- Highlights of the day’s action at the WSOP.
Event #35: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Handed
The winner of last year’s $1,111 buy-in Little One for One Drop, Brian Yoon, was the first bracelet winner of the day when he bested a field of 550 to win the $5k eight handed event.
His first bracelet required him to work through a field of 4,756, but today’s victory will be the sweeter for the quality of players he dispatched to the rail.
One of the first to go was the initial chip leader Jeff Madsen who has three WSOP bracelets and is the third youngest player ever to win one. Yoon sent the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year home in 20th place after his A-Q held up against A-8.
Sam Trickett and Sylvain Loosli were early dangers, but they too exited before the final table. Mustapha Kanit who has had several deep runs in the series so far, including a fifth place finish for $111k in Event #19 and seventh in Event #21 for $55k, made for some formidable final table opposition.
Also across the baize was Josh Arieh, with two bracelets to his name and a fourth place finish in Event #6 this year.
Kanit went to the rail to mourn his loss after he tried a bluff at the wrong time against Yoon, and it was Arieh who survived to face Yoon heads up.
The match lasted only 19 hands before a flopped flush gave Yoon the victory and a $633k payday.
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
Joseph Cheong was unable to secure his first bracelet, despite having had the type of year that would suggest he is at the top of his game. Steven Wolansky pipped him to the post after the day started with only six players remaining in the event.
Wolansky won his first bracelet, and registered his fourth cash of the series, after a heads up match that saw him win eleven hands in a row to eliminate Cheong.
Wolansky started as a slight underdog, after Cheong had eliminated every other player who started the day. Four out of five was as far as he could go, leaving Wolansky to celebrate a win worth almost $90k.
Events still running
Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
The first Dutchman to ever win a WSOP bracelet is now chip leader in Event #37. With only 11 players remaining after day two, Marcel Vonk will have gone to bed with the dream of a second at the front of his mind.
Yesterday’s chip leader Brandon Paster has, unusually for WSOP events, kept up to the mark, and sits in second behind Vonk.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul looks like dangerous competition in fifth place. Saul has not yet won a bracelet, but gained early fame as an online player who defeated Mike Matusow to win the 2007 WPT Bellagio Cup.
Eric Lindgren was one of the last to fall before the end of the day’s play, going home in 13th.
Event #38: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
German player Geroge Danzer has already cached one WSOP bracelet this year with a win in the $10k Event #18 Seven Card Razz. Now he’s got a real shot at a second, as he ends the day with a big chip lead—785k against second placed Jeff Lisandro’s 420k.
Thirteen players remain from the original 134, but they include luminaries such as Brian Hastings, Ted Forrest and winner of the Seven Card Stud Event #30 Calvin Anderson —in 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively.
TV presenter and no mean poker player himself, Norman Chad is still in with a chance at a bracelet. He is currently in 11th place with 148k chips.
Event #39: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Day one saw 992 register for the $3k event bringing the prize pool up to $2.7m.
With 205 players left after the day ended, the event is still wide open. The field is deep stacked with regular WSOP final table names, but the man at the top of the chip count going into day 2 will be James “mig.com” Mackay.
Mackay won a bracelet in a $5k No Limit Hold’em event in 2007 at the tender age of 21, and has managed a consistent series of WSOP cashes since then. In 2007 he also won the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event to take home $580k.
