medal. There won’t be a dry Finnish eye in the house as their national anthem is played. Wahlbeck defeated David Chiu who will walk away with $304,176 and second place played a great tournament, but destiny was with Ville.
The final hand of the tournament was during at Omaha-8 game. Chui was holding A5910 to Wahlbeck’s AQ88. He made a pre-flop all in move and Wahlbeck made the call. Both players missed the flop of JJ5, but the turn but Chui ahead with a 10d. However, Walhbeck picked up additional outs as he could now hit a straight in addition to his Q. Of course, the river hits continued to pop and a K showed up to give Wahlbeck both the straight and a World Championship.
Event 11 finally came to a close with Anthony Harb becoming yet another first time bracelet winner. In a tournament that seemed destined for a big name player to take down, Harb put away the likes of TJ Cloutier, Tom McEvoy and Phil Hellmuth. For his efforts, he not only gets the bracelet, but an influx of $569,199 to his bank account.
The final hand of the tournament ended when Rho flopped tow pair, but waited for the turn to make his move. If he would have gone all in off the flop of 98K, we will never know, but the J that hit on the turn sealed his fate. He pushed and Harb made the instacall with a Q10 sitting in his hand. The river was a blank (for once) and Harb won the bracelet. As the tournament director tried to affix the jewelry, Harb gave the classic quote, “Look how fat my wrist it.” Well it just gained a little more in circumference with a great new bracelet.
In other tournaments…
Phil Ivey was making a legitimate attempt at his second bracelet in Event 13, but just as the break was coming he managed to get the worst of it in a huge hand and will be the short stack as play resumes. They are down to 20 players from the original 1088 person field and will play to a bracelet on Sunday. Greg Merkow now leads the field with 932,000 in chips. Daniel Negreanu has once again made it to one of the top spots of the leader board in Event 14. With only 11 players left, he is by far the best at the tables. Daniel took this event down last season and it would be absolutely incredible to see him manage to do the same again here. After a miserable 2007 WSOP, Daniel bounced back with some decent success in 2008 with 5 cashes, 2 final tables and one bracelet. He has already had two cashes (including this one) in this year’s event and if he can manage to win the bracelet here, he is poised at a run of his best WSOP ever.
Events 15 and 16 both wrapped up their first days in fine fashion. Only 165 players remain from the original field of 655 in Event 15. Calixto Clemenceau leads the way with 186,300 in chips. Event 16 has also had a very good amount of eliminations as the late starting tournament of the day. Only 97 players remain from a starting field of 359. That is rather unbelievable considering the fact that this is a Seven Card Stud Event. David Levi is at the top of the leader board with 49.600 in chips, but there are still a ton of big name players left in this one including Jason Mercier (already has a bracelet this year), Dutch Boyd, Jeff Lisaandro, Thor Hansen and Eli Elezra. The pros still have a legitimate shot at taking this one down.
Event #11 has been slow going all along and after over 8 hours of play, they are still going at it. As of this posting, the players were just granted an hour and a half for dinner and then the final four will play until they have a winner. Once again, our endorsement has been the kiss of death. Scott Hall was humming along nicely and then the equivalent of the Sports Illustrated jinx hit him and he went out in 7th. We are going to leave the fate of the game up to the poker gods at this point and just give you the chip counts of the final four.
1) Anthony Harb – 2,500,000 2) Peter Rho – 2,500,000 3) Adam Adler – 2,200,000 4) Jim Geary – 1,950,000
Event 12 is also moving pretty slowly and has finally gotten down to 8 players. Huck Seed is no longer the chip leader at the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event, but he is still hanging up at the top of the leader board. There is still a long way to go in this one and they will be sitting there until they have a winner. It is unlikely that this one will be over any time before 2 or 3 in the morning. Here are the chip counts for the final nine.
1) Ville Wahlbeck – 1,250,000 2) Scott Dorin – 925,000 3) David Chiu – 910,000 4) Huck Seed – 875,000 5) James Van Alstyne – 640,000 6) Mark Gregorich – 480,000 7) Todd Brunson – 295,000 8) Mike Wattel – 220,000
In other tournaments… Event 13 has finally gotten to under 100 players and now stand at 79 remaining. The money hit at 117, so the pace should pick up a bit at this point until we get to the really serious money. There are a ton of short stacks here and I cannot see the hanging around since they have already made the cash. Alan Keating is the current chip leader as of this posting.
Event 14 is almost at the money with only 39 players remaining and 36 getting paid. Once that bubble has been burst, play will definitely accelerate. Lots of big names are still floating around in this one including Negreanu and Greenstein. The fact that they are both atop the leader board spells misery for the rest of this field. Shawn Buchanan is the current chip leader in this event.
Events 15 and 16 just started today and still have huge fields left. Action is moving along very nicely in Event 15 with about half the field already out since early this afternoon. Event 16 has just gotten underway so there is no available information on that event. More information will be posted after the two bracelets of the evening have been awarded.
Event 4 ended rather early on Tuesday Night as the players and casino staff decided to put the final table off for an extra day. Apparently they figured that the online coverage would not be very popular at 4am so the decision was made to delay the final table until today. Considering that the WSOP has a similar turnout and it takes almost two weeks to play, the tournament staff has done a great job in keeping this tournament on track.
The best two players left in the field also happen to hold the number one and two spots on the leader board and have a significant edge over the remaining players. The winner is going to walk away with $771,106. Your standings and chip counts for the final table are:
Dan Heimiller (4,155,000)
Steve Sung (3,395,000)
Vilandos Panayote (1,940,000)
James Matz III (1,885,000)
Jeff Oakes (1,680,000)
Lary Sidebotham (1,500,000)
Phong Huynh (1,310,000)
Nathan Mullen (1,120,000)
Danny Fuhs (965,000)
The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Event has also reached its final table. Event 5 also had a strong turnout with 809 players starting the event. An Tran and Jason Mercier are the two biggest names left playing, but the lead is held by Kevin Iacofano. He only had one WSOP cash under his belt and it was a 53rd place finish in a NL event. It will be interesting to see how he handles the final table pressure. Your final tables chip counts and standing are:
Kevin Iacofano (770,000)
Jonathon Tare (639,000)
An Tran (445,000)
Jason Mercier (384,400)
Dario Alioto (315,000)
Matt Giannetti (311,000)
Seven Burkholder (263,000)
Chris Biondino (182,000)
Event 6, The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship is the third final table of the day. There are only 11 players remaining and when this tournament gets back up, expect some chips to be flying with the remaining pros putting extreme pressure on the rookies. There are still some huge names left and this tournament is the best shot of a big name pro taking down a bracelet so far. Even though Negreanu is short stacked, do not count him out if he gets a couple of decent hands early. However, the smart money should be on Lisandro as he is sitting pretty and playing great cards. Rankings are chip counts are as follows:
Eric Drache (785,000)
Hasan Habib (593,000)
Freddie Ellis (580,000)
Jeff Lisandro (524,000)
Ville Wahlbeck (472,000)
Max Pescatori (401,000)
Ivan Schertzer (368,000)
Gret Mueller (208,000)
Daniel Negreanu (191,000)
Ray Dehkarghani (141,000)
Tim Phan (45,000)
In other tournaments…
Event 7, $1,500 NL Hold’em, started out with another large field. 2791 players showed up and almost 80% of them have been shown the door so far. The pro carnage in this tournament was worse than usual. One thing you can always count on though is an early exit from Chris Moneymaker. Once again, he busts out early and does not make the money. In addition to Moneymaker, Ferguson, Juanda, Deeb and Rousso are all looking on from the rail. 297 players will make the money and top prize is $666,727.
Event 8, the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball (No Limit) has had one of the smallest fields of the series so far. Only 148 players signed up and it would be highly surprising to see anyone but a pro take this one down. Mostly because the game is a little off the wall and many people don’t have a clue how to play it. If you ever want a real shot at a bracelet, learn how to play stud, razz and triple draw and you will find yourself in small fields that you just may be able to sneak your way through. Still standing in this event are the likes of Phil Ivey, Erik Lindgren, Freddy Deeb and Phil Hellmuth. The biggest surprise has to be Negreanu going out early as he had to be one of the favorites to take this one down.
Two more tournaments will kick off today so there will be plenty of action to catch up by the end of the night. Keep coming back for the latest at the 2009 World Series of Poker!
