Event #57: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
{il:news/nakai-bracelet.jpg::medium-right}The unscheduled fourth day of this event lasted only 17 minutes. Takahiro Nakai entered the day heads up against Mel Weiner and with a nine to one chip lead. Weiner managed one double up in the few hands they played before his A-J was beaten by Nakai’s Q-7—the “computer hand.”
Nakai becomes only the second player from Japan to win a bracelet, and takes $399,039 back to Osaka.
Even though the buy-in was a relatively low $1,000, Nakai still had to get through a field which included former WSOP champions including Men “the Master” Nguyen and last year’s Main Event winner Martin Jacobson.
Event #59: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #59 will also run into a fourth day as four players remained at the end of Day 3. Haixia Zhang from California holds the chip lead with 4,800,000 chips, but there is little to separate all four remaining players.
Zhang was the winner of last year’s Ladies Event, and if she can hold on till the end, she will become the first winner of the Ladies Event to go on to win a second WSOP bracelet.
Two of her opponents are French, Aurelien Guiglini and Yorane Kerignard, who finished 23rd in last year’s Main Event. The fourth member of the table is Alex Lindop, from Stoke-on-Trent in the UK, the city where Bet365 is based.
Victory will provide one of the players with a monster pay day of $531,037, but even fourth place will receive $165,492.
Event #60: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha
Anthony Zinno has finally done it, and done it in style, as he takes the winner’s laurels in the $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha event.
He has been high on the leaderboards several times in this year’s and previous WSOP events, but never quite managed to win the bracelet. This was his fifth final table of the series this summer.
He was one of only three US players in the final eight, and saw off a challenge from Thailand’s Pakinai Lisawad to clinch the event heads up. His win puts him in second place in the GPI WSOP player of the year rankings.
“This is certainly my best day as a poker pro, and it was made even better by winning it in a game I love which is PLO and also against a very skilled final table, which is something where I can take extra pride in that,” said Zinno afterwards.
He wins $1,122,196 as well as the bracelet. Lisawad took home $693,553 for second place. Christian Harder and Juha Helppi cam fourth and fifth respectively.
Event #61A: $1,111 The Little One for One Drop
The massive 4,555 strong field has now been whittled down to 128 players after two days of play—two more days are scheduled before a winner is declared.
Jonathan Kamhazi and Michael Del Vecchio are the only players on the leaderboard with over a million chips. In 26th place is Men “the Master” Nguyen and Jonathon Little is not too far behind him.
There will be plenty of upsets and leaderboard changes after play starts tomorrow, en route to the $645,969 first prize.
Event #62: $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em
PokerStars Team Pro Liv Boeree has built a big stack on the first day of the Bounty event. She is in second place on the leaderboard behind fellow British player Christopher Brammer.
Boeree has never won a WSOP bracelet, and even though the prospect is still distant with 281 players remaining, she will be looking to round out her poker CV. Brammer has two WSOP final table appearances to his name and over $500,000 in WSOP earnings.
2,178 players registered for the event which pays out a $500 bounty for every elimination. As a result, the final payouts are lower than for other $1,500 buy-in NLHE events. Despite a third of the prize pool being distributed in bounties, first place prize money will still be a very desirable $333,351.
Event #63: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship
The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship attracted 204 entries, with Eli Elezra ending the first day with the chip lead. His hopes of a second bracelet in this year’s WSOP will be tempered by the knowledge that there are still 122 players left in the event.
Notable players with significant chip stacks who made it through to Day 2 include Randy Ohel, Ted Forrest and former Main Event champion Joe Hachem.
Of the $1,917,000 in prize money, $517,766 will go to the eventual winner. The top 24 players will make the money.
