John Hennigan Wins the $50k WSOP Poker Players Championship John Hennigan Wins the $50k WSOP Poker Players Championship
WSOP.com
Key Takeaways
  • Highlights of the day’s action at the WSOP.

Event #46: $50,000 The Poker Players Championship

John Hennigan has taken his third bracelet, the second largest cash of his career and his first victory, after making two final tables, in the $50k Poker Player Championship event.

Brandon Shack-Harris started the day as chip leader, but by the time heads up play started he was a big underdog to Hennigan. He couldn’t make up the gap, and narrowly missed out on winning bracelet number two of this year’s series.

Shack-Harris’ four cashes in this series now include two second places, a first and a third.

Out in seventh place went Melissa Burr, the first woman ever to cash in this event. Her fourth cash of this series produced a record only slightly below that of Shack-Harris. She has a 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th place finish—four top ten cashes.

Hennigan picked up over $1.5 million for his win, with Shack-Harris earning a little under $1 million. Jesse Martin took third place for $594k and Abe Mosseri came in 4th.

Event #48: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better

{il:news/patterson-bracelet.jpg::medium-right}*Scott “BigRiskky” Clements* couldn’t match John Hennigan’s achievement and take home a third bracelet—the honors in the Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event went to Tyler Patterson.

This was Patterson’s fourth WSOP final table, but his first bracelet win and he headed straight out to party after the event. His winnings of $270k will help to cover the cost of the celebration.

Tom Schneider busted in 6th place, unable to get enough momentum going to pick up his fifth bracelet, and Jeff Madsen followed him out of the door after a fourth place finish denied him the chance of a fourth bracelet.

Clements took his loss—and the $167k for second place—with good grace:

Other events still running

Event #49: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Day 2 ends with another lady in the limelight as Margareta Morris takes the chip lead into Day 3.

John Dolan—6th in the 2010 Main Event, Jason Koon —three cashes in the series so far, and Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee — over $5 million of online tournament winnings, all have top five stacks.

23 players are left of the original 696. Notable departures today included Phil Helmuth who was three-outed after a deep run that saw him make the money

Event #50: $1,500 Eight Game Mix

The remaining field is down to fourteen players with Phil Ivey lying in third and Daniel Negreanu in ninth, but chip leader Dan Heimiller looks unphased.

Heimiller is ahead of both not just by chip count—he has already won one bracelet this series in Event #17: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship.

If Ivey can make it through, he’ll be targeting his tenth WSOP bracelet. Tomorrow all attention will be on this, one of the smaller events of the series.

Event #51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em MONSTER STACK (15,000 starting chips)

We go from the small to the very, very large, as Event #51 attracted a huge field ready for a weekend of serious poker.

At this point, chip counts mean very little, but Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke has already put himself up with the leaders with the fifth largest stack.

With all the entries in, the prize pool has reached $10.6 million.

Event #52: $10,000 Limit Hold’em

Just 122 entries contributed to a total prize pool of $1.15 million for the $10k buy-in Limit Hold’em event.

72 players go through to Day 2, led by Samuel “Burnsabre” Golbuff with nearly 125k in chips. Golbuff is well known for a sick bluff attempt and corresponding sick suckout on Phil Ivey at the 2012 WSOP.

Antonio Esfandiari is fourth in chips, but the small field is packed with big name, big talent players. This three day event may create a finish to watch when it comes to a close on Saturday night.