All over int the Millionaire Maker, and in somewhat dramatic fashion. Razavi down to just under 20 BB, shoves pre with AJ, Kern calls him with 4-2 suited in spades! Two spades on the flop gives him a flush draw, and another spade on the turn and it's all over! Kern gets the bracelet and over $1.1m, Razavi just misses out.
Another near miss for a British bracelet and a regular Sky Poker TV guest.
Sorry I can't bring you news of a British bracelet, but there's still plenty to be happy about
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 4 of 5, 7361 entries Almost unheard of, a tournament finishing a day early, and some fine British performances to note.
Two Brits made the final table, the legend that is Barny Boatman added to his impressive number of WSOP cashes by finishing 7th for $175K, and frequent former Sky Poker TV guest Sam Razavi went better, a lot better by being the runner-up and collected a cheque for $724K.
Even then that does not tell the whole story, as Razavi had the chip lead at times heads up, both players winning hands when at risk to double up but a full-house on hand 239 saw the game turn Arne Kern's way and ten hands later it was all over. I mis-described the action when giving a quick update earlier, it was shoved with his 4-2 of spades and Razavi who snap-called rather than the other way around.
Former ME winner Joe McKeehen picked up his second third place of the series for over half a million dollars.
Most British WSOP cashes Stephen Chidwick 52 Barny Boatman 50 Niall Farrell 38 Andrew Teng 37 Chris Moorman 37 Roberto Romanello 35 Stuart Rutter 34 Dave Ulliott 33 Neil Channing 33 Surinder Sumar 31 Richard Ashby 30 Sorry, Tikay, you're not on this list yet. Maybe sometime soon!
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 3 of 5, 1637 entries After 3 days, Taylor Paur has a significant chip lead at the overnight count.
Just 60 marathon runners survive, with Anton Morgenstern a distant second and a neighbour of Paur in San Diego, Mark Sleet in third.
There's still two former ME winners left - Martin Jacobson and Scotty Nguyen, and two Brits too - Javier Fernandez and Chris Moorman (second mention for him in this update)
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 3 of 3, 596 entries In contrast to Event 21, this one will need an extra day as Day 3 couldn't whittle down the final 3 players.
The good news is that Day 2 leader Ben Dobson retains that position, and he has over half the chips in play. With only 30 big bets in play, none of the 3 players are deep stacked, but Dobson must have a huge chance of his first bracelet.
Tim Finne nursed a short stack throughout the day and laddered up as others perished, to the point where he sits in second and Jesse Martin brings up the rear with just over 3 big bets left.
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 2 of 3, 986 entrants We're left with 14 players, none of whom have a bracelet on their CV
It's the Greek sounding American Filippos Stravrakis who leads, ahead of Pascal Damois (France) & Felipe Raomos (Brazil).
There's still a Welsh interest, but Robert Cowen will enter Day 3 with the second smallest stack, about 10% of the chip leader, already sure of $7446 with the winner picking up $169K and change.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 2 of 3, 166 entrants A sweet 16 survivors, with two of the lesser known players in the field, Laith Salem and Albert Daher in the top two places.
The better known John Hennigan is the first of 7 bracelet winners in the 16 person field, and the only British challenger, Iraj Parvizi is 4th.
The other former bracelet holders are Randy Ohel, Carol Fuchs, David "Bakes" Baker, Jean Gaspard, Anthony Zinno and Robert Mizrachi.
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 1 of 3, 868 entrants 131 will get paid with the winner collecting $461K, but that's still some way off as 186 players remain in contention.
It's very close at the top between German Christian Rudolph and Italian Federico Petruzelli, just 1000 in chips between them with 3 other European players in the top 13, one of them being British challenger Philip Ward.
Several others with a British flag against their names are listed - Sergio Espina Aido, Daniel Hide, Florian Duta, James Akenhead, Stephen Chidwick (another getting his second mention), Michael Kane, James Rann (two Sky players with very similar stacks), Paul Newey, Darren Taylor and George McDonald. Six-max suits us well so it seems.
From elsewhere, Tony Dunst, Justin Liberto (fresh from the FT of event 21). Erik Seidel, Olivier Busquet, Eric Baldwin, Manig Loeser and Greg Merson.
Two more players I want to mention - Alex Keating, which if I remember correctly was Michael J Fox's character in Family Ties, and right down at the bottom of the chip counts, Zachary Smiley. What a great name to go through life with.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 1 of 3, 356 entrants A real niche game now, with just over 350 players for a $1500 bracelet. At least it's up on last year's 328.
86 of the 356 bagged chips at the end of Day 1, New Yorker Jared Bleznick the overnight leader ahead of Rick Fuller and David Prociak.
Philip Long's confidence must be sky-high right now after winning his first bracelet the other day, and he's on the lookout for another one here, inside the Top 10 after Day 1.
Other Brits Cody Wagner and Haresh Thaker join him for some Day 2 action along with David "ODB" Baker, Frank Kassela, Shaun Deeb and the short-stacked trio of Brian Hastings, Allen Kessler & Dzmitry Urbanovich.
To Start Today Event 30 - $1500 PLO, 3 Day Event Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, 3 Day Event
With the elimination of Jesse Martin, Ben Dobson is now heads-up in Event 25, with a 3.1m to 1.3m chip lead over Tim Finne.
Ante is 20K, bring in (by the low card) is 30K, 100K to complete, 200K big bet. Not much room for error here now, especially as it will be moving to 30K/30K/120K/240K pretty soon.
Edit - first hand of heads-up, Dobson scoops to bring stacks to approx 3.6m to 800K, and that was the last hand of the level. Finne now down to less than 4BB, but he's been nursing a small stack since the start of yesterday. Reminds me of me.
Ben Dobson has converted his chip lead in to first place in Event 25, the $1500 Stud High/Low event. It's Ben's first bracelet and also nets him a cool $173,528
It is the second British bracelet of the Series, following on from Philip Long's earlier victory, and there has also been 2 UK runner-up finishes so far.
Well I've spoiled the big story already, but here's the rest of the action:
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 4 of 5, 1637 entries 51 more marathon runners hit the wall on Day 4, leaving just the FT of 9 who have had the stamina and endurace to make it towards the last few miles.
Players from 6 different countries, who've won over $11million between them, make up the final 9 and we have one San Diegan, Mark Sleet replacing another, Taylor Paur as end of day chip leader.
Steer overtook former ME winner Martin Jacobson late on Day 4 after the Swede made a good lay down when things could easily have gone a lot worse for him.
Bart Lybaert from Belgium is third, with Paur dropping to 6th, Anton Morgenstern to 7th and Cate Hall is bringing up the rear.
Chris Moorman was first man out on Day 3 (60th, $9616) while Javier Fernandez went out in 28th for $16340.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 4 of 3, 596 entries Ben Dobson maintained his chip lead throughout the unscheduled 4th day to claim his first bracelet, and the second for British players this series.
Dobson first eliminated Jesse Martin in 3rd and shortly after he knocked out Tim Finne as well to finish the job.
As well as the bracelet, Dobson earns $173K for his four days work
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 2 of 3, 986 entrants This one is in the books too, with Filippos Stavrakis coming from behind (short stack when 4 handed) to pick up the bracelet and a prize just $3000 less than Dobson had collected earlier in the day.
Jordan Siegel was the runner-up, and in third was Brazilian Felipe Ramos, who, as usual when a Brazilian was on a FT, was accompanied by a very vocal rail. Too vocal in fact, as they were moved further away from the action at one point.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 3 of 3, 166 entrants Two very accomplished players will come back for a Day 4 in the HORSE, John Henningan and David "Bakes" Baker are both multiple bracelet holders, in fact Baker won this same event 6 years ago.
They outlasted a strong mixed-games field, with Lee Salem ending 3rd and Iraj Parvizi as top Brit in 4th for $127K
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 1 of 3, 868 entrants Twenty players have made it through Day 2 with two players having over a million chips (i.e. 100BB), Ben Palmer and Yorane Kerignard.
Jason Mercier (going for his 6th bracelet) is the biggest name player surviving, with one player in the listings having a Union Jack beside his name (Florian Duta) but he's really Romanian (sits 9th in the Romanian all-time money list)
Michael Kane was top of the genuine Brits (well Scots at least) finishing 46th for $7558 while former ME winners Ryan Reiss and Greg Merson went out in quick succession, 65th & 64th respectively.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 1 of 3, 356 entrants Seven players through to the final day, and again we have a British representative, Cody Wagner from Warrington sits second in chips just behind leader Hanh Tran, with double bracelet winner Brian Hastings another 10K chips behind Wagner.
Two Matthew Smith's cashed (23rd and 29th) but I doubt either one of them was a hero of my youth, the creator of Sinclair Spectrum games "Manic Miner" and "Jet Set Willy".
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 1 of 3, 799 entries 130 players managed to bag chips at the end of Day 1, and with 120 to get paid, the bubble will be the first significant event of Day 2.
Michael Heritsch is chip leader ahead of Frank Williams (not that Frank Williams) and Aaron Henderson.
You have to go all the way to 43rd to find Darren Taylor, top Brit overnight but then Clive Wilson is only three spots behind and Peter Linton, Michael Wernick, David Barraclough are all inside the top half while Andrew Teng languishes near the bottom.
Other names still in include Jesse Sylvia, Victor Ramdin, Dutch Boyd, Eoghan O'Dea, Ryan Reiss (again) and Ismael Bojang.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 1 of 3, 310 entries While we have two not-so-well-known names at the very top (Farhad Mobassery and Ron Brown), lurking very close behind is stud specialist and multiple bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro.
I can only bring news of one UK player among the 80-odd survivors, Warren Colman.
He and all the other players still have to deal with the likes of last year's Player of the Year Chris Ferguson, Elky, Brandon Shack-Harris and earlier bracelet winner Adam Friedman.
To Start Today Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, 5 Day Event
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 5 of 5, 1637 entries The Marathon is over, and the winner was Australian Michael Addamo who collected over $650K as he collected his first bracelet.
5-handed, with former ME winner Martin Jacobsen, Taylor Paur & Bart Lybaert still in, it was looking like a tough FT but as all three were knocked out, it was left to Addamo and amateur player Mark Sleet to fight it out for the bracelet.
Eventually Addamo weathered all Sleet's uncoventional moves, and the bracelet was heading Down Under (or more likely to Thailand, where Addamo lives as he can't play online in Oz).
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 4 of 3, 166 entrants It took about an hour of Day 4 play to separate John Hennigan and David "Bakes" Baker before the former got the better of it, and became the 25th player to win 5 or more WSOP bracelets, 16 years after he won his first.
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 3 of 3, 868 entrants As with Event 27, Event 28 is going into extra time as a fourth day will be needed, with three players still in the running for the bracelet.
Gal Yifrach holds the chip lead over fellow-American James Mackey, with Gary Hasson (from Belgium) bringing up the rear.
Jason Mercier went out in 16th spot, with Romanian-resident-in-the-UK Florian Duta 12th.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 3 of 3, 356 entrants No extra time needed here as Hanh Tran from Vienna, Austria managed to convert his Day 2 chip lead into the bracelet (although the lead did change hands repeatedly throughout the day).
This is only Tran's 2nd WSOP cash, his first coming in the equivalent event back in 2014.
Cheshire's Cody Wanger finished a very creditable 4th place for nearly $31K.
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 2 of 3, 799 entries The 130 players were reduced by 90% on Day 2, as 13 players is all that is left to fight for the win on Day 3.
Ryan Bambrick has twice the chips of his nearest challenger, who is Phil Riley, with the Finn Sampo Ryynanen in third.
Darren Taylor was top Brit in 36th, getting $750 more than Clive Wilson who fell one place earlier by the other side of a ladder.
Michael Wernick finished just inside the top 50, with David Barraclough and Peter Linton getting a min-cash.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 2 of 3, 310 entries Nine players remain in the $1500 Stud, so the unofficial FT. The top three of the nine are bracelet holders, chip leader Michael Moore, Chris Ferguson and Jeff Lisandro
There's also two female players still involved (in a Series which hasn't been great for women so far), Esther Rossi & Katharine Fleck.
The only British Day 2 player, Warren Colman, bowed out in 23rd place for a cash of $2982.
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 5919 entries Yes, the number is up from the 5389 of last year but this year players were allowed a single re-entry so that clouds the matter somewhat. Either way, it's still an impressive single flight entry figure.
Almost 1000 players remain, so just a quick scan through some names with the top 3 being Kevin O'Donnell, David Middaugh & Christopher Ocksrider, Americans all.
Jehan Zaib appears to be top Brit in 35th, with Robert Parkin, Matthew Bayford, David Maudlin, Christhoper Jordan and Shukri Mushawar inside the top half of the field.
A couple of other names I've spotted include former November Niner Neil Bluemfield, double bracelet winner Steve Zolotow and former ME winner Scotty Nguyen.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 1 of 5, 77 entrants The big one for the pros, with such a slow structure that 74 of the 77 have made it to Day 2, the three unlucky ones being Frank Kassela, Kristijonas Andrulis and Scott Siever who lost a house-over-house confrontation.
Registration is still open for another 4 levels, so a few more pros could be enticed in to increase the pricepool further.
Benny Glaser revels in this type of event and he has the Day 1 chip lead, ahead of Anthony Zinno and Brian Rast.
Other UK players involved include Matthew Ashton, Talal Shakerchi, Iraj Parvizi, Adam Owen, Stephen Chidwick & Philip Long.
Most of the other "big names" can be found on the chip listings, with the notable exception of Phil Hellmuth who decided to swerve it and play the Seniors event for the first time instead (he busted from that). Perhaps he will make an appearence on Day 2.
Event 6C, Flight 1C of the Giant, 1148 entries 1148 became 55 by the end of the day, with French player Matthieu Philibert making a late run to be chip leader. He leads Kevin Ninkovich and Arkadiy Tsinis.
I can't see a full report or chip listing, but it appears to include one British player, Artan Dedusha.
To Start Today Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, 5 Day Event including 2 Day 1s Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, 3 Day Event
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 4 of 3, 868 entrants Israeli-born but now resident in California, Gal Yifrach took his first bracelet after coming out on top of the extra day needed in this event.
Three handed play with Yifrach, James Mackey & Gary Hasson was quite slow, taking nearly 50 hands before Hasson fell at the hands of Yifrach, but heads up was over in a jiffy even though both players had very similar stacks.
Yifrach collects $461K for 4 days work.
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 3 of 3, 799 entries Turning up late seems to be the secret for Ryan Bambrick. He missed the start of Day 2 by an hour, and was late again (about 30 minutes late) for Day 3.
The Day 2 chip leader was briefly overtaken by Sampo Ryynanen, but the part-time trader, part-time online player got the lead back and converted it into a win, a bracelet and $217K
Ryynanen finished second, and Tim McDermott was third.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 3 of 3, 310 entries With two 6-time bracelet winners among the last 4 players, Steven Albini would probably have not been one of the favourites, but a full-house against Ferguson's nut flush saw him leap to the top of the standings.
Both Ferguson and Katherine Flack were very short handed, with Flack outlasting Ferguson to ladder up to third gaining herself an extra $21K, and that left it between Albini and Jeffrey Lisandro.
The lead chopped and changed a few times (Lisandro having a 3:1 advantage at one point) before Albini won a couple of hands in a row which led him to an overwhelming lead and eventually the bracelet.
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 5919 entries 101 players have made it through to Day 3, so there must be a real prospect of this being another event that needs to run in to an extra day.
Two players have over one million in chips, Ronald Bishop and Frank Berry with not many well known names in the field after the likes of Scotty Nguyen, Neil Blumenfield and Steve Zolotow went out on Day 2. 10th place William Sindelar may well be related to 2014 November Niner Daniel Sindelar?
The oldest player still in is 83-year old Andreas Dassopoulos, while from the UK we appear to be down to just two challengers, Shukri Mushawar and Jehan Zaib.
135th placed finisher for $4345 was David Maudlin, who I believe is (or was) a Sky Poker player.
Oh and live poker must be fixed. Douglas Hartwick won a 4-way all in with pocket kings, the other three having pocket aces, queens and jacks when he hit top set on the flop.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 2 of 5, 87 entrants Ten players took advantage of the late reg strectching in to Day 2, taking the field to 87 and the prizepool to over $4.1m
We're down to less than half that number, with two-time previous winner Michael Mizrachi bagging the biggest stack, with a certain Phil Ivey close behind in second.
Of course bracelet winners litter the remaining field, with Eilor Sion and Benny Glaser two such names from GB, and they are joined by a third British player, Luke Schwartz.
14 will get paid, with the min-cash being $72500.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, 5 Day Event including 2 Day 1s First ot two flights with 533 of 2387 using the extra chips to make it through to Day 2.
Brian Yoon, Phuoc Nguyen and Michael Delvecchio have the biggest stacks, with Christopher Gordon top Brit in 55th.
Directly behind Gordon is Craig McCorkell, and other British names I've found include David Stonehouse, Daniel Hide, Will Kassouf, Pratik Ghatge, Daniel Bland, Matas Cimbolas, Jack Hardcastle, Joseph Field, Matthew Moss, Jeff Kimber, Angelo Milioto, Daniel Teng, Sam Razavi, Adam Daniel and Andrew Hedley.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 1 of 3, 773 entries The final event of the day to draw stumps with 225 players still in with just over half of them eventually walking away with a payment slip.
Peter Neff, Matthew Woodward & Gabriel Ramos sit in the top 3 places after Day 1, with the best placed British challenger Daniel Kent sitting nicely in 6th.
David Wood, David Barraclough, James Dempsey, Stu Rutter, Jeff Duvall, Stephen Chidwick comprise the rest of a strong British challenge to go forward to Day 2.
Phil Hellmuth is looking to extend his WSOP record number of cashes, and Robert Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Max Pescatori and Allen Cunningham just some of the more recognisable names also still involved.
To Start Today Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event Plus flight 1B of event 34.
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 4 of 3, 5919 entries Eight players have made it through to Day 4, all guaranteed $76K but all still aiming for the first prize of over $662K (and of course the bracelet).
Seven of the players are American, led by Gary Friedlander who carries a stack of over 80BB to the final table.
Rachel Delatorre is the last female player standing, one of three with less than 20BB, trying to win the first bracelet of the summer for the female contingent.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 3 of 5, 87 entrants Exactly a dozen players remain and it is a familiar figure at the top of the listings, twice previous PPC Champion Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi.
Phil Ivey had the lead at one point, but he lost some hands late on to drop to behind Mike Leah and Aaron Katz.
One GB player is among the dozen, Benny Glaser sitting comfortably in midfield.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 1B of 5, total of 5700 entries A bigger flight than 1A, with, as expected, a bigger number getting through to Day 2.
It's not very often The Philippines have the chip leader but they do here with Mike Takayama holding that position at the end of 1B ahead of Lithuania's Eimantas Adaomavicios and Vinny Pahuka, from (I'm not making it up) Hicksville, New York.
Plenty of Brits through, with Conor Beresford, Iaron Lightbourne, Steven Morris & Luke Brereton inside the top 100 and others lower down including James Akenhead, Chris Moorman, Rupinder Bedi, Niall Farrell, Louis Salter & Shola Akindele.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 773 entries Whatever Michael can do, Robert Mizrachi can almost do as well. Right up to the last few hands, it looked like he was going to hold the Day 2 chip lead in Event 35 but a late run from James Alexander and Gabriel Ramos have dropped the Grinder's brother down to third.
14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth crashed out late in the day to add to his record number of WSOP cashes in 35th as just 31 players move on.
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time.
If they were to go the whole way, there'd be over $211K and a certain piece of jewellry to take home.
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 2191 entries $311K will await the winner of the Over 60s bracelet, but with 347 players still left, there's still a lot of flops to see before then. 329 will be paid so with lots of players under 10BB, a bubble will probably occur in the first level of Day 2 play.
Clifford Matthews probably won't need to concern himself with the bubble, he has a massive stack (over 130BB) and he has Henri Besson and Steven Wenrich not far behind. Wenrich is from another fantastically named US town - Quitman, Texas.
Linda Iwaniak leads the British challenge, and is accompanied by Bradley Viner and Ronald Lawton
The best known players in the battle are probably two double-bracelet holders, Steve Zolotow and Chris Bjorin
To Start Today Event 37 - $1500 NLH, 3 Day Event Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, 3 Day Event
"Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 773 entries
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time".
David Barraclough is a friend of mine & an occasional Sky Poker MTT player, his alias is "dooooobs".
"Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 773 entries
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time".
David Barraclough is a friend of mine & an occasional Sky Poker MTT player, his alias is "dooooobs".
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 4 of 3, 5919 entries After over 100 hands of heads-up play, Matthew Davis, a statistics teacher from California has got his hands on the bracelet and well over $660, dwarfing his two previous WSOP cashes.
Bill Stabler made the FT of this very event six years ago, and did so again today, taking over $400K for the runner-up spot, and the only non-US player at the FT, Scott Hamilton-Hill from New Zealand, was the third placed finisher.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 4 of 5, 87 entrants We've reached the FT and it is two-time winner Michael Mizrachi who is gunning for a third PPC with the biggest stack overnight.
The only non-bracelet winner among the last 11 players, Dan Smith, is 2nd with about half the Grinder's stack, and Aaron Katz is third.
Benny Glaser was comfortably in the middle of the pack at the end of Day 3, and while he's now 5th out of 6, he still has over 50BB. John Hennigan and Mike Leah complete the final 6.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 2 of 5, total of 5700 entries Fast and furious action has reduced the field to just 162 after Day 2, 5 of whom appear to be British - Phillip Mighall, Steven Morris, Pablo Campo, Robert Bain and Daniel Corbett.
They're not in the top 20 in chips though as the chip lead is held by Daniel Colpoys who's had a few cashes already this month. David Kaiura is second and Japanese player Yosuke Sekiya is third.
Our old friend from Hicksville, Vinny Pahuja is still involved, as is Jeremy Ausmus, 2012 November Niner.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 773 entries Another tournament that needs an extra day to come to a conclusion, three players remain, but they're far from equal in stacks. Chinese Yueqi Zhu has 78% of all the chips in play, with Gabriel Ramos having about three quarters of the remainder and Carol Fuchs the last few. Fuchs though is the only bracelet holder among the three.
David Barraclough was top Brit, falling to a 3-outer on the river to finish 10th for $13114. Daniel Kent had gone out some time earlier (22nd for $6414).
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 2191 entries 43 go forward to the 3rd and hopefully final day, with Jerry Weber, Paul W Lee and John Borzio the top 3 stacks.
Right behind them is Linda Iwaniak, part of a two-pronged British assault on the event with Bradley Viner the other contender.
Two-time bracelet holder Steve Zolotow brings a decent stack with him, and a player who has WSOP cashes dating back to 1990 and has had run ins with Phil Hellmuth among others over the years, Sam Grizzle also is quite comfortable.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1330 entrants These $1500 NLH events used to be the backbone of the series, one running at least every weekend, but with the increased number of gimmicky or themed tournaments, they're almost an endangered species now.
With 200 to be paid and 236 players bagging at the end of Day 1, it won't be long before the bubble bursts.
Kirk Banks has the end of Day 1 lead, ahead of Michael Rocco and Duy Ho, with JC Tran the first of the well known names in 11th spot.
Two more former November Niners Eoghan O'Dea and Jay Farber, Andy Frankenberger, Eric Baldwin, Chris Ferguson and Barry Greenstein are among the qualfiiers, while the British contingent consists of Jack Sinclair, Damien Le Goff, Daniel Tang, Steven Warburton, Matas Cimbolas, Edwin Biber, Conor Beresford, Andrew Teng and Thomas Hall
I always like to pick out Anna Antimony, as a) I like players with alliterative names, and b) she joins the likes of Max Silver and Jamie Gold as players with surnames the same as chemical elements.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 1 of 3, 76 entries so far In common with the other $10K events, late reg is open until the start of Day 2.
27 of those 76 remain, headed by Ben Yu with Daniel Negreanu and Scott Siever among those hard on his heels.
I can't see any British names in the chip listings, Stu Rutter and Adam Owen both busted some time before the end of Day 1.
To Start Today Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, 3 Day Event Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, 3 Day Event
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 5 of 5, 87 entrants The Grinder, Michael Mizrachi has only won four bracelets (the same as his brother Robert), but now three of them are for winning the prestigious 50K Poker Players Championship!
Mizrachi came out on top of a stacked final table, beating John Hennigan heads-up after an epic 3-way battle also involving Dan Smith.
The last Briton left in the event, Benny Glaser, came in to the FT in 5th, and exited it in 5th as well. He collects $260K, while Mizrachi boosts his career earnings by almost one and a quarter million dollars.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 3 of 4, total of 5700 entries Just twenty players bagged chips at the end of Day 3 with local player Keith Ferrara holding the overnight lead.
Ferrara has 7.5m chips, quite a lead on his nearest challenger Tomas Teran Paredes who has a smidgen over 5m.
Two Wongs are right next to each other - Ralph is 11th and Jacky is 12th, while Pablo Campo (who has 3 cashes this month already) the only British player on the reports in 14th.
I think the only bracelet holder left is the short-stacked Andrey Zaichenko, but 6-time winner on the WSOP domestic circuit Joshua Turner is somewhat better off in terms of chips.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 773 entries Day 4 was enough to sort out Event 35, and it didn't need very long to sort things out. Yueqi Zhu started the day as an overwhelming chip leader, and he quickly knocked off Carol Fuchs and then Gabriel Ramos.
Zhu has finished in the top 3 of bracelet events six times before, dating back over a decade, but this is his first win, for which he picks up the elusive bracelet and $211K.
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 3 of 3, 2191 entries Another near miss for a British bracelet!
Linda Iwaniak from Berkshire had just one 5-figure score on her Hendon Mob resume, $19K from a ladies event in Birmingham back in 2006. She still has just the one as she by-passed 5 figures, jumping straight through to 6-figures collecting over $103K for a fine 4th place in the Super Seniors
Her aggressive style saw her move all in with pocket 10s on a board of Q-2-2. Unfortunately for her, Paul W Lee had 8-2 in his hand, and he improved to quads to rub it in.
Iwaniak wasn't the only female player at the sharp end, Farhintaj Bonyadi is still very much involved in a heads-up battle with Robert Beach, but is up against it as Beach has about a 9:2 chip lead.
The other British player in Day 3, Bradley Viner, was an early casualty but walked away with a payslip for over $8K.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1330 entrants As in event 34, 20 players will battle it out in the final day of Event 37.
Three players are sitting with over a million chips, Aaronm Massey, Ian Steinman and 2013 ME runner-up Jay Farber.
JC Tran is one of the other 17 players, all but two being American with the exceptions being Ryan Goindoo (Trinidad & Tobago) & Enrico Rudelitz (Germany)
We almost had a Brit involved, but Plymouth's Damien Le Goff was the penultimate Day 2 elimination for $9513.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 2 of 3, 83 entries No messing around with 20 left here, we're down to 8 with Yaniv Birman, Jesse Martin & Ben Yu the top 3 stacks.
Stud specialist Matt Grapenthien is in the middle of the pack while among the short stacks is the only non-US player, James Obst.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 1 of 3, 908 entrants We've reached the halfway point of the 78-event WSOP 2018.
100 tables were set up for play, and at the end of the day each one of those tables has provided one participent for Day 2.
All 100 have earned $5227 so far, and today will compete on 10 10-handed tables with the winner guaranteeing themselves $15K and a place on the FT.
Reigning ME champion Scott Blumstein is one of the 100, as is another ME winner (Martin Jaconbson) and the runner-up in last year's shootout, Thomas Boivin. Also through are names such as Phil Hellmuth, Jesse Sylvia, Rep Porter and Dylan Linde.
Four UK names also made Day 2, Mark McGovern, Tom Hall, Endrit Geci & Yudhishter Jaswal.
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, 3 Day Event This event, being held for the second time, attracted 205 players of whom one quarter played their way through to Day 2.
2012 PLO bracelet winner Naoya Kihara holds the big stack, with Dario Sammartino, fresh off a third placed finish in the $10K 2-7 Lowball event is second.
Stuart Rutter is back for another attempt to win a bracelet, and he had a good first day lying just inside the Top 10.
John Henningan jumped into this after losing the heads-up battle with Michael Mizrachi in the PPC, and he's made the most of it as he's got the fourth biggest stack overnight.
Other well-known names include Jeff Lisandro, Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Shaun Deeb, Max Pescatori, David "ODB" Baker, Barry Greenstein and the Frenchman with the impressive hair, Bruno Fitoussi.
To Start Today Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, 3 Day Event Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, 4 Day Event
Event 36 update The Super Seniors is all over, and it took rather longer on Day 4 than I anticipated. We started today with Robert Beach having a significant chip lead over Farhintaj Bonyadi, but 110 hands later, Bonyadi has come from behind to take the win.
In an angle that I should have picked up on earlier, she is the mother of three-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi.
She is, of course, the first female to win a bracelet in 2018.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 4 of 4, total of 5700 entries It's getting to be a theme this summer that tournaments need an extra day to finish them off, well add the Double Stack to the list as an unscheduled 5th day will be needed to determine which of the final three will get the bracelet.
The final three (all of whom wanted to continue on to find a winner) are headed by Robert Peacock, who has 38m, with Nicholas Salimbene (10m) and Joshua Turner (8m)
The two Wongs finished the day as they started, adjacent to each other on the listings with Jacky 4th and Ralph 5th, while Pablo Campo was early Day 4 casualty (and he's now showing as being from Spain)
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 4 of 3, 2191 entries As already mentioned, this one was completed early on Wednesday night with Farhintaj Bonyadi collecting her first bracelet and $311K.
She is now part of the only mother-son combo to win WSOP bracelets.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1330 entrants You remember what I was saying about Event 34? An extra day will be needed here two with Eric Baldwin having about a 7:2 chip lead over Ian Steinman. With the winner getting $319K and the loser $197K, the heads-up match is for over $120K and of course the gold bracelet.
Enrico Rudelitz was the last elimination of the Day, leaving Baldwin and Steinman two levels of play to sort things out but neither buckled and they will recovene for a Day 4.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 2 of 3, 83 entries This one, in stark contrast, ended within the scheduled timescale and the victor was businessman and part time high-limit Stud cash player, Yaniv Birman.
He beat twice bracelet-holder Jesse Martin into second, and Ben Yu was third.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 2 of 3, 908 entrants The FT has been reached, with the 10 winners of the Day 2 tables all set to be sitting with very similar stacks (between 109 BB & 112BB)
There's one former bracelet winner among them, Anthony Rategui (who also made the final table of the earlier $3K shootout event) and there's one British name, Endrit Geci (who, not to be rude, looks like an anagram - perhaps "get nicer id" or "deter icing")
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, Day 2 of 3 Very rarely can a player have had this big of a lead at the end of Day 2. Scott Bohlman has over 1.5 million chips, with the nearest of his four remaining challengers (Ryan Hughes) has 345K.
Daniel Wienman, Aaron Rogers (not the Green Bay QB) and Marcel Vonk of the Netherlands are the other three players.
Last British player left was Stuart Rutter, but he departed the scene before the bubble was reached.
Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, Day 1 of 3, 596 entries You can see the difference between the popularity of Limit Hold'em and No Limit as the last $1500 NLH event attracted more than twice the field of this Limit event.
The British presence in Limit is usually minimal, but at least we've got two of the 174 survivors, Warren Colman & Joe Brindle.
The chip leader is from Liverpool, but it's Liverpool, New York that Brian Vollick hails from. Local Rex Clinkscales and West-coast player Cody Riedel complete the top 3.
Most of the names mean very little to me, but I can pick out Jeff Shulman, Matt Grapenthein and Dutch Boyd, and there's the wonderfully named Jet Black in 83rd. I haven't come across anyone called Jet Black since The Stranglers in 1977.
Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, Day 1 of 4, 192 entries The number of entries includes two dozen re-entries, and will rise further as late reg is open not just to the start of Day 2, but for another 2 levels after that.
Konstantin Beylin holds the chip lead from Bulgarian Veselin Karakitukov and Canadian Daniel Negreanu.
Fraser MacIntyre is inside the top ten, with Adam Owen just outside, and several other GB players make the Day 2 field - Philip Ward, James Park, Gavin Cochrane and Daniel Merrilees. Iraj Parvizi didn't join them, despite firing two bullets at it, and having at one point a stack that would have placed him inside the overnight Top 5.
To Start Today Event 43 - $2500 NLH, 3 Day Event Event 44 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, 3 Day Event
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 5 of 4, total of 5700 entries Going in to day 5, Robert Peacock was always going to be the favourite, and he ended with his tail feathers on display as he finished off first Joshua Turner and then Nicholas Salimbene, all in just 23 hands.
Peacock, a high stakes cash player locally in Vegas, $644K, Salimbene nearly $398 and Turner $294K.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1330 entrants Despite this one having only 2 players left as opposed to the 3 in Event 34, this one took a lot longer to sort out as Eric Baldwin slogged it out with Ian Steinman. The former had the lead at the start of the day, and no matter what he did, Steinman never could close the gap and Baldwin finished the job when his AJ cracked Steinman's pocket Kings.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 3 of 3, 908 entrants A loooooooong FT, over 12 hours of it, and Preston Lee came out on top. He beat Corey Dodd after over 120 hands of heads-up, and Anthony Reategui finished third.
The only Brit at the FT, Endrit Geci, was the first elimination of the day and picked up $15180.
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, Day 2 of 3 Scott Bohlman entered Day 3 with a massive heads-up, but he doubled up several short stacks, and by the time it was 3-handed with Ryan Hughes and Daniel Weinmann, the stacks were comparitively balanced.
After a break, Bohlman won a big hand of triple draw to get more or less back to where he started, and never looked back.
He eliminated Wienman, and then not much later saw off two-time bracelet holder Hughes.
Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, Day 2 of 3, 596 entries Nineteen players are left standing, with Matt Woodward leading the way, ahead of Robert Nehorayan and Matt Russell
A few bracelet holders are still involved, Kevin Song, Matt Grapenthien and Benjamin Scholl, whose previous win was also in a limit hold'em event.
There was just one UK player in the cash, Warren Colman, from Chigwell, who took 87th spot for a min-cash of $2246.
Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, Day 2 of 4, 230 entries Once late reg and re-entries were taken into account, a decent 230 x $25K had been taken and most of it entered into the prizepool.
Thirty five players go on to Day 3, with a 3-hour period of mind-numbingly dull hand-for-hand play starting 3 off the money as some tables were perceived to be slow playing.
Ben Yu chipped up during that period, sufficiently so that he now holds the chip lead ahead of Jason Koon and late entrant Ryan Tosoc.
Defending champion James Calderaro is among the survivors, as is the winner of the ME 20 years ago baby (Scotty Nguyen), Jason Mercier, Robert (but not Michael) Mizrachi and one Brit, Adam Owen.
Event 43 - $2500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1248 entrants Just under 300 remain, with 188 to get paid so we're still some way off the bubble.
The chip lead is in the hands of Ashwin Sarin, with Steve Foutty and Josh Bergman second and third overnight.
Harry Lodge sits just inside the top 50 as top Brit, with several other GB names through including a couple of names familiar to former Sky Poker TV regulars, James Rann and Sam Razavi.
Others through include Valentin Vornicu, Jake Schwarts, Ismael Bojang and Aditya Agarwel (sitting next to each other in 12th-15th), Chino Rheem, David "Bakes" Baker, Taylor Paur, Faraz Jaka and Tony Dunst.
Event 44 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, 100 entries so far As we have 100 entries on day 1, it's easy to calculate that 41% of the players bagged up chips at the end of the day.
Luke Schwartz sits just outside the top 3 which is made up of Michael Noori, Max Kruse and Christopher Kruk.
Benny Glaser and Stuart Rutter are both still involved as are Eli Elezra, Farzad Bonyadi (after his mother won a bracelet yesterday), Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, JC Tran, and making her 2018 WSOP début, Vanessa Selbst.
To Start Today A busy day today! Event 45 - $1K Big-Blind Ante NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event Event 46 - $2500 Mixed Omaha/7 Card Stud (both Hi-Lo 8 or better), 3 Day Event Event 47 - $565 WSOP.com Online NLH, Unlimited Re-entry, 1 Day Event plus Flight D of Event 6, The Giant.
Comments
Another near miss for a British bracelet and a regular Sky Poker TV guest.
4-2, good Lord.
Very unlucky Sam.
Event 21 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, NLH, Day 4 of 5, 7361 entries
Almost unheard of, a tournament finishing a day early, and some fine British performances to note.
Two Brits made the final table, the legend that is Barny Boatman added to his impressive number of WSOP cashes by finishing 7th for $175K, and frequent former Sky Poker TV guest Sam Razavi went better, a lot better by being the runner-up and collected a cheque for $724K.
Even then that does not tell the whole story, as Razavi had the chip lead at times heads up, both players winning hands when at risk to double up but a full-house on hand 239 saw the game turn Arne Kern's way and ten hands later it was all over. I mis-described the action when giving a quick update earlier, it was shoved with his 4-2 of spades and Razavi who snap-called rather than the other way around.
Former ME winner Joe McKeehen picked up his second third place of the series for over half a million dollars.
Most British WSOP cashes
Stephen Chidwick 52
Barny Boatman 50
Niall Farrell 38
Andrew Teng 37
Chris Moorman 37
Roberto Romanello 35
Stuart Rutter 34
Dave Ulliott 33
Neil Channing 33
Surinder Sumar 31
Richard Ashby 30
Sorry, Tikay, you're not on this list yet. Maybe sometime soon!
(most overall Hellmuth 128, Negreanu 104, Seidel 102, Ferguson 101)
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 3 of 5, 1637 entries
After 3 days, Taylor Paur has a significant chip lead at the overnight count.
Just 60 marathon runners survive, with Anton Morgenstern a distant second and a neighbour of Paur in San Diego, Mark Sleet in third.
There's still two former ME winners left - Martin Jacobson and Scotty Nguyen, and two Brits too - Javier Fernandez and Chris Moorman (second mention for him in this update)
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 3 of 3, 596 entries
In contrast to Event 21, this one will need an extra day as Day 3 couldn't whittle down the final 3 players.
The good news is that Day 2 leader Ben Dobson retains that position, and he has over half the chips in play. With only 30 big bets in play, none of the 3 players are deep stacked, but Dobson must have a huge chance of his first bracelet.
Tim Finne nursed a short stack throughout the day and laddered up as others perished, to the point where he sits in second and Jesse Martin brings up the rear with just over 3 big bets left.
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 2 of 3, 986 entrants
We're left with 14 players, none of whom have a bracelet on their CV
It's the Greek sounding American Filippos Stravrakis who leads, ahead of Pascal Damois (France) & Felipe Raomos (Brazil).
There's still a Welsh interest, but Robert Cowen will enter Day 3 with the second smallest stack, about 10% of the chip leader, already sure of $7446 with the winner picking up $169K and change.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 2 of 3, 166 entrants
A sweet 16 survivors, with two of the lesser known players in the field, Laith Salem and Albert Daher in the top two places.
The better known John Hennigan is the first of 7 bracelet winners in the 16 person field, and the only British challenger, Iraj Parvizi is 4th.
The other former bracelet holders are Randy Ohel, Carol Fuchs, David "Bakes" Baker, Jean Gaspard, Anthony Zinno and Robert Mizrachi.
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 1 of 3, 868 entrants
131 will get paid with the winner collecting $461K, but that's still some way off as 186 players remain in contention.
It's very close at the top between German Christian Rudolph and Italian Federico Petruzelli, just 1000 in chips between them with 3 other European players in the top 13, one of them being British challenger Philip Ward.
Several others with a British flag against their names are listed - Sergio Espina Aido, Daniel Hide, Florian Duta, James Akenhead, Stephen Chidwick (another getting his second mention), Michael Kane, James Rann (two Sky players with very similar stacks), Paul Newey, Darren Taylor and George McDonald. Six-max suits us well so it seems.
From elsewhere, Tony Dunst, Justin Liberto (fresh from the FT of event 21). Erik Seidel, Olivier Busquet, Eric Baldwin, Manig Loeser and Greg Merson.
Two more players I want to mention - Alex Keating, which if I remember correctly was Michael J Fox's character in Family Ties, and right down at the bottom of the chip counts, Zachary Smiley. What a great name to go through life with.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 1 of 3, 356 entrants
A real niche game now, with just over 350 players for a $1500 bracelet. At least it's up on last year's 328.
86 of the 356 bagged chips at the end of Day 1, New Yorker Jared Bleznick the overnight leader ahead of Rick Fuller and David Prociak.
Philip Long's confidence must be sky-high right now after winning his first bracelet the other day, and he's on the lookout for another one here, inside the Top 10 after Day 1.
Other Brits Cody Wagner and Haresh Thaker join him for some Day 2 action along with David "ODB" Baker, Frank Kassela, Shaun Deeb and the short-stacked trio of Brian Hastings, Allen Kessler & Dzmitry Urbanovich.
To Start Today
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, 3 Day Event
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, 3 Day Event
Ante is 20K, bring in (by the low card) is 30K, 100K to complete, 200K big bet. Not much room for error here now, especially as it will be moving to 30K/30K/120K/240K pretty soon.
Edit - first hand of heads-up, Dobson scoops to bring stacks to approx 3.6m to 800K, and that was the last hand of the level. Finne now down to less than 4BB, but he's been nursing a small stack since the start of yesterday. Reminds me of me.
Ben Dobson has converted his chip lead in to first place in Event 25, the $1500 Stud High/Low event. It's Ben's first bracelet and also nets him a cool $173,528
It is the second British bracelet of the Series, following on from Philip Long's earlier victory, and there has also been 2 UK runner-up finishes so far.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 4 of 5, 1637 entries
51 more marathon runners hit the wall on Day 4, leaving just the FT of 9 who have had the stamina and endurace to make it towards the last few miles.
Players from 6 different countries, who've won over $11million between them, make up the final 9 and we have one San Diegan, Mark Sleet replacing another, Taylor Paur as end of day chip leader.
Steer overtook former ME winner Martin Jacobson late on Day 4 after the Swede made a good lay down when things could easily have gone a lot worse for him.
Bart Lybaert from Belgium is third, with Paur dropping to 6th, Anton Morgenstern to 7th and Cate Hall is bringing up the rear.
Chris Moorman was first man out on Day 3 (60th, $9616) while Javier Fernandez went out in 28th for $16340.
Event 25 - $1500 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or better, Day 4 of 3, 596 entries
Ben Dobson maintained his chip lead throughout the unscheduled 4th day to claim his first bracelet, and the second for British players this series.
Dobson first eliminated Jesse Martin in 3rd and shortly after he knocked out Tim Finne as well to finish the job.
As well as the bracelet, Dobson earns $173K for his four days work
Event 26 - $1K PLO, Day 2 of 3, 986 entrants
This one is in the books too, with Filippos Stavrakis coming from behind (short stack when 4 handed) to pick up the bracelet and a prize just $3000 less than Dobson had collected earlier in the day.
Jordan Siegel was the runner-up, and in third was Brazilian Felipe Ramos, who, as usual when a Brazilian was on a FT, was accompanied by a very vocal rail. Too vocal in fact, as they were moved further away from the action at one point.
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 3 of 3, 166 entrants
Two very accomplished players will come back for a Day 4 in the HORSE, John Henningan and David "Bakes" Baker are both multiple bracelet holders, in fact Baker won this same event 6 years ago.
They outlasted a strong mixed-games field, with Lee Salem ending 3rd and Iraj Parvizi as top Brit in 4th for $127K
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 1 of 3, 868 entrants
Twenty players have made it through Day 2 with two players having over a million chips (i.e. 100BB), Ben Palmer and Yorane Kerignard.
Jason Mercier (going for his 6th bracelet) is the biggest name player surviving, with one player in the listings having a Union Jack beside his name (Florian Duta) but he's really Romanian (sits 9th in the Romanian all-time money list)
Michael Kane was top of the genuine Brits (well Scots at least) finishing 46th for $7558 while former ME winners Ryan Reiss and Greg Merson went out in quick succession, 65th & 64th respectively.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 1 of 3, 356 entrants
Seven players through to the final day, and again we have a British representative, Cody Wagner from Warrington sits second in chips just behind leader Hanh Tran, with double bracelet winner Brian Hastings another 10K chips behind Wagner.
Two Matthew Smith's cashed (23rd and 29th) but I doubt either one of them was a hero of my youth, the creator of Sinclair Spectrum games "Manic Miner" and "Jet Set Willy".
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 1 of 3, 799 entries
130 players managed to bag chips at the end of Day 1, and with 120 to get paid, the bubble will be the first significant event of Day 2.
Michael Heritsch is chip leader ahead of Frank Williams (not that Frank Williams) and Aaron Henderson.
You have to go all the way to 43rd to find Darren Taylor, top Brit overnight but then Clive Wilson is only three spots behind and Peter Linton, Michael Wernick, David Barraclough are all inside the top half while Andrew Teng languishes near the bottom.
Other names still in include Jesse Sylvia, Victor Ramdin, Dutch Boyd, Eoghan O'Dea, Ryan Reiss (again) and Ismael Bojang.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 1 of 3, 310 entries
While we have two not-so-well-known names at the very top (Farhad Mobassery and Ron Brown), lurking very close behind is stud specialist and multiple bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro.
I can only bring news of one UK player among the 80-odd survivors, Warren Colman.
He and all the other players still have to deal with the likes of last year's Player of the Year Chris Ferguson, Elky, Brandon Shack-Harris and earlier bracelet winner Adam Friedman.
To Start Today
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, 5 Day Event
plus Flight 1C of the Giant.
Event 24 - $2620 The Marathon (100 minute levels), Day 5 of 5, 1637 entries
The Marathon is over, and the winner was Australian Michael Addamo who collected over $650K as he collected his first bracelet.
5-handed, with former ME winner Martin Jacobsen, Taylor Paur & Bart Lybaert still in, it was looking like a tough FT but as all three were knocked out, it was left to Addamo and amateur player Mark Sleet to fight it out for the bracelet.
Eventually Addamo weathered all Sleet's uncoventional moves, and the bracelet was heading Down Under (or more likely to Thailand, where Addamo lives as he can't play online in Oz).
Event 27 - $10K HORSE Championship, Day 4 of 3, 166 entrants
It took about an hour of Day 4 play to separate John Hennigan and David "Bakes" Baker before the former got the better of it, and became the 25th player to win 5 or more WSOP bracelets, 16 years after he won his first.
Event 28 - $3K NLH 6-Max, Day 3 of 3, 868 entrants
As with Event 27, Event 28 is going into extra time as a fourth day will be needed, with three players still in the running for the bracelet.
Gal Yifrach holds the chip lead over fellow-American James Mackey, with Gary Hasson (from Belgium) bringing up the rear.
Jason Mercier went out in 16th spot, with Romanian-resident-in-the-UK Florian Duta 12th.
Event 29 - $1500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit), Day 3 of 3, 356 entrants
No extra time needed here as Hanh Tran from Vienna, Austria managed to convert his Day 2 chip lead into the bracelet (although the lead did change hands repeatedly throughout the day).
This is only Tran's 2nd WSOP cash, his first coming in the equivalent event back in 2014.
Cheshire's Cody Wanger finished a very creditable 4th place for nearly $31K.
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 2 of 3, 799 entries
The 130 players were reduced by 90% on Day 2, as 13 players is all that is left to fight for the win on Day 3.
Ryan Bambrick has twice the chips of his nearest challenger, who is Phil Riley, with the Finn Sampo Ryynanen in third.
Darren Taylor was top Brit in 36th, getting $750 more than Clive Wilson who fell one place earlier by the other side of a ladder.
Michael Wernick finished just inside the top 50, with David Barraclough and Peter Linton getting a min-cash.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 2 of 3, 310 entries
Nine players remain in the $1500 Stud, so the unofficial FT. The top three of the nine are bracelet holders, chip leader Michael Moore, Chris Ferguson and Jeff Lisandro
There's also two female players still involved (in a Series which hasn't been great for women so far), Esther Rossi & Katharine Fleck.
The only British Day 2 player, Warren Colman, bowed out in 23rd place for a cash of $2982.
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 5919 entries
Yes, the number is up from the 5389 of last year but this year players were allowed a single re-entry so that clouds the matter somewhat. Either way, it's still an impressive single flight entry figure.
Almost 1000 players remain, so just a quick scan through some names with the top 3 being Kevin O'Donnell, David Middaugh & Christopher Ocksrider, Americans all.
Jehan Zaib appears to be top Brit in 35th, with Robert Parkin, Matthew Bayford, David Maudlin, Christhoper Jordan and Shukri Mushawar inside the top half of the field.
A couple of other names I've spotted include former November Niner Neil Bluemfield, double bracelet winner Steve Zolotow and former ME winner Scotty Nguyen.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 1 of 5, 77 entrants
The big one for the pros, with such a slow structure that 74 of the 77 have made it to Day 2, the three unlucky ones being Frank Kassela, Kristijonas Andrulis and Scott Siever who lost a house-over-house confrontation.
Registration is still open for another 4 levels, so a few more pros could be enticed in to increase the pricepool further.
Benny Glaser revels in this type of event and he has the Day 1 chip lead, ahead of Anthony Zinno and Brian Rast.
Other UK players involved include Matthew Ashton, Talal Shakerchi, Iraj Parvizi, Adam Owen, Stephen Chidwick & Philip Long.
Most of the other "big names" can be found on the chip listings, with the notable exception of Phil Hellmuth who decided to swerve it and play the Seniors event for the first time instead (he busted from that). Perhaps he will make an appearence on Day 2.
Event 6C, Flight 1C of the Giant, 1148 entries
1148 became 55 by the end of the day, with French player Matthieu Philibert making a late run to be chip leader. He leads Kevin Ninkovich and Arkadiy Tsinis.
I can't see a full report or chip listing, but it appears to include one British player, Artan Dedusha.
To Start Today
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, 5 Day Event including 2 Day 1s
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, 3 Day Event
Israeli-born but now resident in California, Gal Yifrach took his first bracelet after coming out on top of the extra day needed in this event.
Three handed play with Yifrach, James Mackey & Gary Hasson was quite slow, taking nearly 50 hands before Hasson fell at the hands of Yifrach, but heads up was over in a jiffy even though both players had very similar stacks.
Yifrach collects $461K for 4 days work.
Event 30 - $1500 PLO, Day 3 of 3, 799 entries
Turning up late seems to be the secret for Ryan Bambrick. He missed the start of Day 2 by an hour, and was late again (about 30 minutes late) for Day 3.
The Day 2 chip leader was briefly overtaken by Sampo Ryynanen, but the part-time trader, part-time online player got the lead back and converted it into a win, a bracelet and $217K
Ryynanen finished second, and Tim McDermott was third.
Event 31 - $1500 7 Card Stud, Day 3 of 3, 310 entries
With two 6-time bracelet winners among the last 4 players, Steven Albini would probably have not been one of the favourites, but a full-house against Ferguson's nut flush saw him leap to the top of the standings.
Both Ferguson and Katherine Flack were very short handed, with Flack outlasting Ferguson to ladder up to third gaining herself an extra $21K, and that left it between Albini and Jeffrey Lisandro.
The lead chopped and changed a few times (Lisandro having a 3:1 advantage at one point) before Albini won a couple of hands in a row which led him to an overwhelming lead and eventually the bracelet.
Event 32 - $1K Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 5919 entries
101 players have made it through to Day 3, so there must be a real prospect of this being another event that needs to run in to an extra day.
Two players have over one million in chips, Ronald Bishop and Frank Berry with not many well known names in the field after the likes of Scotty Nguyen, Neil Blumenfield and Steve Zolotow went out on Day 2. 10th place William Sindelar may well be related to 2014 November Niner Daniel Sindelar?
The oldest player still in is 83-year old Andreas Dassopoulos, while from the UK we appear to be down to just two challengers, Shukri Mushawar and Jehan Zaib.
135th placed finisher for $4345 was David Maudlin, who I believe is (or was) a Sky Poker player.
Oh and live poker must be fixed. Douglas Hartwick won a 4-way all in with pocket kings, the other three having pocket aces, queens and jacks when he hit top set on the flop.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 2 of 5, 87 entrants
Ten players took advantage of the late reg strectching in to Day 2, taking the field to 87 and the prizepool to over $4.1m
We're down to less than half that number, with two-time previous winner Michael Mizrachi bagging the biggest stack, with a certain Phil Ivey close behind in second.
Of course bracelet winners litter the remaining field, with Eilor Sion and Benny Glaser two such names from GB, and they are joined by a third British player, Luke Schwartz.
14 will get paid, with the min-cash being $72500.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, 5 Day Event including 2 Day 1s
First ot two flights with 533 of 2387 using the extra chips to make it through to Day 2.
Brian Yoon, Phuoc Nguyen and Michael Delvecchio have the biggest stacks, with Christopher Gordon top Brit in 55th.
Directly behind Gordon is Craig McCorkell, and other British names I've found include David Stonehouse, Daniel Hide, Will Kassouf, Pratik Ghatge, Daniel Bland, Matas Cimbolas, Jack Hardcastle, Joseph Field, Matthew Moss, Jeff Kimber, Angelo Milioto, Daniel Teng, Sam Razavi, Adam Daniel and Andrew Hedley.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 1 of 3, 773 entries
The final event of the day to draw stumps with 225 players still in with just over half of them eventually walking away with a payment slip.
Peter Neff, Matthew Woodward & Gabriel Ramos sit in the top 3 places after Day 1, with the best placed British challenger Daniel Kent sitting nicely in 6th.
David Wood, David Barraclough, James Dempsey, Stu Rutter, Jeff Duvall, Stephen Chidwick comprise the rest of a strong British challenge to go forward to Day 2.
Phil Hellmuth is looking to extend his WSOP record number of cashes, and Robert Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Max Pescatori and Allen Cunningham just some of the more recognisable names also still involved.
To Start Today
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, 3 Day Event
Plus flight 1B of event 34.
Eight players have made it through to Day 4, all guaranteed $76K but all still aiming for the first prize of over $662K (and of course the bracelet).
Seven of the players are American, led by Gary Friedlander who carries a stack of over 80BB to the final table.
Rachel Delatorre is the last female player standing, one of three with less than 20BB, trying to win the first bracelet of the summer for the female contingent.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 3 of 5, 87 entrants
Exactly a dozen players remain and it is a familiar figure at the top of the listings, twice previous PPC Champion Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi.
Phil Ivey had the lead at one point, but he lost some hands late on to drop to behind Mike Leah and Aaron Katz.
One GB player is among the dozen, Benny Glaser sitting comfortably in midfield.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 1B of 5, total of 5700 entries
A bigger flight than 1A, with, as expected, a bigger number getting through to Day 2.
It's not very often The Philippines have the chip leader but they do here with Mike Takayama holding that position at the end of 1B ahead of Lithuania's Eimantas Adaomavicios and Vinny Pahuka, from (I'm not making it up) Hicksville, New York.
Plenty of Brits through, with Conor Beresford, Iaron Lightbourne, Steven Morris & Luke Brereton inside the top 100 and others lower down including James Akenhead, Chris Moorman, Rupinder Bedi, Niall Farrell, Louis Salter & Shola Akindele.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 2 of 3, 773 entries
Whatever Michael can do, Robert Mizrachi can almost do as well. Right up to the last few hands, it looked like he was going to hold the Day 2 chip lead in Event 35 but a late run from James Alexander and Gabriel Ramos have dropped the Grinder's brother down to third.
14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth crashed out late in the day to add to his record number of WSOP cashes in 35th as just 31 players move on.
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time.
If they were to go the whole way, there'd be over $211K and a certain piece of jewellry to take home.
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 1 of 3, 2191 entries
$311K will await the winner of the Over 60s bracelet, but with 347 players still left, there's still a lot of flops to see before then. 329 will be paid so with lots of players under 10BB, a bubble will probably occur in the first level of Day 2 play.
Clifford Matthews probably won't need to concern himself with the bubble, he has a massive stack (over 130BB) and he has Henri Besson and Steven Wenrich not far behind. Wenrich is from another fantastically named US town - Quitman, Texas.
Linda Iwaniak leads the British challenge, and is accompanied by Bradley Viner and Ronald Lawton
The best known players in the battle are probably two double-bracelet holders, Steve Zolotow and Chris Bjorin
To Start Today
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, 3 Day Event
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time".
David Barraclough is a friend of mine & an occasional Sky Poker MTT player, his alias is "dooooobs".
The good news is that two UK names are among them - Daniel Kent and David Barraclough, neither have particulary big stacks but both have already guaranteed themselves $5252 and there's a ladder for another $850 in three eliminations time".
David Barraclough is a friend of mine & an occasional Sky Poker MTT player, his alias is "dooooobs".
TEST
After over 100 hands of heads-up play, Matthew Davis, a statistics teacher from California has got his hands on the bracelet and well over $660, dwarfing his two previous WSOP cashes.
Bill Stabler made the FT of this very event six years ago, and did so again today, taking over $400K for the runner-up spot, and the only non-US player at the FT, Scott Hamilton-Hill from New Zealand, was the third placed finisher.
Event 33 - $50K Poker Players Championship 6 Max, Day 4 of 5, 87 entrants
We've reached the FT and it is two-time winner Michael Mizrachi who is gunning for a third PPC with the biggest stack overnight.
The only non-bracelet winner among the last 11 players, Dan Smith, is 2nd with about half the Grinder's stack, and Aaron Katz is third.
Benny Glaser was comfortably in the middle of the pack at the end of Day 3, and while he's now 5th out of 6, he still has over 50BB. John Hennigan and Mike Leah complete the final 6.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 2 of 5, total of 5700 entries
Fast and furious action has reduced the field to just 162 after Day 2, 5 of whom appear to be British - Phillip Mighall, Steven Morris, Pablo Campo, Robert Bain and Daniel Corbett.
They're not in the top 20 in chips though as the chip lead is held by Daniel Colpoys who's had a few cashes already this month. David Kaiura is second and Japanese player Yosuke Sekiya is third.
Our old friend from Hicksville, Vinny Pahuja is still involved, as is Jeremy Ausmus, 2012 November Niner.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 773 entries
Another tournament that needs an extra day to come to a conclusion, three players remain, but they're far from equal in stacks. Chinese Yueqi Zhu has 78% of all the chips in play, with Gabriel Ramos having about three quarters of the remainder and Carol Fuchs the last few. Fuchs though is the only bracelet holder among the three.
David Barraclough was top Brit, falling to a 3-outer on the river to finish 10th for $13114. Daniel Kent had gone out some time earlier (22nd for $6414).
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 2 of 3, 2191 entries
43 go forward to the 3rd and hopefully final day, with Jerry Weber, Paul W Lee and John Borzio the top 3 stacks.
Right behind them is Linda Iwaniak, part of a two-pronged British assault on the event with Bradley Viner the other contender.
Two-time bracelet holder Steve Zolotow brings a decent stack with him, and a player who has WSOP cashes dating back to 1990 and has had run ins with Phil Hellmuth among others over the years, Sam Grizzle also is quite comfortable.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1330 entrants
These $1500 NLH events used to be the backbone of the series, one running at least every weekend, but with the increased number of gimmicky or themed tournaments, they're almost an endangered species now.
With 200 to be paid and 236 players bagging at the end of Day 1, it won't be long before the bubble bursts.
Kirk Banks has the end of Day 1 lead, ahead of Michael Rocco and Duy Ho, with JC Tran the first of the well known names in 11th spot.
Two more former November Niners Eoghan O'Dea and Jay Farber, Andy Frankenberger, Eric Baldwin, Chris Ferguson and Barry Greenstein are among the qualfiiers, while the British contingent consists of Jack Sinclair, Damien Le Goff, Daniel Tang, Steven Warburton, Matas Cimbolas, Edwin Biber, Conor Beresford, Andrew Teng and Thomas Hall
I always like to pick out Anna Antimony, as a) I like players with alliterative names, and b) she joins the likes of Max Silver and Jamie Gold as players with surnames the same as chemical elements.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 1 of 3, 76 entries so far
In common with the other $10K events, late reg is open until the start of Day 2.
27 of those 76 remain, headed by Ben Yu with Daniel Negreanu and Scott Siever among those hard on his heels.
I can't see any British names in the chip listings, Stu Rutter and Adam Owen both busted some time before the end of Day 1.
To Start Today
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, 3 Day Event
The Grinder, Michael Mizrachi has only won four bracelets (the same as his brother Robert), but now three of them are for winning the prestigious 50K Poker Players Championship!
Mizrachi came out on top of a stacked final table, beating John Hennigan heads-up after an epic 3-way battle also involving Dan Smith.
The last Briton left in the event, Benny Glaser, came in to the FT in 5th, and exited it in 5th as well. He collects $260K, while Mizrachi boosts his career earnings by almost one and a quarter million dollars.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 3 of 4, total of 5700 entries
Just twenty players bagged chips at the end of Day 3 with local player Keith Ferrara holding the overnight lead.
Ferrara has 7.5m chips, quite a lead on his nearest challenger Tomas Teran Paredes who has a smidgen over 5m.
Two Wongs are right next to each other - Ralph is 11th and Jacky is 12th, while Pablo Campo (who has 3 cashes this month already) the only British player on the reports in 14th.
I think the only bracelet holder left is the short-stacked Andrey Zaichenko, but 6-time winner on the WSOP domestic circuit Joshua Turner is somewhat better off in terms of chips.
Event 35 - $1500 Mixed PLO 8, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better & Big O, Day 3 of 3, 773 entries
Day 4 was enough to sort out Event 35, and it didn't need very long to sort things out. Yueqi Zhu started the day as an overwhelming chip leader, and he quickly knocked off Carol Fuchs and then Gabriel Ramos.
Zhu has finished in the top 3 of bracelet events six times before, dating back over a decade, but this is his first win, for which he picks up the elusive bracelet and $211K.
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 3 of 3, 2191 entries
Another near miss for a British bracelet!
Linda Iwaniak from Berkshire had just one 5-figure score on her Hendon Mob resume, $19K from a ladies event in Birmingham back in 2006. She still has just the one as she by-passed 5 figures, jumping straight through to 6-figures collecting over $103K for a fine 4th place in the Super Seniors
Her aggressive style saw her move all in with pocket 10s on a board of Q-2-2. Unfortunately for her, Paul W Lee had 8-2 in his hand, and he improved to quads to rub it in.
Iwaniak wasn't the only female player at the sharp end, Farhintaj Bonyadi is still very much involved in a heads-up battle with Robert Beach, but is up against it as Beach has about a 9:2 chip lead.
The other British player in Day 3, Bradley Viner, was an early casualty but walked away with a payslip for over $8K.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1330 entrants
As in event 34, 20 players will battle it out in the final day of Event 37.
Three players are sitting with over a million chips, Aaronm Massey, Ian Steinman and 2013 ME runner-up Jay Farber.
JC Tran is one of the other 17 players, all but two being American with the exceptions being Ryan Goindoo (Trinidad & Tobago) & Enrico Rudelitz (Germany)
We almost had a Brit involved, but Plymouth's Damien Le Goff was the penultimate Day 2 elimination for $9513.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 2 of 3, 83 entries
No messing around with 20 left here, we're down to 8 with Yaniv Birman, Jesse Martin & Ben Yu the top 3 stacks.
Stud specialist Matt Grapenthien is in the middle of the pack while among the short stacks is the only non-US player, James Obst.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 1 of 3, 908 entrants
We've reached the halfway point of the 78-event WSOP 2018.
100 tables were set up for play, and at the end of the day each one of those tables has provided one participent for Day 2.
All 100 have earned $5227 so far, and today will compete on 10 10-handed tables with the winner guaranteeing themselves $15K and a place on the FT.
Reigning ME champion Scott Blumstein is one of the 100, as is another ME winner (Martin Jaconbson) and the runner-up in last year's shootout, Thomas Boivin. Also through are names such as Phil Hellmuth, Jesse Sylvia, Rep Porter and Dylan Linde.
Four UK names also made Day 2, Mark McGovern, Tom Hall, Endrit Geci & Yudhishter Jaswal.
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, 3 Day Event
This event, being held for the second time, attracted 205 players of whom one quarter played their way through to Day 2.
2012 PLO bracelet winner Naoya Kihara holds the big stack, with Dario Sammartino, fresh off a third placed finish in the $10K 2-7 Lowball event is second.
Stuart Rutter is back for another attempt to win a bracelet, and he had a good first day lying just inside the Top 10.
John Henningan jumped into this after losing the heads-up battle with Michael Mizrachi in the PPC, and he's made the most of it as he's got the fourth biggest stack overnight.
Other well-known names include Jeff Lisandro, Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Shaun Deeb, Max Pescatori, David "ODB" Baker, Barry Greenstein and the Frenchman with the impressive hair, Bruno Fitoussi.
To Start Today
Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, 3 Day Event
Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, 4 Day Event
The Super Seniors is all over, and it took rather longer on Day 4 than I anticipated. We started today with Robert Beach having a significant chip lead over Farhintaj Bonyadi, but 110 hands later, Bonyadi has come from behind to take the win.
In an angle that I should have picked up on earlier, she is the mother of three-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi.
She is, of course, the first female to win a bracelet in 2018.
Event 34 - $1K NLH Double Stack, Day 4 of 4, total of 5700 entries
It's getting to be a theme this summer that tournaments need an extra day to finish them off, well add the Double Stack to the list as an unscheduled 5th day will be needed to determine which of the final three will get the bracelet.
The final three (all of whom wanted to continue on to find a winner) are headed by Robert Peacock, who has 38m, with Nicholas Salimbene (10m) and Joshua Turner (8m)
The two Wongs finished the day as they started, adjacent to each other on the listings with Jacky 4th and Ralph 5th, while Pablo Campo was early Day 4 casualty (and he's now showing as being from Spain)
Event 36 - $1K Super Seniors NLH, Day 4 of 3, 2191 entries
As already mentioned, this one was completed early on Wednesday night with Farhintaj Bonyadi collecting her first bracelet and $311K.
She is now part of the only mother-son combo to win WSOP bracelets.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1330 entrants
You remember what I was saying about Event 34? An extra day will be needed here two with Eric Baldwin having about a 7:2 chip lead over Ian Steinman. With the winner getting $319K and the loser $197K, the heads-up match is for over $120K and of course the gold bracelet.
Enrico Rudelitz was the last elimination of the Day, leaving Baldwin and Steinman two levels of play to sort things out but neither buckled and they will recovene for a Day 4.
Event 38 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship, Day 2 of 3, 83 entries
This one, in stark contrast, ended within the scheduled timescale and the victor was businessman and part time high-limit Stud cash player, Yaniv Birman.
He beat twice bracelet-holder Jesse Martin into second, and Ben Yu was third.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 2 of 3, 908 entrants
The FT has been reached, with the 10 winners of the Day 2 tables all set to be sitting with very similar stacks (between 109 BB & 112BB)
There's one former bracelet winner among them, Anthony Rategui (who also made the final table of the earlier $3K shootout event) and there's one British name, Endrit Geci (who, not to be rude, looks like an anagram - perhaps "get nicer id" or "deter icing")
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, Day 2 of 3
Very rarely can a player have had this big of a lead at the end of Day 2. Scott Bohlman has over 1.5 million chips, with the nearest of his four remaining challengers (Ryan Hughes) has 345K.
Daniel Wienman, Aaron Rogers (not the Green Bay QB) and Marcel Vonk of the Netherlands are the other three players.
Last British player left was Stuart Rutter, but he departed the scene before the bubble was reached.
Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, Day 1 of 3, 596 entries
You can see the difference between the popularity of Limit Hold'em and No Limit as the last $1500 NLH event attracted more than twice the field of this Limit event.
The British presence in Limit is usually minimal, but at least we've got two of the 174 survivors, Warren Colman & Joe Brindle.
The chip leader is from Liverpool, but it's Liverpool, New York that Brian Vollick hails from. Local Rex Clinkscales and West-coast player Cody Riedel complete the top 3.
Most of the names mean very little to me, but I can pick out Jeff Shulman, Matt Grapenthein and Dutch Boyd, and there's the wonderfully named Jet Black in 83rd. I haven't come across anyone called Jet Black since The Stranglers in 1977.
Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, Day 1 of 4, 192 entries
The number of entries includes two dozen re-entries, and will rise further as late reg is open not just to the start of Day 2, but for another 2 levels after that.
Konstantin Beylin holds the chip lead from Bulgarian Veselin Karakitukov and Canadian Daniel Negreanu.
Fraser MacIntyre is inside the top ten, with Adam Owen just outside, and several other GB players make the Day 2 field - Philip Ward, James Park, Gavin Cochrane and Daniel Merrilees. Iraj Parvizi didn't join them, despite firing two bullets at it, and having at one point a stack that would have placed him inside the overnight Top 5.
To Start Today
Event 43 - $2500 NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 44 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, 3 Day Event
Going in to day 5, Robert Peacock was always going to be the favourite, and he ended with his tail feathers on display as he finished off first Joshua Turner and then Nicholas Salimbene, all in just 23 hands.
Peacock, a high stakes cash player locally in Vegas, $644K, Salimbene nearly $398 and Turner $294K.
Event 37 - $1500 NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1330 entrants
Despite this one having only 2 players left as opposed to the 3 in Event 34, this one took a lot longer to sort out as Eric Baldwin slogged it out with Ian Steinman. The former had the lead at the start of the day, and no matter what he did, Steinman never could close the gap and Baldwin finished the job when his AJ cracked Steinman's pocket Kings.
Event 39 - $1500 Shootout NLH, Day 3 of 3, 908 entrants
A loooooooong FT, over 12 hours of it, and Preston Lee came out on top. He beat Corey Dodd after over 120 hands of heads-up, and Anthony Reategui finished third.
The only Brit at the FT, Endrit Geci, was the first elimination of the day and picked up $15180.
Event 40 - $2500 Mixed Big Bet Event, 7 game mix, Day 2 of 3
Scott Bohlman entered Day 3 with a massive heads-up, but he doubled up several short stacks, and by the time it was 3-handed with Ryan Hughes and Daniel Weinmann, the stacks were comparitively balanced.
After a break, Bohlman won a big hand of triple draw to get more or less back to where he started, and never looked back.
He eliminated Wienman, and then not much later saw off two-time bracelet holder Hughes.
Event 41 - $1500 Limit Hold'em, Day 2 of 3, 596 entries
Nineteen players are left standing, with Matt Woodward leading the way, ahead of Robert Nehorayan and Matt Russell
A few bracelet holders are still involved, Kevin Song, Matt Grapenthien and Benjamin Scholl, whose previous win was also in a limit hold'em event.
There was just one UK player in the cash, Warren Colman, from Chigwell, who took 87th spot for a min-cash of $2246.
Event 42 - $25K High Roller PLO 8-Max, Day 2 of 4, 230 entries
Once late reg and re-entries were taken into account, a decent 230 x $25K had been taken and most of it entered into the prizepool.
Thirty five players go on to Day 3, with a 3-hour period of mind-numbingly dull hand-for-hand play starting 3 off the money as some tables were perceived to be slow playing.
Ben Yu chipped up during that period, sufficiently so that he now holds the chip lead ahead of Jason Koon and late entrant Ryan Tosoc.
Defending champion James Calderaro is among the survivors, as is the winner of the ME 20 years ago baby (Scotty Nguyen), Jason Mercier, Robert (but not Michael) Mizrachi and one Brit, Adam Owen.
Event 43 - $2500 NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1248 entrants
Just under 300 remain, with 188 to get paid so we're still some way off the bubble.
The chip lead is in the hands of Ashwin Sarin, with Steve Foutty and Josh Bergman second and third overnight.
Harry Lodge sits just inside the top 50 as top Brit, with several other GB names through including a couple of names familiar to former Sky Poker TV regulars, James Rann and Sam Razavi.
Others through include Valentin Vornicu, Jake Schwarts, Ismael Bojang and Aditya Agarwel (sitting next to each other in 12th-15th), Chino Rheem, David "Bakes" Baker, Taylor Paur, Faraz Jaka and Tony Dunst.
Event 44 - $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, 100 entries so far
As we have 100 entries on day 1, it's easy to calculate that 41% of the players bagged up chips at the end of the day.
Luke Schwartz sits just outside the top 3 which is made up of Michael Noori, Max Kruse and Christopher Kruk.
Benny Glaser and Stuart Rutter are both still involved as are Eli Elezra, Farzad Bonyadi (after his mother won a bracelet yesterday), Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, JC Tran, and making her 2018 WSOP début, Vanessa Selbst.
To Start Today
A busy day today!
Event 45 - $1K Big-Blind Ante NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event
Event 46 - $2500 Mixed Omaha/7 Card Stud (both Hi-Lo 8 or better), 3 Day Event
Event 47 - $565 WSOP.com Online NLH, Unlimited Re-entry, 1 Day Event
plus Flight D of Event 6, The Giant.