What\’s happening at this moment while reading Gary Wise\’s latest entry about what\’s \”good for poker\” is really good for poker.
Today brings another two tournaments to the starting line, first at noon is the $2,000 NL holdem event and another large field is expected. The event the pros may be swooning over is the $10,000 Mixed Event \”World Championship\”. This tournament will have it all for the big cash game specialists as they throw eight games into the mix. This grouping of players will play Triple Draw lowball Deuce to Seven, Limit Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha; playing each game for 8 hands before moving on to the next game in the rotation. Hopefully there won\’t be many mixups between the players, dealers, and floor and this becomes a staple of the WSOP schedule.
Play finally finished earlier this morning in the marathon that was event #2, $1,500 NL Holdem. After over two hours of headsup play, Grant Hinkle made an aggressive move, raising and eventually going all in with 10d-4d against James Akenhead\’s Ac-Kh. Things were looking good for James, but his was truly aching after the flop came down 10-4-10. A fourth 10 hit the turn and it was over, as Hinkle took the bracelet and over $800,000 in victory. Chris Ferguson finished 3rd, the full results can be found over at Pokernews.
What else happened yesterday:
Two final tables are scheduled for today, but most of the poker world (and ESPN\’s) attention will be directed towards the $5,000 Mixed (Limit/No Limit) Holdem final table. Here\’s that final table, starting at 3pm today:
Seat 3: David Rheem 885,000
Seat 6: David Williams 678,500
Seat 7: Justin Bonomo 517,500
Seat 9: Erick Lindgren 345,000
Seat 1: Howard Lederer 324,500
Seat 2: Roland de Wolfe 194,000
Seat 8: Andrew Robl 162,000
Seat 5: Isaac Haxton 115,500
Seat 4: Pat Pezzin 108,500
The $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem also has a final table, which will start at 2pm:
Seat 2: Joe Tehan 458,000
Seat 3: Jacobo Fernandez 428,000
Seat 9: Robert Lipkin 305,000
Seat 5: Al Barbieri 271,000
Seat 1: Russ Harriman 206,000
Seat 6: Gregory Alston 179,000
Seat 4: Zachary \’Carter\’ King 139,000
Seat 8: David Singer 83,000
Seat 7: Glen Bean 75,000
In other action from yesterday, the noon tournament (Event #5, $1k NL/w rebuys) drew 766 entrants and their 2,258 rebuys to the table. Phil Ivey is the current chip leader with about another 100 players in the chase for a bracelet when play begins again at 2pm as they play down to their final 9. HEre\’s the list of their payouts:
1 $ 636,736
2 $ 406,330
3 $ 245,997
4 $ 201,139
5 $ 164,963
6 $ 130,234
7 $ 101,293
8 $ 79,587
9 $ 57,881
10-12 $ 36,176
13-15 $ 28,940
16-18 $ 21,705
19-27 $ 16,496
28-36 $ 13,602
37-45 $ 10,708
46-54 $ 9,839
55-63 $ 8,971
64-72 $ 8,103
Meanwhile, the 5pm tournament (Event #6, $1,500 Omaha 8) drew an amazing 833 participants (last year Alex Kravchenko won his bracelet in a field of 690), with 205 survivors on to day 2 at 3pm. They\’ll try to whittle that down to their final table, but it could be a long night for this group. James Van Alstyne is the current leader, other known names include Scott Clements, Jimmy \”Gobboboy\” Fricke, Richard \”Chufty\” Ashby, and Allen Kessler.
More to come later…