Event #28A: MONSTER STACK $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Hoyt Corkins is on track to make a challenge for his third WSOP bracelet as Day 3 of the Monster Stack has concluded with Corkins as the chip leader with 9.3 million chips. Kevin Kung is in second place with 29 players remaining from the initial field of 7,192.
As expected in such a large field event, most of the players who still have chips are relatively unknown. Scotty Nguyen and this year’s event #20 winner Ben Zamani both made the money, but then soon exited. New PokerStars Team Pro Aditya Agarwal busted out shortly after.
Event #29: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship
Seven years after winning his first WSOP bracelet, Phil Galfond has added a second and an extra $224,383 to his bank balance.
Facing a daunting final table, with Dan Smith as the chip leader at the beginning of the day, Galfond steadily accelerated his game to take the top spot after a heads up battle with Nick Schulman. Schulman has won this event twice in the past, so Galfond had to press every possible advantage.
“Normally in tournaments you tend to sort of shy away from spots because there are going to be better situations to get your money in. When I was heads up with [Schulman], I’m going to take every spot that presents itself. There’s no huge edge later. Just try to play every hand as best you can,” he said later.
Galfond also made the final table of the Limit version of this tournament—event #7—finishing in 4th place and last year he finished 2nd.
Dan Smith ended up in third place, followed by Eric Seidel and John “Pearljammed” Turner.
Event #30: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Kai Yang is the chip leader with 21 players left, but online tournament legend Chris Moorman is not far behind in third place, as event #30 goes into its third day.
Despite his online success, Moorman does not yet have a WSOP bracelet. Ranking Hero’s new Heroscore ratings list Moorman in 8th place, the highest ranking achieved by a primarily internet player. Moorman does have plenty of live experience, and has well as over $2 million in WSOP cashes. He came close to winning a bracelet in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event, finishing in second place.
Bertrand “ElKy” Grospellier is one of the players who survived Day 2, and he is playing for his second WSOP bracelet. Antonio Esfandiari is also in with a chance, starting the day further down the field in 15th place.
Event #31: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
After Day 1 Mike Gracz was close to the bottom of the leaderboard, but by the end of Day 2 he had leaped to the top, finishing with a chip stack of 901,000.
“I really feel like I put on a short-stack clinic today,” Gracz said after play ended. “I’m feeling really good about this tournament.”
Two three-time WSOP bracelet winners remain in the 17 player strong field including Jeff Madsen and Robert Mizrachi who won his third bracelet in event 3# just a fortnight ago.
Event #32: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
550 players entered the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event which began on Monday. The event has drawn more than its fair share of big names, with Phil Helmuth trying for bracelet number 15 and many others hoping to build up their bracelet collection.
Former Main Event champions Joe Cada and Martin Jacobson both entered, but the top spot on the leaderboard after day 1 went to British player Simon Deadman. Tuan Le and Jennifer Tilly are both sitting with big stacks, in 3rd and 5th place respectively. 190 players remain to fight for the $2,585,000 prize pool.
Event #33: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
Greg Raymer provides a familiar face at the top of the pack after Day 1 of event #33. The 2004 Main Event champion has 71,400 chips but there are still 121 players remaining from the starting field of 388.
Fresh from his victory in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship, Phil Galfond spent most of the day as a short stack, however the last few hands of play provided him with just enough chips to start Day 2 with some confidence.
One of his fellow final tablers in the Championship event, Jon Turner is well ahead of him in this low buy-in version, and Allen Cunningham and Brian Hastings are also Day 1 survivors.
The entire prize pool of $257,850 is barely more than the first prize Galfond took home earlier, but with a bracelet at stake the competition will be just as ferocious.
