Event 1 is now down to the final table, and I missed one important fact from the Day 1 review, we have a British player in the mix. Vincent Russell from Bagshot in Surrey is one of the short stacks among the 8 remaining players and has already shoved a couple of times in an amount to get a double up but has got no takers. He is currently guaranteed nearly $6K, a step up on his previous best cash (if I've got the right Hendon Mob page) of a little over a thousand pounds for winning a GUKPT side event last Sunday. A good time to run into form I'd say.
Event 1 - $565 Casino Employee's NLH, Day 2 of 2, 651 entrants Bryan Hollis is the first bracelet winner of the 2017 series. Primarily a limit hold'em player back at home in Maryland, he bust this event in just seven hands last year.
Very much the short stack 3-handed, he then got hot, eliminating first Josh Clanton and then after 25 hands of heads up play, Chris Solomon. Hollis takes home $68K, Solomon $42K and Clandon $29K.
We have the first GB cash of the series as Vincent Russell made the final table and ended up in 8th spot for almost $6K.
Event 2 - $10K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), Day 2 of 3, 102 teams entered They've just reached the Final Table, after Daniel Negreanu but a horrible beat on Paul Snead, the Canadian's Kings making a set on the turn to upset Snead's pocket Aces.
Liv Boeree is still involved, but her partner Igor Kurganov is currently at the felt, defending their chip lead ahead of the Negreanu-Wasserman-Benyamine-Gregorich combination.
Former ME winner Martin Jacobson's pair still has chips, as does the quartet including double bracelet winner and 2013 November Niner JC Tran.
Steffen Sontheimer is the only other British player shown as cashing, but I believe he is merely resident in this country (Brighton) and is in fact German.
Play is currently in level 19, the original plan was to play to halfway through level 21 on Day 2 but I don't know how far they will go now that they're already at the FT.
Event 3 - $3K Shootout NL, Day 1 of 3, 369 entrants In comparison, this one is already done for the day. 50 table winners have made it through Day 1 and will reconvene tomorrow after veteran Barry Greenstein took the last spot.
Three Union Jacks shown in the chip listings, Jan Scwippert (I think this is actually another German playing out of Sussex, Jan Schwippert), Waikiat Lee (Lee Wai Kiat, Malaysian living in Salford) and Markus Kuhnen (another German).
Simon Deadman should have been there as a genuine British player, but he let a large heads-up chip lead go against James Dambrosio
Others through include Taylor Paur (after battling past Kenny Hallaert), Jean Robert Ballande, Matt Glantz, Dominik Nitsche, Andre Akkari and Olivier Busquet.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 1 of 3, 905 entrants The first non-hold'em event of the Series, late reg has just closed and it has been revealed that the winner will take home $238K
Full update to follow later, but it looks like about half the field has been knocked out already. Benny Glaser is among those shown as still having chips, but I'd take those chips with a pinch of salt as early updates to the chip count pages can be a long way behind the actual current state of play.
To Start Today Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, 5 Day Event, including 6 starting flights over 3 days Event 6 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, 3 Day Event
Well that didn't last long, no wifi available at lunchtime means I'm already behind!
Event 2 - the 10K Tag team played down to 6 teams with Team Negreanu holding a decent chip lead overnight. the Anthony Ajlouny - David Fong - Mike McClain combination is second, and Team Boeree is third, with a decent enough 46BB to play with on the final day. Former ME winner Martin Jacobson's team in 5th place. Play resumes at 10pm our time tonight.
Event 4 sees 254 Omaha Hi-Lo players move on to Day 2, with Rex Clinkscales turning on the afterburners late on to end the day with the chip lead. Not the most star-studded of fields to be honest, but those through do include last year's champion Benny Glaser along with a couple of other Brits - Bradley Viner & Vincent Hughes (both from the London Area). 136 will get paid
Event 2 - $10K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), Day 3 of 3, 102 teams entered Britishbraceletalert. Liv Boeree seems to have been one of the most renowned UK players for a long time, winning an EPT as long ago as 2010, and she has now added a coveted WSOP bracelet to her palmares alongside her partner, Russian Igor Kurganov.
It is also the first bracelet for Kurganov, the all-time cash leader among Russian players. The couple will share almost $274K, and have announced that they will be donating half of that to the Raising for Effective Giving charity.
They started the heads up play against Ankush Mandavia & Joe Kuether with a 2:1 chip lead but as you would expect over 89 hands of heads up fortunes waxed and wained but on the 268th hand of he FT, Kurganov's A-10 on a board of Q-9-8-J-K was the nuts (in fact a seven card straight - beats even an Orford straight!) and Mandavia's Q-10 meant he held only the second nuts and it was curtains.
Daniel Negreanu's team started Day 3 with the chip lead, but went out in 3rd and Martin Jacobson's combination went out in 6th.
Event 3 - $3K Shootout NL, Day 2 of 3, 369 entrants The FT has been determined after the 50 players were split into 10 tables of 5 with the players having to win that 5-player group to make Day 3.
One table was determined in rapid fashion, Jean Gaspard did his business before any of the other 9 tables lost even a single player
Gaspard won a bracelet last year, and is accompanied at the FT by two other bracelet holders - Taylor Paur & Upeshka Da Silva. Olivier Busquet and Jan Schwippert are also through, Schwippert now having the "h" re-instated in his surname and is shown without nationality and home town after being shown as British yesterday.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 2 of 3, 905 entrants Still in play with 57 players active, although we've just lost Day 1 chip leader Rex Clinkscales.
The comparison between the chip counts page, the results page and the updates page on the WSOP site is a little confusing but it looks like annoying (but very successful) Costa Rican Humberto Brenes added to his over 80 WSOP cashes and another well known veteran Bruno Fitoussi are still involved
Benny Glaser won't be going "back-to-back" but he did cash, ending up 120th for $2315.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 1 of many Day 1A is in the books while Day 1B is still ongoing.
From the former, Mark Peters bagged the biggest stack, ahead of Jack Blair who is stated to be from "Onl Signup-No City". Sounds like a great place to live.
Mo Farah is fourth, but I don't think it's THAT Mo Farah, as he doesn't "do" fourths. 90 players are through, including GB players Luke Brereton and Guy Taylor
The best known player to qualify is former November Niner and UKPC entrant Antoine Saout from France.
Day 1B round up later.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, single re-entry, Day 1 of 3 This fooled me, since producing the original schedule, Events 6 & 72 have been swapped so we have the One Drop coming very early in proceedings with the $10K Stud now right at the end.
Play is still ongoing, in fact registration is still ongoing (I believe it closes at the start of Day 2), so it's very early days. Doug Polk is the current chip leader, but a lot of the names you'd expect to play this are there - Hellmuth, Esfandiari, Colman, Negreanu, Seidel, Mercier etc.
Igor Kurganov has jumped into this after co-winning Event 2, as has one of his defeated heads-up rivals Ankush Mandavia
Brits represented include Jack Salter & Niall Farrell but we've lost Stephen Chidwick.
To Start Today Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm) More threes than in a Golden State Warriors basketball game.
Event 4 $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 29 survive from the 254 who started Day 2 (136 made the money). Christopher Logue leads a very US-heavy cast of survivors (28 out of the 29 are from the USA). Logue has 42 BB for when they resume, with Jim Collopy having 36 and Kevin Gerhart 33. Sole Euro Viktor Celikovsky (Czech Rep) is somewhere in the middle of the pack and has plenty of work to do.
As mentioned above, Benny Glaser was the only UK player to cash.
Event 5 The Colossus Only 64 made it through from Day 1B, Hunter Fray, Ryan Buckholtz and Scott Bohlman completing the top three.
I can't see any GB players hrough, but one famous name in the list is that of veteran TV poker commentator (and member of the Poker Hall of Fame) Mike Sexton.
Event 6 Little One for One Drop Day 1 ended with 119 entrants, apparently late reg is even open for a couple of hours on Day 2. 2014 ME winner Martin Jacobson holds the overnight lead as top of 79 players through from Day 1.
Former "Big One for One Drop" winners Antonio Esfandiari and Dan Colman both made it through as did Daniel Negreanu, Doug Polk, Ryan Reiss, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier and three GB players, Charlie Carrel, Jack Salter & Niall Farell.
"All in! I'm all in!" we heard someone say with a loud voice over on table 36 in the Amazon Room. We rushed over to see what was going on. The flop was out, it read something like A-7-3, and the button was making sure the entire table and dealer knew he was all in. But... the player on the button didn't have any cards. In fact, no one at the table had cards. The dealer had skipped the preflop action and had just gotten busy burning and dealing a flop. These 10 a.m. starts are early for everyone. Verbal was, in this case, not binding. The dealer removed the flop, started a new shuffle, and this time dealt the players their cards. If this had been on SkyPoker, there would have been ructions... I don't like copying stuff verbatim off the official site, but occasionally there's something I can't resist picking up.
Event 3 - $3K Shootout NL, Day 3 of 3, 369 entrants It's a second bracelet for Upeshka Da Silva (previously the winner of a $1500 NLH event in 2015).
Da Silva got it in good on the final hand, his AJ dominating Louis Helm's A8 and the stronger hand held up.
Linglin Zeng from China finished third and Jan Schwippert (see previous reports) ended up in fourth.
The other two previous bracelet winners departed the FT early - Taylor Paur busted in 10th and Jean Gaspard shortly after in 9th.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 3 of 3, 905 entrants I held back on doing this update so I could get the Event 4 winner in without having to do a later update, and that winner is also now a two-time winner, Benjamin Zamani.
Like Da Silva, Zamani also won his first bracelet in a $1500 NLH event in 2015 - spooky! Neither the $460K he got them, nor the $238K he picked up today is even his biggest live cash, that came as long ago as 2010 when he won a cool million dollars at the PCA.
Jared Hemingway was the runner-up (I was just trying to come up with some Hemingway puns before he bust) and Alex Ferrari was third (again a pun-friendly name)
The only non-American player in Day 3 action, Czech Viktor Celikovsky, went out early in 25th place.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 1 C/D Two more flights of the Colossus played out on Saturday, well one flight has played out and one is still ongoing so I'll restrict myself to Day 1C for the moment.
109 players have joined the qualifiers from flights A & B with a tie at the top between German Tonio Roder and American Alexander Borteh.
The controversial Chris "Jesus" Ferguson sits with a nice stack in 6th place, while from the UK Thomas Hall is just outside the Top 10, Matt Davenport is inside the top 50 and Gary Pra tt moves on with one of the shortest stacks.
Day 1D round up later.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 2 of 3, 130 entries After late reg closed, the 130 entries produced a prizepool that means $3.6m for first, $2.2m for second and even fourth place gets a seven figure payday.
Twenty three move on to Day 3, with Bertand "Elky" Grospellier holding the ovenight lead from Italian Dario Sammartino and American Scott Siever.
The two former Big One Drop winners Antonio Esfandiari and Dan Colman both survived, as did tag team co-winner Igor Kurganov, former ME winners Phil Hellmuth & Martin Jacobson and one Brit, high roller specialist Charlie Carrel who already has one million-dollar cash this year.
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event, 225 entrants 225 have become 57 after Day 1, and for a Limit event it is a little surprising to see so many non-Americans in the Top 10.
Finn Samp Ryynanen holds the over night lead, Japanese player Youske Sekiya is in 8th, and in 10th is former November Niner Martin Staszko (Czech Rep).
No Brits, but some other names through include Brandon Shack-Harris, James Obst, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier, David "ODB" Baker, Maria Ho and Barry Greenstein.
Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm) This is currently heads up between Joseph "ul_gg" Mitchell and Mark "PLODonkey17" Scacewater. I've not been following this one too closely I admit, I haven't even seen a final number of entries, but I'll do some more work on it when it has finished.
To Start Today 04/06/17 Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, 3 Day Event
Updates from the end of Saturday night/Sunday morning action
Event 5 - Colossus Flight D What chance someone winning a gigantic event like this twice in three years? Well, Cord Garcia is looking to do just that and sits very nicely among the chip leaders after finishing 2nd on Day 1D trailing just Irish player Toby Joyce. Sergi Reixach and Markus Kuhnen are both shown as British among the 82 survivors but are probably continental cousins living in our great country. Not too many well known names among the rest of the 82 so I started what I often do in these spots, look at the bizarrely named home towns of the American players and the best one I found here was the small town of Ooltewah, Tennesse, home of 74th placed Thomas Rogers and just 86 others.
Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm), 2509 entries, 1780 unique players You know when you're playing online, and you lose your connection, or something happens that you end up missing a hand or two? How galling is that? How much more galling is it that it happens when you get heads up for a WSOP Bracelet?
That's what happened to Mark Scacewater. As soon as the third placed player was eliminated, Scacewater ("PLODonkey 17") disappeared from the scene and Joseph ("ul_gg") Mitchell won numerous hands without opposition before Scacewater briefly returned to play the last two hands. He won the first to double up his short stack but not the second and it was all over. Mitchell won $122K, Scacewater $73K and third placed Michael Addamo gets an amount that seems to have been undeclared!
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 1 E/F, 18053 entries Flight E was the largest of the flights, and it is Neil Mittleman who has the chip lead after a big pot in the last hand of the night, two more lesser-known names (Katie Lindsay & Karel Havelka lie second and third)
146 others join them in moving on, with several British players survived, Chris Moorman being the best known and the second best placed (24th) with Blair Matheson inside the top 10 and Zahir Aslam, Charles Mason, Raul Martinez Requena also bagging chips.
The entries for the various Flights A - 2756 B - 1982 C - 3102 D - 2324 E - 3966 F - 3923
for a total of 18053, down from 21613 last year, over a 16% reduction in entries.
The bubble for Flight F went on for 45 minutes, 25 hands. On 21 of those hands there was an all-in and a call, and on all 21 the all-in player survived. The unlucky player at the 22nd attempt had AK against pocket Aces and failed to improve and the tournament could move on.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 3 of 3, 130 entries Bertand "Elky" Grospellier held the chip lead at the start of the day, and he also holds the lead at the end of the day.
The colourful Frenchman has almost double the chip of his nearest rival, 2014 ME winner Martin Jacobson who vaulted into second by eliminating 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth as the last elimination of the night.
Both former Big One for One Drop winners Dan Colman and Antonio Esfandiari were busted, as was British players Charlie Carrel (15th, $187K) and Salman Behbehani (13th, $217K) and Event 2 co-winner Igor Kurganov
The rest of the final 9, all looking for that over $3 million winning prize - Dario Sammartino, Chris Moore, Andrew Robl, Doug Polk, Rainer Kempe, Michael Kamran and Haralabos Voulgaris
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 2 of 3, 225 entrants Still in play with 9 left including James Obst, Chris Bjorin and short stack Barry Greenstein
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 1 of 3 Still in play, during Level 8. At the end of this level, late reg will close and we will have field size and payout numbers, but there will still be two levels to play on Day 1.
To Start Today Event 10 - $1K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), 3 Day Event Event 11 - $1500 Dealers Choice 6 Handed, 3 Day Event
"The bubble for Flight F went on for 45 minutes, 25 hands. On 21 of those hands there was an all-in and a call, and on all 21 the all-in player survived"
Colossus Day 1F Nearly 4000 players in the final chance to make Day 2 of the Colossus, and 143 seized that chance to join the qualifiers from flights A-E. Two players cracked half a million chips - Ardavan Yazdi & Harry Arutynyan with Jordan Polk nor far behind.
Ben Dobson appears to be the only GB qualifier, and not many big names made it - Matt Affleck, Cate Hall & Jeff Gross about the biggest, and I wouldn't have said any of them are any bigger than medium names really. Those who didn't include Will Kassouf, Maria Ho, Kenny Hallaert, and the two players who got their second bracelets a few days ago (Upeshka Da Silva & Ben Zamani)
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 2 of 3, 225 entrants They're at the unofficial FT overnight with 7 players left, led by Terry Jennings. Jesse Martin (1 bracelet) and Chris Bjorin (2 bracelets) are on his tail but Barry Greenstein bowed out late on.
The solution they have for a 7 handed table when the game (with all the potential draws) can only really accommodate six is that the player who is nominally "Under The Gun" will sit out each hand. It also means they will play 7 hands of each game to make a fair orbit.
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 1 of 3, 155 entrants Mike Gorodinsky is no stranger to big money bracelet events, his second coming in the prestigious $50K Players Championship in 2015, a win that played a large part in him becoming the WSOP Player of the Year. He is in the lead after Day 1 of Event 9, but only 2000 chips ahead of his nearest challenger Kyle Miaso.
In third we have a representative of these shores - Iraj Parvizi, listed as coming from Birchington, a place I admit I'd not heard of before. Turns out it is on the Thanet coast, a few miles from Margate. Reading a little about Parvizi, it seems like has had a somewhat colourful past.
Three more Brits accompany him to Day 2 - Philip Long, last years winner Benny Glaser, and Timothy Flanders who will have to get busy on Day 2 as he only has a smidgen over 1 Big Blind.
Several other well known players there too - Dan Shak, Daniel Negreanu, Fabrice Soulier, Anthony Zinno, Frank Kassela etc.
Not much time for a detailed report this morning, will sort things out later.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 2, 18053 entries Well in to the combined Day 2 with just 84 players remaining from the huge field. The chip count page is very confused at the moment but it looks like Gavin O'Rourke from Ireland is the chip leader, and we still have some British interest through Tom Hall
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 4 of 3, 130 entries Doug Polk is one of the highest-renowned online players, particularly in the heads-up arena, and he is getting quite a reputation live too.
He collected his third bracelet in five years by denying Frenchman Bertand "Elky" Grospellier a "wire to wire" success in the highest buyin event of the series.
Polk collects over $3.6m for his win, taking his total live earnings over $8m.
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 3 of 3, 225 entrants This one is also done and dusted and goes to Jesse Martin, collecting his second bracelet.
He beat Aussie James Obst heads-up to pick up over $130K and that all-important piece of jewellery.
Chris Bjorin, well known on the UK poker scene, finished in third place.
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 2 of 3, 155 entrants Twenty left as I type Abe Mosseri having the chip lead but several well known players are also still in contention, including John Monnette, David "ODB" Baker, Daniel Negreanu & Mike Matusow.
Event 10 - $1K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), Day 1 of 3, TBA entries Go Team Bromley! Adam and Natalie are in the money as the bubble has just burst in the second tag team event of the series, despite the WSOP news page putting Natalie in a team with someone else!
Event 11 - $1500 Dealers Choice 6 Handed, Day 1 of 3, 364 entrants They're on their last break of the day there in Event 11 with the field being reduced to 138 or so players, of which 55 will eventually cash.
To Start Today Event 12 - $1500 NLH, 3 Day Event Event 13 - $1500 2-7 Draw Lowball No Limit, 3 Day Event, single re-entry
Comments
Bryan Hollis is the first bracelet winner of the 2017 series. Primarily a limit hold'em player back at home in Maryland, he bust this event in just seven hands last year.
Very much the short stack 3-handed, he then got hot, eliminating first Josh Clanton and then after 25 hands of heads up play, Chris Solomon. Hollis takes home $68K, Solomon $42K and Clandon $29K.
We have the first GB cash of the series as Vincent Russell made the final table and ended up in 8th spot for almost $6K.
Event 2 - $10K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), Day 2 of 3, 102 teams entered
They've just reached the Final Table, after Daniel Negreanu but a horrible beat on Paul Snead, the Canadian's Kings making a set on the turn to upset Snead's pocket Aces.
Liv Boeree is still involved, but her partner Igor Kurganov is currently at the felt, defending their chip lead ahead of the Negreanu-Wasserman-Benyamine-Gregorich combination.
Former ME winner Martin Jacobson's pair still has chips, as does the quartet including double bracelet winner and 2013 November Niner JC Tran.
Steffen Sontheimer is the only other British player shown as cashing, but I believe he is merely resident in this country (Brighton) and is in fact German.
Play is currently in level 19, the original plan was to play to halfway through level 21 on Day 2 but I don't know how far they will go now that they're already at the FT.
Event 3 - $3K Shootout NL, Day 1 of 3, 369 entrants
In comparison, this one is already done for the day. 50 table winners have made it through Day 1 and will reconvene tomorrow after veteran Barry Greenstein took the last spot.
Three Union Jacks shown in the chip listings, Jan Scwippert (I think this is actually another German playing out of Sussex, Jan Schwippert), Waikiat Lee (Lee Wai Kiat, Malaysian living in Salford) and Markus Kuhnen (another German).
Simon Deadman should have been there as a genuine British player, but he let a large heads-up chip lead go against James Dambrosio
Others through include Taylor Paur (after battling past Kenny Hallaert), Jean Robert Ballande, Matt Glantz, Dominik Nitsche, Andre Akkari and Olivier Busquet.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 1 of 3, 905 entrants
The first non-hold'em event of the Series, late reg has just closed and it has been revealed that the winner will take home $238K
Full update to follow later, but it looks like about half the field has been knocked out already. Benny Glaser is among those shown as still having chips, but I'd take those chips with a pinch of salt as early updates to the chip count pages can be a long way behind the actual current state of play.
To Start Today
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, 5 Day Event, including 6 starting flights over 3 days
Event 6 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, 3 Day Event
Event 2 - the 10K Tag team played down to 6 teams with Team Negreanu holding a decent chip lead overnight. the Anthony Ajlouny - David Fong - Mike McClain combination is second, and Team Boeree is third, with a decent enough 46BB to play with on the final day. Former ME winner Martin Jacobson's team in 5th place. Play resumes at 10pm our time tonight.
Event 4 sees 254 Omaha Hi-Lo players move on to Day 2, with Rex Clinkscales turning on the afterburners late on to end the day with the chip lead. Not the most star-studded of fields to be honest, but those through do include last year's champion Benny Glaser along with a couple of other Brits - Bradley Viner & Vincent Hughes (both from the London Area). 136 will get paid
British bracelet alert. Liv Boeree seems to have been one of the most renowned UK players for a long time, winning an EPT as long ago as 2010, and she has now added a coveted WSOP bracelet to her palmares alongside her partner, Russian Igor Kurganov.
It is also the first bracelet for Kurganov, the all-time cash leader among Russian players. The couple will share almost $274K, and have announced that they will be donating half of that to the Raising for Effective Giving charity.
They started the heads up play against Ankush Mandavia & Joe Kuether with a 2:1 chip lead but as you would expect over 89 hands of heads up fortunes waxed and wained but on the 268th hand of he FT, Kurganov's A-10 on a board of Q-9-8-J-K was the nuts (in fact a seven card straight - beats even an Orford straight!) and Mandavia's Q-10 meant he held only the second nuts and it was curtains.
Daniel Negreanu's team started Day 3 with the chip lead, but went out in 3rd and Martin Jacobson's combination went out in 6th.
Event 3 - $3K Shootout NL, Day 2 of 3, 369 entrants
The FT has been determined after the 50 players were split into 10 tables of 5 with the players having to win that 5-player group to make Day 3.
One table was determined in rapid fashion, Jean Gaspard did his business before any of the other 9 tables lost even a single player
Gaspard won a bracelet last year, and is accompanied at the FT by two other bracelet holders - Taylor Paur & Upeshka Da Silva. Olivier Busquet and Jan Schwippert are also through, Schwippert now having the "h" re-instated in his surname and is shown without nationality and home town after being shown as British yesterday.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 2 of 3, 905 entrants
Still in play with 57 players active, although we've just lost Day 1 chip leader Rex Clinkscales.
The comparison between the chip counts page, the results page and the updates page on the WSOP site is a little confusing but it looks like annoying (but very successful) Costa Rican Humberto Brenes added to his over 80 WSOP cashes and another well known veteran Bruno Fitoussi are still involved
Benny Glaser won't be going "back-to-back" but he did cash, ending up 120th for $2315.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 1 of many
Day 1A is in the books while Day 1B is still ongoing.
From the former, Mark Peters bagged the biggest stack, ahead of Jack Blair who is stated to be from "Onl Signup-No City". Sounds like a great place to live.
Mo Farah is fourth, but I don't think it's THAT Mo Farah, as he doesn't "do" fourths. 90 players are through, including GB players Luke Brereton and Guy Taylor
The best known player to qualify is former November Niner and UKPC entrant Antoine Saout from France.
Day 1B round up later.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, single re-entry, Day 1 of 3
This fooled me, since producing the original schedule, Events 6 & 72 have been swapped so we have the One Drop coming very early in proceedings with the $10K Stud now right at the end.
Play is still ongoing, in fact registration is still ongoing (I believe it closes at the start of Day 2), so it's very early days. Doug Polk is the current chip leader, but a lot of the names you'd expect to play this are there - Hellmuth, Esfandiari, Colman, Negreanu, Seidel, Mercier etc.
Igor Kurganov has jumped into this after co-winning Event 2, as has one of his defeated heads-up rivals Ankush Mandavia
Brits represented include Jack Salter & Niall Farrell but we've lost Stephen Chidwick.
To Start Today
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event
Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm) More threes than in a Golden State Warriors basketball game.
plus flights 1C & 1D of the Colossus.
Event 4 $1500 Omaha Hi-Low
29 survive from the 254 who started Day 2 (136 made the money). Christopher Logue leads a very US-heavy cast of survivors (28 out of the 29 are from the USA).
Logue has 42 BB for when they resume, with Jim Collopy having 36 and Kevin Gerhart 33. Sole Euro Viktor Celikovsky (Czech Rep) is somewhere in the middle of the pack and has plenty of work to do.
As mentioned above, Benny Glaser was the only UK player to cash.
Event 5 The Colossus
Only 64 made it through from Day 1B, Hunter Fray, Ryan Buckholtz and Scott Bohlman completing the top three.
I can't see any GB players hrough, but one famous name in the list is that of veteran TV poker commentator (and member of the Poker Hall of Fame) Mike Sexton.
Event 6 Little One for One Drop
Day 1 ended with 119 entrants, apparently late reg is even open for a couple of hours on Day 2.
2014 ME winner Martin Jacobson holds the overnight lead as top of 79 players through from Day 1.
Former "Big One for One Drop" winners Antonio Esfandiari and Dan Colman both made it through as did Daniel Negreanu, Doug Polk, Ryan Reiss, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier and three GB players, Charlie Carrel, Jack Salter & Niall Farell.
From the WSOP site re Day 1C of the Colossus
"All in! I'm all in!" we heard someone say with a loud voice over on table 36 in the Amazon Room. We rushed over to see what was going on. The flop was out, it read something like A-7-3, and the button was making sure the entire table and dealer knew he was all in. But... the player on the button didn't have any cards. In fact, no one at the table had cards. The dealer had skipped the preflop action and had just gotten busy burning and dealing a flop. These 10 a.m. starts are early for everyone. Verbal was, in this case, not binding. The dealer removed the flop, started a new shuffle, and this time dealt the players their cards. If this had been on SkyPoker, there would have been ructions... I don't like copying stuff verbatim off the official site, but occasionally there's something I can't resist picking up.
It's a second bracelet for Upeshka Da Silva (previously the winner of a $1500 NLH event in 2015).
Da Silva got it in good on the final hand, his AJ dominating Louis Helm's A8 and the stronger hand held up.
Linglin Zeng from China finished third and Jan Schwippert (see previous reports) ended up in fourth.
The other two previous bracelet winners departed the FT early - Taylor Paur busted in 10th and Jean Gaspard shortly after in 9th.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, Day 3 of 3, 905 entrants
I held back on doing this update so I could get the Event 4 winner in without having to do a later update, and that winner is also now a two-time winner, Benjamin Zamani.
Like Da Silva, Zamani also won his first bracelet in a $1500 NLH event in 2015 - spooky! Neither the $460K he got them, nor the $238K he picked up today is even his biggest live cash, that came as long ago as 2010 when he won a cool million dollars at the PCA.
Jared Hemingway was the runner-up (I was just trying to come up with some Hemingway puns before he bust) and Alex Ferrari was third (again a pun-friendly name)
The only non-American player in Day 3 action, Czech Viktor Celikovsky, went out early in 25th place.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 1 C/D
Two more flights of the Colossus played out on Saturday, well one flight has played out and one is still ongoing so I'll restrict myself to Day 1C for the moment.
109 players have joined the qualifiers from flights A & B with a tie at the top between German Tonio Roder and American Alexander Borteh.
The controversial Chris "Jesus" Ferguson sits with a nice stack in 6th place, while from the UK Thomas Hall is just outside the Top 10, Matt Davenport is inside the top 50 and Gary Pra tt moves on with one of the shortest stacks.
Day 1D round up later.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 2 of 3, 130 entries
After late reg closed, the 130 entries produced a prizepool that means $3.6m for first, $2.2m for second and even fourth place gets a seven figure payday.
Twenty three move on to Day 3, with Bertand "Elky" Grospellier holding the ovenight lead from Italian Dario Sammartino and American Scott Siever.
The two former Big One Drop winners Antonio Esfandiari and Dan Colman both survived, as did tag team co-winner Igor Kurganov, former ME winners Phil Hellmuth & Martin Jacobson and one Brit, high roller specialist Charlie Carrel who already has one million-dollar cash this year.
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event, 225 entrants
225 have become 57 after Day 1, and for a Limit event it is a little surprising to see so many non-Americans in the Top 10.
Finn Samp Ryynanen holds the over night lead, Japanese player Youske Sekiya is in 8th, and in 10th is former November Niner Martin Staszko (Czech Rep).
No Brits, but some other names through include Brandon Shack-Harris, James Obst, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier, David "ODB" Baker, Maria Ho and Barry Greenstein.
Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm)
This is currently heads up between Joseph "ul_gg" Mitchell and Mark "PLODonkey17" Scacewater. I've not been following this one too closely I admit, I haven't even seen a final number of entries, but I'll do some more work on it when it has finished.
To Start Today
04/06/17 Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, 3 Day Event
plus flights 1E & 1F of the Colossus.
You are right at the very peak of your form already Barny, well done & thank you, these are a delight to read.
Rex Clinkscales.
Event 5 - Colossus Flight D
What chance someone winning a gigantic event like this twice in three years? Well, Cord Garcia is looking to do just that and sits very nicely among the chip leaders after finishing 2nd on Day 1D trailing just Irish player Toby Joyce. Sergi Reixach and Markus Kuhnen are both shown as British among the 82 survivors but are probably continental cousins living in our great country. Not too many well known names among the rest of the 82 so I started what I often do in these spots, look at the bizarrely named home towns of the American players and the best one I found here was the small town of Ooltewah, Tennesse, home of 74th placed Thomas Rogers and just 86 others.
Event 8 - $333 WSOP.com Online NLH, re-entry, 1 Day Event ($333,333 guarantee, starts at 3:33pm), 2509 entries, 1780 unique players
You know when you're playing online, and you lose your connection, or something happens that you end up missing a hand or two? How galling is that? How much more galling is it that it happens when you get heads up for a WSOP Bracelet?
That's what happened to Mark Scacewater. As soon as the third placed player was eliminated, Scacewater ("PLODonkey 17") disappeared from the scene and Joseph ("ul_gg") Mitchell won numerous hands without opposition before Scacewater briefly returned to play the last two hands. He won the first to double up his short stack but not the second and it was all over. Mitchell won $122K, Scacewater $73K and third placed Michael Addamo gets an amount that seems to have been undeclared!
Flight E was the largest of the flights, and it is Neil Mittleman who has the chip lead after a big pot in the last hand of the night, two more lesser-known names (Katie Lindsay & Karel Havelka lie second and third)
146 others join them in moving on, with several British players survived, Chris Moorman being the best known and the second best placed (24th) with Blair Matheson inside the top 10 and Zahir Aslam, Charles Mason, Raul Martinez Requena also bagging chips.
The entries for the various Flights
A - 2756
B - 1982
C - 3102
D - 2324
E - 3966
F - 3923
for a total of 18053, down from 21613 last year, over a 16% reduction in entries.
The bubble for Flight F went on for 45 minutes, 25 hands. On 21 of those hands there was an all-in and a call, and on all 21 the all-in player survived. The unlucky player at the 22nd attempt had AK against pocket Aces and failed to improve and the tournament could move on.
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 3 of 3, 130 entries
Bertand "Elky" Grospellier held the chip lead at the start of the day, and he also holds the lead at the end of the day.
The colourful Frenchman has almost double the chip of his nearest rival, 2014 ME winner Martin Jacobson who vaulted into second by eliminating 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth as the last elimination of the night.
Both former Big One for One Drop winners Dan Colman and Antonio Esfandiari were busted, as was British players Charlie Carrel (15th, $187K) and Salman Behbehani (13th, $217K) and Event 2 co-winner Igor Kurganov
The rest of the final 9, all looking for that over $3 million winning prize - Dario Sammartino, Chris Moore, Andrew Robl, Doug Polk, Rainer Kempe, Michael Kamran and Haralabos Voulgaris
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 2 of 3, 225 entrants
Still in play with 9 left including James Obst, Chris Bjorin and short stack Barry Greenstein
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 1 of 3
Still in play, during Level 8. At the end of this level, late reg will close and we will have field size and payout numbers, but there will still be two levels to play on Day 1.
To Start Today
Event 10 - $1K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), 3 Day Event
Event 11 - $1500 Dealers Choice 6 Handed, 3 Day Event
"The bubble for Flight F went on for 45 minutes, 25 hands. On 21 of those hands there was an all-in and a call, and on all 21 the all-in player survived"
Isn't that extraordinary?
Colossus Day 1F
Nearly 4000 players in the final chance to make Day 2 of the Colossus, and 143 seized that chance to join the qualifiers from flights A-E. Two players cracked half a million chips - Ardavan Yazdi & Harry Arutynyan with Jordan Polk nor far behind.
Ben Dobson appears to be the only GB qualifier, and not many big names made it - Matt Affleck, Cate Hall & Jeff Gross about the biggest, and I wouldn't have said any of them are any bigger than medium names really. Those who didn't include Will Kassouf, Maria Ho, Kenny Hallaert, and the two players who got their second bracelets a few days ago (Upeshka Da Silva & Ben Zamani)
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 2 of 3, 225 entrants
They're at the unofficial FT overnight with 7 players left, led by Terry Jennings. Jesse Martin (1 bracelet) and Chris Bjorin (2 bracelets) are on his tail but Barry Greenstein bowed out late on.
The solution they have for a 7 handed table when the game (with all the potential draws) can only really accommodate six is that the player who is nominally "Under The Gun" will sit out each hand. It also means they will play 7 hands of each game to make a fair orbit.
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 1 of 3, 155 entrants
Mike Gorodinsky is no stranger to big money bracelet events, his second coming in the prestigious $50K Players Championship in 2015, a win that played a large part in him becoming the WSOP Player of the Year. He is in the lead after Day 1 of Event 9, but only 2000 chips ahead of his nearest challenger Kyle Miaso.
In third we have a representative of these shores - Iraj Parvizi, listed as coming from Birchington, a place I admit I'd not heard of before. Turns out it is on the Thanet coast, a few miles from Margate. Reading a little about Parvizi, it seems like has had a somewhat colourful past.
Three more Brits accompany him to Day 2 - Philip Long, last years winner Benny Glaser, and Timothy Flanders who will have to get busy on Day 2 as he only has a smidgen over 1 Big Blind.
Several other well known players there too - Dan Shak, Daniel Negreanu, Fabrice Soulier, Anthony Zinno, Frank Kassela etc.
"Among those to bump up their stacks were Natalie Bromley and Jamie Kerstetter, A.K.A. Team Crouton."
That's more or less on the bubble of the $1K Tag Team event
Not much time for a detailed report this morning, will sort things out later.
Event 5 - $565 Colossus III NLH, Day 2, 18053 entries
Well in to the combined Day 2 with just 84 players remaining from the huge field. The chip count page is very confused at the moment but it looks like Gavin O'Rourke from Ireland is the chip leader, and we still have some British interest through Tom Hall
Event 6 - $111,111 High Roller for One Drop NLH, Day 4 of 3, 130 entries
Doug Polk is one of the highest-renowned online players, particularly in the heads-up arena, and he is getting quite a reputation live too.
He collected his third bracelet in five years by denying Frenchman Bertand "Elky" Grospellier a "wire to wire" success in the highest buyin event of the series.
Polk collects over $3.6m for his win, taking his total live earnings over $8m.
Event 7 - $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 3 of 3, 225 entrants
This one is also done and dusted and goes to Jesse Martin, collecting his second bracelet.
He beat Aussie James Obst heads-up to pick up over $130K and that all-important piece of jewellery.
Chris Bjorin, well known on the UK poker scene, finished in third place.
Event 9 - $10K Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better Championship, Day 2 of 3, 155 entrants
Twenty left as I type Abe Mosseri having the chip lead but several well known players are also still in contention, including John Monnette, David "ODB" Baker, Daniel Negreanu & Mike Matusow.
Event 10 - $1K Tag Team NLH (2-4 players per team), Day 1 of 3, TBA entries
Go Team Bromley! Adam and Natalie are in the money as the bubble has just burst in the second tag team event of the series, despite the WSOP news page putting Natalie in a team with someone else!
Event 11 - $1500 Dealers Choice 6 Handed, Day 1 of 3, 364 entrants
They're on their last break of the day there in Event 11 with the field being reduced to 138 or so players, of which 55 will eventually cash.
To Start Today
Event 12 - $1500 NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 13 - $1500 2-7 Draw Lowball No Limit, 3 Day Event, single re-entry