Excitement growing as the field has now been reduced to less than 8 tables, but it's not great news for the UK
100 Michael Lavenburg 99 Chris Da Silva. And then there were two. Da Silva came up against Aces when he had AK and that was all she wrote. British challenge down to Thomas MacDonald and Daniel Teng.
98 Brayden Gazlay 97 Justin Harvell 96 Ognjen Sekularac (Serbia) 95 Ayman Qutami 94 Seth Foster 93 Jared Palmer 92 Alexandre Reard (France) 91 Philip Chun
Ladder to $77K
90 Barry Faecher 89 Jeremy Ansher 88 Vivek Rughani (India) 87 Alexander Gross 86 Jack Duong 85 Sharukh Shaw 84 Richard Robinson 83 Peter Nguyen 82 Aleksandr Shevelev (Russia)
Payjump to $91K 81 Alexander Ziskin 80 Vicent Bosca Roman (Spain) 79 Laurynas Levinskas (Lithuania) 78 Thomas MacDonald (GB). After losing a big hand to Teng in Brit-on-Brit action, Macdonald busted soon after when his Queens were always behind Andres Jeckeln's Aces 77 Paulino Uemura (Brazil) 76 Stefan Huber (Switzerland) 75 Jamie Flynn 74 Cole Miller (runs kings into Sylvain Loosli's aces) 73 Ahmed Amin
Another ladder to over $108K 72 Robert Fabre 71 Dan Wilson (last Irish player, lost to a one-outer on the river) 70 Mason Barrell
69 left. Day 5 chip leader Michael Dyer is still near the top, but he was first overtaken by Israel's Hari Bercovici and then by current chip leader Jorden Fox. Last Brit Daniel Tang is in about 15th at the moment, with Joe Cada not far behind.
Kelly Minkin has been very up and down, she's been all in and at risk at least twice but has managed to survive.
There is one other player with a Union Flag against his name in the listings, Volodymyr Drokin but I believe that is an error and he is from Ukraine.
Barny can't access the Forum right now (0910am), a problem many of you will likely have until midday or so, so he's asked me to post his overnight WSOP Updates, which follows below.
Play is very close to coming to an end after another long day. 27 players is the target and they're currently at 28.
Overnight eliminations (all USA unless stated)
$108K 67 Mario Mosbock (Austria) 66 Brent Ballentine 65 Michael Feil (Germany) 64 Krasomir Yankov (Bulgaria)
$129K 63 Michael Cordell 62 Jaime Kaplan 61 Roger Lussier 60 Shaun O'Donnell 59 Franklin Azevedo 58 Ryan Rivers (Canada) 57 Bas De Laat (Malta) 56 Volodymyr Drokin (now correctly shown as Ukraine) 55 Rifat Palevic (Sweden)
$156K 54 Ofir Mor 53 Mark Zullo 52 Mark Stockton 51 Mike Jukick 50 Kelly Minkin (last female player) 49 Chanracy Khan (Canada) 48 Artur Koren (Austria) 47 Ubaid Habib 46 James Obst (Australia)
$189K - prize jumps getting very chunky indeed now 45 Richard Pyne 44 Randall Lack 43 Kerry Bell 42 Ben Pollak (France, no back to back final tables) 41 Brian Yoon 40 Jan Mach (Czech Republic) 39 Shannon Storr 38 Henrik Hecklen (Denmark) 37 Ricardo Souza (Brazil)
$230K 36 Jason Gooch 35 Nghia Le 34 Nishant Sharma 33 Peter Campo 32 Andres Jeckeln (Argentina) 31 Daniel Tang (UK) So we don't have a John Hesp-like British run to the FT this year. Tang three-bet shoved from the button for his last 1.4m chips, original raiser Clayton Fletcher obliged him and unfortunately he had Tang dominated with A-10 against A-8 and there was no help on the board. 30 Samuel Bernabeu 29 Randy Lowery
Aram Zobian has assumed the chip lead with over 40m chips (nearest challenge Artem Metalidi has 28.8m) but the intriguing presence of Joe Cada remains. He may be in the bottom third of the field but still has nearly 50BB so a very playable stack for the former champion.
Edit - they played a couple more hands since I started this post, and we've lost not one but two players.
First Clayton Fletcher got his just desserts for knocking out the last British player when he was on the other end of a very similar coup, holding K-10 againt Yueqi Zhu's K-Q and not improving.
Almost simultaneously, Barry Hutter went all-in for his last few chips, TV played out the above hand on the feature table first, and them the cards were turned over, he had pocket threes but Alex Lynskey had the aces. Luckily for Mr Hutter, there was a three on the turn and he tripled up, but he is still the short stack of the whole field.
The action wasn't over though as former chip leader Jorden Fox got it all in on the turn, his pocket Jacks being an overpair to the board. Michael Dyer looked him up with two pair, and Fox couldn't make a set or a counterfeiting two pair on the river to send him home with a slip for $282K.
A further update with end of day chip stacks will follow later.
So enough of those who've been knocked out, what about the 26 players left in?
I mentioned above that Aram Zobian has over 40m chips, in fact 41.5m which is nearly 11m more than Artem Metalidi and 13m more than third placed Antoine Labat.
We've still got players from China (2), Netherlands, Brazil, Israel, Denmark, France (2), Argentina and Belgium still involved.
There are a few bracelet holders still in, Yueqi Zhu, Eric Froehlich (2 bracelets), Ivan Luca, Barry Hutter and of course Joe Cada. Sylvain Loosli isn't a bracelet holder, but has the experience of making the FT of the Main, five years ago.
Day 7 will play down to the final table of 9, and unlike last year, Day 8 will immediately follow (last year there was a 2-day break). There are still 10 minutes left of Level 31 (100K/200K with a 30K ante), last year the FT was reached duing Level 36.
Event 68 - The Little One For One Drop, $1000 + $111 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 4732 entries 125 players are in the running to win the "Droplet", with an interesting mix of names. Justin Liberto holds the lead with Aditya Sushant of India and Alexandru Papazian of Romania continuning the cosmpolitan nature of this event in second and third.
You have to scan through numerous nationalities before finding the first "GB" on the listing, that's attached to Paul Byrne, The second GB is listed next to Oleksii Kravchuk in error, but only 3 places further down we find Toby Lewis, with Michael Fletcher, Andrew Hills, Chun Yam and Luke Haward all there too.
Event 69 - $3K PLO 6-handed, Day 3 of 3, 901 entries The bracelet for Event 69 is in the possession of Dutch player Ronald Keijzer, the fifth player from the Netherlands to win a WSOP bracelet.
It was an all-European heads-up match, as the second place went to Romain Lewis, while Player of the Year contender Scott Bohlman finished third.
Event 70 - $3K Limit Hold'em 6-handed, Day 1 of 3, 221 entries After just two days, this event is down to just 8 players, with unusually two players sharing the overnight lead - Juha Helppi from Finland and Yaser Al-Keliddar fro the US, both having 927K chips, way way ahead of third placed Mike Schneider's 316K.
The only remaining bracelet holder is veteran Barry Greenstein who lies 5th of the 8 overnight, but with such a skewed set of stacks, anything can happen at the start of Day 3.
The only British player to cash was Benny Glaser who finished 14th for $6990.
Event 71 - $5K NLH (30 minute levels), Day 1 of 2, 452 entries The $5K turbo paused overnight with 3 players who've at least made a FT during this series in the top 3 places. Jonathan Abdellatif was 4th in Event 54, Markus Gonsalves reached the FT of one of the online events, while Chance Kornuth won the high-roller online tournament.
39 remain, including Phil Hellmuth, Antoine Saout, Matt Glantz and three UK representatives, Liv Boeree, Paul Fontan and Chi Zhang.
Some other Brits who cashed include Robert Tinnion, Ben Dobson and Jack Salter.
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 1 of 3, 707 entries A slower pace here, but still only 123 players have made Day 2.
The Day 1 leader is Jordan Polk, ahead of Peter Eichhardt and Ryan Leng.
There isn't a huge number of familiar names near the top of the listings, but former ME winner Joe Hachem is in touch as is Michael Mizrachi, and Jesse Sylvia, Daniel Negreanu and Eric Baldwin are a little further down.
We've got a little gaggle of British players headed by Jerome Bradpiece, and backed up by Samuel Welbourne, Arkadi Kilman, Shawn Morales, Marc Daubach and James Dempsey
To Start Today Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, 2 Day Event Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, 3 Day Event
The first 90 minutes or so of Day 7 play has seen 4 exits at th $282K payout level.
26 Jeff Trudeau - a classic race with pocket eights against Antoine Labat's KJ, a Jack on the river sealing the deal
25 Barry Hutter - eventually his short stack ran out. He shoved twice and got though without a caller, but third time he did it (with a decent hand, pocket tens), Ming Xi took him on with AK suited and this time the overcards paired up on the turn and one card later Hutter was gone.
24 Bart Lybaert - the Belgian three bet shoved for 6m chips with fives, but John Cynn had sevens and a seven on the flop saw Lybeart's chances reduced to running cards which didn't come.
23 Eric Froehlich - he also thought he'd got it in good when he five-bet shoved with Queens, but in reality he hadn't as Alex Lynkey had four-bet with Kings and of course called. A board of 9-5-3-3-2 was no help. The field was down to 22 and Lynskey had a huge addition to his stack bringing the Aussie very close to the chip lead.
The field is now 50% Americans and 50% other nationalities.
22. Nirath Rean - the next player out was Floridian Rean. He went for it with KQ suited and was looked up by Artem Metalidi with A10. A flop of J-10-2 gave Rean a open-ended straight draw while giving he Ukrainian middle pair, and two low cards on the turn and river were the last two Rean saw in the ME for 2018.
21 Paulo Goncalves - Goncalves got it in ahead, he called Michael Dyer's flop bet with top pair (Dyer had middle pair and a flush draw). The flush came in on the river for Dyer to take town the large pot (putting him in the chip lead) and eliminating the Brazilian
20 Ivan Luca - the Argentine opened for 5m, Michael Dyer tested him out by coming over the top for 48m, and eventually Luca called, his A10 were behind Dyer's pocket fives. The flop gave a little bit for both players, Dyer got an up and down straight draw, Luca had four to a flush both the turn and river were bricks and Luca was gone.
19 Alexander Haro - after getting short he move in with A7, came up against Antoine Labat's AK and that was that
Break-time as they re-draw to the final two tables.
Come the morning UK time we will know our final 9.
Bear with me, this is a long post, but it's worth it!
All the preliminary play is done, and we're left with a Final Table. Let's see how we got here...
Michael Dyer entered the final two tables as the chip leader, and got even more powerful when making a Full House against Martin Gerrits to take him over 60m in chips, while on the other table the chips were spread more evenly around, the biggest stack being less than 40m.
18 Sylvain Loosli - the Frenchman's hopes of making his 2nd ME FT ended at the hands of Dyer. Loosli was very short (about 8BB) and went for it with a pair of black sixes, Dyer called with A-5 of clubs. Two clubs on the flop gave Dyer flush outs as well, but it was the Ace on the river which saw the back of Loosli for $375K.
Dyer continued to dominate the feature table, mostly at the expense of the two Chinese players, and soon he had 80m chips. He didn't deliver the next knockout though
Ming Xi was down to 7BB and shoved with Q-8 suited. His compatriot Yueqi Zhu calle (A-Q) and Frederik Brink re-shoved with pocket nines. Zhu called and it was a three-way showdown, in which none of the three players improved. Brink more than doubled up, but it was goodbye for 17 Ming Xi
It wasn't lon before Dyer was at it again.
16 Kao Saechao Dyer raised with A-Q of hearts, Saechao shoved from the button with K-Q off, and Dyer quickly called. As in Xi's elimination, the board was full of blanks. Cue the exit of Saechao and Dyer's up to 89m.
Joe Cada got a much-needed double-up through Brink when he hit one of a million outs on the river.
We then had three eliminations in relatively quick succession.
15 Martijn Gerrits The Dutch player was the victim of queens against aces. He understandably 5-bet shoved with the ladies, unlucky for him Alex Lynskey was sitting with the best pre-flop hand in the game. A Jack-high board, and Gerrits was gone but he did pick up $475K.
Less than 10 minute later on the other table, Konstantin Beylin had dropped down to 13BB, and shoved on an open from John Cynn with 9-7 suited, obviously hoping for a fold. Cynn thought about it, he only had Q-8 suited himself, but eventually called. All the flop offered Beylin was some back-door flush options, but turn and river weren't helpful. 14 Konstantin Beylin
13 Hari Bercovici The last of the 53 Israeli players in the Main was another victim of Dyer. The chip leader called Becorvici's pocket fours shove with A-K suited (and who wouldn't) and won the race when an ace appeared on the flop. Bercovici wins $575K as he first elimination after a payjump.
12 players left, Dyer's 89m still led from Cynn's 55m and Lynskey's 51. Two players were sitting with less than 20BB, Tony Miles and Frederik Brink.
Joe Cada was all-in again on a river, but managed to get Alex Lynskey to fold and padded his stack by 5m to move to 17m (34BB)
12 Frederik Brink Brink's deep run came to an end in a battle against Yueqi Zhu. Zhu opened, and Brink shoved for his last 4m from the cutoff. Zhu called with A-10 suited, Brink had K-Q suited. As with so many of the Day 7 eliminations, the board missed both players completely an Zhu's ace was the difference.
Tony Miles eventually found a hand to go with, pocket eights and got looked up with Zhu having two fives. 3-3-4-7-A on the board gave Miles the double up.
11 Ryan Phan With Miles getting his double up, pressure was now on Phan with the short stack. Artem Metalidi had been quiet most of the day, and limped. Phan moved all-in from the button for about 12BB with those pesky pocket fives, Metalidi had been slow-playing pocket jacks and when the action came back around to him, insta-called. More blanks and we were down to an unofficial FT of 10, Phan taking home no less than $725K.
The 10-handed table saw Dyer still well out in front (188BB) ahead of Cynn's 122BB and Lynskey's 94BB.
Action soon started, on the very first hand Yueqi 3-bet shoved for 24.8m chip s (with the BB at 500K, working out the multiples wasn't too hard) and he got it through.
Very next hand, Aram Zobian and Micheal Dyer saw a flop, Zobian check-raised all-in and Dyer let it go.
Fourth hand and we had another all-in, Miles shoving on Cada from the Big Blind, the former champ eventually folding.
Miles still the short stack though, and shoved again this time on a Lynskey open. No takers, but was a significant addition to his stack.
Soon he was at it again. John Cynn opened pre-flop and Miles called. An innocent looking all-red flop of 9-6-2 saw Miles check, Cynn bet and Miles call. The turn card was a jack, Miles checked again, Cynn bet again and Miles check-raised all-in, Cynn quickly called. Cynn had pocket aces, but Miles had J-9 for two pair and one card later he'd doubled up again, moving him up to a fairly safe 6th in chips.
Dyer was the first player over 100m, using his big stack to bully other players off hands, and when Level 36 started (300K/600K/100K ante), he had more than double any other player.
It took 10 hands of the new level to sort things out, and the final hand was a corker. Nicolas Manion opened, Antoine Labat called, and Yueqi Zhu shoved for 24m. Manion then re-shoved for 43m and after a count, Labat (covering the other two) called. Cards were on their backs:
Zhu King of hearts/King of spades Manion Ace of hearts/Ace of spades Labat King of clubs/King of diamonds.
Manion was in very good shape, but Labat had a chance if clubs or diamonds came to knock-out both others. Zhu was in very bad shape, drawing only to a chop with a King-high straight. Labat got some hope with two clubs on the flop, but a spade on the turn left him and Zhu drawing dead. Manion became the chip leader for the real FT, Labat was down to about 13BB, and Zhu (the winner of event 35 a few weeks ago) was gone, so that's 10 Yueqi Zhu, with $850K as compensation.
The seat draw and stacks for the final table: Seat 1 Artem Metalidi 15.475m Seat 2 John Cynn 37.075m Seat 3 Alex Lynskey 25.925m Seat 4 Tony Miles 42.75m Seat 5 Nicolas Manion 112.775m Seat 6 Aram Zobian 18.875m Seat 7 Michael Dyer 109.175m Seat 8 Joe Cada 23.675m Seat 9 Antoine Labat 8.05m
With the Main Event playing down to the FT, what would it take to take some of the attention away and focus it on one of the other events?
Phil Hellmuth winning his 15th bracelet, that's what. The Poker Brat has had a terrible series by his standards, with only 5 cashes, all for $6K or less but all that's forgotten now. Full update to follow later.
Event 68 - The Little One For One Drop, $1000 + $111 NLH, Day 3 of 4, 4732 entries 14 will come back to compete for the Little One Drop, with over half a million dollars accompanying the bracelet for the winner.
Christopher Staats holds the chip lead with two Frenchmen in the top 4 - Erwann Pecheux 2nd and Francois Tosques 4th, separated by Richard Cox in 3rd.
Players from Korea, Russia, the Philippines, India and the UK are all inside the top 10, the British representative being Paul Byrne.
Day 3 chip leader Justin Liberto is still involved but has now dropped to 11th.
Event 70 - $3K Limit Hold'em 6-handed, Day 3 of 3, 221 entries The joint Day 2 chip leaders, Yaser Al-Keliddar and Juha Helppi ended the event in the top 2 positions, the American getting the better of the Finn heads-up and taking $154K to Helppi's $95K.
Barry Greenstein made the FT, but finished in 6th place.
Event 71 - $5K NLH (30 minute levels), Day 2 of 2, 452 entries I've already posted the spoiler that Phil Hellmuth won his 15th bracelet, extending his all-time record, his first bracelet since 2015.
He came from behind to beat Steven Wolansky heads-up with yet another Ameicn, Alan Strenberg in third.
Paul Fontan was the highest placed British player, just missing the FT in 10th ($30881), Chi Zhang was 24th for $13K and Liv Boeree 31st for $11K.
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 2 of 3, 707 entries Ryan Leng was third at the end of Day 1, and he has moved up two places by end of Day 2 ahead of Jesse Vilchez and Yuval Bronshtein.
There are two British players among the 15 remaining players, Harrow's Jerome Bradpiece and Samuel Welbourne who the WSOP say is from Cittcehampton, which I presume is really Littlehampton.
Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, Day 1 of 2, 1221 entries Another Turbo-style event, attracting a decent 1200+ field. The Day 1 chip leader is local player Evan Lipshultz ahead of Jason Johnson and Brazilian Thiago Nikijima who won a bracelet in 2015.
As with event 72, two Brits through - one Londoner Daniel Pridham and one from a completely mangled town name, Nicholas Smith from "Cluethoriacs". If anyone has any idea what that is supposed to be, please let me know!
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 327 entries so far
115 players battled through Day 1, with Robert Mizrachi the chip leader ahead of Peter Weinand and Jason Mangold. Mark Teltscher is the leader of a strong British challenge in 5th, with Conor Beresford, Scott Margereson, Oliver Price, Elliott Peterman, Stephen Chidwick, Jules Dickerson, and the very short-stacked Liv Boeree also involved.
Three former ME winners are clustered close together in midfield, Martin Jacobson, Ryan Reiss and Greg Merson, and I wouldn't be surprised if Phil Hellmuth registers for this before late reg ends at the start of Day 2.
To Start Today Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event with 3 Day 1s Event 76 - $3K HORSE, 3 Day Event
There will be TV coverage of the Main Event on BT Sport/ESPN from 11:30 tonight and then supposedly live from 2:00am
Main Event - Day 8 update Play from 9 players down to 6 took just 47 hands, with the last six then playing out to the end of the level.
Michael Dyer took the lead from Nicolas Manion early when the latter laid down a hand on the turn after placing over 5m chips in on earlier streets, but the first fifteen hands basically saw players just getting comfortable with each other and their positions, all guaranteed at least one million dollars.
The first action hand came on hand 16, and it played itself really. Antoine Labat (the short stack) raised on the button with Kings, Artem Metalidi shoved from the Small Blind with Queens and the Frenchman called. Unfortunately for him there was a queen on the flop and neither of the other two kings appeared.
9 Antoine Labat ($1m)
Joe Cada chipped up throughout the early exchanges and had moved up to 4th spot
The next big hand was number 25, a clash between the two big stacks where the pot eventually was bet up to about 35m. Dyer eventually won it at showdown with top pair top kicker, and he was up to 138m with Manion down to 77m
Despite busting Labat, Metalidi began to drip down, and not far into Level 37, he shoved his last 6m with pocket fives, with Aram Zobian over-shoving from the Small Blind. When the cards were turned over, Zobian showed King-Queen of diamonds. The flop had something for both players, 6-5-2 with two diamonds. A blank on the turn meant Metalidi was still ahead, but the 4 of diamonds on the river eliminated the Ukrainian
8 Artem Metalidi ($1.25m)
With seven players left, one, Australian Alex Lynskey hadn't won a single one of the first 46 hands, his almost 26m chips at the start of the day being reduced to less than half that. He found a pocket pair (sixes) on Hand 47 and after a raise and a call in front of him, went all in. Chip leader Dyer passed but John Cynn looked him up with KQ suited. Similar to Metalidi's elimination, Lynskey was ahead on the flop (10-9-3) and the turn (another 10) but a Jack on the river filled Cynn's gutshot
7 Alex Lynskey ($1.5m)
When there were 22 players left, it was 50:50 between the US and the Rest of the World, but with Lynskey's elimination, the final 6 were 100% Americans.
In the remaining action, the rich got richer as Dyer won another chunky pot off Aram Zobian, and then another couple of smaller pots but then lost a hand that went all the way to showdown to Manion. The final few hands saw former winner Cada get active, going all in on the river on a hand against Manion forcing a fold and similar action (albeit on a smaller scale) against the same opponent.
Chip stacks for Day 9 Seat 1 John Cynn 61.55m Seat 2 Tony Miles 57.5m Seat 3 Nicolas Manion 72.25m Seat 4 Aram Zobian 16.7m Seat 5 Michael Dyer 156.5m Seat 6 Joe Cada 29.275m
The starting level (Level 38) will be 500K/1m with a 150K ante) so there's no need to insult anyone's intelligence by saying how may Big Blinds player have.
Event 68 - The Little One For One Drop, $1000 + $111 NLH, Day 4 of 4, 4732 entries It's been a good series for Chinese players, and it's got even better now as the Droplet was won by Guoliang Wei
If you're going to win a huge event, what better way to do it than a straight flush, his Queen-10 of spades being complimented by a flop which included the Jack and 9 of spades, which also gave his opponent Francois Tosques a set of jacks. All the chips went it and the Chinese rail gave a huge roar as the King of spades came on the river.
Wei picks up $559K, Tosques $345K with third place going to the start-of-day chip leader, Christopher Staats ($254K)
The last British player standing was Paul Byrne who bowed out in 13th spot for a little under $30K
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 3 of 3, 707 entries Polk wins, not Doug Polk, but semi-pro player Jordan Polk who took his first bracelet and over $197K.
We had two British players making the top 10 - Jerome Bradpiece finished 10th for $13781 while Samuel Welbourne made the FT and collected $43K for his 5th place.
Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, Day 2 of 2, 1221 entries It was Russia against Spain for Event 73, with the former eventually coming out on top after a heads-up battle that went one way, back to the other and back again. Denis Timofeev was the victor, defeating Leo Margets (maybe best known for reaching the final 3 tables of the 2009 Main Event).
Daniel Pridham was the last British challenger, eliminated in 24th spot for just under $6K, while six players earlier we saw the back of Nicholas Smith (who Hendon Mob have linked up with a Canadian player who had one recorded cash in 2010) for $4838
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 355 entries so far 28 additional entries before the start of Day 2 boosted the prize pool to the extent that the winner will pick up over $814K.
17 players are still in contention to collect that huge cheque (or pile of cash I guess) with two British players amongst them - Mark Teltscher and Scott Margereson). The top 3 are all American, Paul Volpe, Martin Zamani and player of the year contender Shaun Deeb.
To Start Today Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 502 entries so far The last event at this price point will see 3 Day 1s, with a perhaps disappointing 502 players playing Day 1A.
54 of them remain, and a very familiar name/face sits at the top end of the stacks, Bertran "Elky" Grospelier. He only has 1 bracelet to his name, but will be in a good position when Day 2 rolls around to start looking for his second
Nelson Resendiz lies second, and Marius Kudzmanas third.
Leif Force, Dan Shak and Jeremy Ausmus are among the other qualifiers, as is Farah Galfond, the wife of Phil and former daytime soap actress.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 1 of 3, 354 entrants The last sub-50K entry event, and we have a Brit as th Day 1 chip leader - Adam Owen from Kent. He has almost 100K chips, with the two closest challengers being Kristan Lord and Gennady Shimelfarb.
Two more WSOP regulars from the South Coast, Ben Dobson and Benny Glaser have also made Day 2 along with Frank Kassela, Greg Mueller, Brandon Shack-Harris and Player of the Year leader (and Poker Hall of Fame inductee) John Hennigan.
To Start Today
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", 2 Day Event
Apologies for the length of this post (and lateness of it) but it is kind of an important day
Main Event - Day 9 update To recap, the start of day stacks were:
Chip stacks for Day 9 Seat 1 John Cynn 61.55m Seat 2 Tony Miles 57.5m Seat 3 Nicolas Manion 72.25m Seat 4 Aram Zobian 16.7m Seat 5 Michael Dyer 156.5m Seat 6 Joe Cada 29.275m
Short stack Zobian shoved on the second hand of the day (hand 71), getting it through, and then again from the small blind on the fifth. He had 8-6 suited, and was obviously looking to get it through but chip leader Michael Dyer had a hand and plenty of chips and called with A-8, dominating Zobian. The short stack got just a back door diamond draw on the flop, and even that was snuffed out on the turn and just 20 minutes, we had lost
6. Aram Zobian $1.8m
After 20 hands, not much had changed. Cynn had chipped up a bit, and Cada was now alone down at the bottom, and the only major action in the next 10 was to see Cynn lose those gained chips to Dyer.
Cada shoved Hand 92 over a Dyer open and got it through, and the same happened on Hand 98. He moved off the bottom in hand 101 after a river shove (on a board with 4 to a straight) forced Cynn to fold.
Cada's rise up the listings didn't last long; He raised to 2.2m, Tony Miles 3-bet to 6.9m, and the former winner shoved for 47m with pocket tens. Miles tanked for some time before calling with Big Slick. K-8-9 on the flop but Miles in front and Cada at risk. He got some more outs with a Queen on the turn, but another 9 on the river saw he dream of a second Main Event end for another 12 months.
5. Joe Cada $2.15m
This left it with the chips Dyer 167m, Miles 104m, Manion 83m and Cynn 38m
Cynn took some chips of each player before we got to hand 113. A hand that went all the way to showdown, Manion had paired his ten on the flop but Dyer made a bigger pair on the turn with a switch of nearly 20 minutes to the chip leader.
Miles breached the 100m mark after a hand where a straight (4 of which were hearts) ended up on the board and a river bet got Manion to fold, and took over the chip lead on hand 121. 3-way to the flop which was K-4-3, Dyer & Cynn checked and Miles bet. Dyer check-raised and Miles called. A 5 on the turn, Dyer bet 21m and Mile called. The river was a second King, Dyer bet again, 27m this time and Miles insta-called with pocket 3s which made a set on the flop and housed up on the river.
Miles 182m, Dyer 130m, Manion 48m, Cynn 33m, Start of Level 39 600K/1.2m/200K ante
Cynn needed to find a hand, and did so on Hand 132 and was helped to get paid by Manion bluff shoving a river after Cynn's suited connectors had made a flush.
Manion then needed a hand, and it took him three orbits to find one, pocket sevens was good enough to shove from the button. Miles obliged him with AK, and a ten-high board saw Manion double up.
Dyer briefly re-took the lead before Miles got it back, and then significanly extended it. A double-paired board, Miles bet 27m, Dyer called but was unable to beat Miles' full house. Meanwhile Cynn had been chipping up, a few million here, a few million there soon adds up.
Miles 195m, Dyer 94m, Cynn 73m, Manion 30m.
Manion shoved three times but got no takers, but the blinds and antes he collected was enough to keep his head above water.
By the end of the level, Miles had breached the 200m chips mark, with his nearest challenger Dye down to 81m.
Miles then stuck it to Dyer even more winning a pot that was close to 20m, elevating Cynn to second by default.
Manion was at it again on hand 192. Dyer raised and Manion called pre-flop, and on a flop of J-Q-8 (two hearts) the short stack shoved and Dyer snap-called. Cards were turned over, Manion had 7-5 of hearts, Dyer had K-Q off, and was drawing dead when another heart came on the turn.
With a huge advantage over the other three player, Miles was now playing big-stack bully, but did have to fold once when Manion (who else) three-bet shoved on him.
The stacks were getting more and more polarised by hand 223 Miles had 240m, Cynn 103m and both Dyer and Manion in the mid 20 millions. It really looked like a two horse race for the final elimination of the day. Manion hoped it wouldn't be him as he shoved for the umpteenth time with A-10. Cynn had other ideas with pocket kings. No help on the board, and the final three were set.
4 Nicolas Manion $2.825m
Chip stacks heading in the final day - Miles 239m, Cynn 129m and Dyer 26m.
Third place will collect $3.75m, second is good for $5m exactly and the top prize is $8m, the unique gold bracelet and a place forever on the WSOP Roll of Honour.
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 3 of 3, 355 entries so far Every year since 2000 we've seen someone win two bracelets at the Vegas leg of the WSOP. It took until the last few days of the 2018 series but that streak is intact as Shaun Deeb added Event 74 to Event 42 and also vaulted himself to the top of the Player of the Year standings.
Paul Volpe and Romain Lewis had an extended 3-handed battle, with the Frenchman eliminated third (his third top three of the summer) with Volpe eventually succumbing in second.
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 502 entries so far 96 players join the 1A qualifier, headed by Jeffrey Tanouye from Pismo Beach, California ahead of two more Americans, Jerry Robinson and Kevin Wang.
Four Brits make it through - Philip Ford, Benny Glaser, Simon Deadman and Chris DaSilva, with others through including Phil Laak, Scott Bohlman and Main Event last woman standing Kelly Minkin.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 2 of 3, 354 entrants I don't think I've been able to say we have n-n-n-n-nineteen players through this year, so I get that one in just in time.
Brian Hastings leads the 19, ahead of Tim Marsters and Jeff Madsen, and Shaun Deeb's player of the year lead isn't secure yet as John Hennigan is still very much involved here.
Adam Owen's chip lead didn't last long, and he busted before the bubble so the only GB casher was Ben Dobson for $6524.
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", Day 1 of 2, 128 entries So the big boys get their game on, 97 unique players and 31 re-entries with 31 moving on to Day 2 playing for a first prize of $1.65m.
The lead is held by Austrian player Matthias Elbinger, ahead of Jake Schindler and Isaac Haxton.
We have one British player through, fresh from a decent run in the ME, Daniel Merrilees.
As you would expect, several of the more well-known players are here - Ben Pollak, John Racener, Ryan Reiss, Scott Siever, Daniel Negreanu etc.
In this year were we saw the legend Doyle Brunson retire, perhaps it would be nice if a player from Doylestown won a bracelet, that is where 26th place John Andress calls home.
To Start Today None, it is flight 1C of Event 75, "The Closer"
After a marathon, 10 hours plus heads-up match we have a new World Champion. John Cynn outlasted Tony Miles, after Michael Dyer was eliminated early on Day 10. It was a classic heads-up match, with the lead changing hands numerous times.
Fuller report to follow later on with some of the key hands detailed, plus updates from the other tournaments still in play.
I haven't had time to go back and review the last day of the Main Event, but here is the upate on other running events
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 3120 entries (including unlimited re-entries) The WSOP didn't release a PDF of the Day 1C qualifiers, but some of the bigger stacks are held by Allen Kessler, Jonathan Tamayo and Bob Shao. Both the top 2 Player of the Year candidates, Shaun Deeb and John Hennigan padded their point totals and made Day 2 while Niall Farrell and Adam Owen (at least) are there for the UK.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 3 of 3, 354 entrants It's a fourth bracelet for Brian Hastings. He entered Day 3 as the chip leader, but dropped down to be bottom stack during four handed play.
He was still behind when heads-up play with Andrew Brown started, but he battled through to take the bracelet and $323K
Third place went to the Australian player Tim Marsters
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", Day 2 of 2, 128 entries A short and sweet big buy-in event, with Ben Yu taking down his third bracelet event, his first in NLH for which he also takes home $1.65m. The win saw him recover after busting out from Day 5 of the Main Event.
Sean Winter was the runner-up (heads up lasted all of 2 hands) and Nick Petrangelo finished third.
The last British representative, Daniel Merriless, was knocked out before the cash.
To Start Today Event 78 - The Big One For One Drop, $1million NLH The last event, expected to attract 40 or so players (capped at 48, 32 confirmed beforehand), but a $100K Mega Satellite had to be cancelled yesterday.
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), Day 2 of 2, 3120 entries (including unlimited re-entries) Not many people can have had a better last week than Joe Cada. The former ME winner made the Final Table of this year's big one, and now he's added his second bracelet of the summer (and 4th in his career) in an event very different in structure to the Main Event.
He beat Indian player Paawan Bansal into second, with Jeffrey Tanouye third.
Top British player was Andrew Hedley from Deanston, a place of which I'd previously not been aware, but according to Wikipedia it is a village a few miles NW of Stirling, and has a single-malt whisky distillery.
Despite winning two bracelets and making the final table of the Main, Cada is only just inside the top 10 of the Player of the Year race, with Shaun Deeb's cash in this giving him a decent lead now to take to the WSOP Europe later in the year (the One Drop does not county for Player of the Year points).
Event 78 - The Big One For One Drop, $1million NLH, 24 entries so far So much for 32 confirmed entries (although late reg is still open)
19 of the have made it through, and it's a player who is not one of the biggest names (but has made the top 4 of both the last two One Drops) who leads, Rick Solomon.
The next two in the listings are two of the biggest names - I presume everyone out there has heard of Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu.
Two British players entered, Talal Shakerchi is above average in chips but Stephen Chidwick is near the bottom but still has 40-odd Big Blinds.
For the record, the 5 bustouts were, in alphabetical order, former One Drop winner Antonio Esfandiari, Isaac Haxton, Bryn Kenney, David Peters and Jake Schindler.
Comments
Excitement growing as the field has now been reduced to less than 8 tables, but it's not great news for the UK
100 Michael Lavenburg
99 Chris Da Silva. And then there were two. Da Silva came up against Aces when he had AK and that was all she wrote. British challenge down to Thomas MacDonald and Daniel Teng.
98 Brayden Gazlay
97 Justin Harvell
96 Ognjen Sekularac (Serbia)
95 Ayman Qutami
94 Seth Foster
93 Jared Palmer
92 Alexandre Reard (France)
91 Philip Chun
Ladder to $77K
90 Barry Faecher
89 Jeremy Ansher
88 Vivek Rughani (India)
87 Alexander Gross
86 Jack Duong
85 Sharukh Shaw
84 Richard Robinson
83 Peter Nguyen
82 Aleksandr Shevelev (Russia)
Payjump to $91K
81 Alexander Ziskin
80 Vicent Bosca Roman (Spain)
79 Laurynas Levinskas (Lithuania)
78 Thomas MacDonald (GB). After losing a big hand to Teng in Brit-on-Brit action, Macdonald busted soon after when his Queens were always behind Andres Jeckeln's Aces
77 Paulino Uemura (Brazil)
76 Stefan Huber (Switzerland)
75 Jamie Flynn
74 Cole Miller (runs kings into Sylvain Loosli's aces)
73 Ahmed Amin
Another ladder to over $108K
72 Robert Fabre
71 Dan Wilson (last Irish player, lost to a one-outer on the river)
70 Mason Barrell
69 left. Day 5 chip leader Michael Dyer is still near the top, but he was first overtaken by Israel's Hari Bercovici and then by current chip leader Jorden Fox. Last Brit Daniel Tang is in about 15th at the moment, with Joe Cada not far behind.
Kelly Minkin has been very up and down, she's been all in and at risk at least twice but has managed to survive.
There is one other player with a Union Flag against his name in the listings, Volodymyr Drokin but I believe that is an error and he is from Ukraine.
Stop Press
69 Jordan Cristos. 68 left.
Great effort that, as many of you will know, he's a regular on Sky Poker.
Barny can't access the Forum right now (0910am), a problem many of you will likely have until midday or so, so he's asked me to post his overnight WSOP Updates, which follows below.
Play is very close to coming to an end after another long day. 27 players is the target and they're currently at 28.
Overnight eliminations (all USA unless stated)
$108K
67 Mario Mosbock (Austria)
66 Brent Ballentine
65 Michael Feil (Germany)
64 Krasomir Yankov (Bulgaria)
$129K
63 Michael Cordell
62 Jaime Kaplan
61 Roger Lussier
60 Shaun O'Donnell
59 Franklin Azevedo
58 Ryan Rivers (Canada)
57 Bas De Laat (Malta)
56 Volodymyr Drokin (now correctly shown as Ukraine)
55 Rifat Palevic (Sweden)
$156K
54 Ofir Mor
53 Mark Zullo
52 Mark Stockton
51 Mike Jukick
50 Kelly Minkin (last female player)
49 Chanracy Khan (Canada)
48 Artur Koren (Austria)
47 Ubaid Habib
46 James Obst (Australia)
$189K - prize jumps getting very chunky indeed now
45 Richard Pyne
44 Randall Lack
43 Kerry Bell
42 Ben Pollak (France, no back to back final tables)
41 Brian Yoon
40 Jan Mach (Czech Republic)
39 Shannon Storr
38 Henrik Hecklen (Denmark)
37 Ricardo Souza (Brazil)
$230K
36 Jason Gooch
35 Nghia Le
34 Nishant Sharma
33 Peter Campo
32 Andres Jeckeln (Argentina)
31 Daniel Tang (UK) So we don't have a John Hesp-like British run to the FT this year. Tang three-bet shoved from the button for his last 1.4m chips, original raiser Clayton Fletcher obliged him and unfortunately he had Tang dominated with A-10 against A-8 and there was no help on the board.
30 Samuel Bernabeu
29 Randy Lowery
Aram Zobian has assumed the chip lead with over 40m chips (nearest challenge Artem Metalidi has 28.8m) but the intriguing presence of Joe Cada remains. He may be in the bottom third of the field but still has nearly 50BB so a very playable stack for the former champion.
Edit - they played a couple more hands since I started this post, and we've lost not one but two players.
First Clayton Fletcher got his just desserts for knocking out the last British player when he was on the other end of a very similar coup, holding K-10 againt Yueqi Zhu's K-Q and not improving.
Almost simultaneously, Barry Hutter went all-in for his last few chips, TV played out the above hand on the feature table first, and them the cards were turned over, he had pocket threes but Alex Lynskey had the aces. Luckily for Mr Hutter, there was a three on the turn and he tripled up, but he is still the short stack of the whole field.
The action wasn't over though as former chip leader Jorden Fox got it all in on the turn, his pocket Jacks being an overpair to the board. Michael Dyer looked him up with two pair, and Fox couldn't make a set or a counterfeiting two pair on the river to send him home with a slip for $282K.
A further update with end of day chip stacks will follow later.
So enough of those who've been knocked out, what about the 26 players left in?
I mentioned above that Aram Zobian has over 40m chips, in fact 41.5m which is nearly 11m more than Artem Metalidi and 13m more than third placed Antoine Labat.
We've still got players from China (2), Netherlands, Brazil, Israel, Denmark, France (2), Argentina and Belgium still involved.
There are a few bracelet holders still in, Yueqi Zhu, Eric Froehlich (2 bracelets), Ivan Luca, Barry Hutter and of course Joe Cada. Sylvain Loosli isn't a bracelet holder, but has the experience of making the FT of the Main, five years ago.
Day 7 will play down to the final table of 9, and unlike last year, Day 8 will immediately follow (last year there was a 2-day break). There are still 10 minutes left of Level 31 (100K/200K with a 30K ante), last year the FT was reached duing Level 36.
Event 68 - The Little One For One Drop, $1000 + $111 NLH, Day 2 of 3, 4732 entries
125 players are in the running to win the "Droplet", with an interesting mix of names. Justin Liberto holds the lead with Aditya Sushant of India and Alexandru Papazian of Romania continuning the cosmpolitan nature of this event in second and third.
You have to scan through numerous nationalities before finding the first "GB" on the listing, that's attached to Paul Byrne, The second GB is listed next to Oleksii Kravchuk in error, but only 3 places further down we find Toby Lewis, with Michael Fletcher, Andrew Hills, Chun Yam and Luke Haward all there too.
Event 69 - $3K PLO 6-handed, Day 3 of 3, 901 entries
The bracelet for Event 69 is in the possession of Dutch player Ronald Keijzer, the fifth player from the Netherlands to win a WSOP bracelet.
It was an all-European heads-up match, as the second place went to Romain Lewis, while Player of the Year contender Scott Bohlman finished third.
Event 70 - $3K Limit Hold'em 6-handed, Day 1 of 3, 221 entries
After just two days, this event is down to just 8 players, with unusually two players sharing the overnight lead - Juha Helppi from Finland and Yaser Al-Keliddar fro the US, both having 927K chips, way way ahead of third placed Mike Schneider's 316K.
The only remaining bracelet holder is veteran Barry Greenstein who lies 5th of the 8 overnight, but with such a skewed set of stacks, anything can happen at the start of Day 3.
The only British player to cash was Benny Glaser who finished 14th for $6990.
Event 71 - $5K NLH (30 minute levels), Day 1 of 2, 452 entries
The $5K turbo paused overnight with 3 players who've at least made a FT during this series in the top 3 places. Jonathan Abdellatif was 4th in Event 54, Markus Gonsalves reached the FT of one of the online events, while Chance Kornuth won the high-roller online tournament.
39 remain, including Phil Hellmuth, Antoine Saout, Matt Glantz and three UK representatives, Liv Boeree, Paul Fontan and Chi Zhang.
Some other Brits who cashed include Robert Tinnion, Ben Dobson and Jack Salter.
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 1 of 3, 707 entries
A slower pace here, but still only 123 players have made Day 2.
The Day 1 leader is Jordan Polk, ahead of Peter Eichhardt and Ryan Leng.
There isn't a huge number of familiar names near the top of the listings, but former ME winner Joe Hachem is in touch as is Michael Mizrachi, and Jesse Sylvia, Daniel Negreanu and Eric Baldwin are a little further down.
We've got a little gaggle of British players headed by Jerome Bradpiece, and backed up by Samuel Welbourne, Arkadi Kilman, Shawn Morales, Marc Daubach and James Dempsey
To Start Today
Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, 2 Day Event
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, 3 Day Event
The first 90 minutes or so of Day 7 play has seen 4 exits at th $282K payout level.
26 Jeff Trudeau - a classic race with pocket eights against Antoine Labat's KJ, a Jack on the river sealing the deal
25 Barry Hutter - eventually his short stack ran out. He shoved twice and got though without a caller, but third time he did it (with a decent hand, pocket tens), Ming Xi took him on with AK suited and this time the overcards paired up on the turn and one card later Hutter was gone.
24 Bart Lybaert - the Belgian three bet shoved for 6m chips with fives, but John Cynn had sevens and a seven on the flop saw Lybeart's chances reduced to running cards which didn't come.
23 Eric Froehlich - he also thought he'd got it in good when he five-bet shoved with Queens, but in reality he hadn't as Alex Lynkey had four-bet with Kings and of course called. A board of 9-5-3-3-2 was no help. The field was down to 22 and Lynskey had a huge addition to his stack bringing the Aussie very close to the chip lead.
The field is now 50% Americans and 50% other nationalities.
22. Nirath Rean - the next player out was Floridian Rean. He went for it with KQ suited and was looked up by Artem Metalidi with A10. A flop of J-10-2 gave Rean a open-ended straight draw while giving he Ukrainian middle pair, and two low cards on the turn and river were the last two Rean saw in the ME for 2018.
21 Paulo Goncalves - Goncalves got it in ahead, he called Michael Dyer's flop bet with top pair (Dyer had middle pair and a flush draw). The flush came in on the river for Dyer to take town the large pot (putting him in the chip lead) and eliminating the Brazilian
20 Ivan Luca - the Argentine opened for 5m, Michael Dyer tested him out by coming over the top for 48m, and eventually Luca called, his A10 were behind Dyer's pocket fives. The flop gave a little bit for both players, Dyer got an up and down straight draw, Luca had four to a flush both the turn and river were bricks and Luca was gone.
19 Alexander Haro - after getting short he move in with A7, came up against Antoine Labat's AK and that was that
Break-time as they re-draw to the final two tables.
Come the morning UK time we will know our final 9.
All the preliminary play is done, and we're left with a Final Table. Let's see how we got here...
Michael Dyer entered the final two tables as the chip leader, and got even more powerful when making a Full House against Martin Gerrits to take him over 60m in chips, while on the other table the chips were spread more evenly around, the biggest stack being less than 40m.
18 Sylvain Loosli - the Frenchman's hopes of making his 2nd ME FT ended at the hands of Dyer. Loosli was very short (about 8BB) and went for it with a pair of black sixes, Dyer called with A-5 of clubs. Two clubs on the flop gave Dyer flush outs as well, but it was the Ace on the river which saw the back of Loosli for $375K.
Dyer continued to dominate the feature table, mostly at the expense of the two Chinese players, and soon he had 80m chips. He didn't deliver the next knockout though
Ming Xi was down to 7BB and shoved with Q-8 suited. His compatriot Yueqi Zhu calle (A-Q) and Frederik Brink re-shoved with pocket nines. Zhu called and it was a three-way showdown, in which none of the three players improved. Brink more than doubled up, but it was goodbye for 17 Ming Xi
It wasn't lon before Dyer was at it again.
16 Kao Saechao Dyer raised with A-Q of hearts, Saechao shoved from the button with K-Q off, and Dyer quickly called. As in Xi's elimination, the board was full of blanks. Cue the exit of Saechao and Dyer's up to 89m.
Joe Cada got a much-needed double-up through Brink when he hit one of a million outs on the river.
We then had three eliminations in relatively quick succession.
15 Martijn Gerrits The Dutch player was the victim of queens against aces. He understandably 5-bet shoved with the ladies, unlucky for him Alex Lynskey was sitting with the best pre-flop hand in the game. A Jack-high board, and Gerrits was gone but he did pick up $475K.
Less than 10 minute later on the other table, Konstantin Beylin had dropped down to 13BB, and shoved on an open from John Cynn with 9-7 suited, obviously hoping for a fold. Cynn thought about it, he only had Q-8 suited himself, but eventually called. All the flop offered Beylin was some back-door flush options, but turn and river weren't helpful. 14 Konstantin Beylin
13 Hari Bercovici The last of the 53 Israeli players in the Main was another victim of Dyer. The chip leader called Becorvici's pocket fours shove with A-K suited (and who wouldn't) and won the race when an ace appeared on the flop. Bercovici wins $575K as he first elimination after a payjump.
12 players left, Dyer's 89m still led from Cynn's 55m and Lynskey's 51. Two players were sitting with less than 20BB, Tony Miles and Frederik Brink.
Joe Cada was all-in again on a river, but managed to get Alex Lynskey to fold and padded his stack by 5m to move to 17m (34BB)
12 Frederik Brink Brink's deep run came to an end in a battle against Yueqi Zhu. Zhu opened, and Brink shoved for his last 4m from the cutoff. Zhu called with A-10 suited, Brink had K-Q suited. As with so many of the Day 7 eliminations, the board missed both players completely an Zhu's ace was the difference.
Tony Miles eventually found a hand to go with, pocket eights and got looked up with Zhu having two fives. 3-3-4-7-A on the board gave Miles the double up.
11 Ryan Phan With Miles getting his double up, pressure was now on Phan with the short stack. Artem Metalidi had been quiet most of the day, and limped. Phan moved all-in from the button for about 12BB with those pesky pocket fives, Metalidi had been slow-playing pocket jacks and when the action came back around to him, insta-called. More blanks and we were down to an unofficial FT of 10, Phan taking home no less than $725K.
The 10-handed table saw Dyer still well out in front (188BB) ahead of Cynn's 122BB and Lynskey's 94BB.
Action soon started, on the very first hand Yueqi 3-bet shoved for 24.8m chip s (with the BB at 500K, working out the multiples wasn't too hard) and he got it through.
Very next hand, Aram Zobian and Micheal Dyer saw a flop, Zobian check-raised all-in and Dyer let it go.
Fourth hand and we had another all-in, Miles shoving on Cada from the Big Blind, the former champ eventually folding.
Miles still the short stack though, and shoved again this time on a Lynskey open. No takers, but was a significant addition to his stack.
Soon he was at it again. John Cynn opened pre-flop and Miles called. An innocent looking all-red flop of 9-6-2 saw Miles check, Cynn bet and Miles call. The turn card was a jack, Miles checked again, Cynn bet again and Miles check-raised all-in, Cynn quickly called. Cynn had pocket aces, but Miles had J-9 for two pair and one card later he'd doubled up again, moving him up to a fairly safe 6th in chips.
Dyer was the first player over 100m, using his big stack to bully other players off hands, and when Level 36 started (300K/600K/100K ante), he had more than double any other player.
It took 10 hands of the new level to sort things out, and the final hand was a corker. Nicolas Manion opened, Antoine Labat called, and Yueqi Zhu shoved for 24m. Manion then re-shoved for 43m and after a count, Labat (covering the other two) called. Cards were on their backs:
Zhu King of hearts/King of spades
Manion Ace of hearts/Ace of spades
Labat King of clubs/King of diamonds.
Manion was in very good shape, but Labat had a chance if clubs or diamonds came to knock-out both others. Zhu was in very bad shape, drawing only to a chop with a King-high straight. Labat got some hope with two clubs on the flop, but a spade on the turn left him and Zhu drawing dead. Manion became the chip leader for the real FT, Labat was down to about 13BB, and Zhu (the winner of event 35 a few weeks ago) was gone, so that's 10 Yueqi Zhu, with $850K as compensation.
The seat draw and stacks for the final table:
Seat 1 Artem Metalidi 15.475m
Seat 2 John Cynn 37.075m
Seat 3 Alex Lynskey 25.925m
Seat 4 Tony Miles 42.75m
Seat 5 Nicolas Manion 112.775m
Seat 6 Aram Zobian 18.875m
Seat 7 Michael Dyer 109.175m
Seat 8 Joe Cada 23.675m
Seat 9 Antoine Labat 8.05m
Phil Hellmuth winning his 15th bracelet, that's what. The Poker Brat has had a terrible series by his standards, with only 5 cashes, all for $6K or less but all that's forgotten now. Full update to follow later.
14 will come back to compete for the Little One Drop, with over half a million dollars accompanying the bracelet for the winner.
Christopher Staats holds the chip lead with two Frenchmen in the top 4 - Erwann Pecheux 2nd and Francois Tosques 4th, separated by Richard Cox in 3rd.
Players from Korea, Russia, the Philippines, India and the UK are all inside the top 10, the British representative being Paul Byrne.
Day 3 chip leader Justin Liberto is still involved but has now dropped to 11th.
Event 70 - $3K Limit Hold'em 6-handed, Day 3 of 3, 221 entries
The joint Day 2 chip leaders, Yaser Al-Keliddar and Juha Helppi ended the event in the top 2 positions, the American getting the better of the Finn heads-up and taking $154K to Helppi's $95K.
Barry Greenstein made the FT, but finished in 6th place.
Event 71 - $5K NLH (30 minute levels), Day 2 of 2, 452 entries
I've already posted the spoiler that Phil Hellmuth won his 15th bracelet, extending his all-time record, his first bracelet since 2015.
He came from behind to beat Steven Wolansky heads-up with yet another Ameicn, Alan Strenberg in third.
Paul Fontan was the highest placed British player, just missing the FT in 10th ($30881), Chi Zhang was 24th for $13K and Liv Boeree 31st for $11K.
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 2 of 3, 707 entries
Ryan Leng was third at the end of Day 1, and he has moved up two places by end of Day 2 ahead of Jesse Vilchez and Yuval Bronshtein.
There are two British players among the 15 remaining players, Harrow's Jerome Bradpiece and Samuel Welbourne who the WSOP say is from Cittcehampton, which I presume is really Littlehampton.
Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, Day 1 of 2, 1221 entries
Another Turbo-style event, attracting a decent 1200+ field. The Day 1 chip leader is local player Evan Lipshultz ahead of Jason Johnson and Brazilian Thiago Nikijima who won a bracelet in 2015.
As with event 72, two Brits through - one Londoner Daniel Pridham and one from a completely mangled town name, Nicholas Smith from "Cluethoriacs". If anyone has any idea what that is supposed to be, please let me know!
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 327 entries so far
115 players battled through Day 1, with Robert Mizrachi the chip leader ahead of Peter Weinand and Jason Mangold. Mark Teltscher is the leader of a strong British challenge in 5th, with Conor Beresford, Scott Margereson, Oliver Price, Elliott Peterman, Stephen Chidwick, Jules Dickerson, and the very short-stacked Liv Boeree also involved.
Three former ME winners are clustered close together in midfield, Martin Jacobson, Ryan Reiss and Greg Merson, and I wouldn't be surprised if Phil Hellmuth registers for this before late reg ends at the start of Day 2.
To Start Today
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event with 3 Day 1s
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, 3 Day Event
There will be TV coverage of the Main Event on BT Sport/ESPN from 11:30 tonight and then supposedly live from 2:00am
Thanks.
Play from 9 players down to 6 took just 47 hands, with the last six then playing out to the end of the level.
Michael Dyer took the lead from Nicolas Manion early when the latter laid down a hand on the turn after placing over 5m chips in on earlier streets, but the first fifteen hands basically saw players just getting comfortable with each other and their positions, all guaranteed at least one million dollars.
The first action hand came on hand 16, and it played itself really. Antoine Labat (the short stack) raised on the button with Kings, Artem Metalidi shoved from the Small Blind with Queens and the Frenchman called. Unfortunately for him there was a queen on the flop and neither of the other two kings appeared.
9 Antoine Labat ($1m)
Joe Cada chipped up throughout the early exchanges and had moved up to 4th spot
The next big hand was number 25, a clash between the two big stacks where the pot eventually was bet up to about 35m. Dyer eventually won it at showdown with top pair top kicker, and he was up to 138m with Manion down to 77m
Despite busting Labat, Metalidi began to drip down, and not far into Level 37, he shoved his last 6m with pocket fives, with Aram Zobian over-shoving from the Small Blind. When the cards were turned over, Zobian showed King-Queen of diamonds. The flop had something for both players, 6-5-2 with two diamonds. A blank on the turn meant Metalidi was still ahead, but the 4 of diamonds on the river eliminated the Ukrainian
8 Artem Metalidi ($1.25m)
With seven players left, one, Australian Alex Lynskey hadn't won a single one of the first 46 hands, his almost 26m chips at the start of the day being reduced to less than half that. He found a pocket pair (sixes) on Hand 47 and after a raise and a call in front of him, went all in. Chip leader Dyer passed but John Cynn looked him up with KQ suited. Similar to Metalidi's elimination, Lynskey was ahead on the flop (10-9-3) and the turn (another 10) but a Jack on the river filled Cynn's gutshot
7 Alex Lynskey ($1.5m)
When there were 22 players left, it was 50:50 between the US and the Rest of the World, but with Lynskey's elimination, the final 6 were 100% Americans.
In the remaining action, the rich got richer as Dyer won another chunky pot off Aram Zobian, and then another couple of smaller pots but then lost a hand that went all the way to showdown to Manion. The final few hands saw former winner Cada get active, going all in on the river on a hand against Manion forcing a fold and similar action (albeit on a smaller scale) against the same opponent.
Chip stacks for Day 9
Seat 1 John Cynn 61.55m
Seat 2 Tony Miles 57.5m
Seat 3 Nicolas Manion 72.25m
Seat 4 Aram Zobian 16.7m
Seat 5 Michael Dyer 156.5m
Seat 6 Joe Cada 29.275m
The starting level (Level 38) will be 500K/1m with a 150K ante) so there's no need to insult anyone's intelligence by saying how may Big Blinds player have.
Event 68 - The Little One For One Drop, $1000 + $111 NLH, Day 4 of 4, 4732 entries
It's been a good series for Chinese players, and it's got even better now as the Droplet was won by Guoliang Wei
If you're going to win a huge event, what better way to do it than a straight flush, his Queen-10 of spades being complimented by a flop which included the Jack and 9 of spades, which also gave his opponent Francois Tosques a set of jacks. All the chips went it and the Chinese rail gave a huge roar as the King of spades came on the river.
Wei picks up $559K, Tosques $345K with third place going to the start-of-day chip leader, Christopher Staats ($254K)
The last British player standing was Paul Byrne who bowed out in 13th spot for a little under $30K
Event 72 - $1500 NLH/PLO mix 8-handed, Day 3 of 3, 707 entries
Polk wins, not Doug Polk, but semi-pro player Jordan Polk who took his first bracelet and over $197K.
We had two British players making the top 10 - Jerome Bradpiece finished 10th for $13781 while Samuel Welbourne made the FT and collected $43K for his 5th place.
Event 73 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 30-minute levels, Day 2 of 2, 1221 entries
It was Russia against Spain for Event 73, with the former eventually coming out on top after a heads-up battle that went one way, back to the other and back again. Denis Timofeev was the victor, defeating Leo Margets (maybe best known for reaching the final 3 tables of the 2009 Main Event).
Daniel Pridham was the last British challenger, eliminated in 24th spot for just under $6K, while six players earlier we saw the back of Nicholas Smith (who Hendon Mob have linked up with a Canadian player who had one recorded cash in 2010) for $4838
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 1 of 3, 355 entries so far
28 additional entries before the start of Day 2 boosted the prize pool to the extent that the winner will pick up over $814K.
17 players are still in contention to collect that huge cheque (or pile of cash I guess) with two British players amongst them - Mark Teltscher and Scott Margereson). The top 3 are all American, Paul Volpe, Martin Zamani and player of the year contender Shaun Deeb.
To Start Today
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 502 entries so far
The last event at this price point will see 3 Day 1s, with a perhaps disappointing 502 players playing Day 1A.
54 of them remain, and a very familiar name/face sits at the top end of the stacks, Bertran "Elky" Grospelier. He only has 1 bracelet to his name, but will be in a good position when Day 2 rolls around to start looking for his second
Nelson Resendiz lies second, and Marius Kudzmanas third.
Leif Force, Dan Shak and Jeremy Ausmus are among the other qualifiers, as is Farah Galfond, the wife of Phil and former daytime soap actress.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 1 of 3, 354 entrants
The last sub-50K entry event, and we have a Brit as th Day 1 chip leader - Adam Owen from Kent. He has almost 100K chips, with the two closest challengers being Kristan Lord and Gennady Shimelfarb.
Two more WSOP regulars from the South Coast, Ben Dobson and Benny Glaser have also made Day 2 along with Frank Kassela, Greg Mueller, Brandon Shack-Harris and Player of the Year leader (and Poker Hall of Fame inductee) John Hennigan.
To Start Today
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", 2 Day Event
After a brief Day 8, Day 9 could turn out to be the Anderson-Isner type day. Over 5 hours in an we've lost just the two players
6. Aram Zabian - $1.8m
5. Joe Cada - the battle to win his second ME ended in 5th place. Still a fantastic effort, he takes $2.15m
A fuller update, plus the news on who went out 4th, will follow later
Up to date chip stacks
Tony Miles 231m
John Cynn 80m
Michael Dyer 47m
Nicolas Manion 34m
Current level is 800K/1.6m with 200K ante
Main Event - Day 9 update
To recap, the start of day stacks were:
Chip stacks for Day 9
Seat 1 John Cynn 61.55m
Seat 2 Tony Miles 57.5m
Seat 3 Nicolas Manion 72.25m
Seat 4 Aram Zobian 16.7m
Seat 5 Michael Dyer 156.5m
Seat 6 Joe Cada 29.275m
Short stack Zobian shoved on the second hand of the day (hand 71), getting it through, and then again from the small blind on the fifth. He had 8-6 suited, and was obviously looking to get it through but chip leader Michael Dyer had a hand and plenty of chips and called with A-8, dominating Zobian. The short stack got just a back door diamond draw on the flop, and even that was snuffed out on the turn and just 20 minutes, we had lost
6. Aram Zobian $1.8m
After 20 hands, not much had changed. Cynn had chipped up a bit, and Cada was now alone down at the bottom, and the only major action in the next 10 was to see Cynn lose those gained chips to Dyer.
Cada shoved Hand 92 over a Dyer open and got it through, and the same happened on Hand 98. He moved off the bottom in hand 101 after a river shove (on a board with 4 to a straight) forced Cynn to fold.
Cada's rise up the listings didn't last long; He raised to 2.2m, Tony Miles 3-bet to 6.9m, and the former winner shoved for 47m with pocket tens. Miles tanked for some time before calling with Big Slick. K-8-9 on the flop but Miles in front and Cada at risk. He got some more outs with a Queen on the turn, but another 9 on the river saw he dream of a second Main Event end for another 12 months.
5. Joe Cada $2.15m
This left it with the chips Dyer 167m, Miles 104m, Manion 83m and Cynn 38m
Cynn took some chips of each player before we got to hand 113. A hand that went all the way to showdown, Manion had paired his ten on the flop but Dyer made a bigger pair on the turn with a switch of nearly 20 minutes to the chip leader.
Miles breached the 100m mark after a hand where a straight (4 of which were hearts) ended up on the board and a river bet got Manion to fold, and took over the chip lead on hand 121. 3-way to the flop which was K-4-3, Dyer & Cynn checked and Miles bet. Dyer check-raised and Miles called. A 5 on the turn, Dyer bet 21m and Mile called. The river was a second King, Dyer bet again, 27m this time and Miles insta-called with pocket 3s which made a set on the flop and housed up on the river.
Miles 182m, Dyer 130m, Manion 48m, Cynn 33m, Start of Level 39 600K/1.2m/200K ante
Cynn needed to find a hand, and did so on Hand 132 and was helped to get paid by Manion bluff shoving a river after Cynn's suited connectors had made a flush.
Manion then needed a hand, and it took him three orbits to find one, pocket sevens was good enough to shove from the button. Miles obliged him with AK, and a ten-high board saw Manion double up.
Dyer briefly re-took the lead before Miles got it back, and then significanly extended it. A double-paired board, Miles bet 27m, Dyer called but was unable to beat Miles' full house. Meanwhile Cynn had been chipping up, a few million here, a few million there soon adds up.
Miles 195m, Dyer 94m, Cynn 73m, Manion 30m.
Manion shoved three times but got no takers, but the blinds and antes he collected was enough to keep his head above water.
By the end of the level, Miles had breached the 200m chips mark, with his nearest challenger Dye down to 81m.
Miles then stuck it to Dyer even more winning a pot that was close to 20m, elevating Cynn to second by default.
Manion was at it again on hand 192. Dyer raised and Manion called pre-flop, and on a flop of J-Q-8 (two hearts) the short stack shoved and Dyer snap-called. Cards were turned over, Manion had 7-5 of hearts, Dyer had K-Q off, and was drawing dead when another heart came on the turn.
With a huge advantage over the other three player, Miles was now playing big-stack bully, but did have to fold once when Manion (who else) three-bet shoved on him.
The stacks were getting more and more polarised by hand 223 Miles had 240m, Cynn 103m and both Dyer and Manion in the mid 20 millions. It really looked like a two horse race for the final elimination of the day. Manion hoped it wouldn't be him as he shoved for the umpteenth time with A-10. Cynn had other ideas with pocket kings. No help on the board, and the final three were set.
4 Nicolas Manion $2.825m
Chip stacks heading in the final day - Miles 239m, Cynn 129m and Dyer 26m.
Third place will collect $3.75m, second is good for $5m exactly and the top prize is $8m, the unique gold bracelet and a place forever on the WSOP Roll of Honour.
Event 74 - $10K Big Blind Antes NLH Championship, Day 3 of 3, 355 entries so far
Every year since 2000 we've seen someone win two bracelets at the Vegas leg of the WSOP. It took until the last few days of the 2018 series but that streak is intact as Shaun Deeb added Event 74 to Event 42 and also vaulted himself to the top of the Player of the Year standings.
Paul Volpe and Romain Lewis had an extended 3-handed battle, with the Frenchman eliminated third (his third top three of the summer) with Volpe eventually succumbing in second.
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 502 entries so far
96 players join the 1A qualifier, headed by Jeffrey Tanouye from Pismo Beach, California ahead of two more Americans, Jerry Robinson and Kevin Wang.
Four Brits make it through - Philip Ford, Benny Glaser, Simon Deadman and Chris DaSilva, with others through including Phil Laak, Scott Bohlman and Main Event last woman standing Kelly Minkin.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 2 of 3, 354 entrants
I don't think I've been able to say we have n-n-n-n-nineteen players through this year, so I get that one in just in time.
Brian Hastings leads the 19, ahead of Tim Marsters and Jeff Madsen, and Shaun Deeb's player of the year lead isn't secure yet as John Hennigan is still very much involved here.
Adam Owen's chip lead didn't last long, and he busted before the bubble so the only GB casher was Ben Dobson for $6524.
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", Day 1 of 2, 128 entries
So the big boys get their game on, 97 unique players and 31 re-entries with 31 moving on to Day 2 playing for a first prize of $1.65m.
The lead is held by Austrian player Matthias Elbinger, ahead of Jake Schindler and Isaac Haxton.
We have one British player through, fresh from a decent run in the ME, Daniel Merrilees.
As you would expect, several of the more well-known players are here - Ben Pollak, John Racener, Ryan Reiss, Scott Siever, Daniel Negreanu etc.
In this year were we saw the legend Doyle Brunson retire, perhaps it would be nice if a player from Doylestown won a bracelet, that is where 26th place John Andress calls home.
To Start Today
None, it is flight 1C of Event 75, "The Closer"
After a marathon, 10 hours plus heads-up match we have a new World Champion. John Cynn outlasted Tony Miles, after Michael Dyer was eliminated early on Day 10. It was a classic heads-up match, with the lead changing hands numerous times.
Fuller report to follow later on with some of the key hands detailed, plus updates from the other tournaments still in play.
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), 2 Day Event, 3120 entries (including unlimited re-entries)
The WSOP didn't release a PDF of the Day 1C qualifiers, but some of the bigger stacks are held by Allen Kessler, Jonathan Tamayo and Bob Shao. Both the top 2 Player of the Year candidates, Shaun Deeb and John Hennigan padded their point totals and made Day 2 while Niall Farrell and Adam Owen (at least) are there for the UK.
Event 76 - $3K HORSE, Day 3 of 3, 354 entrants
It's a fourth bracelet for Brian Hastings. He entered Day 3 as the chip leader, but dropped down to be bottom stack during four handed play.
He was still behind when heads-up play with Andrew Brown started, but he battled through to take the bracelet and $323K
Third place went to the Australian player Tim Marsters
Event 77 - $50K NLH High Roller (with Big Blind Ante and "Shot clock", Day 2 of 2, 128 entries
A short and sweet big buy-in event, with Ben Yu taking down his third bracelet event, his first in NLH for which he also takes home $1.65m. The win saw him recover after busting out from Day 5 of the Main Event.
Sean Winter was the runner-up (heads up lasted all of 2 hands) and Nick Petrangelo finished third.
The last British representative, Daniel Merriless, was knocked out before the cash.
To Start Today
Event 78 - The Big One For One Drop, $1million NLH
The last event, expected to attract 40 or so players (capped at 48, 32 confirmed beforehand), but a $100K Mega Satellite had to be cancelled yesterday.
Event 75 - "The Closer" $1500 NLH (30 minute levels), Day 2 of 2, 3120 entries (including unlimited re-entries)
Not many people can have had a better last week than Joe Cada. The former ME winner made the Final Table of this year's big one, and now he's added his second bracelet of the summer (and 4th in his career) in an event very different in structure to the Main Event.
He beat Indian player Paawan Bansal into second, with Jeffrey Tanouye third.
Top British player was Andrew Hedley from Deanston, a place of which I'd previously not been aware, but according to Wikipedia it is a village a few miles NW of Stirling, and has a single-malt whisky distillery.
Despite winning two bracelets and making the final table of the Main, Cada is only just inside the top 10 of the Player of the Year race, with Shaun Deeb's cash in this giving him a decent lead now to take to the WSOP Europe later in the year (the One Drop does not county for Player of the Year points).
Event 78 - The Big One For One Drop, $1million NLH, 24 entries so far
So much for 32 confirmed entries (although late reg is still open)
19 of the have made it through, and it's a player who is not one of the biggest names (but has made the top 4 of both the last two One Drops) who leads, Rick Solomon.
The next two in the listings are two of the biggest names - I presume everyone out there has heard of Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu.
Two British players entered, Talal Shakerchi is above average in chips but Stephen Chidwick is near the bottom but still has 40-odd Big Blinds.
For the record, the 5 bustouts were, in alphabetical order, former One Drop winner Antonio Esfandiari, Isaac Haxton, Bryn Kenney, David Peters and Jake Schindler.