WSOP
The 7th of July has always been a favourite day for me. Maybe it’s because I’m British, and Andy Murray won Wimbledon yesterday, maybe it’s because the Main Event of the World Series of Poker is going on, or maybe it’s just because it was my birthday, and I had the day off? What ever it is, I’m in a happy (if slightly worse for wear) state, and really want to catch up on all the action I missed over the weekend.
Event #60
The final table of the $1,500 no Limit Hold’em Event #60 brought us our second female winner of an open event this year. Loni Harwood takes away a $609,017 pay day and a nice gold bracelet to go with the two WSOP Circuit rings she already owns. Alex will have a full final table report later today, but until then you’ll have to just make do with the final table payouts:
- Loni Harwood – $609,017
- Yongshuo Zheng – $378,607
- Mika Paasonen – $267,978
- Yngve Steen – $193,265
- Asi Moshe – $141,124
- Daniel Cascado – $104,282
- Cy Williams – $78,006
- Bijon Notash – $59,036
- Hiren Patel – $45,212
Event #61
The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event #61 was won in the last moments of the play scheduled before needing to add a Day 4. Daniel Alaei was the one to emerge victorious with only 14 minutes to spare before possible blocking the two remaining players from playing the main event. Alaei won $852,692 to go with his new bracelet, and a report on the action at the final table will be up later today. The payout from the final nine were:
- Daniel Alaei – $852,692
- Jared Bleznick – $526,625
- James Wiese – $380,836
- Tom Marchese – $278,298
- Numit Agrawal – $205,512
- Gjergj Sinishtaj – $153,372
- Sean Dempsey – $115,637
- Rory Rees Brennan – $88,061
- Alex Kravchenko – $67,742
Main Event
It’s that time of year again, where the entire poker world focuses all it’s attention on a single tournament being held in the Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. The 7th saw the second starting flight of the tournament, and was not short of action. With several former Main Event Champions in the field, and more notable names that I can fit into a single article, it was a field with more than enough start power, but still saw enough unknown players turn up to seat 1,942 chip stacks.
We did see a lot of casualties, and invariably some of these were going to be names we recognised. Greg Raymer, Scotty Nguyen were the two former champs to bite the bullet, while top names with a less storied history in this event to bust out included Lex Velhuis, Nick Abou Risk, Erick Lindgren, Marco Johnson and last year’s runner up Jesse Sylvia.
The list of players who did make it through the maelstrom of Day 1B included the names of Main event Winners Doyle Brunson (81,000), Chris Moneymaker (24,950) and Dan Harrington (55,000) along with the details of a slew of top flight pros. Annete Obrestad (108,750), Scott Seiver (94,100), Melanie Weisner (81,700), Dan Smith (54,575), Galen Hall (51,050) and Barny Boatman (33,000) all made it though the day, and they weren’t alone as many others are planning to be returning to action on Tuesday for their Day 2.
Day 1C starts at 12:00 on the 8th, and should see a veritable army of players signing up to try and win the most prestigious poker event of the year.
Player of the Year
With most of the events finished, we have a better understanding of how the Player of the year Race is going to look as we sail down the Seine River into Paris for the WSOPE in October, but with the Main Event giving 500 points for the winner, the race is still pretty much wide open. Loni Harwood has joined the top 3 after her win in Event #60 and Marco Johnson has leapfrogged over Tom Schneider after he picked up 17th in Event #59. We’ll have to wait until the November Nine have finished all the action before we know who is going to win the race this year, but if Negreanu, Aston or Harwood pick up a bracelet in Paris, it could be enough to give them the coveted title.
Loni Harwood (c) Joe Giron/WSOP
- Matthew Aston – 649.75
- Daniel Negreanu – 598.34
- Loni Harwood – 487.20
- David “Bakes” Baker – 475.35
- Don Nguyen – 466.13
- Marco Johnson – 439.38
- Tom Schneider – 438.51
- Chris Klodnicki – 400.80
- Jared Hamby – 395.73
- Anthony Gregg – 390.00
With the remaining action now solely concentrating on the Main Event, this will be the last Daily Update covering more than one event. Tomorrow will see a report on Day 1C, and we’ll keep you up to date with the action from Las Vegas until we are down to the final nine who will be returning in November to play down to a champion.