WSOP 2012

As we head into Day 3 of Event #24, the $5k Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8-or-Better, the poker world watches some of the best Omaha8 players chase an elusive tournament win and bracelet. Among the notables making a deep run are Joe Cassidy with ~16bbs, Scotty Nguyen with ~21bbs, Brian Hastings with ~25bbs, Mike Matusow with ~29bbs, Dan Kelly with ~30bbs and the chip leader Phil Ivey with a massive lead over the field with ~45bbs. All players are currently in the money with 27 spots being paid at least $10,348.

In particular to be watched are Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow, considered to be the two best Omaha 8-or-Better players in the world. Ivey, who has already made two final tables this WSOP, looks to continue his streak by perhaps making a third final table and possibily winning bracelet number nine after he was so close to doing so, just coming off a heads up loss in the $10k Pot Limit Hold’Em event. This event will likely be concluded today and first place will win $294,777. This article will be updated as the results filter in.

As we move on to the final two tables, Mike Matusow has dropped to 15th in chips with ~5bbs, while Phil Ivey has built and maintained his chip lead currently with nearly 1/6th of all the chips in play at the moment. Brian Hastings is in 3rd with ~22bb.

Brian Hastings has just been eliminated in 16th place for $13,031, ending his hopes for his second bracelet of this year at least for this event. His remaining chips went all in preflop with As9s2h6d against Dan Kelly’s AhQh8h3s. The board was KJ45K with 3 hearts giving Kelly a flush and Hastings his exit.

Defending Omaha 8-or-better champion Viacheslav Zhukov of Russia has just been eliminated in 17th place. He was in a 3 way pot for all his chips with Scotty Nyguen and Elie Doft. Doft won the pot with 4422 on JTT89 and Zhukov won $13,301 for his efforts. Phil Ivey now has an overwhelming chip lead with over 1/4th of the chips in play with 16 remaining.

As the final table is about to begin the chip counts are as follows. Phil Ivey remains near the chip lead in 2nd in chips currently, 2 big blinds behind Joe Cassidy.

Meng La 518,000
Elie Doft 311,000
Joe Cassidy 940,000
Phil Ivey 890,000
Scotty Nguyen 324,000
Bart Hanson 96,000
Mike Matusow 133,000
Ryan Lenaghan 254,000
Gregory Jamison 376,000

Currently 8 players remain, 6 of which have almost even chip stacks with ~18-24 big bets. Mike Matusow is very short stacked with 3BB but Phil Ivey and Scotty Ngyuen remain near the leaders with 22 and 21BBs respectively.

Mike Matusow was eliminated in 8th place ending his hopes for his first bracelet of this year. He was in a 3 way pot with Ivey and Nguyen where Ivey and Nguyen split the pot having the high and the lo and Mike had no winner and was eliminated. He won $34,748 for his 8th place result. Bart Hanson soon followed him in 7th winning $45,084 busting to Phil Ivey. Currently 6 players remain with Phil Ivey having more than 1/3rd of the chips in play, 1.34mil in chips. Other notables Joe Cassidy 975k and Scotty Nguyen with 510k are still in the hunt as well.

After Elie Doft busted in 6th ($58,873) to Joe Cassidy and Gregory Jamison eliminated in 5th ($77,342) also to Joe Cassidy, we are down to our final 4 players. Currently Phil Ivey has over half the chips in play with 1.8mil. Joe Cassidy behind him with 1.1mil, in third is Scotty Nguyen with 570k and finishing out the field is Meng La with 360k. The poker world continues to watch to see who will win the bracelet.

Meng La was eliminated in 4th place ($102,260) leaving Joe Cassidy with the chip lead, Phil Ivey roughly 3 big bets behind him and Scotty Nguyen ~7 big bets behind Phil Ivey. The players are currently on break now.

As of level 26 with limits of 30k/60k the current chip stacks are Phil Ivey with 1.7mil, Scotty Nguyen with 1.16mil and Joe Cassidy with with 975k. Players are on break again after 12 hours of play thus far. 3rd place will win $136,046, 2nd prize will be $182,213 and the winner will take the WSOP bracelet for the $5k LO8 event as well as $294,777. If you are interested in watching the live stream may be viewed here. http://www.wsop.com/2012/live-video/default.aspx?TID=12124 Might I suggest you mute the stream while players are on break because this music is atrocious.

After another hour of play Phil Ivey has been crippled to around 600k, Joe Cassidy currently has the chip lead with 1.6mil and Scotty Nguyen has around 1.5mil. Play will continue for another 50 mins after which the players will decide if play continue. After being quartered by Scotty, Phil is now down to around 300k in chips.

Phil Ivey is now down to 40k chips with the big bet being 100k at this point. He is now all in. Joe Cassidy has ~2.6mil and Scotty Nguyen has the rest. Phil Ivey survived the 3 way all in and now has 60k chips. Phil Ivey has doubled through Scotty Nguyen with JT83 against Scotty’s AKJ9 on hitting a 9 outer on the river to survive. The very next hand Ivey doubled through Cassidy and is back to 550kish chips.

Phil Ivey was just eliminated in 3rd holding KQ8x against Cassidy’s KKT3 on QJ85J. Very disappointing considering how many side bets Ivey likely has. Cassidy has ~3mil in chips and Scotty has 800k. The big bet is 100k and the players are on break until tomorrow.

In an exciting conclusion to the tournament Joe Cassidy and Scotty Nguyen faced off in a heads up match. To begin the day Joe held a 4:1 chip advantage against Nguyen but the first part of the match seemed to be all Scotty with him evening the chips with Scotty Nguyen claiming 1.7mil to Cassidy’s 2.1mil, a mere 2 big bet difference. After this high point however it was all Joe Cassidy after that. After that run by Nguyen however it was all Cassidy after that who wrapped up the tournament in short order.

Eventually Nguyen’s last two bets went in preflop with Jc8h5s2s against Cassidy’s AsKd5d2h, giving Cassidy a large equity advantage against Nguyen. The flop came AcQh8c giving Cassidy top pair and Nguyen bottom pair. The turn however brought a Jh which gave Nguyen one of his 5 outs to survive, it was not meant to be. The river brought the Th giving Cassidy a straight, the tournament win and his first ever WSOP bracelet. Joe also won $294,777 for his first place finish, and Scotty Nguyen won $182,213 for his second. Congratulations to everyone who made the final table and good luck in the rest of the series!