There was plenty of action over at the WSOP over the holiday weekend, with five new players winning titles and taking home the coveted gold bracelet.
Recap: Event #50: $1500 Shootout No-Limit Hold’em
Only one day after Kristen Bicknell became the first lady to win an even at this year’s Series, Safiya Umerova from Russia stormed Event #50 collecting $264,046 in prize money. This was her first final table appearance and her second time to ever cash at the WSOP.
On winning Umerova said: “I think women poker players are underestimated. It happens to me, all the time when I was at the table. They would underestimate my thinking and my game, overall.”
Playing poker for only 18 months, this is the 28 year old’s biggest win of her career.
“I studied the game almost every day. I read a lot of books. I had people help me. I worked very much on my game to get here,” she went on to say. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t work hard on my game.”
Second place went to Niall Farrell from Scotland, who won $163,158 at the event. PokerStars poker pro Vanessa Selbst who already has three gold bracelets busted out in 10th place.
Event #51: $10,000 8-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
Brandon Shack-Harris won the second gold bracelet of his career in Event #51 keeping Jason Mercier from his sixth bracelet as he busted out in 36th place. Mercier is now on track to break the all-time cashes record in a single series.
Shack-Harris bagged $894,300 in prize money, saying after winning: “This is definitely the most gratifying moment for me in my poker career.”
He went on to say: “This tournament I had really tough people on my left all the time and they would play back at me. I was having to play out of position all the time. You have to do a weird balancing act….it was really difficult. All my friends were with me this time, too and that’s really gratifying winning a really tough tournament.”
Second place went to Loren Klein who won his first gold bracelet just a week ago in Event #45. Klein now has five in the money finishes in this year’s Series and is in contention for the Player of the Year.
Event #52: $3000 No-Limit Hold’em
Long Islander Andrew “Lucky Chewy” Lichtenberger won the first gold bracelet of his career as he beat the 1,000 strong player field to take the title.
Lichtenberger, who previously won a World Poker Tour Alpha8 title and a WSOP Circuit Championship at Caesars Palace, took home $569,158 along with the hardware.
“It feels amazing to win this,” Lichtenberger said. “I’ve been playing the World Series since 2009 and I’ve been watching it since I was a kid when I saw Chris Moneymaker win—so it feels amazing.”
On his opponents on the final table Lichtenberger said: “It was a really interesting mix of players, including a lot of cash game players. So, it was fascinating to see the dynamics of how the cash game pros mixed with the tournament pros that are used to this kind of experience. But the cash game players did really well.”
Craig Blight from Sydney, Australia finished as runner up, winning $351,721 in prize money.
Event #53: $1500 Mixed PLO/8; Omaha 8/8; and Big O
Southern Californian Poker pro, Allan Le, won his first gold bracelet of his career as he took down Event #53 and collected $189,223 in prize money. He is from a family of poker pros; his brothers Nam Le (with more than $7 million in live tournament winnings) and Tommy Le (with more than $1 million in live tournament winnings) are both accomplished pros, but Allan is the first to win a bracelet.
Le won at a final table that included a mixture of newcomers and tournament veterans by eventually defeating Phillipp Elrisch from Germany heads up.
Jason Somerville busted out in 26th place, cashing for the 25th time in his WSOP career.
Event #54: $888 Crazy Eights 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Hung Le from Vietnam who currently owns a small Nail Salon in Ohio, won the life changing amount of $888,888 as America celebrated Independence Day yesterday. It is the first cash of his WSOP career as it is the first time he has ever entered a major tournament.
“I have five kids. We are a lower middle class family. We work hard. This is life changing money for us.”
Le beat a field of 6,761 players to take the title. Michael Lech, from Alma, AR, came runner up bagging a generous $401,888. Loni Harwood, from Staten Island, NY was vying for her third gold bracelet win but was knocked out in 6th place.
Chris Ferguson of Full Tilt fame cashed for the eighth time at this year’s Series, finishing in 26th place.
Events finishing today
Events finishing today are Event #56: $1500 No-Limit Hold’em, Event #57: $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better and Event #58: $1000 No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels).
In addition, Justin Bonomo leads the highly coveted $50,000 Poker Players Championship with just 13 players remaining.
Two-time winner of the event, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi sits in 5th position and last year’s winner, Mike Gorodinsky is also still in the hunt.
Daniel Negreanu, Brian Rast, Paul Volpe, Rep Porter and Daniel Alaei are all still alive in the remaining field that has 26 WSOP bracelets among them.
