Event #13: $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Only three players returned on Saturday to play the final hands of the $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better. All three were competing to win their first WSOP bracelet.
Hani Awad and Benjamin Dobson went home with just their prize money in their pockets leaving Russian player and chess grandmaster Konstantin Maslak to celebrate the victory, the bracelet and first prize money of $269,612.
Brandon Pastor came close to his second WSOP bracelet, but bowed out in 6th place, and Eric Buchman could come no closer to his third bracelet than 10th.
Event #14: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout
It has taken Barry Hutter four trips to Las Vegas to get his first bracelet. He has cashed in events every year since 2010, but his closest brush with victory was a fifth place finish in last year’s Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event.
Two ladies made it to the final five players, Kitty Kuo from Taiwan and Elizabeth Montizanti finished in fourth and fifth place respectively. Former November Niner Dennis Phillips gathered in third place prize money of $113,265, and Benjamin Zamani more than doubled his lifetime WSOP winnings after earning $174,771 for coming in second.
Event #15: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship
Paul Volpe is the current leader of the WSOP player of the year race after three cashes in the series so far. He came 2nd in the $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship earlier in the series, and he has now registered his second, second place finish in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship event.
Defeat came at the hands of his friend Shaun Deeb who took the honors by beating Volpe’s 7-2 suited, after the shortstacked Volpe pushed all in pre-flop. An ill-timed bluff a few hands earlier had left Volpe with less than one small blind.
This is Deeb’s very first WSOP bracelet and it came with first place prize money of $318,857. The final table provided some extremely stiff competition. Sam Stein already has one bracelet to his name, and former WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson was hoping for his third.
Event #16: MILLIONAIRE MAKER $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
After the Day 1s ended, the tally of entries for this year’s Millionaire Maker event ended up 9% short of last year’s figure.
7,275 entries brought the total prize pool up to just short of $10 million, with first prize money beating the $1 million guarantee by a substantial margin to stand at $1,277,193.
With 142 players remaining at the end of Day 2, four of the top nine chip counts are in the hands of previous WSOP bracelet winners. Chip leader Justin “Looshle” Pechie is joined on the leaderboard by David Miscikowski, Steve Gross, Bart Hanson and Blair Hinkle, winner of the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.
Event #17: $10,000 Razz Championship
Shaun Deeb walked straight from his win in the Championship PLO event to enter the $10,000 Razz tournament, with an equally intimidating field.
Only 103 players entered, but they include Phil Hellmuth who ended the day with third place chips, Eric Seidel who sits one slot below him in fourth, and behind him is Mike “GoLeafsGo!” Leah who made it as far as 39th in the inaugural Colossus event.
Twelve players remain—Deeb is one of the shorter stacks in 9th place—but all the media attention is on Hellmuth, who is in a good position to play for a record breaking 14th WSOP bracelet.
Event #18: $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em
The $1,000 buy-in attracted a field of 1,791—significantly more the 1,436 of Event #6, the $1,000 Hyper Hold’em.
In first place after the first day, is Gregory Kolo who won a bracelet last year playing Pot-Limit Hold’em. The field has been reduced to just 29 players, and there are two Brits with top ten chip stacks giving the country a better than usual chance of picking up its first bracelet this year.
John Gale is in second place and he is no stranger to action at this level, having won a bracelet in 2006. Stuart Rutter is in 9th—he is also no stranger to coming up from low down. He came second in the British Limbo Dancing championships three years in a row between 2008 and 2010.
Event #19: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
Daniel Negreanu is enjoying this event.
Unfortunately the chips he has accumulated so far do not put him among the leaders of the 160 players left from a starting field of 319.
A familiar face currently third in chips, is Jorryt van Hoof, who ultimately finished third in last year’s Main Event after being the chip leader for most of the final table. The chip leader going into today’s play will be Joseph Thomas.
The field still contains some major challenges, in the shape of David Benyamine, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Golbuff and former Main Event winner, Jonathan Duhamel.
