Thirteen was the luckiest number for some, but for most of the poker players who made their way into the Amazon Room at the Rio for the World Series of Poker, it continued it's unlucky ways. Lot's going on, here are the recaps for the day's action.
Event #19 - $1,500 Pot Limit OmahaTwo days ago, 759 players started play in this event with hopes of taking home a very nice $227,965 pay day. They made the money quickly in day one and were down to just 46 players as play resumed on day two. Eliminated on day two were Allyn Jaffrey Shulman in 41st place, Paul Magriel in 40th place, Tony Cousineau in 38th place, Chau Giang in 34th place, Nam Le in 28th place, Max Pescatori in 26th place, Jordan Morgan in 19th place, and Rob Hollink in 15th place.
The last hand of the day went down between the two chip leaders,
Vanessa Selbst and Anthony Phillips, and it was a big one. Big enough to send one of the two to the rail. Thom Schultz opened the action for 20K and Selbst re-raised to 75K. Phillips jacks it up even more from the big blind to 239K. Schultz quickly gets out of the way. Selbst asks how much Phillips has behind him and when she is told 188K, she makes the call. Phillips bets the remainder of his chips in the dark. The flop comes 8-5-4 with two spades. Selbst studies the flop momentarily and says, “I call.”
Selbst turns over K-J-9-8 double suited in diamonds and hearts. She has top pair and nothing more. Everyone knows what Phillips has even before he turns his cards over. A-A-Q-9 with the Q-9 suited in diamonds. The turn is a 10 giving Selbst more ways to win as she picks up an open ended straight draw. Any 7, 8, 9, jack, queen, or king will give her the win now. 17 outs makes her just a slight dog but not for long as the jack on the river gives her two pair and sends a stunned Phillips to the felt in 10th place. The final table seating assignments and chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1: Jamie Pickering (QCD , Australia) 329,000
Seat 2: Eugene Todd (Brooklyn, New York) 127,000
Seat 3: Mel Randolph (Waikiki, Hawaii) 117,000
Seat 4: Jamie Robbins (San Diego, California) 70,000
Seat 5: Vanessa Selbst (Brooklyn, New York) 1,047,000
Seat 6: Stanley Statkiewicz Jr (Itasca, Illinois) 318,000
Seat 7: Ken Lairson (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) 16,900
Seat 8: Craig Natte (Hudsonville, Michigan) 108,000
Seat 9: Thom Schultz (Littleton, Colorado) 144,000
Event #20 - $2,000 Limit Hold EmWith 125 of the remaining 480 players still in action when play started on day two, it was going to be a long day until the final nine were reached. The bubble was burst at approximately 7 p.m. when ESPN broadcaster Mike Patrick was eliminated by Daniel Negreanu. Eight hours later... at 5:30 in the morning the final nine was finally set. Some of the players who made the money but came up short of the final table included Matt Matros, Mike Schneider, Ray Henson, and Brett Jungblut. The final table includes eight unknowns and Mr. Negreanu who is 3rd in chips. Final table seating assignments and chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1: David Baker (Katy, Texas) 409,000
Seat 2: Jeremy Kottler (Cleveland , Ohio) 47,000
Seat 3: Hien Tran (Sacramento, California) 58,000
Seat 4: Ugur Marangoz (Las Vegas, Nevada) 402,000
Seat 5: Fu Wong (Chandler, Arizona) 67,000
Seat 6: Greg Wohletz (Henderson, Nevada) 301,000
Seat 7:
Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas, Nevada) 308,000
Seat 8: Derek Lerner (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) 133,000
Seat 9: Richard Li (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) 195,000
Event #21 - $5,000 No Limit Hold EmIt was a long day of play for the 121 players that remained at the end of day one. Having bested over 600 players in the 732 player starting field, they know they will have to come back tomorrow still not guaranteed of making any money as only 72 get paid. Big names galore played in this prestigious NLHE event and as the day went on, they saw their name with a Busted next to them on the official chip counts. Among those who came and didn't conquer were
Nenad Medic, Devilfish, Paul Wasicka, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer,
Hevad Khan, Scotty Nguyen,
Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham,
Erik Seidel, and Kenny Tran.
This doesn't mean there isn't any star talent remaining as players such as Huck Seed, Dustin Woolf, David Singer, Greg Mueller, Eric Lynch, Layne Flack, Kathy Liebert (going for cash #4), Eli Elezra, Alex Jacob, Howard Lederer, Noah Boeken, Dmitri Nobles,
Anna Wroblewski , Michael Mizrachi, Scott Freeman, and Hasan Habib were all still very much in the thick of things. Alex Melnikow is the day one chip leader with 248,800 in chips. Play will resume at 2 p.m.
Event #22 - $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.Only 414 players started this 5 p.m. event with 40 players getting paid. There is still a long ways to go until they reach that point, however, as play ended with 133 players remaining. Bracelet dreams were dashed for David Chiu, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Chris Ferguson, David Benyamine, Andy Bloch, and countless others as they were eliminated before the day ended.
Still in contention are such notables as
Michael Binger, Ted Forrest, Mark Vos, Berry Johnston, Kenna James, Greg Raymer, Phil Ivey, Hoyt Corkins, Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke, Josh Arieh, Marcel Luske, Mike Gracz,
Tom Schneider, Kevin Saul, Todd Brunson, James Mackey, and Shannon Elizabeth (who is third in chips). The day one chip leader is Alexander Jung with 54,300. Day two will resume at 3 p.m.