- Highlights of the day’s action at the WSOP.
Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Controversial poker personality Dutch Boyd has won his third bracelet repeating what appears to be a four year cycle—2006, 2010 and now 2014.
Boyd has been sued by 2+2 owner Mason Malmuth, and received vitriolic abuse from players who lost money when his online poker site PokerSpot collapsed. This year, he used crowdsourcing site Kickstarter to raise funds for a new poker book.
All travails were forgotten yesterday as he cruised through the final ten players to find victory in the $1k No Limit Hold’em event.
Will Givens started the day with a substantial chip lead, but finished it in fourth place, recording his third and best cash in this year’s WSOP.
Steven Norden received the biggest cash of his live career for his second place finish, but his finish matched Will Givens for a third cash in this World Series.
Heads up play lasted for only 17 hands, ending, as so many final tables have done in this series, with an ill timed bluff shove on the river against an opponent holding top pair.
Boyd took home $288k, with Norden pocketing $178k.
Event #34: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
After a day of first time bracelet winners was followed by a day of second time winners, and then a day when Dutch Boyd won his third bracelet, the numerologists were out in force.
{il:news/buchman-bracelet.jpg::medium-right} Erich Buchman immediately dashed any hopes of a sequential day of third time bracelet winners as he took down the Seven Card Stud event for his second bracelet.
He had a very hard field to fight through, but his fourth place finish in the 2009 Main Event provided experience equal to or better than the other players at the table.
Brynn Kenney put in another deep run but dropped out in fifth. When the game got three handed, Buchman was up against two Russian players, but Aleksandr Denisov lacked the experience of the other two and fell in third place.
It was left to another former Main Event final tabler, Alex Kravchenko, to take Buchman down the heads up home stretch.
The battle lasted for only an hour and ended with Buchman hitting a final street full house to win the bracelet and $118k.
Events still running
Event #35: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Handed
The eight handed event got down from 170 players to 23 on its second day.
Jeff Madsen has stayed with the chip leaders all day and goes into Day 3 with the top stack. Sam Trickett has stayed close and starts in seventh place with Josh Arieh 10th in chips and French November Niner Sylvain Loosli in 13th.
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
Steven Wolansky has the chip lead with six players left including Joseph Cheong who has been having a very successful 2014 so far and is now ranked 39 by the Global Poker Index (GPI).
Last year Wolansky fought to a second place finish in Event #8: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix, so he has the ability to win. Samuel Touil from France, Max Kruse from Germany and Norwegian Orjan Skommo make this the most international final six in the series so far.
Phil Hellmuth ended in 18th, picking up another cash to add to his resume, and this time his bust out occasioned no disappointment.
Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Entries fell shy of a thousand, as 967 players started the first day of Event #37. The day saw 854 of them hit the rails and play resumes today with 113 left in the field.
Brandon Pastor has the chip lead. Fabrice Soulier, Erick Lindgren, and again the perennial Brynn Kenney are all making a good showing with top 15 stacks.
Event #38: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
The preponderance of top players leading the field has been a startling characteristic of events during this year’s WSOP.
The $10k buy in of Event #38 naturally brought out the big money players. Brian Hastings is second in chips, Max Pescatori is in 6th, Abe Mosseri in 8th, and then the positions from 11 through 15 are held by; Justin Bonomo, Huck Seed, Calvin Anderson, Robert Mizrachi and Todd Brunson.
134 entries with 75 remaining—75 very tough poker hombres remaining.
