Event 29 - $2500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1086 entrants There's not been too many tournaments that have needed an extra day this time around, but this one falls into that bracket.
James Calvo (9.6m chips) and Guarav Raina (4m chips) will come back to finish the tournament, both looking for their first bracelets (both have two previous WSOP cashes each worth a total of $27K between them). The winner of this will dwarf that with a payday of $456K.
It took 66 hands to get rid of the rest of the FT, but Calvo and Raina have been going at it for over 80 hands already before a halt was called to proceedings in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Asi Moshe from Israel was third $199K, Eddy Sabat fourth for $143K and the only British player at the FT, Scott Margereson busted in 9th when his pocket Queens entered into a "classic race" with Eric Cloutier's AK, but the race was over fairly quickly when not one but two Aces appeared on the flop.
Event 30 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 2 of 3, 150 entrants It's a third bracelet for David Bach (and a little matter of $392K in hard cash). He had a 8-year wait for his second bracelet, but needed less than a fortnight between Event 11 and this.
He beat Eric Rodawig heads-up and Don Zewin in 3rd.
Daniel Negreanu was hoping for a 7th bracelet, but it was not to be as he was eliminated in 6th, and only one place better was reigning Champion of the (Wonder) HORSE, Jason Mercier.
Event 31 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 5389 entries Day 2 is over and there is just 67 players left, including 2014 event winner Dan Heimiller who holds the Day 2 chip lead
None of the bigger names in the event made it through to Day 3, so it is a host of unfamiliar names who are chasing Heimiller - Eluterio Rodriquez and Paul Spitzberg being the closest to him.
No Brits through, but one Irish player, Sean Byrne who has made the Top 67 or better in each of the last four years.
Oh, and there's another of those South Georgia "penguins" - Manuel Camalero who has a decent stack. Hopefully the WSOP will change his designation to Spain if he goes much deeper.
Martin Wilson was the last Brit standing, getting just over $4K for 120th with Gary Fisher, Shukri Mushawar and Barny Boatman all in the money.
Event 32 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 688 entries So I don't have to prepare a piece on Tikay winning his first bracelet, but still well done to that man in making Day 2.
29 players come back, and the good news is that a British player is shown as being on top of the chip listings - Howard Smith from Salford who has a very small lead over nearest challenger Erle Mankin and Chinese player Yueqi Zhu.
Igor Sharashkin has only listed cash between June 2012 and the start of this series, but he's made two final tables already and is in 4th place in this so will be looking for another extremely deep run.
Usman Siddique makes it two UK players in the Day 3 field, and a few "names" in include Allyn Shulman, John Racener and Tikay's earlier tablemate Allen Kessler.
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1698 entrants Early on Saturday morning, Valetin Vornicu ended Day 1B of the Giant as chip leader. 24 hours later, he's done the same again in Day 1 of this event.
His 198K chips outranks Paul Awodey's 169K and Belgian Jonathan Abdellatif's 168K.
Patrick Uzan from London is top UK player in 5th, with Thomas Hall next in 43rd and Niall Farrell 99th.
Non-brits include Jason Les, Joseph Cheong, Max Pescatori, Allen Cunningham, Brandon Cantu, Griffin Benger, and today's name of the day, German Sebastian Supper
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 1 of 3, 80 entries A miserable sized field for a bracelet event in my opinion, but the WSOP do insist on having $10K events of all the major varities and I can't see them dropping any anytime soon.
Of the 80, 26 remain, and while we haven't quite got an appropriate A to Z, we do have B to Z with Georgii Belianin and Anthony Zinno both inside the Top 10.
And for the second event in this update, we have a Brit on top of the stacks. Adam Owen is the leader, with 336K ahead of Robert Campbell's 291K.
No other Brits through but we do have likes of recent bracelet winner James Obst, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Shaun Deeb, David Benyamine, Todd Brunson and with the smallest stack former November Niner JC Tran.
To start today Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 29 - $2500 NLH, Day 4 of 3, 1086 entrants It took another 70 hands of heads-up action before Guarav Raina could come from behind to take the bracelet (his first) and over $456K. His defeated rival, James Calvo, has the siginificant compensation of $282K
Event 31 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 3 of 3, 5389 entries The increased field (down in part to re-entries of course) has led to this one also needing a Day 4.
Dan Heimiller is still in the hunt for his second Seniors bracelet (after 2014) and he lies 7th overnight on a final table made of all Americans. Mark Lillge, Frank Maggio and William Murray holding the biggest stacks.
Sean Byrne's run ended in 19th, which is the best of his amazing 4-year streak in this event.
Event 32 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 688 entries So close to a British bracelet. With five players left, it was between Russia (3 players) and GB (2) for the silverware, the best American down in 7th (Erle Markin). I wonder if there's ever been a bracelet event with no Americans in the top 6?)
Usman Siddique went out in 5th ($39K) leaving Howard Smith to battle three Russians. Igor Sharaskin went out in 4th, Nikolai Yakovenko 3rd leaving Howard up against Vladimir Shchemelev for the bracelet.
Unfortunately it went the Russian's way as he collected his second bracelet and $193K leaving Howard with a pile of cash that amounted to over $119K.
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1698 entrants Valentin Vornicu's heater ended on Day 2 as he disappeared from the event, with 22 players moving on to Day 3.
He was replaced on top by Ryan Leng, with Ron Rosenborg and Christopher Frank close behind.
We still have a British interest, as Tom Hall is among the 22, and he'll return with a very healthy 55BB for Day 3
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 2 of 3, 80 entries Shawn Deeb is looking for his third bracelet, and will be favourite heading into Day 3 as he holds a significant chip lead over the other five.
None of the others can be disregarded though, Nick Schulman, Mike Watson, Ben Yu, Shawn Buchanan and Mike Matusow would all be worthy winners.
Day 1 chip leader Adam Owen went out in 12th for $15584.
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1720 entrants You have to be over 64 to be classed as a Super Senior
This is the third time this event has been run, and both previous winners, Jon Andlovec and James Moore have both made it through, but quite some distance behind the runaway chip leader Johnny Landreth.
Just two British players among the x qualifiers. One, Jeffrey Duvall is a well known player, coming 2nd in a WSOP event last year and I believe has even been known to dabble on Sky Poker. The other, Susan Smith is less well-known, hs he majority of her recorded cashes in Sunday afternoon tournaments in Reading but did cash in the Seniors event a few days ago. Good luck to them both.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 1 of 3, 574 entrants I can't quite believe that 531 of 574 have made day 2, but that's what the reports say.
With it being comparitively early days, I won't go into too much detail, but Faraz Jaka is the chip leader and we have three Brits in good shape - Steven Warburton, Sam Grafton and Niall Farrell are all inside the top dozen stacks.
To start today Event 37 - $1K NLH, 3 Day Event - Halfway through the series! Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, 3 Day Event
Event 31 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 4 of 3, 5389 entries Dan Heimiller's attempt to win a second Seniors bracelet lasted all of one hand on the extended Day 4 when his 4-bet shove with pocket Jacks ran into Wiliam Murray's Kings.
Murray was a major factor throughout the table and it came down to a heads-up battle with Frank Maggio with stacks pretty even. The mano-a-mano didn't last long, 8 hands (including 2 walks) before Maggio got the cards he needed to take the title and $617K.
Murray takes $381K and third placed finisher Dieter Dechant $281K
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1698 entrants Chris Frank took this one down for Germany (although he currently lives in Austria) after going on a heater throughout the second half of the final table. It was the first German bracelet of the summer, making them the 9th country to collect some silverware this year.
The 22-year old beat Ryan Leng in a speedy heads-up match to collect his first bracelet and first prize money of $384K.
Leng had been the player to watch during the early stages of the FT, knocking out the first four players (including Max Pescatori) but then the cards started to fall in Frank's favour and he took full advantage.
Shropshire's Thomas Hall made the final day, with him getting knocked out in 13th for $18K.
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 3 of 3, 80 entries While both Maggio and Frank were winning their first bracelet, for Event 34 winner Ben Yu it was his second after previously winning the $10K Limit Hold'em two years ago.
He beat Day 2 chip leader Shaun Deeb in the heads-up battle and Nick Shulman finished third after exhibiting brilliant barnacle characteristics surviving all-ins several times during three-handed play.
Mike Matusow was the first player out on the FT after trying some mis-timed bluffs.
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1720 entrants Very close to end of play on Day 2 with 22 left, and not a Union Flag to be seen on the chip listings page as Jeff Duval went out in 220th ($1550) and Susan Smith followed him to the rail in 172nd ($1723)
Previous winner James Moore is among the survivors.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 2 of 3, 574 entrants The 531 qualifiers for Day 2 was, as I suspected, wrong as only 191 players emerged for the re-start with 82 places to be paid.
As I write this, 35 or so remain with Kenny Hallaert just moving to the top of the chip listings after a huge hand which busted Moritz Dietrich.
Three British players appear to be still in - Sam Grafton, Damien Le Goff & Niall Farrell, but the last hour has seen the back of Conor Beresford and Adam Owen, and Steve Warburton went out in 53rd spot.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 1 of 3, 2020 entrants Very close to the end of play, with the bubble having recently burst. Update to follow.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 1 of 3, TBA entrants Not that close to the end of Day 1 in this one, still a couple of levels to play and late reg to close.
Some names shown as having chips include two ME winners (Joe McKeehan and Jonathan Duhamel) plus Daniel Negreanu, JC Tran, Benny Glaser, Stephen Chidwick, and getting over his earlier FT elimination, Mike Matusow.
To start today Event 39 - $1000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH, 1 Day Event Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud, 3 Day Event
Updates Event 35 Not much more to add, just to give the top 3 players a name check - Kerry Goldberg, Earl Hirakawa and Darrell Ticehurst. Household names in their own household. Moving on...
Event 36 Three table left, and that means 18 players. 2016 November Niner and Vegas tournament spreadsheet compiler Kenny Hallaert moved in to the lead late on with Chris Hunichen 2nd and Nadar Kakhmazov 3rd.
Previous leader Faraz Jaka is fourth, and other survivors include James Obst, Jonathan Jaffe and Mike Leah.
Damien Le Goff was top Brit in 26th for $15868 while Sam Grafton, Niall Farrell, Conor Beresford and Adam Owen all collected between $11187 and $13159.
Event 37 238 players move on to Day 2 and we have a Brit in a very decent position - Louis Salter sits second overnight, trailing only Chad Eveslage.
The winner of this equivalent event last year, Chase Bianchi is also through, as is former ME winner Martin Jacobson, Barry Greenstein and Loni Harwood, and, from the UK Sadam Turker, Katie Swift, Stephen Woodhead, Yann Del Rey, Fraser McIntyre & Innes Young.
Mike Leah appears to have made two concurrent Day 2s as he is in this one as well as Event 36.
Event 38 The eventual player list stretched to 120 players and we have some familiar names near the top.
Chip leader is recent bracelet winner Ben Yu, second is last year's winner Ian Johns, and third is the seemingly omnipresent Daniel Negreanu.
Throw in Phil Hellmuth (actually throw him wherever you like), Joe McKeehen, JC Tran, Jeff Lisandro, Sorel Mizzi and another recent bracelet winner Shaun Deeb and you have a star-studded Top 20.
What you can't throw in is any British presence among the 41 playes still active - well it is Limit Hold'em after all.
Updates Event 35 Not much more to add, just to give the top 3 players a name check - Kerry Goldberg, Earl Hirakawa and Darrell Ticehurst. Household names in their own household. Moving on... Event 36 Three table left, and that means 18 players. 2016 November Niner and Vegas tournament spreadsheet compiler Kenny Hallaert moved in to the lead late on with Chris Hunichen 2nd and Nadar Kakhmazov 3rd. Previous leader Faraz Jaka is fourth, and other survivors include James Obst, Jonathan Jaffe and Mike Leah. Damien Le Goff was top Brit in 26th for $15868 while Sam Grafton, Niall Farrell, Conor Beresford and Adam Owen all collected between $11187 and $13159. Event 37 238 players move on to Day 2 and we have a Brit in a very decent position - Louis Salter sits second overnight, trailing only Chad Eveslage. The winner of this equivalent event last year, Chase Bianchi is also through, as is former ME winner Martin Jacobson, Barry Greenstein and Loni Harwood, and, from the UK Sadam Turker, Katie Swift, Stephen Woodhead, Yann Del Rey, Fraser McIntyre & Innes Young. Mike Leah appears to have made two concurrent Day 2s as he is in this one as well as Event 36. Event 38 The eventual player list stretched to 120 players and we have some familiar names near the top. Chip leader is recent bracelet winner Ben Yu, second is last year's winner Ian Johns, and third is the seemingly omnipresent Daniel Negreanu. Throw in Phil Hellmuth (actually throw him wherever you like), Joe McKeehen, JC Tran, Jeff Lisandro, Sorel Mizzi and another recent bracelet winner Shaun Deeb and you have a star-studded Top 20. What you can't throw in is any British presence among the 41 playes still active - well it is Limit Hold'em after all. Posted by FCHD
I spent all day on the same table as Mike in the WSOP Omaha Mix thing. Very good player indeed, & a nice bloke, too.
He has a similar stature & height to Matt Bates, except he's not as rotund.
Adam Owen , is he the lad from Stoke ? Posted by stokefc
No, he's Folkestone's finest.
I know him quite well, smashing lad, & he was Day 1 Chippie in the 2-7 Lowball. So I decided to go see him before the start of Day 2 to wish him luck.
It's pretty hard to find anyone here, so many people over such a large area, but I literally bumped into him within 30 seconds. I thought that was an omen, & said "I hope you have the same luck today". He was out 12th or 14th, whoops....
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1720 entrants It's very rare for someone to win the same WSOP event in consectutive years, even more so in large field events (>1000 players), but that's what James Moore has done.
He followed up his 2016 Super Seniors win with a repeat in 2017. He was too young to play the inaugural event in 2015 so he has a 100% record.
Moore collected $259K, runner-up Kerry Goldberg $160K and third placed John Isler (who I'd been unconciously linking to the tennis player John Isner) a little over $115K.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 3 of 4, 574 entrants Apparently this always scheduled for 4 days, not 3. Faraz Jaka has been making an impact across several events over the last few weeks, and he is at it again in Event 36. He holds the overnight chip lead with the FT set, ahead of 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert and Russian Nadar Kakhmaov.
They reconvene for the FT at 8pm our time tonight.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 2 of 3, 2020 entrants Just 20 of the 2020 remain, with the lead held by Chris Johnson who vaulted to the top of the listing very late on.
Vlad Darie is second and Joep Raemakers third. Raemakers is Dutch but lives in one of those Maltese towns that just seem to be random selections of letters - Swieqi.
We still have some British interest too, Katie Swift from Kent who has just one previous WSOP cash to her name but recently won a six-figure sum at a huge event at DTD.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 2 of 3, 120 entrants Play is ongoing with 14 left with JC Tran currently chip leader but with 3 Canadians on his tail - Terrence Chan, Sorel Mizzi and Daniel Negreanu. Ian Johns, Ben Yu, Shaun Deeb and Joe McKeehen among the other 10.
Event 39 - $1000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH, 1 Day Event, 1868 entrants As I type this, they're down to 3 - Ryan Olisar (USA), Rifat Palevic (Sweden) & Dean Blatt (Australia).
Only a few small cashes for players with "United Kingdom" beside their name - Marcos Martinez, Chun Yam, Andrew Hedley, Chris Brammer, Colin Lovelock, and Kenneth Broad, none of them amounting to more than $1374.
Gavin O'Rourke from Ireland collected more than all those put together with his $25K for 7th spot.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, 3 Day Event, 595 entrants Now we're talking. Stud Hi-Lo, what could be better?
Clock has been paused with 6 hands to play so we're close to the end of Day 1. Some of the names recently mentioned in updates (so I assume will be back for Day 2) include David Sklansky, John Racener, Jeff Madsen, Allen Kessler, Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow.
To start today Event 41 - $1500 PLO, 3 Day Event Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, 3 Day Event
Updates Event 38 Not much happened in the final few hands, with the end of day situation much the same as above.
Event 39 Rifat Palevic took a bracelet for Sweden as the whole event was over inide 14 hours. Palevic wins $183 plus whatever bounties he earned.
Ryan Olisar took second and Dean Blatt third.
Event 40 141 players made Day 2 with two JMs at the top - Jeff Madsen and Jeffrey Mitseff. Cole Jackson is third and in fourth is Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.
I can't see any British players on the reports, but down near the bottom is Irish former November Niner Eoghan O'Dea.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 4 of 4, 574 entrants This one has gone to Russia, with Nadar Kakhmazov claiming his first braclet and the $580K first prize.
He beat Chris Hunichen heads-up and 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert came third.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 3 of 3, 2020 entrants Also a first-time bracelet winner here, with Thomas Reynolds getting the better of James Hughes after a heads-up battle that lasted over 100 hands.
Reynolds had only $11K of recorded cashes before this, but he now has $292K to add to that, which he says he will now spend $10K of to enter the Main Event.
The final table included representatives of Canada, Belgium, Romania and Netherlands/Malta, but the last British player was one of the early Day 3 eliminations, Katie Swift ending up in 19th for $9209.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 3 of 3, 120 entrants Most ME winners these days never seem to win another bracelet. Joe McKeehen has proved the exception to that rule as he won his second bracelet on the 10K Limit Hold'em event.
The $311K he won here is, of course, dwarfed by his ME winnings, but will come in handy nonetheless. Jared Talarico finished 2nd, and the best of what was looking like a strong Canadian challenge at one point, Sorel Mizzi was 3rd.
Of the others, Ben Yu was 4th, JC Tran 5th, reigning champion Ian Johns 11th, Daniel Negreanu 13th and Phil Hellmuth 16th. Terrence Chan (who finished 8th) was the subject of a typical expletive-ridden Hellmuth rant when laying a bad beat on the Poker Brat.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, Day 2 of 3, 595 entrants Of the players with 6 or more bracelets, Ted Forrest seems to have a relatively low profile but he's in the hunt for number 7 in this event.
He lies third overnight, behind Steve Jelinek and Hal Rotholz, but there are several other good players left such as Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, David Sklansky and last woman standing Barbara Lewis.
Event 41 - $1500 PLO, Day 1 of 3, 870 entrants 138 of the 870 are back for Day 2, seven players away from the bubble with at least a min cash awaiting 131 of them.
Chun Law leads and all-American top 3 from Kyle Knecht and Philip Hayes but not very far behing is Southampton's finest, Toby Lewis.
Also from the South Coast, Jan Collado is 11th while spreading out a bit we have Swansea's Robert Cowen and Londoner Andrew Teng through too.
A few of the more interesting names among the "others" - TJ Cloutier, David Williams, Jeffrey Lisandro and former ME winner Joe Cada.
Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 332 entrants No surprise that the Hold'em varieties definitely attract bigger fields for the $10K events than other games.
Grayson Ramage led for long parts of the day and in the end held on to bag the biggest stack, with 1-time bracelet winner Sam Stein 2nd and 2-time winner (and 2016 November Niner) Cliff Josephy 3rd.
The full list of players has not yet been posted so I will check for other names and GB presence later.
To start today Event 43 - $1500 Shootout NLH, 3 Day Event Event 44 - $3K HORSE, 3 Day Event
Update The list of qualifiers for Event 42 was eventually posted, and it is 129 who move on
As mentioned above Grayson Ramage and Sam Stein are the top two, but William Stevenson move into third ahead of Cliff Josephy late on.
I noticed Josephy's home town as I was wading through the lists - Muttontown, New York, and then of course I had look up Muttontown, and found that it is also the hometown of Alicia Keys. Stevenson is also from a town with an interesting name - Palatine, leading me to read about Counties Palantine.
Lots of players marked GB in the report, a little cluster around 20th (Adrien Delmas, Romain Lewis and Charlie Carrel), Phillip McAllister, Andreas Olympios, Chi Zhang, Mian Wei, Daniel Rudd, Sams Trickett & Grafton, Jason McConnon, Talal Shakerchi, Patrick Leonard and Robert Heidorn.
Not much time for a detailed report this morning, a late night with the NBA draft coupled with an early start at work.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, Day 3 of 3, 595 entrants OK, so I jinxed almost every single player I mentioned yesterday and we're down to 3-handed play between Ernest Bohn, Hal Rotholz and William Kohler, with stacks in that order.
Justin Bonomo was 5th, Max Pescatori 6th Steve Jelinek (who I didn't highlight as from Birmingham yesterday) 11th for $9150.
Event 41 - $1500 PLO, Day 2 of 3, 870 entrants Also still ongoing, with about a level and a half to play tonight. 21 remain with Loren Klein top of the stacks at present.
The strong British Day 1 challenge faded disappointingly on Day 2, with Toby Lewis and Andrew Teng the best of them in 27th and 28th respectively.
Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, Day 2 of 3, 332 entrants The strong British Day 1 challenge is doing rather better here with several Brits still among the 41 or so remaining, although we have recently lost Adrien Delmas in 48th or $15516.
Charlie Carrel, Sam Grafton, Sam Trickett and Mian Wei all appear to be still in and there may be others too
Event 43 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1025 entrants Day 1 is over as all 120 tables have played down to a winner. Two of last years November Nine, Kenny Hallaert (there rarely is a day without a Hallaert mention) and Vojtech Ruzicka are among the 120
Plenty of UK representation - Shola Akindele, Christopher Gordon, Alex Goulder, Tom Middleton, Chris Moorman & Sergi Reixach
All are guarnteed a min-cash of $4837, but to earn more they will have to win their 10-handed Day 2 tables.
Event 44 - $3K HORSE, Day 1 of 3, tba entrants Still in Level 8, at the end of which late reg will close and we will have a confirmed field size and payout table.
To start today Event 45 - $5K NLH 30-minute levels, 3 Day Event Event 46 - $1500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, 3 Day Event. Should be tikay's for the taking?
Comments
Really looking forward to meeting you in 3 weeks.
There's not been too many tournaments that have needed an extra day this time around, but this one falls into that bracket.
James Calvo (9.6m chips) and Guarav Raina (4m chips) will come back to finish the tournament, both looking for their first bracelets (both have two previous WSOP cashes each worth a total of $27K between them). The winner of this will dwarf that with a payday of $456K.
It took 66 hands to get rid of the rest of the FT, but Calvo and Raina have been going at it for over 80 hands already before a halt was called to proceedings in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Asi Moshe from Israel was third $199K, Eddy Sabat fourth for $143K and the only British player at the FT, Scott Margereson busted in 9th when his pocket Queens entered into a "classic race" with Eric Cloutier's AK, but the race was over fairly quickly when not one but two Aces appeared on the flop.
Event 30 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 2 of 3, 150 entrants
It's a third bracelet for David Bach (and a little matter of $392K in hard cash). He had a 8-year wait for his second bracelet, but needed less than a fortnight between Event 11 and this.
He beat Eric Rodawig heads-up and Don Zewin in 3rd.
Daniel Negreanu was hoping for a 7th bracelet, but it was not to be as he was eliminated in 6th, and only one place better was reigning Champion of the (Wonder) HORSE, Jason Mercier.
Event 31 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 5389 entries
Day 2 is over and there is just 67 players left, including 2014 event winner Dan Heimiller who holds the Day 2 chip lead
None of the bigger names in the event made it through to Day 3, so it is a host of unfamiliar names who are chasing Heimiller - Eluterio Rodriquez and Paul Spitzberg being the closest to him.
No Brits through, but one Irish player, Sean Byrne who has made the Top 67 or better in each of the last four years.
Oh, and there's another of those South Georgia "penguins" - Manuel Camalero who has a decent stack. Hopefully the WSOP will change his designation to Spain if he goes much deeper.
Martin Wilson was the last Brit standing, getting just over $4K for 120th with Gary Fisher, Shukri Mushawar and Barny Boatman all in the money.
Event 32 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 688 entries
So I don't have to prepare a piece on Tikay winning his first bracelet, but still well done to that man in making Day 2.
29 players come back, and the good news is that a British player is shown as being on top of the chip listings - Howard Smith from Salford who has a very small lead over nearest challenger Erle Mankin and Chinese player Yueqi Zhu.
Igor Sharashkin has only listed cash between June 2012 and the start of this series, but he's made two final tables already and is in 4th place in this so will be looking for another extremely deep run.
Usman Siddique makes it two UK players in the Day 3 field, and a few "names" in include Allyn Shulman, John Racener and Tikay's earlier tablemate Allen Kessler.
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1698 entrants
Early on Saturday morning, Valetin Vornicu ended Day 1B of the Giant as chip leader. 24 hours later, he's done the same again in Day 1 of this event.
His 198K chips outranks Paul Awodey's 169K and Belgian Jonathan Abdellatif's 168K.
Patrick Uzan from London is top UK player in 5th, with Thomas Hall next in 43rd and Niall Farrell 99th.
Non-brits include Jason Les, Joseph Cheong, Max Pescatori, Allen Cunningham, Brandon Cantu, Griffin Benger, and today's name of the day, German Sebastian Supper
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 1 of 3, 80 entries
A miserable sized field for a bracelet event in my opinion, but the WSOP do insist on having $10K events of all the major varities and I can't see them dropping any anytime soon.
Of the 80, 26 remain, and while we haven't quite got an appropriate A to Z, we do have B to Z with Georgii Belianin and Anthony Zinno both inside the Top 10.
And for the second event in this update, we have a Brit on top of the stacks. Adam Owen is the leader, with 336K ahead of Robert Campbell's 291K.
No other Brits through but we do have likes of recent bracelet winner James Obst, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Shaun Deeb, David Benyamine, Todd Brunson and with the smallest stack former November Niner JC Tran.
To start today
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, 3 Day Event
It took another 70 hands of heads-up action before Guarav Raina could come from behind to take the bracelet (his first) and over $456K. His defeated rival, James Calvo, has the siginificant compensation of $282K
Event 31 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 3 of 3, 5389 entries
The increased field (down in part to re-entries of course) has led to this one also needing a Day 4.
Dan Heimiller is still in the hunt for his second Seniors bracelet (after 2014) and he lies 7th overnight on a final table made of all Americans. Mark Lillge, Frank Maggio and William Murray holding the biggest stacks.
Sean Byrne's run ended in 19th, which is the best of his amazing 4-year streak in this event.
Event 32 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 688 entries
So close to a British bracelet. With five players left, it was between Russia (3 players) and GB (2) for the silverware, the best American down in 7th (Erle Markin). I wonder if there's ever been a bracelet event with no Americans in the top 6?)
Usman Siddique went out in 5th ($39K) leaving Howard Smith to battle three Russians. Igor Sharaskin went out in 4th, Nikolai Yakovenko 3rd leaving Howard up against Vladimir Shchemelev for the bracelet.
Unfortunately it went the Russian's way as he collected his second bracelet and $193K leaving Howard with a pile of cash that amounted to over $119K.
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1698 entrants
Valentin Vornicu's heater ended on Day 2 as he disappeared from the event, with 22 players moving on to Day 3.
He was replaced on top by Ryan Leng, with Ron Rosenborg and Christopher Frank close behind.
We still have a British interest, as Tom Hall is among the 22, and he'll return with a very healthy 55BB for Day 3
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 2 of 3, 80 entries
Shawn Deeb is looking for his third bracelet, and will be favourite heading into Day 3 as he holds a significant chip lead over the other five.
None of the others can be disregarded though, Nick Schulman, Mike Watson, Ben Yu, Shawn Buchanan and Mike Matusow would all be worthy winners.
Day 1 chip leader Adam Owen went out in 12th for $15584.
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1720 entrants
You have to be over 64 to be classed as a Super Senior
This is the third time this event has been run, and both previous winners, Jon Andlovec and James Moore have both made it through, but quite some distance behind the runaway chip leader Johnny Landreth.
Just two British players among the x qualifiers. One, Jeffrey Duvall is a well known player, coming 2nd in a WSOP event last year and I believe has even been known to dabble on Sky Poker. The other, Susan Smith is less well-known, hs he majority of her recorded cashes in Sunday afternoon tournaments in Reading but did cash in the Seniors event a few days ago. Good luck to them both.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 1 of 3, 574 entrants
I can't quite believe that 531 of 574 have made day 2, but that's what the reports say.
With it being comparitively early days, I won't go into too much detail, but Faraz Jaka is the chip leader and we have three Brits in good shape - Steven Warburton, Sam Grafton and Niall Farrell are all inside the top dozen stacks.
To start today
Event 37 - $1K NLH, 3 Day Event - Halfway through the series!
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, 3 Day Event
Dan Heimiller's attempt to win a second Seniors bracelet lasted all of one hand on the extended Day 4 when his 4-bet shove with pocket Jacks ran into Wiliam Murray's Kings.
Murray was a major factor throughout the table and it came down to a heads-up battle with Frank Maggio with stacks pretty even. The mano-a-mano didn't last long, 8 hands (including 2 walks) before Maggio got the cards he needed to take the title and $617K.
Murray takes $381K and third placed finisher Dieter Dechant $281K
Event 33 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1698 entrants
Chris Frank took this one down for Germany (although he currently lives in Austria) after going on a heater throughout the second half of the final table. It was the first German bracelet of the summer, making them the 9th country to collect some silverware this year.
The 22-year old beat Ryan Leng in a speedy heads-up match to collect his first bracelet and first prize money of $384K.
Leng had been the player to watch during the early stages of the FT, knocking out the first four players (including Max Pescatori) but then the cards started to fall in Frank's favour and he took full advantage.
Shropshire's Thomas Hall made the final day, with him getting knocked out in 13th for $18K.
Event 34 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, Day 3 of 3, 80 entries
While both Maggio and Frank were winning their first bracelet, for Event 34 winner Ben Yu it was his second after previously winning the $10K Limit Hold'em two years ago.
He beat Day 2 chip leader Shaun Deeb in the heads-up battle and Nick Shulman finished third after exhibiting brilliant barnacle characteristics surviving all-ins several times during three-handed play.
Mike Matusow was the first player out on the FT after trying some mis-timed bluffs.
Event 35 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1720 entrants
Very close to end of play on Day 2 with 22 left, and not a Union Flag to be seen on the chip listings page as Jeff Duval went out in 220th ($1550) and Susan Smith followed him to the rail in 172nd ($1723)
Previous winner James Moore is among the survivors.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 2 of 3, 574 entrants
The 531 qualifiers for Day 2 was, as I suspected, wrong as only 191 players emerged for the re-start with 82 places to be paid.
As I write this, 35 or so remain with Kenny Hallaert just moving to the top of the chip listings after a huge hand which busted Moritz Dietrich.
Three British players appear to be still in - Sam Grafton, Damien Le Goff & Niall Farrell, but the last hour has seen the back of Conor Beresford and Adam Owen, and Steve Warburton went out in 53rd spot.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 1 of 3, 2020 entrants
Very close to the end of play, with the bubble having recently burst. Update to follow.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 1 of 3, TBA entrants
Not that close to the end of Day 1 in this one, still a couple of levels to play and late reg to close.
Some names shown as having chips include two ME winners (Joe McKeehan and Jonathan Duhamel) plus Daniel Negreanu, JC Tran, Benny Glaser, Stephen Chidwick, and getting over his earlier FT elimination, Mike Matusow.
To start today
Event 39 - $1000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH, 1 Day Event
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud, 3 Day Event
Event 35
Not much more to add, just to give the top 3 players a name check - Kerry Goldberg, Earl Hirakawa and Darrell Ticehurst. Household names in their own household. Moving on...
Event 36
Three table left, and that means 18 players. 2016 November Niner and Vegas tournament spreadsheet compiler Kenny Hallaert moved in to the lead late on with Chris Hunichen 2nd and Nadar Kakhmazov 3rd.
Previous leader Faraz Jaka is fourth, and other survivors include James Obst, Jonathan Jaffe and Mike Leah.
Damien Le Goff was top Brit in 26th for $15868 while Sam Grafton, Niall Farrell, Conor Beresford and Adam Owen all collected between $11187 and $13159.
Event 37
238 players move on to Day 2 and we have a Brit in a very decent position - Louis Salter sits second overnight, trailing only Chad Eveslage.
The winner of this equivalent event last year, Chase Bianchi is also through, as is former ME winner Martin Jacobson, Barry Greenstein and Loni Harwood, and, from the UK Sadam Turker, Katie Swift, Stephen Woodhead, Yann Del Rey, Fraser McIntyre & Innes Young.
Mike Leah appears to have made two concurrent Day 2s as he is in this one as well as Event 36.
Event 38
The eventual player list stretched to 120 players and we have some familiar names near the top.
Chip leader is recent bracelet winner Ben Yu, second is last year's winner Ian Johns, and third is the seemingly omnipresent Daniel Negreanu.
Throw in Phil Hellmuth (actually throw him wherever you like), Joe McKeehen, JC Tran, Jeff Lisandro, Sorel Mizzi and another recent bracelet winner Shaun Deeb and you have a star-studded Top 20.
What you can't throw in is any British presence among the 41 playes still active - well it is Limit Hold'em after all.
He has a similar stature & height to Matt Bates, except he's not as rotund.
I know him quite well, smashing lad, & he was Day 1 Chippie in the 2-7 Lowball. So I decided to go see him before the start of Day 2 to wish him luck.
It's pretty hard to find anyone here, so many people over such a large area, but I literally bumped into him within 30 seconds. I thought that was an omen, & said "I hope you have the same luck today". He was out 12th or 14th, whoops....
PS - the fella you are thinking of is Alex Lindop.
He might be here, but I've not seen him.
It's very rare for someone to win the same WSOP event in consectutive years, even more so in large field events (>1000 players), but that's what James Moore has done.
He followed up his 2016 Super Seniors win with a repeat in 2017. He was too young to play the inaugural event in 2015 so he has a 100% record.
Moore collected $259K, runner-up Kerry Goldberg $160K and third placed John Isler (who I'd been unconciously linking to the tennis player John Isner) a little over $115K.
Event 36 - $5K 6-Max NLH, Day 3 of 4, 574 entrants
Apparently this always scheduled for 4 days, not 3. Faraz Jaka has been making an impact across several events over the last few weeks, and he is at it again in Event 36. He holds the overnight chip lead with the FT set, ahead of 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert and Russian Nadar Kakhmaov.
They reconvene for the FT at 8pm our time tonight.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 2 of 3, 2020 entrants
Just 20 of the 2020 remain, with the lead held by Chris Johnson who vaulted to the top of the listing very late on.
Vlad Darie is second and Joep Raemakers third. Raemakers is Dutch but lives in one of those Maltese towns that just seem to be random selections of letters - Swieqi.
We still have some British interest too, Katie Swift from Kent who has just one previous WSOP cash to her name but recently won a six-figure sum at a huge event at DTD.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 2 of 3, 120 entrants
Play is ongoing with 14 left with JC Tran currently chip leader but with 3 Canadians on his tail - Terrence Chan, Sorel Mizzi and Daniel Negreanu. Ian Johns, Ben Yu, Shaun Deeb and Joe McKeehen among the other 10.
Event 39 - $1000 Super Turbo Bounty NLH, 1 Day Event, 1868 entrants
As I type this, they're down to 3 - Ryan Olisar (USA), Rifat Palevic (Sweden) & Dean Blatt (Australia).
Only a few small cashes for players with "United Kingdom" beside their name - Marcos Martinez, Chun Yam, Andrew Hedley, Chris Brammer, Colin Lovelock, and Kenneth Broad, none of them amounting to more than $1374.
Gavin O'Rourke from Ireland collected more than all those put together with his $25K for 7th spot.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, 3 Day Event, 595 entrants
Now we're talking. Stud Hi-Lo, what could be better?
Clock has been paused with 6 hands to play so we're close to the end of Day 1. Some of the names recently mentioned in updates (so I assume will be back for Day 2) include David Sklansky, John Racener, Jeff Madsen, Allen Kessler, Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow.
To start today
Event 41 - $1500 PLO, 3 Day Event
Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, 3 Day Event
Event 38
Not much happened in the final few hands, with the end of day situation much the same as above.
Event 39
Rifat Palevic took a bracelet for Sweden as the whole event was over inide 14 hours. Palevic wins $183 plus whatever bounties he earned.
Ryan Olisar took second and Dean Blatt third.
Event 40
141 players made Day 2 with two JMs at the top - Jeff Madsen and Jeffrey Mitseff. Cole Jackson is third and in fourth is Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.
I can't see any British players on the reports, but down near the bottom is Irish former November Niner Eoghan O'Dea.
This one has gone to Russia, with Nadar Kakhmazov claiming his first braclet and the $580K first prize.
He beat Chris Hunichen heads-up and 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert came third.
Event 37 - $1K NLH, Day 3 of 3, 2020 entrants
Also a first-time bracelet winner here, with Thomas Reynolds getting the better of James Hughes after a heads-up battle that lasted over 100 hands.
Reynolds had only $11K of recorded cashes before this, but he now has $292K to add to that, which he says he will now spend $10K of to enter the Main Event.
The final table included representatives of Canada, Belgium, Romania and Netherlands/Malta, but the last British player was one of the early Day 3 eliminations, Katie Swift ending up in 19th for $9209.
Event 38 - $10K Limit Hold'em Championship, Day 3 of 3, 120 entrants
Most ME winners these days never seem to win another bracelet. Joe McKeehen has proved the exception to that rule as he won his second bracelet on the 10K Limit Hold'em event.
The $311K he won here is, of course, dwarfed by his ME winnings, but will come in handy nonetheless. Jared Talarico finished 2nd, and the best of what was looking like a strong Canadian challenge at one point, Sorel Mizzi was 3rd.
Of the others, Ben Yu was 4th, JC Tran 5th, reigning champion Ian Johns 11th, Daniel Negreanu 13th and Phil Hellmuth 16th. Terrence Chan (who finished 8th) was the subject of a typical expletive-ridden Hellmuth rant when laying a bad beat on the Poker Brat.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, Day 2 of 3, 595 entrants
Of the players with 6 or more bracelets, Ted Forrest seems to have a relatively low profile but he's in the hunt for number 7 in this event.
He lies third overnight, behind Steve Jelinek and Hal Rotholz, but there are several other good players left such as Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, David Sklansky and last woman standing Barbara Lewis.
Event 41 - $1500 PLO, Day 1 of 3, 870 entrants
138 of the 870 are back for Day 2, seven players away from the bubble with at least a min cash awaiting 131 of them.
Chun Law leads and all-American top 3 from Kyle Knecht and Philip Hayes but not very far behing is Southampton's finest, Toby Lewis.
Also from the South Coast, Jan Collado is 11th while spreading out a bit we have Swansea's Robert Cowen and Londoner Andrew Teng through too.
A few of the more interesting names among the "others" - TJ Cloutier, David Williams, Jeffrey Lisandro and former ME winner Joe Cada.
Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 332 entrants
No surprise that the Hold'em varieties definitely attract bigger fields for the $10K events than other games.
Grayson Ramage led for long parts of the day and in the end held on to bag the biggest stack, with 1-time bracelet winner Sam Stein 2nd and 2-time winner (and 2016 November Niner) Cliff Josephy 3rd.
The full list of players has not yet been posted so I will check for other names and GB presence later.
To start today
Event 43 - $1500 Shootout NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 44 - $3K HORSE, 3 Day Event
The list of qualifiers for Event 42 was eventually posted, and it is 129 who move on
As mentioned above Grayson Ramage and Sam Stein are the top two, but William Stevenson move into third ahead of Cliff Josephy late on.
I noticed Josephy's home town as I was wading through the lists - Muttontown, New York, and then of course I had look up Muttontown, and found that it is also the hometown of Alicia Keys. Stevenson is also from a town with an interesting name - Palatine, leading me to read about Counties Palantine.
Lots of players marked GB in the report, a little cluster around 20th (Adrien Delmas, Romain Lewis and Charlie Carrel), Phillip McAllister, Andreas Olympios, Chi Zhang, Mian Wei, Daniel Rudd, Sams Trickett & Grafton, Jason McConnon, Talal Shakerchi, Patrick Leonard and Robert Heidorn.
Event 40 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, Day 3 of 3, 595 entrants
OK, so I jinxed almost every single player I mentioned yesterday and we're down to 3-handed play between Ernest Bohn, Hal Rotholz and William Kohler, with stacks in that order.
Justin Bonomo was 5th, Max Pescatori 6th Steve Jelinek (who I didn't highlight as from Birmingham yesterday) 11th for $9150.
Event 41 - $1500 PLO, Day 2 of 3, 870 entrants
Also still ongoing, with about a level and a half to play tonight. 21 remain with Loren Klein top of the stacks at present.
The strong British Day 1 challenge faded disappointingly on Day 2, with Toby Lewis and Andrew Teng the best of them in 27th and 28th respectively.
Event 42 - $10K 6 Max NLH Championship, Day 2 of 3, 332 entrants
The strong British Day 1 challenge is doing rather better here with several Brits still among the 41 or so remaining, although we have recently lost Adrien Delmas in 48th or $15516.
Charlie Carrel, Sam Grafton, Sam Trickett and Mian Wei all appear to be still in and there may be others too
Event 43 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1025 entrants
Day 1 is over as all 120 tables have played down to a winner. Two of last years November Nine, Kenny Hallaert (there rarely is a day without a Hallaert mention) and Vojtech Ruzicka are among the 120
Plenty of UK representation - Shola Akindele, Christopher Gordon, Alex Goulder, Tom Middleton, Chris Moorman & Sergi Reixach
All are guarnteed a min-cash of $4837, but to earn more they will have to win their 10-handed Day 2 tables.
Event 44 - $3K HORSE, Day 1 of 3, tba entrants
Still in Level 8, at the end of which late reg will close and we will have a confirmed field size and payout table.
To start today
Event 45 - $5K NLH 30-minute levels, 3 Day Event
Event 46 - $1500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low 8 or better, 3 Day Event. Should be tikay's for the taking?