Two WSOP bracelets were awarded early in the morning on Monday, but the recipients were not new to earning some hardware. First, Vitaly Lunkin took down the 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem event, outlasting Isaac Haxton after a three-hour heads-up battle that will surely be boiled down to a few hands on ESPN when it airs in July. After Haxton had knocked out Greg Raymer in 3rd place (the former World Champion earning $774,927), he held a dominating chip lead over the Russian, who won a bracelet last year in a $1,500 NL event. A few hands later Lunkin would take the lead, only for Haxton to take control again. Eventually though, Lunkin\’s AA would crush Haxton\’s bottom pair on the final hand to earn $1,891,012. Haxton was also able to walk away with a 7-figure payday, earning $1,168,566.
As Dan mentioned in the post below, Thang Luu defended his title in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event for $263,135. Ed Smith, the chip leader at the end of play on day 2, finished in 2nd for just over $162,000. Ming Reslock finished 3rd ($106,373).
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Day 1b of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special J.C. Tran (and his spectacular breasts) will return at 2pm as the overall chip leader with 130,800. J.C. will be part of the 760 entries who\’ll be playing for the first prize $771,106. The rest of the final table will earn at least $114,000 each, with the payouts work their way down to 621st place for $1,894. More details will be in my report for Pokernews later in the morning. The plan today is to get down to a final table, when I posed that question to my Magic 8-Ball, it responded \”No way!\”. I have to agree, if they\’re lucky they\’ll stop play with 4 tables left. This event was scheduled to be the first table to be streamed this year on ESPN360.com, so who knows how far they\’ll push the players\’ endurance.
The final tournament that started on Sunday a 20-player SNG, better known as the Champions Invitational. When play was stopped after Joe Hachem\’s elimination in 11th, the chip counts were as follows:
Carlos Mortensen — 42,375
Tom McEvoy — 31,000
Jim Bechtel — 30,475
Doyle Brunson — 20,250
Dan Harrington — 19,975
Peter Eastgate — 18,425
Huck Seed — 15,400
Robert Varkonyi — 13,450
Berry Johnston — 7,625
Phil Hellmuth — 1,125
The plan was to stop when they reached the final nine, but the possible lack of Phil Hellmuth may have changed that plan, so he gets a few moments of time on ESPN unless he makes a miracle comeback starting after 3pm today.
Today starts a week of two-a-day bracelet events, as the $1,500 PLO event starts at 12 noon while the $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship starts at 5pm. The $1,500 PLO event was won last year by Vanessa Selbst, who topped the field of 759 to win $227,965. The projected field for this year is 835, and will go with the over, saying 884 will enter. The $10,000 7-Card Stud event was won last year by Eric Brooks, besting a field of 158 and donating his $415,856 winnings to the Decision Education Foundation, of which he is a member of their board. The projected field for the event this year is 166, and I\’ll take the over again, saying they\’ll wind up with 174. More stuff throughout the day on Pokerati, and follow the updates at www.worldseriesofpoker.com starting at noon today.
