What happened last night, as we finish the preliminary events of the Series today before the Main Event begins tomorrow:
Phil Hellmuth was unable to take down the $1,500 HORSE event for his 12th bracelet, as he finished in 3rd place. James Schaaf, from Torrance, California takes down the bracelet in what also appears to be his first tournament cash. Tommy Hang follows up on his 3rd in the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship by finishing in 2nd.
The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship was won by Irishman Marty Smyth who eliminated Canadian Peter Jetten in one of the more exciting final hands of the Series. Both players flopped a straight when all the money went in, but Smyth was freerolling to a club flush. The turn was a brick, but when the 6 of clubs appeared on the river, the Irish part of the crowd exploded with delight while the Canadian contingent groaned in despair at Jetten\’s turn of events. Smyth takes down almost $860,000 with the bracelet, while Jetten is consoled with the fact of winning $528,000 for second place. Michael \”The Grinder\” Mizrachi ground to a halt in 3rd.
The last two tournaments conclude today, the ESPN360 table and the WSOP POY on page 2:
The $1,500 NL Holdem event faces the not-as-bright lights of the ESPN360 cameras as their final table has been set to start shortly after 2pm:
Seat 1: Dan Heimiller (Plymouth, Michigan) — 544,000
Seat 2: Matt Matros (Brooklyn, New York) — 1,472,000
Seat 3: Farzad Rouhani (Germantown, Maryland) — 212,000
Seat 4: Andrey Zaichenko (Moscow, Russia) — 521,000
Seat 5: Scott Sitron (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) — 504,000
Seat 6: Voitto Rintala (Helsinki, Finland) — 553,000
Seat 7: Jeff Courtney (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) — 1,443,000
Seat 8: David Daneshgar (Westlake Village, California) — 1,178,000
Seat 9: Corwin Cole (San Diego, California) — 1,668,000
The $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout returns with 9 tables and 72 players at 2pm fighting to take down the last preliminary bracelet. One of those who won\’t return is JC Tran, who comes up short of overtaking Erick Lindgren in the Milwaukee\’s Best WSOP Player of the Year race. Lindgren will win with 245 points, edging Barry Greenstein in 2nd with 235 points, Jacobo Fernandez finishes 3rd with 232 points.
Among the notables remaining: Jimmy \”Gobbo\” Fricke, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Wattel, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Blair Rodman. It appears to be a long night ahead for those who go deep in this event, hopefully they\’re not playing Day 1a of the Main Event tomorrow.
More updates later…
