Jason Mercier is still on the hunt for his second bracelet in this year’s World Series of Poker as he fell short of winning Event #20: $10,000 Seven Card Razz Championship yesterday—Ray Dehkharghani took the gold. Over in Event #19: $1000 Pot-Limit Omaha, Sam Soverel topped the 1,106 strong payer field to win the first gold bracelet of his career.
RECAP: Event #19: $1000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Sam Soverel from West Palm Beach, Florida cashed for his third time yesterday with his first place win in Event #19. He collected the biggest win of his career taking home $185,317 in prize money.
“Coming into this year’s series, a $1,000 event isn’t something I would normally play,” Soverel said later. “But I had a really bad week in cash games, so I decided to take a few days off. Then, I late registered right before the dinner break and came in with only ten big blinds when I started, and then ran good.”
“I changed my strategy up somewhat,” Soverel said afterward. “I started limping in (calling) a lot. That’s something I almost never do. But there were some weak spots at the final table, so I was able to play more.”
None of the nine finalists at the table had pervious WSOP wins, so a first time gold bracelet winner for this event was guaranteed.
Garrett Garvin, from Encinitas, California began Day Three with the chip lead, but ended up in third place. Second place went to Kirby Lowery, from Houston, Texas.
RECAP: Event #20: $10,000 Seven Card Razz Championship
All eyes were focused on this event yesterday as everyone held their breath to see if Jason Mercier would take his second gold bracelet of this year’s Series. Unfortunately for Mercier, (but luckily for Vanessa Selbst) Ray Dehkharghani beat him head to head—Dehkharghani winning the first bracelet of his career.
Talking of his face-off with Mercier, Dehkharghani said: “Jason and I were at this final table and I kept telling him, ‘it’s going to be me and you’. It played out that way. He started off as an underdog, and did very well early, and had me down about 2 to 1. Then, when he lost his chip lead, it was really clear the stress really set in and affected him. It wasn’t a matter of my capitalizing on that, but I do believe the weight of (the side bets) affected him negatively in the match. It was palpable.”
“I wish the best for him, but I also wanted to win, of course. Jason is not one to become frustrated. But he did become frustrated. If it weren’t for that added pressure, the final table would have turned into a party. We would have been high fiving each other and drinking beers. It still would have meant a lot to win, but I think the distraction of that side action was significant.”
Mercier seems undeterred on his bracelet hunt as he headed straight into Event #24: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship that finishes up on Friday (if he makes it that far).
The win comes 18 years after Dehkharghani finished second in a head to head match with Doyle Brunson.
Event #20 also saw Phil Hellmuth cash giving him 117 in the money finishes at the WSOP, more than any other player in history.
Other notable cashes in the event include, three-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings who finished 4th, 2010 Main Event runner up John Racner who finished 6th, popular poker coach Bart Hanson finished in 7th place, four-time gold bracelet winner Max Pescatori finished in 9th and falling just short of the final table was four-time bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi .
Coming Up Today
One to watch today will be Event #21: $3000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em as Daniel Negreanu is on the hunt for his seventh WSOP gold bracelet. Martin Kozlov leads the final 26 as they head into the final day of play, but Negreanu is among the top stacks having bagged 932,000 chips.
Danny Le who is playing for is first WSOP bracelet leads the 15 players who head into the final day of play in Event #22: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. Le is sitting comfortably in the chip lead with 784,000 that’s around 50,000 more than the next closest player.
