Whoa! I go away for a weekend, and come back to several "near misses" for British bracelets, including one by someone we still think of here as "one of our own".
First, those events that have been completed.
Event 7 - $565 Colossus NLH, 13079 entries The first near miss, Scott Margerson was chip leader with 4 left, bit it all went a bit wrong and he was next out after a four hour long game 4-handed.
He picked up the small matter of $220K, while the million dollars and bracelet went to Brazilian Roberly Felicio, the 5th for the South American country and as is now customary, was played out to a large Brazilian rail.
Event 13 - $1500 NLH (Big Blind Ante), 1306 entries The Moon shone in Vegas brightly as Benjamin Moon was the winner of the inaugural $1500 Big Blind Ante NLH tournament.
The Californian pro got the better of French player Romain Lewis to win the tournament and over $315K.
Event 15 - $1500 HORSE, Day 1 of 3, 731 entries 28-year old Russian semi-pro Andrey Zhigalov took down Event 15 after over three hours of heads-up play, that forced the tournament into an unplanned fourth day.
Day 4 was short-lived, as it took just twenty minutes for Zhigalov to defeat Timothy Frazin for the win and just over $200K. Zhigalov is a mixed-games specialist, only 2 of his 16 WSOP cashes have come in hold'em, with Razz being his preferred variant.
Event 16 - $10K Heads Up NLH Championship, 114 entrants In my last update, I mentioned that Justin Bonomo was on a roll knocking out Brits, well he did it again in the final beating Jason McConnon to take his second career bracelet. It took Bonomo 59 hands to win the final, a far cry from his second round match with Jake Schindler which took just three hands.
Bonomo won $185K for his seven wins, a small drop in his total live wininngs this year which already amount to $14.5 million!
Event 17 - $1500 NLH 6-max, 1663 entries We've had bracelets for Brazil & Russia (as well as the USA of course) already in this update, and you can now add Bulgaria as Event 17 went to Ognyan Dimov, the third bracelet winner from Bulgaria.
It was a European one-two with Antonio Barbato from Italy being the runner-up, with the 4 former bracelet winners among the 6-handed final table finishing 3rd-6th, Nick Schulman lasting the longest of the quartet.
Event 18 - $10K Dealers Choice 6-Max Championship, 111 entrants So we come to another "near miss", and the one that resonates here with Stuart Rutter being the unlucky bridesmaid.
The Midlander was chip leader entering heads-up but was quickly overtaken by Adam Friedman who was winning his second bracelet.
A couple of odd things happened towards the later stages. When two tables remained, the players thought that the structure was playing far too fast, and requested that the tournament was slowed down, but this was denied by WSOP head guru Jack Effel. Then when Friedman and Rutter got heads-up, instead of each player choosing the game (from the list of 20 available variants) they agreed to choose the game in a random fashion.
This is Stuart's 3rd cash of the Series and the $181K second place prize money is his biggest recorded cash, marginally beating the $179K he picked up for a third place back in 2010.
Event 19 - $565 PLO, 3 Day Event, 2419 entries Another tournament completed, won by Craig Varnell. He nearly skipped this event after firing eight bullets without success at the Colossus, but now he's glad he persevered. He's also $181K richer.
He knocked out most of the final table single handed, Seth Zimmerman being his final victim and he also disposed of Omar Mehmood in third, Maxime Heroux in 4th, and former WSOP ME winner Jonathan Duhamel in 6th.
The best UK cash went to Mats Rosen in 15th place for $9142, while a little further down, in 261st place was one Anthony Kendall. Enjoy the $876 Tikay!
Event 6 - $365 Giant NLH, Flight 1B Just 49 players appear on the overnight chip counts for Day 1B, and unfortunately it's a Brit-free zone.
Local player Jon Turner has a large chip lead form Lithuania's Matas Cikinas and Californian Ubaid Habib.
Event 11 - $365 Giant PLO, Flight 1B Much the same story here with no UK players among the 31 qualifiers. The top dozen are all US names, with Randy Holland, Daniel Smith and Ayaz Mahmood the top three.
Holland has two bracelets already to his name, the only other bracelet holder through is Calen McNeil.
Event 20 - $5K NLH, Day 3 of 4, 518 entries Just eight players go forward to the denouement of the Event 20 story, but there is still a British intrest with David Laka in 5th placed overnight.
Shawn Buchanan, Jeremy Wien and David Peters are the top three, with Eric Blair (not that Eric Blair, random literary reference) in 4th.
Stephen Chidwick and Ben Dobson had earlier cashed in this event.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 1A/B of 5, 7361 entries The Millionaire Maker spread it's opening day over two days, if you get my drift. After combining the survivors from the two flights, Andrea Buonocore has the biggest stack, with two GB players among the top ten - Artan Dedusha lies in 4th and James Dempsey sits in 8th.
Other Brits still in include Iaron Lightbourne, Chris Moorman, Barny Boatman and Sam Razavi, while Sky player Michael Kane is shown at the bottom with 1 chip. I don't know if that means he has actually 0 chips or whether his bag wasn't recorded properly.
Event 22 - $1500 Eight Game Mix 6-Max, Day 2 of 3, 481 entries Just 16 left after 2 days but a very interesting 16, especially for a $1500 event. Nicholas Seiken isn't the story but he's the chip leader, with Londoner Philip Long close behind.
Among the other 12 though are David Bach, Robert Williamson III, John Racener, Daniel Negreanu and Mike "the mouth" Matusow.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 1 of 3, 85 entries so far Late reg still not closed and expect some of those knocked out on Day 1 to throw another bullet at this, seeing as there's only 38 players who bagged chips at the end of Day 1.
Four former winners of this very event are still active, Paul Volpe, Jesse Martin & Nick Schulman, plust 2017 winner John Monnette are among the 38, as are Benny Glaser and Stephen Chidwick (both inside the top 5) and Adam Owen a little bit (well quite a way to be fair) down the chip listing.
The WSOP have re-tweeted a message from the one and only Doyle Brunson, "Going to the Rio to play in 2-7 lowball tournament. Probably the last one I'll ever play." I bet he gets a huge reception on entering the room.
To Start Today Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), 5 Day Event Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, 3 Day Event
Event 20 - $5K NLH, Day 4 of 4, 518 entries Jeremy Wien collected his first bracelet and over half a million dollars by winning Event 20.
He won the heads-up battle against a specialist in that format, Spaniard David Laka by using an unconventional strategy. Over 138 hands of heads-up play (taking 4 hours), Wien not only didn't raise all his buttons, he folded 32 times giving Laka a walk, and instead entering most hands out of position. With the time taken to play heads-up, blinds rose until they were only about 25BB deep, and with stacks about even Wien got a dream scenario - pocket aces with Laka holding pocket queens. Even then it didn't all go in pre-flop, but on a jack high flop it did and Wien held.
Eric Blair finished third.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 2 of 5, 7361 entries 155 players remain in the MM with Aaron Messmer the only player over a million chips.
Two former ME winners are still in - Joe McKeehan & Greg Raymer, as are player of the year leader Elio Fox, Joseph Cheong, JC Tran and British representatives Iaron Lightbourne, Barny Boatman and James Dempsey.
Event 22 - $1500 Eight Game Mix 6-Max, Day 3 of 3, 481 entries BRITISH BRACELET ALERT
The first British bracelet of the series is in the possession of Philip Long, the 29 year old originally from Birmingham but now living in London taking down the tournament from a stacked Day 3 field.
David Bach, Robert Williamson II, Anthony Zinno and Mike Matusow all departed early, and by the time the FT was reached, Long had a substantial lead. When John Racener was knocked out in 4th, Long was left up against Kevin Malis and 6-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu.
Malis (by far the least experienced of the final 3) knocked out Negreanu during a NLH hand, lifting him almost even with Long as heads-up play started, but the Brit gradually got the better of it and on a hand of Razz a 6-5-3-2-A hand was good enough to claim the title.
According to WSOP stats, he is the 37th British player to win a bracelet, those 37 winning a total of 45 bracelets.
Long won $147K, not his biggest WSOP cash as he won over $229 for his run in the 2013 Main Event.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 2 of 3, 95 entries It's not quite "Goodbye, Dolly" yet. Among the 10 players to late reg at the beginning of day 2 was the legend that is Doyle Brunson, apparently in his final poker outing before retiring completely.
The 84-year old made it through Day 2, and was chip leader for a decent proportion of the day and at one point his son Todd was second in chips (they also played a while side-by-side on the same table)
11 players remain, and 7 of the 11 have won a combined 24 bracelets between them.
Mike Wattel has the overnight lead, ahead of 2 of the 4 non-bracelet holders (Shawn Sheikhan & Galen Hall) with Doyle still inside the Top 5.
I'm sure no-one would mind Brunson getting at least to the FT, and possibly even going out in one final blaze of glory. Good luck Texas Dolly.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 1 of 5, 1479 entries so far Late reg will be open for the first two levels of Day 2, so expect the total number of players to rise. Players joining in now will have plenty of play, their 26200 chips still being over 30 Big Blinds.
Of those who did play Day 1, Josuha Smith, Pablo Fernandez Campo and Sanjay Dulabh have the three biggest stacks. Campo is showing as from the UK but on Hendon Mob, every single one of his cashes have been in the USA (all but two in the WSOP)
706 come back with plenty of other British names amongst them - Ben Heath, Javier Fernandez, Dennis Rubba, Michael Kane, JP Kelly, Raul Martinez Requena, Chun Yam all inside the Top 200.
Trawling through a list of over 700 names isn't that easy, but I've found Oliver Busquet, Scotty Nguyen, Gaelle Baumann, Faraz Jaka, Gavin O'Rourke and Andre Akkari again all in the upper echelons of the field.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 1 of 3, 596 entries
About a third of the field made it through to Day 2, with the wonderfully named Trent Gundrum bagging the most chips.
Eli Elezra narrowly missed a bracelet a few days ago, but he's in contention here lying in 3rd overnight.
Plenty of GB interest - Ben Dobson lies 10th, Mikko Hirvonen 65th and Adam Owen 128th.
90 places will be paid, so it will be quite a way into Day 2 before the bubble bursts.
To Start Today Event 26 - $1K PLO, 3 Day Event Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, 3 Day Event
Early eliminations of Galen Hall and Todd Brunson have seen the field drop to 9 players. Doyle has lost about half his chips and is now one of the shorter stacks, but one good hand could see him vault back up towards the top half.
Stop Press Ray Dehkharghani has gone too, leaving just 8, 1 spot away from the FT.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 3 of 5, 7361 entries The Millionaire Maker is down to just two tables, with 17 players remaining with several interesting names amongst them.
The chip leader is comparitively little known Chad Hahn, ahead of Sean Marshall and Manuel Ruivo.
Lying in 6th place is Joe McKeehan, who has already won three of the iconic WSOP events - the Main Event, the Monster Stack and the $100K One Drop, adding this would mean he has a very impressive CV indeed.
Manig Loeser is a regular on the super High Roller circuit, but has come through this huge field with a decent stack, and there are two British players who will sit side-by-side on their Day 4 table, Sam Razavi & Barny Boatman.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 3 of 3, 95 entries While the bracelet (and $259K) is in the possession of Brian Rast, the story has to begin with Doyle Brunson.
As he reached the FT, the rail grew and grew, whooping and hollering each time Brunson won a pot.
It couldn't last and he said his goodbye to the game in 6th place, adding one last cash to his total.
Rast picked up his 4th bracelet after beating Day 2 chip leader Mike Wattel heads-up, with Italian Dario Sammartino finishing 3rd.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 2 of 5, 1637 entries Play ended with the bubble being burst at the end of Day 2 (after a two-hour spell of hand-for-hand play), with the 246 players left in the event all guaranteed a minimum of $3860.
Americans sit 1-2-3 with Walter Fisher, Scott Einiger and Daniel Colpoys the players in question.
Belgian Bart Lybaert is top Euro in 4th, while Chris Moorman, Javier Fernandez, Raul Martinez Requena, Matthew Moss, Pablo Campo, JP Kelly, Markus Kuhnen, Chun Yam, Jack Sinclair & Sergi Reixach all having "GB" against thir names in the chip counts.
Some other names that have progressed include former ME winner Ryan Reiss, Faraz Jaka, Marvin Rettenmaier and Jesse Sylvia.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 2 of 3, 596 entries Only 23 left, and there is a British name at the top - Ben Dobson - and he has quite a chip lead. His 595K compares very nicely to the second player's 349K.
Who is that second player? Hall of Famer and 3-time bracelet winner Barry Greenstein. Eli Elezra is having a good series and lies 4th, and actor/producer James Woods is 10th.
Dobson got a huge chunk of chips in a house-over-house confrontation with Mike Matusow
Eli Elezra narrowly missed a bracelet a few days ago, but he's in contention here lying in 3rd overnight.
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 1 of 3, 986 entrants Exactly 100 remain, with the leader being Trinidadian Ryan Goindoo. In a cosmopolitan leader board, Bulgarian Ivaylo Sivinov and American Clinton Mossford complete the top 3, with Israel, Brazil, Hungary, Austria, Finland and South Africa all represented inside the Top 20.
No Brits, although if I extended it to the Top 30 there would be as Phillip Mighall sits 27th and Robert Cowen 28th. John Kabbaj is also still in.
It appears to have been a good year for former ME winners, and we have another one doing well in this event, Joe Cada sits just below Cowen on the listings.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Dauy 1 of 3, 157 entries so far Already up on last year's field size, entries are open until the start of play on Day 2,
Shaun Deeb has the biggest stack of those who played Day 1 ahead of Michael McKenna & Robert Mizrachi
Top Brit is Iraj Parvizi, Benny Glaser and Suketu Patel have mid-sized stacks, while lurking down near the bottom of the chip counts is Stuart Rutter.
Other names include Daniel Negreanu and Scott Siever down with Stu among the shorties, Frank Kassela and Jason Mercier in the middle, and David Benyamine, James Obst and David "Bakes" Baker in the upper echelons.
To Start Today Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, 3 Day Event Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event
Early action in the Millionaire Maker has seen both Barny Boatman and Sam Razavi chipping up and three eliminations including Manig Loeser in a "classic race", his queens not holding up against Manuel Ruvio's AK
Fourteen left, next two players out earn $64K then there's a pay jump to $82K.
Millionaire Maker now down to an unofficial FT of 10, 1 more elimination before the official FT and they start broadcasting on Twitch (with a 30 minute delay).
Joe McKeehan has moved into the lead, Barny Boatman 5th, Sam Razavi 7th. Next player out still at the $82K level, after that we get to 6-figure payouts.
In the $10,000 HORSE, Stu Rutter, with 3 cashes already for around $200,000, sits in 4th place with 31 left, though the leaderboard is very tightly packed.
Comments
First, those events that have been completed.
Event 7 - $565 Colossus NLH, 13079 entries
The first near miss, Scott Margerson was chip leader with 4 left, bit it all went a bit wrong and he was next out after a four hour long game 4-handed.
He picked up the small matter of $220K, while the million dollars and bracelet went to Brazilian Roberly Felicio, the 5th for the South American country and as is now customary, was played out to a large Brazilian rail.
Event 13 - $1500 NLH (Big Blind Ante), 1306 entries
The Moon shone in Vegas brightly as Benjamin Moon was the winner of the inaugural $1500 Big Blind Ante NLH tournament.
The Californian pro got the better of French player Romain Lewis to win the tournament and over $315K.
Event 15 - $1500 HORSE, Day 1 of 3, 731 entries
28-year old Russian semi-pro Andrey Zhigalov took down Event 15 after over three hours of heads-up play, that forced the tournament into an unplanned fourth day.
Day 4 was short-lived, as it took just twenty minutes for Zhigalov to defeat Timothy Frazin for the win and just over $200K. Zhigalov is a mixed-games specialist, only 2 of his 16 WSOP cashes have come in hold'em, with Razz being his preferred variant.
Event 16 - $10K Heads Up NLH Championship, 114 entrants
In my last update, I mentioned that Justin Bonomo was on a roll knocking out Brits, well he did it again in the final beating Jason McConnon to take his second career bracelet. It took Bonomo 59 hands to win the final, a far cry from his second round match with Jake Schindler which took just three hands.
Bonomo won $185K for his seven wins, a small drop in his total live wininngs this year which already amount to $14.5 million!
Event 17 - $1500 NLH 6-max, 1663 entries
We've had bracelets for Brazil & Russia (as well as the USA of course) already in this update, and you can now add Bulgaria as Event 17 went to Ognyan Dimov, the third bracelet winner from Bulgaria.
It was a European one-two with Antonio Barbato from Italy being the runner-up, with the 4 former bracelet winners among the 6-handed final table finishing 3rd-6th, Nick Schulman lasting the longest of the quartet.
Event 18 - $10K Dealers Choice 6-Max Championship, 111 entrants
So we come to another "near miss", and the one that resonates here with Stuart Rutter being the unlucky bridesmaid.
The Midlander was chip leader entering heads-up but was quickly overtaken by Adam Friedman who was winning his second bracelet.
A couple of odd things happened towards the later stages. When two tables remained, the players thought that the structure was playing far too fast, and requested that the tournament was slowed down, but this was denied by WSOP head guru Jack Effel. Then when Friedman and Rutter got heads-up, instead of each player choosing the game (from the list of 20 available variants) they agreed to choose the game in a random fashion.
This is Stuart's 3rd cash of the Series and the $181K second place prize money is his biggest recorded cash, marginally beating the $179K he picked up for a third place back in 2010.
Event 19 - $565 PLO, 3 Day Event, 2419 entries
Another tournament completed, won by Craig Varnell. He nearly skipped this event after firing eight bullets without success at the Colossus, but now he's glad he persevered. He's also $181K richer.
He knocked out most of the final table single handed, Seth Zimmerman being his final victim and he also disposed of Omar Mehmood in third, Maxime Heroux in 4th, and former WSOP ME winner Jonathan Duhamel in 6th.
The best UK cash went to Mats Rosen in 15th place for $9142, while a little further down, in 261st place was one Anthony Kendall. Enjoy the $876 Tikay!
Now for tournaments still in progress.
Event 6 - $365 Giant NLH, Flight 1B
Just 49 players appear on the overnight chip counts for Day 1B, and unfortunately it's a Brit-free zone.
Local player Jon Turner has a large chip lead form Lithuania's Matas Cikinas and Californian Ubaid Habib.
Event 11 - $365 Giant PLO, Flight 1B
Much the same story here with no UK players among the 31 qualifiers. The top dozen are all US names, with Randy Holland, Daniel Smith and Ayaz Mahmood the top three.
Holland has two bracelets already to his name, the only other bracelet holder through is Calen McNeil.
Event 20 - $5K NLH, Day 3 of 4, 518 entries
Just eight players go forward to the denouement of the Event 20 story, but there is still a British intrest with David Laka in 5th placed overnight.
Shawn Buchanan, Jeremy Wien and David Peters are the top three, with Eric Blair (not that Eric Blair, random literary reference) in 4th.
Stephen Chidwick and Ben Dobson had earlier cashed in this event.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 1A/B of 5, 7361 entries
The Millionaire Maker spread it's opening day over two days, if you get my drift. After combining the survivors from the two flights, Andrea Buonocore has the biggest stack, with two GB players among the top ten - Artan Dedusha lies in 4th and James Dempsey sits in 8th.
Other Brits still in include Iaron Lightbourne, Chris Moorman, Barny Boatman and Sam Razavi, while Sky player Michael Kane is shown at the bottom with 1 chip. I don't know if that means he has actually 0 chips or whether his bag wasn't recorded properly.
Event 22 - $1500 Eight Game Mix 6-Max, Day 2 of 3, 481 entries
Just 16 left after 2 days but a very interesting 16, especially for a $1500 event. Nicholas Seiken isn't the story but he's the chip leader, with Londoner Philip Long close behind.
Among the other 12 though are David Bach, Robert Williamson III, John Racener, Daniel Negreanu and Mike "the mouth" Matusow.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 1 of 3, 85 entries so far
Late reg still not closed and expect some of those knocked out on Day 1 to throw another bullet at this, seeing as there's only 38 players who bagged chips at the end of Day 1.
Four former winners of this very event are still active, Paul Volpe, Jesse Martin & Nick Schulman, plust 2017 winner John Monnette are among the 38, as are Benny Glaser and Stephen Chidwick (both inside the top 5) and Adam Owen a little bit (well quite a way to be fair) down the chip listing.
The WSOP have re-tweeted a message from the one and only Doyle Brunson, "Going to the Rio to play in 2-7 lowball tournament. Probably the last one I'll ever play." I bet he gets a huge reception on entering the room.
To Start Today
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), 5 Day Event
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, 3 Day Event
Just wanted to say thanks for all the time which goes into this!
Jeremy Wien collected his first bracelet and over half a million dollars by winning Event 20.
He won the heads-up battle against a specialist in that format, Spaniard David Laka by using an unconventional strategy. Over 138 hands of heads-up play (taking 4 hours), Wien not only didn't raise all his buttons, he folded 32 times giving Laka a walk, and instead entering most hands out of position. With the time taken to play heads-up, blinds rose until they were only about 25BB deep, and with stacks about even Wien got a dream scenario - pocket aces with Laka holding pocket queens. Even then it didn't all go in pre-flop, but on a jack high flop it did and Wien held.
Eric Blair finished third.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 2 of 5, 7361 entries
155 players remain in the MM with Aaron Messmer the only player over a million chips.
Two former ME winners are still in - Joe McKeehan & Greg Raymer, as are player of the year leader Elio Fox, Joseph Cheong, JC Tran and British representatives Iaron Lightbourne, Barny Boatman and James Dempsey.
Event 22 - $1500 Eight Game Mix 6-Max, Day 3 of 3, 481 entries
BRITISH BRACELET ALERT
The first British bracelet of the series is in the possession of Philip Long, the 29 year old originally from Birmingham but now living in London taking down the tournament from a stacked Day 3 field.
David Bach, Robert Williamson II, Anthony Zinno and Mike Matusow all departed early, and by the time the FT was reached, Long had a substantial lead. When John Racener was knocked out in 4th, Long was left up against Kevin Malis and 6-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu.
Malis (by far the least experienced of the final 3) knocked out Negreanu during a NLH hand, lifting him almost even with Long as heads-up play started, but the Brit gradually got the better of it and on a hand of Razz a 6-5-3-2-A hand was good enough to claim the title.
According to WSOP stats, he is the 37th British player to win a bracelet, those 37 winning a total of 45 bracelets.
Long won $147K, not his biggest WSOP cash as he won over $229 for his run in the 2013 Main Event.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 2 of 3, 95 entries
It's not quite "Goodbye, Dolly" yet. Among the 10 players to late reg at the beginning of day 2 was the legend that is Doyle Brunson, apparently in his final poker outing before retiring completely.
The 84-year old made it through Day 2, and was chip leader for a decent proportion of the day and at one point his son Todd was second in chips (they also played a while side-by-side on the same table)
11 players remain, and 7 of the 11 have won a combined 24 bracelets between them.
Mike Wattel has the overnight lead, ahead of 2 of the 4 non-bracelet holders (Shawn Sheikhan & Galen Hall) with Doyle still inside the Top 5.
I'm sure no-one would mind Brunson getting at least to the FT, and possibly even going out in one final blaze of glory. Good luck Texas Dolly.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 1 of 5, 1479 entries so far
Late reg will be open for the first two levels of Day 2, so expect the total number of players to rise. Players joining in now will have plenty of play, their 26200 chips still being over 30 Big Blinds.
Of those who did play Day 1, Josuha Smith, Pablo Fernandez Campo and Sanjay Dulabh have the three biggest stacks. Campo is showing as from the UK but on Hendon Mob, every single one of his cashes have been in the USA (all but two in the WSOP)
706 come back with plenty of other British names amongst them - Ben Heath, Javier Fernandez, Dennis Rubba, Michael Kane, JP Kelly, Raul Martinez Requena, Chun Yam all inside the Top 200.
Trawling through a list of over 700 names isn't that easy, but I've found Oliver Busquet, Scotty Nguyen, Gaelle Baumann, Faraz Jaka, Gavin O'Rourke and Andre Akkari again all in the upper echelons of the field.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 1 of 3, 596 entries
About a third of the field made it through to Day 2, with the wonderfully named Trent Gundrum bagging the most chips.
Eli Elezra narrowly missed a bracelet a few days ago, but he's in contention here lying in 3rd overnight.
Plenty of GB interest - Ben Dobson lies 10th, Mikko Hirvonen 65th and Adam Owen 128th.
90 places will be paid, so it will be quite a way into Day 2 before the bubble bursts.
To Start Today
Event 26 - $1K PLO, 3 Day Event
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, 3 Day Event
Early eliminations of Galen Hall and Todd Brunson have seen the field drop to 9 players. Doyle has lost about half his chips and is now one of the shorter stacks, but one good hand could see him vault back up towards the top half.
Stop Press
Ray Dehkharghani has gone too, leaving just 8, 1 spot away from the FT.
The Millionaire Maker is down to just two tables, with 17 players remaining with several interesting names amongst them.
The chip leader is comparitively little known Chad Hahn, ahead of Sean Marshall and Manuel Ruivo.
Lying in 6th place is Joe McKeehan, who has already won three of the iconic WSOP events - the Main Event, the Monster Stack and the $100K One Drop, adding this would mean he has a very impressive CV indeed.
Manig Loeser is a regular on the super High Roller circuit, but has come through this huge field with a decent stack, and there are two British players who will sit side-by-side on their Day 4 table, Sam Razavi & Barny Boatman.
Event 23 - $10K 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship No Limit, Day 3 of 3, 95 entries
While the bracelet (and $259K) is in the possession of Brian Rast, the story has to begin with Doyle Brunson.
As he reached the FT, the rail grew and grew, whooping and hollering each time Brunson won a pot.
It couldn't last and he said his goodbye to the game in 6th place, adding one last cash to his total.
Rast picked up his 4th bracelet after beating Day 2 chip leader Mike Wattel heads-up, with Italian Dario Sammartino finishing 3rd.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 2 of 5, 1637 entries
Play ended with the bubble being burst at the end of Day 2 (after a two-hour spell of hand-for-hand play), with the 246 players left in the event all guaranteed a minimum of $3860.
Americans sit 1-2-3 with Walter Fisher, Scott Einiger and Daniel Colpoys the players in question.
Belgian Bart Lybaert is top Euro in 4th, while Chris Moorman, Javier Fernandez, Raul Martinez Requena, Matthew Moss, Pablo Campo, JP Kelly, Markus Kuhnen, Chun Yam, Jack Sinclair & Sergi Reixach all having "GB" against thir names in the chip counts.
Some other names that have progressed include former ME winner Ryan Reiss, Faraz Jaka, Marvin Rettenmaier and Jesse Sylvia.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 2 of 3, 596 entries
Only 23 left, and there is a British name at the top - Ben Dobson - and he has quite a chip lead. His 595K compares very nicely to the second player's 349K.
Who is that second player? Hall of Famer and 3-time bracelet winner Barry Greenstein. Eli Elezra is having a good series and lies 4th, and actor/producer James Woods is 10th.
Dobson got a huge chunk of chips in a house-over-house confrontation with Mike Matusow
Eli Elezra narrowly missed a bracelet a few days ago, but he's in contention here lying in 3rd overnight.
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 1 of 3, 986 entrants
Exactly 100 remain, with the leader being Trinidadian Ryan Goindoo. In a cosmopolitan leader board, Bulgarian Ivaylo Sivinov and American Clinton Mossford complete the top 3, with Israel, Brazil, Hungary, Austria, Finland and South Africa all represented inside the Top 20.
No Brits, although if I extended it to the Top 30 there would be as Phillip Mighall sits 27th and Robert Cowen 28th. John Kabbaj is also still in.
It appears to have been a good year for former ME winners, and we have another one doing well in this event, Joe Cada sits just below Cowen on the listings.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Dauy 1 of 3, 157 entries so far
Already up on last year's field size, entries are open until the start of play on Day 2,
Shaun Deeb has the biggest stack of those who played Day 1 ahead of Michael McKenna & Robert Mizrachi
Top Brit is Iraj Parvizi, Benny Glaser and Suketu Patel have mid-sized stacks, while lurking down near the bottom of the chip counts is Stuart Rutter.
Other names include Daniel Negreanu and Scott Siever down with Stu among the shorties, Frank Kassela and Jason Mercier in the middle, and David Benyamine, James Obst and David "Bakes" Baker in the upper echelons.
To Start Today
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, 3 Day Event
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), 3 Day Event
FML.......
In Twist Out
Fourteen left, next two players out earn $64K then there's a pay jump to $82K.
Joe McKeehan has moved into the lead, Barny Boatman 5th, Sam Razavi 7th. Next player out still at the $82K level, after that we get to 6-figure payouts.
^^^^^
3 left and Sam Razavi is big chip leader, he has 35 million, the other two both have 10 million.
$1.2 Milly to the winner.
In the $10,000 HORSE, Stu Rutter, with 3 cashes already for around $200,000, sits in 4th place with 31 left, though the leaderboard is very tightly packed.
Neck and neck for the lead now with 25 million, Joe McKeehan in bad shape with 5 million.
Still 7 left, Ben still leads, 5 of the 7 have less than 10 Bigs, though to be fair it is Limit.