Event 1 - $500 Casino Employee's NLH, Day 2 of 3, 686 entrants Nicholas Haynes, a dealer at the Aria casino in Las Vegas took down the Casino Employees' event for his first bracelet and $62K
Very much a recreational player, he picked up a few tricks watching the pro players at the Aria and put them to good use. He beat WSOP insider (Media Relations Manager) Isaac Henson heads-up and another Vegas dealer, Jorge Ruiz (Montego Bay) finished third.
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 4 Days, Day 1B & 2A in play Two different bits of the Big 50 in play today.
Taking 1B first, 6048 entries were logged, and on one hand the WSOP have Alexander Kartveli as the chip leader but on the reports fellow east-coaster Matthew Keegan has the biggest stack. No argument about who is third - Canada's Glenn Swanlund.
With 1269 names going through, there's not much value in going through them with a fine-toothed comb, but everyone's (well nearly everyone's) least favourite contender, Chris Ferguson is amongst them.
Alex Jennings is top GB player, with Ludo Geilich and Chihao Tsang both having decent stacks.
While 1B was in play, Day 2A for those who qualified yesterday was also taking place.
They've played down to just 316 players with Russia's Mikhail Vilkov the leader ahead of Joshua Thibodaux and Amer Torbey
Four Brits remain, lead by the concisely named Tsz Ho in 71st place accomapnied by Calin Trif, Day 1A top Brit Joel Isla and Nicholas Gott.
These players now get a few days off and will return with the other Day 2 survivors on Wednesday.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 2 of 4, 853 entries
2 days down 2 to go, with 46 players still in contention.
The Day 2 leader is Richard Fuller, who dominated the last hour of play to end up with the biggest stack.
Several multiple bracelet winners still involved including Ben Yu, Mike Matusow, Jeff Madsen and John Monnette.
There were four Brits entering the day, at the end of it only Patrick Leonard survives, exactly in the middle of the pack.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 1 of 4, 92 entries This is one of the events the WSOP is trialling with a "shot clock" of 30 seconds with each player having a number of extensions he/she can use as required.
Late reg is still open for another four hours (one hour levels) but we currently have 92 entries (including a single re-entry or two) and only 52 of them have made it through.
I mentioned re Event 2 that Ali Imsirovic is one of the breakout players of the past 12 months, and he is showing those qualities again here as he has built the biggest stack so far
In second place is the first of four GB players, Ben Heath. Well known to Sky Poker TV audiences (remember Sky Poker TV?) Sam Grafton is in 12th, Conor Beresford is 32nd while Toby Lewis is near the bottom of the pack in 50th.
Daniel Negreanu has been mentioned every day so far and he's at it again and some other "names" among the 52 are Erik Seidel, Isaac Haxton, Joe McKeehen, Joe Cada & Kenny Hallaert.
To Start Today Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, 3 Day Event Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event
Plus Day 1C and 2B of the Big 50
The WSOP have tweeted that when Martijn Gerrits was eliminated in 7th place from the 10K Super Turbo Bounty, he collected the three-billionth dollar awarded in prize money at the WSOP. Think how much rake that means Caesars have taken over 50 years!
The WSOP have tweeted that when Martijn Gerrits was eliminated in 7th place from the 10K Super Turbo Bounty, he collected the three-billionth dollar awarded in prize money at the WSOP. Think how much rake that means Caesars have taken over 50 years!
To be fair to Caesars, it's only 15 years, as until 2003 it was run by Binions Horseshoe, Downtown. Caesars then purchased the rights to the WSOP & moved it to The Rio.
If rumours are accurate, this will be the last year at The Rio, though they've been saying that for 5 years now.
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 4 Days, Day 1C & 2B in play Again, two different sessions of the Big 50 in play today. I'll be glad when it settles down and everyone is at the same stage of the tournament.
We had Day 1C and Day 2B in play on Saturday
Another 6000-odd played Day 1C and it was Leandro Padilla who was the chip leader, one of only two players to bag over a million in chips. Second was one of the many poker-playing Nguyen's, this time Phuoc Nguyen and Daniel Hirleman was third.
Several more Brits made their Day 2, Anthony Gardener, Paul Housam, Ben Dobson, Kevin Houghton and Sergi Reixach the best placed of them.
Some other names through include former bracelet winners Todd Witteles, Shaun Deeb and Steve Zolotow, plus 2006 ME winner Jamie Gold. Both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth were among the late registerees (is that a word?) but neither lasted very long.
If my reading of the schedule is correct, these qualifiers get a day off and play their Day 2 on Monday.
From the Day 2B tables, it was Jerald Williamson who took the lead when he took down a huge pot near the end of the evening.
That was enough to overtake previous leader Azad Arazm who was losing a chunk of chips on another table, he eventually bagged up in third with Daniel Hughes splitting the pair in second.
There are four Californians in 2nd-5th spot and 8 in the top 20 and not far behind that is the leading British player, Ludovic Geilich.
There other British players made it through 2B, Brian Leddy, Catherine Hanna and Jason Chapman although the latter has a home town listed as Sabadecco which may well be on the island of Bonaire in the former Dutch Antilles. Perhaps more will become clear later.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 3 of 4, 853 entries
We're down to just 7 players in the running for the win and the bracelet, with John Esposito in pole position. He hasn't won a bracelet since we partied like it's 1999 but has a decent chance of a second here.
Just below him in chips and sat next to him on the FT is Jason Berilgen and three-time bracelet winner Ben Yu lies third.
First prize is $228,228 while all seven have guaranteed themselves at least $27350.
Last Brit standing, Patrick Leonard, was eliminated late on Day 3, taking $15987 for 9th place.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 2 of 4, 110 entries Only 8 of the planned 10 levels were played as the eliminations came at a faster than expected pace, with the 12 players all left guaranteed a 6-figure payday.
We have a British player at the top of the listings, Ben Heath who got a lot of chips when busting Daniel Negreanu, his kings holding up against the Canadian's queens.
Lined up behind Heath are a number of former bracelet winners Elio Fox, Dmitry Yurasov, Chance Kornuth and Nick Petrangelo.
Kornuth was the victim of the first Phil Hellmuth rant of the series when Kornuth making a backdoor flush against him. Cue Hellmuth, and when he calmed down he re-entered and lasted all of two hands when losing house-over-house to Day 1 chip leader Ali Imsirovic.
Imsirovic was later another of Kornuth's victims and after the bubble we also lost Eric Wasserson, Johnanes Becker and Bryn Kenney.
If Heath can't convert, there is a second British possibility as Sam "The Squid" Grafton has made Day 3 although he has less than a third of the chip leader's stack.
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries 296 have become 112, with two players separated by just 200 chips at the top of the listings. Jake Schwartz and Julien Martini each have over 117K, with the American marginally besting the Frenchman
It's a long gap back to Jordan Siegel in third with his 95K and 2010 ME runner-up John Racener lies fourth.
Gerald Ringe is the best of the Brits in 14th, with Benny Glaser not far behind with the considerably less-heralded Xunen Zheng in 99th.
The first prize in this event has been confirmed as just over $160K.
To Start Today I got Event 7 wrong saying it was yesterday, it is actually today Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, 4 Day Event
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 4 Days, Day 1D in play The final opening flight saw over 8000 entrants taking the total number to a staggering 25000+
The Day 1D chip leader is local player Andrei Khosh ahead of Arne Kern (Germany) and Kevin Mooney (California).
Richard Trigg leads the British challenge in 30th place ahead of Stefan Fabian, Luke McInerney, Daniel Wendorf, Ronnie Ballantyne and Manny Malta, all inside the top 200 of the 2100 or so survivors
Toby Lewis, James Dempsey and James Rann are also still involved though a bit lower down the ranks, while one player I just had to mention is Oblip Kuppusamyvenkates. I count 15 different letters in that name, could be a WSOP record?
These players play Day 2D on Tuesday while the Day 1C survivors return for Day 2 on Monday before everyone joins together on Wednesday for Day 3. Get that?
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 4 of 4, 853 entries Prior to this event Derek McMaster had 1 WSOP cash for a little over $2000. Now he has two cashes, one FT and one bracelet as he took down event 4 for $228,228.
The 46-year old former pool player outlasted Jason Berligen heads-up, with Jon Esposito third.
Seventh place went to Tom McCormick who was at his 15th career FT, but he has yet to claim a gold bracelet.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 3 of 4, 110 entries We're down to a FT of 6 in the High Roller, and a high quality FT it is too.
Five of the 6 have previously won gold bracelets, in chip order Sam Soverel (2nd), Andrew Lichtenberger (3rd), Chance Kornuth (4th), Nick Petrangelo (5th) and Russia's Dmitry Yurasov (6th).
However, it is the player in first we are most interested in as that player is Ben Heath who goes into the FT as chip leader after eliminating Elio Fox on the final hand of the day.
The other British player in action on Day 3, Sam Grafton, went out quite early to finish 11th for just over $101K.
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries Day 1 chip leader Jake Schwartz lost the lead at some point in Day 2, but by the time to bag and tag, he was back on top with just 12 more competitors to outlast. He has 50 WSOP cashes but is another player searching for his first bracelet.
Mike Gorodinsky & Bryce Yockey are probably the best known of the other players, in a US-heavy field, the only non American in the last 13 is Kristijonas Andrulis from Lithuania.
296 have become 112, with two players separated by just 200 chips at the top of the listings. Jake Schwartz and Julien Martini each have over 117K, with the American marginally besting the Frenchman
Two Brits cashed - Gerald Ringe in 26th for just over $5K and Benny Glaser 4 places and $918 better off.
Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event, 2825 entrants It's an online event confined to those in Nevada and New Jersey, with one of the East Coast contingent taking the tournament in the guise of Yong Keun Kown ("LuckySpewy1")
Most of the cashers were of course almost anonymous, but lurking in there was one Phil Hellmuth who self-identified as "lumestackin" partway through and battled through all the way to the FT to pad his lead in career FTs and cashes. The Poker Brat went out in 5th spot.
A few other well-known players cashed, including Allen Kessler and James Obst.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 1 of 4, 61 entries so far A new format for the WSOP with all the cards from 2-5 removed from the deck leaving just 36 cards. The revised distribution means that in this format, flushes beat full houses.
Late reg will close partway through Day 2, but 61 entries have been recorded so far (maybe including a few re-entries)
I don't know much about this game, but apparently Gabe Patgorski does as he's well renowned playing short deck online. He holds the chip lead ahead of Alex Epstein and Anson Tsang
With just 18 players remaining, there may well some value for well-rolled players joining the field on Day 2.
The only British player shown as playing was Patrick Leonard but he had been knocked out well before the end of the day.
To start today Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, 2 Day Event, $500K guaranteed prize pool Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, 3 Day Event Event 11 - $5K NLH, 4 Day Event
Saying this whilst I’ve 2/3x doubled so it doesn’t look bitter but Shortdeck is the worst game at the WSOP
And then shortly after; Busted and confirmed not playing another short deck tournament in my life (............... until tomorrow where we will be able to late reg basically Into the money)
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 4 Days, Day 2C in play Things are beginning to sort themselves out as there is just one more Day 2 to play before the whole field converges for Day 3.
Saya Ono was all-in and covered on the bubble, but she had the second nut straight so she was not too concerned while other all-ins were played out, and she progressed from there to be the Day 2C chip leader. She has less than Day 2B leader Jerald Williamson, but her 3.8 million chips are a decent start on acquiring the over 1 billion chips that will be in play.
Not far behind Ono is Dorset's Ben Dobson and another Brit is also inside the top 10, Samuel Welbourne (the WSOP have him from Cittcehampton which I think may be Chittlehampton or more likely Littlehampton. Along with those two, Sergi Reixach, Kevin Houghton, Kenneth Broad and Sam Razavi made Day 3.
A few players I've noted before in these updates over the years are also through - Ari Engel, Matt Stout and Eric Baldwin spring to mind.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 3 of 4, 110 entries BRITISH BRACELET ALERT
Hopefully the first of many, it's a first UK bracelet and a first for 27-year old Ben Heath from Sussex. He was the only non-bracelet holder on the FT of 6, but he's corrected that omission from his poker CV (oh and by the way he collects almost a million and a half dollars)
Andrew Lichtenberger was the defeated heads-up opponent while Sam Soverel ended up in third.
The elimination of 4th placed Dmitry Yurasov was a little controversial. I don't like lifting things directly from the WSOP official site, but can't really avoid it here:
"With Soverel and Yurasov on equal stacks of twenty-five big blinds each, the former opened for a min-raise. Yurasov shoved all in, and Lichtenberger got out of the way from the small blind.
Heath in the big blind, though, asked for a count and contemplated his next action for a bit. With the tournament utilizing a shot clock, Heath was soon out of time, and he tossed in a small red time bank card to gain thirty more seconds to act. Soverel, still in the hand as the initial raiser, wasn't paying attention and tossed his cards in the muck right away, seemingly registering Heath's time bank card as either a muck of his cards or a call with a single chip. Now, not facing Soverel anymore, Heath instantly called.
To say that Yurasov wasn't happy is pointing out the obvious. Yurasov showed ace-ten of diamonds and lost to Ben Heath's ace-queen of hearts."
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 3 of 3, 296 entries Dan Zack is a man after my own heart. He nursed a short stack for most of the last two days before coming to the FT, having less than 2 Big Bets not just once but twice. He exhibited true Barnacle style and kept up hanging on while others were eliminated and once he made the FT, surged through the field to win the bracelet.
He has previously made 7 FTs but this was by far his biggest WSOP cash ($160K) besting the $97K he got for 4th in an on-line bracelet event two years ago.
It was an all-American FT, Sumir Mathur and Brayden Gazlay ending up 2nd and 3rd.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 2 of 3, 61 entries so far The pace of play has meant that this has been changed from a 4-day event to a 3-day one.
I mentioned yesterday that there may be value for late regging this with so few players making it through from Day 1, well 53 did just that almost doubling the size of the field.
Chance Kornuth made the FT of the High Roller, but lasted just three hands (losing them all) before leaping in this event, and that proved to be a wise decision as he is the Day 2 chip leader.
7 player remain, 3 of them of Asian heritage - Yong Wang, Thai Ha, Anson Tsang (both Yong & Thai cashed in the other $10K event played so far, Event 2) and Jiaxiu Liu was the 8th placed finisher.
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, 2 Day Event, $500K guaranteed prize pool Yes, it's a deepstack but it's also a Turbo as they played 20 levels on Day 1 and only 582 of the 6151 players needs bags at the end of the evening.
The Day 1 Leader is Canadian player Paul Dhaliwal who finished in the Top 60 of the 2017 Main Event, ahead of Michael Morhaime and David Elet.
Ylon Schwartz (4th 2007 Main Event) has made Day 2, as has the omnipresent Daniel Negreanu and 8-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
Robert Cowen is top Brit, ahead of Calin Trif, Florian Duta, Andrew Hills, Jamie Geraghty and Richard Hasnip.
With nearly 600 players left, even given the Turbo nature of the event, I wouldn't have been surprised if a Day 3 is needed.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 1 of 3, 470 entrants 470 may not seem a huge field for a $1500 event, but it is a record for this event so it seems that mixed-games (this one includes 20 variants) are becoming more popular.
Danny Noam was the leader for most of the day but was overtaken late on by Jim Collopy.
Some well known players involved include Robert Mizrachi, Dan Shak, Chris Ferguson (boo), Max Pescatori, Eli Elezra and previous Dealers Choice bracelet winner Quinn Do.
For the UK, I can see 4 names, most of them very familiar by now - Benny Glaser, Mel Judah, William Mitchell and Patrick Leonard.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 1 of 4, 343 entrants so far A straight-forward NLH event with no gimmicks. Late reg is open for 4 more levels so that field size will doubtless increase.
Dan Smith leads 137 who have made it through to Day 2 the hard way, but with British players having a good day it's good to see Simon Deadman in second place.
Actually it's quite a decent GB contingent including Niall Farrell, Javier Fernandez, Chris Moorman, Ben Heath (fresh from winning the High Roller earlier on) and Daniel Tang.
To start today Event 12 - $1000 NLH Super Turbo Bounty, 1 Day Event Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, 3 Day Event
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 2D in play The final split day and at the end of it we have 1597 players out of 28371 entries (including re-entries etc.) still in play.
From Day 2D, 551 made it through with the big stack belonging to Zachary Ackley ahead of Dennis Brinn, but we have a British player in third in the shape of Richard Trigg.
Other Brits through include Craig Beardsworth, Nickolay Ponomarev, Prabhat Kumar Ranjan, Dragos Trofimov, Fraser MacIntyre and Daniel Wendorf.
Big names are thin on the ground in this group, but there is one last year's ME FT there, Alex Lynskey.
Now all the groups get together and it will be a lot easier following the tournament from Day 3 onwards.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 3 of 3, 114 entries The first ever Short Deck event went to Alex Epstein as the champion. His main game is PLO, but decided to play this as a game of higher variance.
Thai Ha finished second, having to come from behind by doubling up 5 times during the FT with Anson Tsang from Hong Kong third and Day 2 chip leader Chance Kornuth fourth.
Epstein collected nearly $300K and of course a gold WSOP bracelet.
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, Day 2 of 2, 6151 entries As I predicted, this has had to run into a third day, as 9 players are still involved despite playing until almost 4am.
Seven Americans, 1 Canadian and 1 Mexican so it's an all North-American FT, headed by Paul Jain from Jeremy Pekarek and David Elet.
923 got paid, Calin Trif the last GB survivor in 76th for $4205, just outlasting Jamie Geraghty (82nd for $3554). Some other GB cashers - Robert Cowen, Andrew Hills, Daniel Heald, Pamela Pease and David Stones.
Some others who cashed - Daniel Negreanu (got to get a Daniel mention in), Joe Cada, Ylon Schwartz and Phillip ****.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 2 of 3, 470 entrants 21 players bagged chips at the end of Day 2, and we have a British leader, 3-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser. Glaser moved to the chip lead on the very last hand of the night as he hero-called Frankie O'Dell in a hand of Limit Hold'Em with just King high, being proved right when O'Dell showed ten high.
John Cernuto, John Monnette, Robert Mizrachi and Josh Arieh are among the other 20 players left in, but unfortunately no other British players after Mel Judah went out in 36th ($3299)
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 1 of 4, 343 entrants so far The field bulged from 343 to 400 with some Day 2 late reg,and they've been reduced to 27 after another ten levels. All 27 of them are guaranteed nearly $12K but there's $442K waiting for the overall winner.
One of the late entries was Finn Pauli Ayras who bagged "around 1 million" at the end of the night, with regular WSOP cashers Ognjen Sekuralac (20 cashes) and Daniel Strelitz (38) in second and third.
Some bracelet winners in contention include Maria Ho, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Jeremy Ausmus & Niall Farrell, plus a second Brit in Simon Deadman.
Event 12 - $1000 NLH Super Turbo Bounty, 1 Day Event, 2452 entries Done and dusted within 27 20-minute levels to the favour of Daniel Park. Down to a "Chip and a chair" with five left, he was automatically all-in with an ante plus one chip for a blind, he got through that and prospered from then on to win $226K.
Canadian Erik Cajelais too second and Jennifer Dennis, who looks in all the pictures like she was having a blast all day, third for just over $102K.
Gerald Ringe was top Uk player in 57th for $3354 while the other cashers from this country were David Winter, Ludo Geilich, Andrew Wilson, Jacobo Roth, Sergi Reixach, Barny Boatman and Ariel Shefer.
All these dollar amounts exclude any money won in bounties ($300 per player eliminated)
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries A slow start with only "a few dozen" players seated, but as late reg progressed more turned up, eventually enough to make it a record field for this event and contributing to a first prize of $96,278.
Steve Tabb took the day 1 leader, with 63 players making it through but only 45 are to be paid.
Two former winners of this event remain (Ryan D'Angelo and reigning title holder Daniel Ospina) plus Daniel Negreanu (whoops, two Daniel mentions), Chris Ferguson (booo) and Ryan Riess, plus just the one Brit - Cody Wagner.
To start today
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, 4 Day Event Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, 4 Day Event Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, 3 Day Event
Sorry this is a bit late, didn't get home from work until after 7!
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 3 of 5 At the end of Day 3, the 28000 odd have become just 126, headed by Venezuela's Amer Torbey who has what would normally be a massive 32 million in chips, that will soon be dwarved as players get 9 and even a 10 figure stack.
David Rasmussen is second and 2018 bracelet winner Diogo Veiga is third.
There isn't a lot of big names in the chip counts, this is a $500 tourney after all, but lurking in 15th spot is 5-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham
It wasn't a good day for the Brits - Prabhat Kumar Ranjan snuck into the field in 121st place and four spots above him is Edward Slack, allegedly from Pertasgure, GB. Pertasgure is actually in Guatemala, Hendon Mob have two Edward Slacks listed, one from Scotland and the other from Guatemala, there's even a chance they could be one and the same but who knows?
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, Day 3 of 2, 6151 entries Extended into a third day, this one took six more hours of play before Jeremy Pekarek won the bracelet and more than tripled his entire poker career earnings with a prize of $398K.
Contrasted with the rest of the event, heads up was short and sweet as it took Pekarek just two hands to dispatch Dan Kuntzman and Mexico's Juan Magana.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 2 of 3, 470 entrants After a gap of 12 years, Scott Clements has won his third bracelet. He has previously won bracelets in PLO and Omaha Hi/Lo, picking the latter for his last 13 choices during heads-up play with Tim McDermott.
McDermott mixed it up a little more (although with a preference with No Limit 2-7 Single Draw) but it was in the field of NLH that the bracelet was decided as the victor's K10 held up against K2. It was never in doubt after a flop of 10-K-10!
Last British player Benny Glaser made the FT, but was eliminated in 5th spot for a smidgin under $19K.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 3 of 4, 400 entrants We're down to a FT of 6, and unusally for a big-money tournament, they're all still looking for a first bracelet.
Some like Maria Ho (I incorrectly credited her with a bracelet yesterday), Shannon Storr and Daniel Strelits have come close before. Ali Imsirovic as mentioned already is one of the hottest players of the last 12 months, Ognjen Sekularac is looking for the first ever win for Serbia and Arsenii Karmatckii (love those two double i's) has over a million career earnings but has never been better than 10th at the WSOP.
Last UK player standing was Simon Deadman, who bowed out in 13th for $17K.
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries Down to a FT here too, 4 Americans plus one from Israel and one from Germany.
Jerry Wong has a ME FT to his credit but has never finished in the Top 3, he's got a great chance here lying second to Ajay Chabra. Steve Tabb lies third, guaranteed an improvement on last year when he finsihed 10th in this very event.
Cody Wagner from Warrington was the last UK player, he made the cash but was knocked out in 33rd for $2780.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 1 of 4, 751 entries Must resist horse puns. Must resist horse puns. Must resist... no, can't be doing that.
Front runner at the end of Day 1 is Mark Castagnini who galloped to the head of the field during the last couple of hours of play, with Jean Gaspard (winner of the 10K Dealers choice in 2016, so well versed in mixed games) second and Canadian Clayyon Mozdzen third.
Some other prominent figures covered up midfield waiting for a chance to open up include Chris Klodnicki, David "ODB" Baker, Chris Tryba and Andre Akkari, while Bart Lybaert, Calvin Anderson and Ian Johns are being held up near the back.
Mel Judah is top Brit, but only in 158th with David Tarbet and Paresh Doshi his only two compatriots of the 291 making Day 2.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 1 of 4, 112 entrants After three rounds of play, the Heads-up is down to a Sweet Sixteen with probably the best known heads-up player John Smith headlining the field.
2015 winner Keith Lehr is still there too as are Brian Rast, Kristen Bicknell, Ole Schemion and Cord Garcia. Most of them have been kept apart in the draw, but the Bicknell-Rast tie could be the big draw. Smith has to face Jimmy Dambrosio whose only cash in this was making the last 32 in 2009.
There is one British player left in, Simon Burns who will face Lehr in the last 16.
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1832 entrants Close to the money after Day 1, with 272 to be paid and 289 players still in contention.
The chip leader is Britain's Richard Hasnip who has already cashed in Event 9. He's had a few nice cashes over the last 18 months (best of them £48K for winning a £550 deepstack at DTD in Nottingham, but this is a major step up.
It's an international leader board, as the top eight include players from the US, France, Singapre, Israel, China and Germany as well as the UK.
Some well known pros making Day 2 include David Benyamine, Jeff Madsen and Shaun Deeb, trying to repeat as WSOP Player of the Year.
There's half a dozen other Brits too including Elliott Peterman, Daniel Wendorf and Ben Farrell (there seems to be a disproportionate number of UK poker players called Ben)
To start today Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, 3 Day Event Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, 4 Day Event
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 4 of 5 Getting down to the business end, with 7 players challenging for the $1.15million prize and the gold bracelet (having already bagged at least £182K)
The chip leader is Femi Fashakin who is recording his very first WSOP cash. He leads Paul Cullen (1 WSOP cash back in 2015) and Adrian Curry (no WSOP cashes) in an inexperienced (in WSOP terms at least) top 3 spots
Curry was the one who knocked-out 5-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham down in 47th spot.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 4 of 4, 400 entrants We were bound to have a bracelet virgin take the prize, and it was Daniel Strelitz who the fates determined would be the one breaking his duck.
He beat Shannon Storr in a heads-up match which was practically level at the start, but soon took control and finished him off when a pair of tens held up.
Strelitz gets $442K, Storr $273K and Serbian Ognjen Sekularac $186K for third.
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 3 of 3, 296 entries It's a bracelet for Israel in the guise of Yuval Bronshtein who took a title at his 10th FT.
Asaf Chabra held a 2:1 chip lead a the start of heads-up, and at one point Bronshtein was all-in for his tournament life, but he survived and then flourished sufficiently to at first take the lead and then dominate.
Former November Niner Jerry Wong finished third.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 2 of 4, 751 entries Down to 28 runners with two Jasons in the top 2 positions. Jason Acosta leads Jason Stockfish, with a significant gap between those two and Russian Sergey Altbregin in third.
A couple of the well-known names I picked out yesterday are still there - Chris Klodnicki & Andrew Akkari
No Brits made it to Day 3, in fact none even managed a min-cash.
Down near the bottom of the pack we've got a classic sports car (Ferrari) and a tractor (David Brown). Both of them will need to do a lot of overtaking to make the FT.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 1 of 4, 112 entrants Sixteen were first sorted in to eight, and then to a final four.
Those four will be, in alphabetical order, Cord Garcia, Keith Lehr, Sean Swingruber and Ben Yu. All but Swingruber have one previous bracelet to their credit. Swingruber will play Garcia in the first SF, while fairly obviously Yu & Lehr will meet in the second.
From that you will be able to see we've lost the last Brit (Simon Burns) and the favourite John Smith
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1832 entrants 21 left in the 6-max, with a French player in the lead - Romain Nussmann who ended Day 1 with over 200BB, ahead of Ong Dingxiang from Singapore and Pierce McKellar (US) the only others with over 100BB.
Day 1 chip leader Richard Hasnip continues to fly the Union Jack but is now settled in midfield, guaranteed at least $16K but still with eyes on the first prize of $407K.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 1 of 3, 917 entrants 100 tables of 9 or 10 all played down to a finish with the winners all guaranteed a min-cash of $5279, but you don't get a prize ladder until you win your Day 2 table as well when you will get at least $15K, a place on the 10-handed FT and a chance to play for $238K.
Chip leader isn't really a worthwhile concept at this stage although stacks do vary slightly so I'll restrict myself to noting a few names through.
These include a couple of ME winners (Joe Cada & Qui Nguyen), a couple of well known female players (Loni Harwood & Jen Tilly) and several Brits or at least players with United Kingdom beside their names (Florian Duta, Jonathan Proudfoot (these two will share a Day 2 table), Yiannis Liperis, Dragos Trofimov and Brandon Shiels)
We've also got a pair of twins through - 2017 ME runner-up Daniel Ott will share table 410 with his brother Dillon.
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 1 of 4, 173 entrants so far 90 players remain, but late reg (like all the other 10K "Championship" events) is open until hours into Day 2. There is a chance that the record field for this event (212) could be matched or broken.
Of the 90, the biggest Day 1 stack belongs to Yarron Bendor who has form in this event (3rd in 2017). David Benyamine (1 bracelet) and Shaun Deeb (4 bracelets and 2018 Player of the Year) are his nearest challengers.
Still in - Perry Friedman, Mike Matusow, Ben Lamb, Brandon Shack-Harris and 2018 winner Paul Volpe.
Benny Glaser and Tim Flanders are both inside the Top 30, while Richard Ashby is shown as with 1 chip which usually means there was a misunderstanding somewhere along the bagging process.
To start today Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, 5 Day Event, 2 starting flights Fri/Sat Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, 4 Day Event
Don't know when I'm going to do a full update today (Saturday) - I'm out at what will almost certainly be my last football of the season, so here's an interim update on those events that were already in play. A fuller update plus a review of the events that had their Day 1 on Friday will follow at some point.
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 5 of 5 The largest field in WSOP history has been whittled down to just one player, Femi Fashakin. The WSOP recorded yesterday that he had not previously recorded a single WSOP Cash but actually he had two, both in 2016 for a little under $11K. He's bested that by 100 times as he collected over $1.1m and a gold bracelet.
He finished off heads-up with Paul Cullen in style as after his oppenent raised with QJ, he shoved with the best hand in poker and the aces held. He ended up with 1.418 billion chips. Yes, that's billion. With a "B".
Israel had a bracelet yesterday and it was almost another one in this massive event as Rafi Elharar finished third.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 3 of 4, 751 entries This one may finish within 3 days, they're currently playing heads up and have two more levels to play tonight.
The battle is down to Jason Stockfish v Murilo Souza with the former holding a marginal lead as I type.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 3 of 4, 112 entrants It's a day off, the semi-finals (Sean Swinghuber v Cord Garcia and Ben Yu v Keith Lehr) will take place on Saturday.
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1832 entrants Heads-up and in-play in this one too - Ong Dingxiang has just overtaken Isaac Baron but with only about 22BB in play between them, this could crack at any moment.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 2 of 3, 917 entrants The FT has been set as all 10 tables have finished, and we go from A to Z as in seats 1 and 2 are going to be Brett Apter and Anatoli Zyrin.
I don't think a single player that I mentioned yesterday made it through!
The only one of the ten who already have a bracelet on their CV is Tommy Nguyen although Cary Katz is 24th in the all-time money list and has 5 scores of over a million dollars (including 8th in the Big One for One Drop in 2014)
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 2 of 4, 183 entrants Still playing with 33 or so left with Robert Mizrachi holding the big stack. Two Brits left, both in the middle of the pack - Tim Flanders & Richard Ashby
Started Friday, will update later Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, 5 Day Event, 2 starting flights Fri/Sat Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, 4 Day Event
To start today Event 21 - $10K No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, 4 Day Event
Sorry I never got around to doing a secoSorry I never got around to doing a second post yesterday, just too tired to even switch the computer on when I got home.
Therefore this is an update on both the Friday action and that from Saturday.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 4 of 4, 751 entries There's not much that can top a British rail at a WSOP FT, but a Brazilian one may just do.
Murilo Souza had the benefit of that rail and used it to his advantage as he took his first WSOP gold bracelet.
He had just the one cash outside his native country before today, for the grand total of $327 in a deepstack in Vegas last summer. Now he's got a cash for over $270K on his Hendon Mob page.
Heads up lasted six hours, ended by Souza turning quads on a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo and fading the low draws of Jason Stockfish.
For Stockfish, it's a frustrating 4th runner-up spot on a WSOP final table.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 4 of 4, 112 entrants In the first semi-final, Ben Yu saw off Keith Lehr after 81 hands, while in the second Sean Swinghuber made quick work of Cord Garcia in less than 40 hands.
The final was a more drawn-out affair. Yu won a big hand early (hand 7) with a full house, and held that for nearly 80 hands before Swingruber grinded back to overtake. Yu did wrestle back a small lead at hand 120, but not long after the lead had changed hands again, and this time it was for good as Swingruber went on to be another first-time WSOP bracelet winner (and collect $186K)
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 4 of 3, 1832 entrants This didn't end on time as heads-up play between Isaac Baron and Ong Dingxiang played over 100 hands of heads-up before a halt was called.
Coming back on Saturday, it took just 4 hands to find a winner when Baron picked up the aces and Dingxiang's KQ found a queen on the flop. All the chips went in on the turn and Baron looked on content as the river was a meaningless 3.
Baron has been playing WSOP events for 12 years but he too is winning his first one. He is no stranger to big Final Tables though as he has several very large cashes to his credit.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 3 of 3, 917 entrants The theme of the day is first time WSOP winners, so let's carry on with that in Event 17 with Brett Apter.
Like Baron, Apter's winning hand was pocked aces, an easy call on a Q-10-4 board after Anatolii Zyrin had shoved with top pair
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 3 of 4, 183 entrants Robert Mizrachi was chip leader last time I reported on this event, and he still is as six players will come back to play the FT.
He ended day 3 with 33BB, almost twice the stack of his nearest rival, Nick Guagenti. Mizrachi has 4 bracelets already in his drawer, while both Owais Ahmed and Frankie O'Dell are also former bracelet holders.
Richard Ashby was the only Brit to cash, finishing 14th for almost $22K.
Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, Day 1 A/B of 4, 8809 entries Another huge field, with 2268 of them making Day 2.
Noah Schwartz in the combined chip leader from the two starting flights, with 2-time bracelet winner Calvin Anderson not far behind and also inside the top ten heads-up semi-finalist Keith Lehr.
The top three Brits are all within 2000 chips of each other, Robert Cowen, Stefan Fabian and Steven Warburton lie clustered in 73rd, 74th & 76th respectively. Looking deeper down, Ben Heath, James Dempsey, Sam Grafton, James Rann, Niall Farrell and Barny Boatman are also part of a deep British contingent.
Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, Day 2 of 4, 285 entries In contrast, no Brits remain in Event 20 - the final 10 are all American. The plan is to play just down to 6 on Day 3, but there must be a chance of the players wanting to play on to a winner, especially if the early eliminations come quite quickly.
For a $1500 event, there's a comparitively loaded final table, chip leader is Anthony Zinno, Valentin Vornicu, Rep Porter, Eli Elezra and Scott Siever are also among the final 10.
Two GB cashers, who disappeared in quick succession, Ludovic Geilich went out in 17th for $3061 while Gerald Ringe was the very next player out but he managed a ladder and picked up an additional $504.
Event 21 - $10K No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 4, 83 entries so far We could be heading towards another of those Brazilian rails as the Day 1 chip leader is Pedro Bromfman, ahead of just 28 others who have made Day 2. Late reg is still open so we could see some other entries (or indeed players using their single re-entry) during the first couple of hours of Day 2 play.
Majid Yahyaei is second overnight and event 6 winner Dan Zack lies third.
As you would expect in a $10K event, there is several braclet winners (including multiple bracelet winners) still involved like Frank Kassela, Daniel Negreanu, the UK's Benny Glaser, Brian Rast, Billy Baxter, Jennifer Harman etc.
To start today Event 22 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 2 Day Event Event 23 - $1500 Eight Game Mix, 3 Days Event Event 24 - $600 WSOP.com Online PLO 6 handed, 1 Day Event
Comments
Nicholas Haynes, a dealer at the Aria casino in Las Vegas took down the Casino Employees' event for his first bracelet and $62K
Very much a recreational player, he picked up a few tricks watching the pro players at the Aria and put them to good use. He beat WSOP insider (Media Relations Manager) Isaac Henson heads-up and another Vegas dealer, Jorge Ruiz (Montego Bay) finished third.
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 4 Days, Day 1B & 2A in play
Two different bits of the Big 50 in play today.
Taking 1B first, 6048 entries were logged, and on one hand the WSOP have Alexander Kartveli as the chip leader but on the reports fellow east-coaster Matthew Keegan has the biggest stack. No argument about who is third - Canada's Glenn Swanlund.
With 1269 names going through, there's not much value in going through them with a fine-toothed comb, but everyone's (well nearly everyone's) least favourite contender, Chris Ferguson is amongst them.
Alex Jennings is top GB player, with Ludo Geilich and Chihao Tsang both having decent stacks.
While 1B was in play, Day 2A for those who qualified yesterday was also taking place.
They've played down to just 316 players with Russia's Mikhail Vilkov the leader ahead of Joshua Thibodaux and Amer Torbey
Four Brits remain, lead by the concisely named Tsz Ho in 71st place accomapnied by Calin Trif, Day 1A top Brit Joel Isla and Nicholas Gott.
These players now get a few days off and will return with the other Day 2 survivors on Wednesday.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 2 of 4, 853 entries
2 days down 2 to go, with 46 players still in contention.
The Day 2 leader is Richard Fuller, who dominated the last hour of play to end up with the biggest stack.
Several multiple bracelet winners still involved including Ben Yu, Mike Matusow, Jeff Madsen and John Monnette.
There were four Brits entering the day, at the end of it only Patrick Leonard survives, exactly in the middle of the pack.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 1 of 4, 92 entries
This is one of the events the WSOP is trialling with a "shot clock" of 30 seconds with each player having a number of extensions he/she can use as required.
Late reg is still open for another four hours (one hour levels) but we currently have 92 entries (including a single re-entry or two) and only 52 of them have made it through.
I mentioned re Event 2 that Ali Imsirovic is one of the breakout players of the past 12 months, and he is showing those qualities again here as he has built the biggest stack so far
In second place is the first of four GB players, Ben Heath. Well known to Sky Poker TV audiences (remember Sky Poker TV?) Sam Grafton is in 12th, Conor Beresford is 32nd while Toby Lewis is near the bottom of the pack in 50th.
Daniel Negreanu has been mentioned every day so far and he's at it again and some other "names" among the 52 are Erik Seidel, Isaac Haxton, Joe McKeehen, Joe Cada & Kenny Hallaert.
To Start Today
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, 3 Day Event
Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event
Plus Day 1C and 2B of the Big 50
The WSOP have tweeted that when Martijn Gerrits was eliminated in 7th place from the 10K Super Turbo Bounty, he collected the three-billionth dollar awarded in prize money at the WSOP. Think how much rake that means Caesars have taken over 50 years!
The WSOP have tweeted that when Martijn Gerrits was eliminated in 7th place from the 10K Super Turbo Bounty, he collected the three-billionth dollar awarded in prize money at the WSOP. Think how much rake that means Caesars have taken over 50 years!
To be fair to Caesars, it's only 15 years, as until 2003 it was run by Binions Horseshoe, Downtown. Caesars then purchased the rights to the WSOP & moved it to The Rio.
If rumours are accurate, this will be the last year at The Rio, though they've been saying that for 5 years now.
Again, two different sessions of the Big 50 in play today. I'll be glad when it settles down and everyone is at the same stage of the tournament.
We had Day 1C and Day 2B in play on Saturday
Another 6000-odd played Day 1C and it was Leandro Padilla who was the chip leader, one of only two players to bag over a million in chips. Second was one of the many poker-playing Nguyen's, this time Phuoc Nguyen and Daniel Hirleman was third.
Several more Brits made their Day 2, Anthony Gardener, Paul Housam, Ben Dobson, Kevin Houghton and Sergi Reixach the best placed of them.
Some other names through include former bracelet winners Todd Witteles, Shaun Deeb and Steve Zolotow, plus 2006 ME winner Jamie Gold. Both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth were among the late registerees (is that a word?) but neither lasted very long.
If my reading of the schedule is correct, these qualifiers get a day off and play their Day 2 on Monday.
From the Day 2B tables, it was Jerald Williamson who took the lead when he took down a huge pot near the end of the evening.
That was enough to overtake previous leader Azad Arazm who was losing a chunk of chips on another table, he eventually bagged up in third with Daniel Hughes splitting the pair in second.
There are four Californians in 2nd-5th spot and 8 in the top 20 and not far behind that is the leading British player, Ludovic Geilich.
There other British players made it through 2B, Brian Leddy, Catherine Hanna and Jason Chapman although the latter has a home town listed as Sabadecco which may well be on the island of Bonaire in the former Dutch Antilles. Perhaps more will become clear later.
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 3 of 4, 853 entries
We're down to just 7 players in the running for the win and the bracelet, with John Esposito in pole position. He hasn't won a bracelet since we partied like it's 1999 but has a decent chance of a second here.
Just below him in chips and sat next to him on the FT is Jason Berilgen and three-time bracelet winner Ben Yu lies third.
First prize is $228,228 while all seven have guaranteed themselves at least $27350.
Last Brit standing, Patrick Leonard, was eliminated late on Day 3, taking $15987 for 9th place.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 2 of 4, 110 entries
Only 8 of the planned 10 levels were played as the eliminations came at a faster than expected pace, with the 12 players all left guaranteed a 6-figure payday.
We have a British player at the top of the listings, Ben Heath who got a lot of chips when busting Daniel Negreanu, his kings holding up against the Canadian's queens.
Lined up behind Heath are a number of former bracelet winners Elio Fox, Dmitry Yurasov, Chance Kornuth and Nick Petrangelo.
Kornuth was the victim of the first Phil Hellmuth rant of the series when Kornuth making a backdoor flush against him. Cue Hellmuth, and when he calmed down he re-entered and lasted all of two hands when losing house-over-house to Day 1 chip leader Ali Imsirovic.
Imsirovic was later another of Kornuth's victims and after the bubble we also lost Eric Wasserson, Johnanes Becker and Bryn Kenney.
If Heath can't convert, there is a second British possibility as Sam "The Squid" Grafton has made Day 3 although he has less than a third of the chip leader's stack.
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries
296 have become 112, with two players separated by just 200 chips at the top of the listings. Jake Schwartz and Julien Martini each have over 117K, with the American marginally besting the Frenchman
It's a long gap back to Jordan Siegel in third with his 95K and 2010 ME runner-up John Racener lies fourth.
Gerald Ringe is the best of the Brits in 14th, with Benny Glaser not far behind with the considerably less-heralded Xunen Zheng in 99th.
The first prize in this event has been confirmed as just over $160K.
To Start Today
I got Event 7 wrong saying it was yesterday, it is actually today
Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, 4 Day Event
Plus Day 1D of the Big 50
The final opening flight saw over 8000 entrants taking the total number to a staggering 25000+
The Day 1D chip leader is local player Andrei Khosh ahead of Arne Kern (Germany) and Kevin Mooney (California).
Richard Trigg leads the British challenge in 30th place ahead of Stefan Fabian, Luke McInerney, Daniel Wendorf, Ronnie Ballantyne and Manny Malta, all inside the top 200 of the 2100 or so survivors
Toby Lewis, James Dempsey and James Rann are also still involved though a bit lower down the ranks, while one player I just had to mention is Oblip Kuppusamyvenkates. I count 15 different letters in that name, could be a WSOP record?
These players play Day 2D on Tuesday while the Day 1C survivors return for Day 2 on Monday before everyone joins together on Wednesday for Day 3. Get that?
Event 4 - $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better, Day 4 of 4, 853 entries
Prior to this event Derek McMaster had 1 WSOP cash for a little over $2000. Now he has two cashes, one FT and one bracelet as he took down event 4 for $228,228.
The 46-year old former pool player outlasted Jason Berligen heads-up, with Jon Esposito third.
Seventh place went to Tom McCormick who was at his 15th career FT, but he has yet to claim a gold bracelet.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 3 of 4, 110 entries
We're down to a FT of 6 in the High Roller, and a high quality FT it is too.
Five of the 6 have previously won gold bracelets, in chip order Sam Soverel (2nd), Andrew Lichtenberger (3rd), Chance Kornuth (4th), Nick Petrangelo (5th) and Russia's Dmitry Yurasov (6th).
However, it is the player in first we are most interested in as that player is Ben Heath who goes into the FT as chip leader after eliminating Elio Fox on the final hand of the day.
The other British player in action on Day 3, Sam Grafton, went out quite early to finish 11th for just over $101K.
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries
Day 1 chip leader Jake Schwartz lost the lead at some point in Day 2, but by the time to bag and tag, he was back on top with just 12 more competitors to outlast. He has 50 WSOP cashes but is another player searching for his first bracelet.
Mike Gorodinsky & Bryce Yockey are probably the best known of the other players, in a US-heavy field, the only non American in the last 13 is Kristijonas Andrulis from Lithuania.
296 have become 112, with two players separated by just 200 chips at the top of the listings. Jake Schwartz and Julien Martini each have over 117K, with the American marginally besting the Frenchman
Two Brits cashed - Gerald Ringe in 26th for just over $5K and Benny Glaser 4 places and $918 better off.
Event 7 - $400 WSOP.com Online NLH, 1 Day Event, 2825 entrants
It's an online event confined to those in Nevada and New Jersey, with one of the East Coast contingent taking the tournament in the guise of Yong Keun Kown ("LuckySpewy1")
Most of the cashers were of course almost anonymous, but lurking in there was one Phil Hellmuth who self-identified as "lumestackin" partway through and battled through all the way to the FT to pad his lead in career FTs and cashes. The Poker Brat went out in 5th spot.
A few other well-known players cashed, including Allen Kessler and James Obst.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 1 of 4, 61 entries so far
A new format for the WSOP with all the cards from 2-5 removed from the deck leaving just 36 cards. The revised distribution means that in this format, flushes beat full houses.
Late reg will close partway through Day 2, but 61 entries have been recorded so far (maybe including a few re-entries)
I don't know much about this game, but apparently Gabe Patgorski does as he's well renowned playing short deck online. He holds the chip lead ahead of Alex Epstein and Anson Tsang
With just 18 players remaining, there may well some value for well-rolled players joining the field on Day 2.
The only British player shown as playing was Patrick Leonard but he had been knocked out well before the end of the day.
To start today
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, 2 Day Event, $500K guaranteed prize pool
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, 3 Day Event
Event 11 - $5K NLH, 4 Day Event
Plus Day 2D of the Big 50
Barny mentioned Patrick Leonard in the Shortdeck.
Patrick Tweeted this;
Saying this whilst I’ve 2/3x doubled so it doesn’t look bitter but Shortdeck is the worst game at the WSOP
And then shortly after;
Busted and confirmed not playing another short deck tournament in my life (............... until tomorrow where we will be able to late reg basically Into the money)
I’ve sent you a PM regarding Vegas. Thanks
Things are beginning to sort themselves out as there is just one more Day 2 to play before the whole field converges for Day 3.
Saya Ono was all-in and covered on the bubble, but she had the second nut straight so she was not too concerned while other all-ins were played out, and she progressed from there to be the Day 2C chip leader. She has less than Day 2B leader Jerald Williamson, but her 3.8 million chips are a decent start on acquiring the over 1 billion chips that will be in play.
Not far behind Ono is Dorset's Ben Dobson and another Brit is also inside the top 10, Samuel Welbourne (the WSOP have him from Cittcehampton which I think may be Chittlehampton or more likely Littlehampton. Along with those two, Sergi Reixach, Kevin Houghton, Kenneth Broad and Sam Razavi made Day 3.
A few players I've noted before in these updates over the years are also through - Ari Engel, Matt Stout and Eric Baldwin spring to mind.
Event 5 - $50K High Roller NLH, Day 3 of 4, 110 entries
BRITISH BRACELET ALERT
Hopefully the first of many, it's a first UK bracelet and a first for 27-year old Ben Heath from Sussex. He was the only non-bracelet holder on the FT of 6, but he's corrected that omission from his poker CV (oh and by the way he collects almost a million and a half dollars)
Andrew Lichtenberger was the defeated heads-up opponent while Sam Soverel ended up in third.
The elimination of 4th placed Dmitry Yurasov was a little controversial. I don't like lifting things directly from the WSOP official site, but can't really avoid it here:
"With Soverel and Yurasov on equal stacks of twenty-five big blinds each, the former opened for a min-raise. Yurasov shoved all in, and Lichtenberger got out of the way from the small blind.
Heath in the big blind, though, asked for a count and contemplated his next action for a bit. With the tournament utilizing a shot clock, Heath was soon out of time, and he tossed in a small red time bank card to gain thirty more seconds to act. Soverel, still in the hand as the initial raiser, wasn't paying attention and tossed his cards in the muck right away, seemingly registering Heath's time bank card as either a muck of his cards or a call with a single chip. Now, not facing Soverel anymore, Heath instantly called.
To say that Yurasov wasn't happy is pointing out the obvious. Yurasov showed ace-ten of diamonds and lost to Ben Heath's ace-queen of hearts."
Event 6 - $2500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw, Day 3 of 3, 296 entries
Dan Zack is a man after my own heart. He nursed a short stack for most of the last two days before coming to the FT, having less than 2 Big Bets not just once but twice. He exhibited true Barnacle style and kept up hanging on while others were eliminated and once he made the FT, surged through the field to win the bracelet.
He has previously made 7 FTs but this was by far his biggest WSOP cash ($160K) besting the $97K he got for 4th in an on-line bracelet event two years ago.
It was an all-American FT, Sumir Mathur and Brayden Gazlay ending up 2nd and 3rd.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 2 of 3, 61 entries so far
The pace of play has meant that this has been changed from a 4-day event to a 3-day one.
I mentioned yesterday that there may be value for late regging this with so few players making it through from Day 1, well 53 did just that almost doubling the size of the field.
Chance Kornuth made the FT of the High Roller, but lasted just three hands (losing them all) before leaping in this event, and that proved to be a wise decision as he is the Day 2 chip leader.
7 player remain, 3 of them of Asian heritage - Yong Wang, Thai Ha, Anson Tsang (both Yong & Thai cashed in the other $10K event played so far, Event 2) and Jiaxiu Liu was the 8th placed finisher.
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, 2 Day Event, $500K guaranteed prize pool
Yes, it's a deepstack but it's also a Turbo as they played 20 levels on Day 1 and only 582 of the 6151 players needs bags at the end of the evening.
The Day 1 Leader is Canadian player Paul Dhaliwal who finished in the Top 60 of the 2017 Main Event, ahead of Michael Morhaime and David Elet.
Ylon Schwartz (4th 2007 Main Event) has made Day 2, as has the omnipresent Daniel Negreanu and 8-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
Robert Cowen is top Brit, ahead of Calin Trif, Florian Duta, Andrew Hills, Jamie Geraghty and Richard Hasnip.
With nearly 600 players left, even given the Turbo nature of the event, I wouldn't have been surprised if a Day 3 is needed.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 1 of 3, 470 entrants
470 may not seem a huge field for a $1500 event, but it is a record for this event so it seems that mixed-games (this one includes 20 variants) are becoming more popular.
Danny Noam was the leader for most of the day but was overtaken late on by Jim Collopy.
Some well known players involved include Robert Mizrachi, Dan Shak, Chris Ferguson (boo), Max Pescatori, Eli Elezra and previous Dealers Choice bracelet winner Quinn Do.
For the UK, I can see 4 names, most of them very familiar by now - Benny Glaser, Mel Judah, William Mitchell and Patrick Leonard.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 1 of 4, 343 entrants so far
A straight-forward NLH event with no gimmicks. Late reg is open for 4 more levels so that field size will doubtless increase.
Dan Smith leads 137 who have made it through to Day 2 the hard way, but with British players having a good day it's good to see Simon Deadman in second place.
Actually it's quite a decent GB contingent including Niall Farrell, Javier Fernandez, Chris Moorman, Ben Heath (fresh from winning the High Roller earlier on) and Daniel Tang.
To start today
Event 12 - $1000 NLH Super Turbo Bounty, 1 Day Event
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, 3 Day Event
Plus Day 2D of the Big 50.
Be great to see "our" Ben Dobson win another Braacelet.
The final split day and at the end of it we have 1597 players out of 28371 entries (including re-entries etc.) still in play.
From Day 2D, 551 made it through with the big stack belonging to Zachary Ackley ahead of Dennis Brinn, but we have a British player in third in the shape of Richard Trigg.
Other Brits through include Craig Beardsworth, Nickolay Ponomarev, Prabhat Kumar Ranjan, Dragos Trofimov, Fraser MacIntyre and Daniel Wendorf.
Big names are thin on the ground in this group, but there is one last year's ME FT there, Alex Lynskey.
Now all the groups get together and it will be a lot easier following the tournament from Day 3 onwards.
Event 8 - $10K Short Deck NLH, Day 3 of 3, 114 entries
The first ever Short Deck event went to Alex Epstein as the champion. His main game is PLO, but decided to play this as a game of higher variance.
Thai Ha finished second, having to come from behind by doubling up 5 times during the FT with Anson Tsang from Hong Kong third and Day 2 chip leader Chance Kornuth fourth.
Epstein collected nearly $300K and of course a gold WSOP bracelet.
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, Day 2 of 2, 6151 entries
As I predicted, this has had to run into a third day, as 9 players are still involved despite playing until almost 4am.
Seven Americans, 1 Canadian and 1 Mexican so it's an all North-American FT, headed by Paul Jain from Jeremy Pekarek and David Elet.
923 got paid, Calin Trif the last GB survivor in 76th for $4205, just outlasting Jamie Geraghty (82nd for $3554). Some other GB cashers - Robert Cowen, Andrew Hills, Daniel Heald, Pamela Pease and David Stones.
Some others who cashed - Daniel Negreanu (got to get a Daniel mention in), Joe Cada, Ylon Schwartz and Phillip ****.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 2 of 3, 470 entrants
21 players bagged chips at the end of Day 2, and we have a British leader, 3-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser. Glaser moved to the chip lead on the very last hand of the night as he hero-called Frankie O'Dell in a hand of Limit Hold'Em with just King high, being proved right when O'Dell showed ten high.
John Cernuto, John Monnette, Robert Mizrachi and Josh Arieh are among the other 20 players left in, but unfortunately no other British players after Mel Judah went out in 36th ($3299)
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 1 of 4, 343 entrants so far
The field bulged from 343 to 400 with some Day 2 late reg,and they've been reduced to 27 after another ten levels. All 27 of them are guaranteed nearly $12K but there's $442K waiting for the overall winner.
One of the late entries was Finn Pauli Ayras who bagged "around 1 million" at the end of the night, with regular WSOP cashers Ognjen Sekuralac (20 cashes) and Daniel Strelitz (38) in second and third.
Some bracelet winners in contention include Maria Ho, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Jeremy Ausmus & Niall Farrell, plus a second Brit in Simon Deadman.
Event 12 - $1000 NLH Super Turbo Bounty, 1 Day Event, 2452 entries
Done and dusted within 27 20-minute levels to the favour of Daniel Park. Down to a "Chip and a chair" with five left, he was automatically all-in with an ante plus one chip for a blind, he got through that and prospered from then on to win $226K.
Canadian Erik Cajelais too second and Jennifer Dennis, who looks in all the pictures like she was having a blast all day, third for just over $102K.
Gerald Ringe was top Uk player in 57th for $3354 while the other cashers from this country were David Winter, Ludo Geilich, Andrew Wilson, Jacobo Roth, Sergi Reixach, Barny Boatman and Ariel Shefer.
All these dollar amounts exclude any money won in bounties ($300 per player eliminated)
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries
A slow start with only "a few dozen" players seated, but as late reg progressed more turned up, eventually enough to make it a record field for this event and contributing to a first prize of $96,278.
Steve Tabb took the day 1 leader, with 63 players making it through but only 45 are to be paid.
Two former winners of this event remain (Ryan D'Angelo and reigning title holder Daniel Ospina) plus Daniel Negreanu (whoops, two Daniel mentions), Chris Ferguson (booo) and Ryan Riess, plus just the one Brit - Cody Wagner.
To start today
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, 4 Day Event
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, 4 Day Event
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, 3 Day Event
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 3 of 5
At the end of Day 3, the 28000 odd have become just 126, headed by Venezuela's Amer Torbey who has what would normally be a massive 32 million in chips, that will soon be dwarved as players get 9 and even a 10 figure stack.
David Rasmussen is second and 2018 bracelet winner Diogo Veiga is third.
There isn't a lot of big names in the chip counts, this is a $500 tourney after all, but lurking in 15th spot is 5-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham
It wasn't a good day for the Brits - Prabhat Kumar Ranjan snuck into the field in 121st place and four spots above him is Edward Slack, allegedly from Pertasgure, GB. Pertasgure is actually in Guatemala, Hendon Mob have two Edward Slacks listed, one from Scotland and the other from Guatemala, there's even a chance they could be one and the same but who knows?
Event 9 - $600 NLH Deepstack, Day 3 of 2, 6151 entries
Extended into a third day, this one took six more hours of play before Jeremy Pekarek won the bracelet and more than tripled his entire poker career earnings with a prize of $398K.
Contrasted with the rest of the event, heads up was short and sweet as it took Pekarek just two hands to dispatch Dan Kuntzman and Mexico's Juan Magana.
Event 10 - $1500 Dealers Choice, Day 2 of 3, 470 entrants
After a gap of 12 years, Scott Clements has won his third bracelet. He has previously won bracelets in PLO and Omaha Hi/Lo, picking the latter for his last 13 choices during heads-up play with Tim McDermott.
McDermott mixed it up a little more (although with a preference with No Limit 2-7 Single Draw) but it was in the field of NLH that the bracelet was decided as the victor's K10 held up against K2. It was never in doubt after a flop of 10-K-10!
Last British player Benny Glaser made the FT, but was eliminated in 5th spot for a smidgin under $19K.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 3 of 4, 400 entrants
We're down to a FT of 6, and unusally for a big-money tournament, they're all still looking for a first bracelet.
Some like Maria Ho (I incorrectly credited her with a bracelet yesterday), Shannon Storr and Daniel Strelits have come close before. Ali Imsirovic as mentioned already is one of the hottest players of the last 12 months, Ognjen Sekularac is looking for the first ever win for Serbia and Arsenii Karmatckii (love those two double i's) has over a million career earnings but has never been better than 10th at the WSOP.
Last UK player standing was Simon Deadman, who bowed out in 13th for $17K.
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 3, 296 entries
Down to a FT here too, 4 Americans plus one from Israel and one from Germany.
Jerry Wong has a ME FT to his credit but has never finished in the Top 3, he's got a great chance here lying second to Ajay Chabra. Steve Tabb lies third, guaranteed an improvement on last year when he finsihed 10th in this very event.
Cody Wagner from Warrington was the last UK player, he made the cash but was knocked out in 33rd for $2780.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 1 of 4, 751 entries
Must resist horse puns. Must resist horse puns. Must resist... no, can't be doing that.
Front runner at the end of Day 1 is Mark Castagnini who galloped to the head of the field during the last couple of hours of play, with Jean Gaspard (winner of the 10K Dealers choice in 2016, so well versed in mixed games) second and Canadian Clayyon Mozdzen third.
Some other prominent figures covered up midfield waiting for a chance to open up include Chris Klodnicki, David "ODB" Baker, Chris Tryba and Andre Akkari, while Bart Lybaert, Calvin Anderson and Ian Johns are being held up near the back.
Mel Judah is top Brit, but only in 158th with David Tarbet and Paresh Doshi his only two compatriots of the 291 making Day 2.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 1 of 4, 112 entrants
After three rounds of play, the Heads-up is down to a Sweet Sixteen with probably the best known heads-up player John Smith headlining the field.
2015 winner Keith Lehr is still there too as are Brian Rast, Kristen Bicknell, Ole Schemion and Cord Garcia. Most of them have been kept apart in the draw, but the Bicknell-Rast tie could be the big draw. Smith has to face Jimmy Dambrosio whose only cash in this was making the last 32 in 2009.
There is one British player left in, Simon Burns who will face Lehr in the last 16.
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 1 of 3, 1832 entrants
Close to the money after Day 1, with 272 to be paid and 289 players still in contention.
The chip leader is Britain's Richard Hasnip who has already cashed in Event 9. He's had a few nice cashes over the last 18 months (best of them £48K for winning a £550 deepstack at DTD in Nottingham, but this is a major step up.
It's an international leader board, as the top eight include players from the US, France, Singapre, Israel, China and Germany as well as the UK.
Some well known pros making Day 2 include David Benyamine, Jeff Madsen and Shaun Deeb, trying to repeat as WSOP Player of the Year.
There's half a dozen other Brits too including Elliott Peterman, Daniel Wendorf and Ben Farrell (there seems to be a disproportionate number of UK poker players called Ben)
To start today
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, 3 Day Event
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, 4 Day Event
Getting down to the business end, with 7 players challenging for the $1.15million prize and the gold bracelet (having already bagged at least £182K)
The chip leader is Femi Fashakin who is recording his very first WSOP cash. He leads Paul Cullen (1 WSOP cash back in 2015) and Adrian Curry (no WSOP cashes) in an inexperienced (in WSOP terms at least) top 3 spots
Curry was the one who knocked-out 5-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham down in 47th spot.
Event 11 - $5K NLH, Day 4 of 4, 400 entrants
We were bound to have a bracelet virgin take the prize, and it was Daniel Strelitz who the fates determined would be the one breaking his duck.
He beat Shannon Storr in a heads-up match which was practically level at the start, but soon took control and finished him off when a pair of tens held up.
Strelitz gets $442K, Storr $273K and Serbian Ognjen Sekularac $186K for third.
Event 13 - $1500 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 3 of 3, 296 entries
It's a bracelet for Israel in the guise of Yuval Bronshtein who took a title at his 10th FT.
Asaf Chabra held a 2:1 chip lead a the start of heads-up, and at one point Bronshtein was all-in for his tournament life, but he survived and then flourished sufficiently to at first take the lead and then dominate.
Former November Niner Jerry Wong finished third.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 2 of 4, 751 entries
Down to 28 runners with two Jasons in the top 2 positions. Jason Acosta leads Jason Stockfish, with a significant gap between those two and Russian Sergey Altbregin in third.
A couple of the well-known names I picked out yesterday are still there - Chris Klodnicki & Andrew Akkari
No Brits made it to Day 3, in fact none even managed a min-cash.
Down near the bottom of the pack we've got a classic sports car (Ferrari) and a tractor (David Brown). Both of them will need to do a lot of overtaking to make the FT.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 1 of 4, 112 entrants
Sixteen were first sorted in to eight, and then to a final four.
Those four will be, in alphabetical order, Cord Garcia, Keith Lehr, Sean Swingruber and Ben Yu. All but Swingruber have one previous bracelet to their credit. Swingruber will play Garcia in the first SF, while fairly obviously Yu & Lehr will meet in the second.
From that you will be able to see we've lost the last Brit (Simon Burns) and the favourite John Smith
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 2 of 3, 1832 entrants
21 left in the 6-max, with a French player in the lead - Romain Nussmann who ended Day 1 with over 200BB, ahead of Ong Dingxiang from Singapore and Pierce McKellar (US) the only others with over 100BB.
Day 1 chip leader Richard Hasnip continues to fly the Union Jack but is now settled in midfield, guaranteed at least $16K but still with eyes on the first prize of $407K.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 1 of 3, 917 entrants
100 tables of 9 or 10 all played down to a finish with the winners all guaranteed a min-cash of $5279, but you don't get a prize ladder until you win your Day 2 table as well when you will get at least $15K, a place on the 10-handed FT and a chance to play for $238K.
Chip leader isn't really a worthwhile concept at this stage although stacks do vary slightly so I'll restrict myself to noting a few names through.
These include a couple of ME winners (Joe Cada & Qui Nguyen), a couple of well known female players (Loni Harwood & Jen Tilly) and several Brits or at least players with United Kingdom beside their names (Florian Duta, Jonathan Proudfoot (these two will share a Day 2 table), Yiannis Liperis, Dragos Trofimov and Brandon Shiels)
We've also got a pair of twins through - 2017 ME runner-up Daniel Ott will share table 410 with his brother Dillon.
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 1 of 4, 173 entrants so far
90 players remain, but late reg (like all the other 10K "Championship" events) is open until hours into Day 2. There is a chance that the record field for this event (212) could be matched or broken.
Of the 90, the biggest Day 1 stack belongs to Yarron Bendor who has form in this event (3rd in 2017). David Benyamine (1 bracelet) and Shaun Deeb (4 bracelets and 2018 Player of the Year) are his nearest challengers.
Still in - Perry Friedman, Mike Matusow, Ben Lamb, Brandon Shack-Harris and 2018 winner Paul Volpe.
Benny Glaser and Tim Flanders are both inside the Top 30, while Richard Ashby is shown as with 1 chip which usually means there was a misunderstanding somewhere along the bagging process.
To start today
Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, 5 Day Event, 2 starting flights Fri/Sat
Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, 4 Day Event
Event 3 - $500 Big 50 NLH, 5 Days, Day 5 of 5
The largest field in WSOP history has been whittled down to just one player, Femi Fashakin. The WSOP recorded yesterday that he had not previously recorded a single WSOP Cash but actually he had two, both in 2016 for a little under $11K. He's bested that by 100 times as he collected over $1.1m and a gold bracelet.
He finished off heads-up with Paul Cullen in style as after his oppenent raised with QJ, he shoved with the best hand in poker and the aces held. He ended up with 1.418 billion chips. Yes, that's billion. With a "B".
Israel had a bracelet yesterday and it was almost another one in this massive event as Rafi Elharar finished third.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 3 of 4, 751 entries
This one may finish within 3 days, they're currently playing heads up and have two more levels to play tonight.
The battle is down to Jason Stockfish v Murilo Souza with the former holding a marginal lead as I type.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 3 of 4, 112 entrants
It's a day off, the semi-finals (Sean Swinghuber v Cord Garcia and Ben Yu v Keith Lehr) will take place on Saturday.
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 3 of 3, 1832 entrants
Heads-up and in-play in this one too - Ong Dingxiang has just overtaken Isaac Baron but with only about 22BB in play between them, this could crack at any moment.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 2 of 3, 917 entrants
The FT has been set as all 10 tables have finished, and we go from A to Z as in seats 1 and 2 are going to be Brett Apter and Anatoli Zyrin.
I don't think a single player that I mentioned yesterday made it through!
The only one of the ten who already have a bracelet on their CV is Tommy Nguyen although Cary Katz is 24th in the all-time money list and has 5 scores of over a million dollars (including 8th in the Big One for One Drop in 2014)
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 2 of 4, 183 entrants
Still playing with 33 or so left with Robert Mizrachi holding the big stack. Two Brits left, both in the middle of the pack - Tim Flanders & Richard Ashby
Started Friday, will update later
Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, 5 Day Event, 2 starting flights Fri/Sat
Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, 4 Day Event
To start today
Event 21 - $10K No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, 4 Day Event
Therefore this is an update on both the Friday action and that from Saturday.
Event 14 - $1500 HORSE, Day 4 of 4, 751 entries
There's not much that can top a British rail at a WSOP FT, but a Brazilian one may just do.
Murilo Souza had the benefit of that rail and used it to his advantage as he took his first WSOP gold bracelet.
He had just the one cash outside his native country before today, for the grand total of $327 in a deepstack in Vegas last summer. Now he's got a cash for over $270K on his Hendon Mob page.
Heads up lasted six hours, ended by Souza turning quads on a hand of Omaha Hi-Lo and fading the low draws of Jason Stockfish.
For Stockfish, it's a frustrating 4th runner-up spot on a WSOP final table.
Event 15 - $10K Heads-up NLH, Day 4 of 4, 112 entrants
In the first semi-final, Ben Yu saw off Keith Lehr after 81 hands, while in the second Sean Swinghuber made quick work of Cord Garcia in less than 40 hands.
The final was a more drawn-out affair. Yu won a big hand early (hand 7) with a full house, and held that for nearly 80 hands before Swingruber grinded back to overtake. Yu did wrestle back a small lead at hand 120, but not long after the lead had changed hands again, and this time it was for good as Swingruber went on to be another first-time WSOP bracelet winner (and collect $186K)
Event 16 - $1500 6-max NLH, Day 4 of 3, 1832 entrants
This didn't end on time as heads-up play between Isaac Baron and Ong Dingxiang played over 100 hands of heads-up before a halt was called.
Coming back on Saturday, it took just 4 hands to find a winner when Baron picked up the aces and Dingxiang's KQ found a queen on the flop. All the chips went in on the turn and Baron looked on content as the river was a meaningless 3.
Baron has been playing WSOP events for 12 years but he too is winning his first one. He is no stranger to big Final Tables though as he has several very large cashes to his credit.
Event 17 - $1500 NLH Shootout, Day 3 of 3, 917 entrants
The theme of the day is first time WSOP winners, so let's carry on with that in Event 17 with Brett Apter.
Like Baron, Apter's winning hand was pocked aces, an easy call on a Q-10-4 board after Anatolii Zyrin had shoved with top pair
Event 18 - $10K, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Day 3 of 4, 183 entrants
Robert Mizrachi was chip leader last time I reported on this event, and he still is as six players will come back to play the FT.
He ended day 3 with 33BB, almost twice the stack of his nearest rival, Nick Guagenti. Mizrachi has 4 bracelets already in his drawer, while both Owais Ahmed and Frankie O'Dell are also former bracelet holders.
Richard Ashby was the only Brit to cash, finishing 14th for almost $22K.
Event 19 - $1500 Millionaire Maker, Day 1 A/B of 4, 8809 entries
Another huge field, with 2268 of them making Day 2.
Noah Schwartz in the combined chip leader from the two starting flights, with 2-time bracelet winner Calvin Anderson not far behind and also inside the top ten heads-up semi-finalist Keith Lehr.
The top three Brits are all within 2000 chips of each other, Robert Cowen, Stefan Fabian and Steven Warburton lie clustered in 73rd, 74th & 76th respectively. Looking deeper down, Ben Heath, James Dempsey, Sam Grafton, James Rann, Niall Farrell and Barny Boatman are also part of a deep British contingent.
Event 20 - $1500 Seven Card Stud, Day 2 of 4, 285 entries
In contrast, no Brits remain in Event 20 - the final 10 are all American. The plan is to play just down to 6 on Day 3, but there must be a chance of the players wanting to play on to a winner, especially if the early eliminations come quite quickly.
For a $1500 event, there's a comparitively loaded final table, chip leader is Anthony Zinno, Valentin Vornicu, Rep Porter, Eli Elezra and Scott Siever are also among the final 10.
Two GB cashers, who disappeared in quick succession, Ludovic Geilich went out in 17th for $3061 while Gerald Ringe was the very next player out but he managed a ladder and picked up an additional $504.
Event 21 - $10K No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, Day 1 of 4, 83 entries so far
We could be heading towards another of those Brazilian rails as the Day 1 chip leader is Pedro Bromfman, ahead of just 28 others who have made Day 2. Late reg is still open so we could see some other entries (or indeed players using their single re-entry) during the first couple of hours of Day 2 play.
Majid Yahyaei is second overnight and event 6 winner Dan Zack lies third.
As you would expect in a $10K event, there is several braclet winners (including multiple bracelet winners) still involved like Frank Kassela, Daniel Negreanu, the UK's Benny Glaser, Brian Rast, Billy Baxter, Jennifer Harman etc.
To start today
Event 22 - $1000 Double Stack NLH, 2 Day Event
Event 23 - $1500 Eight Game Mix, 3 Days Event
Event 24 - $600 WSOP.com Online PLO 6 handed, 1 Day Event
"....just too tired to even switch the computer on when I got home......"
Your efforts are really appreciated by lots of us Barny, thank you.