Event #24: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Professional poker player Arash Ghaneian outlasted 771 other players to capture his first World Series of Poker bracelet and $239,750 in cash. In H.O.R.S.E., the players rotate through five limit poker games: Hold’em, Omaha High-Low Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Eight-or-Better.
With encouraging words from his wife who is expecting twins, Ghaneian defeated Australian Rob Campbell heads up for the title.
Event #25: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
A high school football coach from Florida did the unthinkable on Saturday as Jeff Tomlinson defeated a final table filled with highly skilled professional poker players to win his first bracelet and $567,724.
Sitting across for the 51 year old Tomlinson were the likes of three-time WSOP bracelet winner, Dominik Nitsche; winner of back-to-back World Poker Tour events, Anthony Zinno; poker author with over $6 million in live poker tournament winnings, Jonathan Little; Dan O’Brien with 34 WSOP cashes totaling over $1 million and Jonathan Jaffe who has over $2 million in lifetime earnings at the felt.
But it was one-time bracelet winner Pierre Milan from France that Tomlinson eventually faced in heads up play, but not even a 3 to 1 chip disadvantage would deter Tomlinson from capturing WSOP gold at his first final table.
“I was up against some really tough players who were staring me down,” Tomlinson said. “But I had a four-day run where everything just went well….that’s what’s so great about poker – anyone can come here and win.”
Event #26: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Thirty-two year old Aaron Wallace turned a $175 satellite entry into $226,985 and World Series of Poker gold as he defeated the largest non-Texas Hold’ em field in poker tournament history.
The sales professional and father of two was on a business trip when he decided to test his skill and try his luck at a $175 satellite. The rest as they say is history.
Wallace eventually overcame a 2 to 1 chip disadvantage to beat German Marko Neumann heads up for the title.
Event #27: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
Professional poker player Brian “Stinger88“ Hastings won his second WSOP bracelet on Saturday by defeating fellow pro and two-time bracelet winner Scott Clements.
Hastings, well known for winning $4.2 million from Victor “Isildur1” Blom online, won $239,518 for beating the 90 other players that entered the event, but the pro actually made more in side bets than he did for winning the bracelet.
When asked just how much he had won in his bracelet bet, Hastings replied, “It’s about twice what the top prize money was for this event. But I won’t say who it was with.”
Event #28: MONSTER STACK $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Nick Maimone of Rutherfordton North Carolina leads all players remaining in the Monster Stack after the conclusion of Day 1 B. The event which provides players with a 300 big blind starting stack, attracted 7,192 entrants over the course of two starting flights and a total prizepool of $9,709,200.
Approximately 2,077 players will return on Sunday to play for the $1,286,942 first place prize.
Event #29: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Nick Schulman has a sizeable chip lead in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship heading into Day 2.
The total field of 77 players was whittled down to 32 after the first day. Plenty of big name pros occupy spots on the leaderboard including, Dan Smith, Shaun Deeb, Mike Watson, Mike Gorodinsky, Jorryt van Hoof and current Player of the Year leader Paul Volpe.
