TWO MORE EVENTS START AT W.S.O.P. (Update)
Poker's most prestigious tournament continues to pack 'em in
27 survivors from a starting pack of 3,144 gathered Tuesday for the third and hopefully last day of event 34: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, with Michael Souza leading the hunt for the bracelet and the $488,283 that this competition awards the winner. Souza started the day comfortably ahead of nearest rival Rob Verspui as the only other player above the 600 000 chip mark.
Mark Schmid had a 200 000 chip lead on Trevor Vanderveen, Justin Cohen, Robbie Verspui, Benjamin Volpe, Andrew Rudnik and Jonathan Clancy as the last 7 players fought it out Tuesday evening Vegas time, with the first four players all holding over a million chips apiece at the start of level 27.
The second day of event 35: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed commenced Tuesday with 105 players surviving an initial first day field of 507, and notable names like Vanessa Selbst (chip leader), Eric Lindgren, Shaun Deeb, Mike "timex" McDonald, and Gregory Brooks still very much in contention, along with David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Joe Hachem, Brian Rast, Layne Flack, Andy Seth, Jeff Lisandro, Jason Mercier, Chance Kornuth, and the always exciting Tom Dwan.
There's a good reward of $548,095 attached to this new event, together with a coveted WSOP bracelet.
By level 18 on Tuesday evening the field was down to 21 players with the top ten chip counts held (in order) by Gregory Brooks (725,000), Erick Lindgren (500,000), Vanessa Selbst (485,000), Joseph Ressler (435,000), Tom Dwan (400,000), Michael McDonald (380,000), Jared Bleznick (340,000) Steven Merrifield (320,000) Jason Mercier (315,000) and Peter Jetten (315 000).
Clearly there is a lot more action in store in this event.
Event 36: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em launched Tuesday with a field lower than that achieved last year; only 1,734 signed up for the 2011 competition, nevertheless creating a major prize pool of $3.94 million.
The registration list showed an eclectic mix of amateurs, celebrities and professional players that included Ludovic Lacay, Shannon Shorr, Jeff Williams, Scott Montgomery, Jordan Young, Beth Shak, Brad Garrett, Vivek Rajkumar, Lars Bonding, Eric Baldwin, David Pham, Andre Akkari, Alex Gomes, La Sengphet, Erica Schoenberg, Jason Somerville, Dan Fleyshman, Joe Cada, and Jonathan Duhamel.
Playing into Tuesday night the field was down to 490 at level 9, with Chance Kornuth holding a 25 000 chip lead over his closest adversary but many ace players still in the running.
Event 37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship also kicked off Tuesday with a star-studded entry field of 240 (one player less than signed up for the event last year) generating a prize pool of $2.25 million.
This competition is the final mixed game championship of the 2011 Series, attracting many pros anxious to show off their skills in a range of games as well as earn some money and a bracelet.
Late evening Tuesday Vegas time saw the action reach level 6 with Eugene Katchalov leading on 64,000, with Jimmy Fricke and Andrew Barber biting his heels on 63,000 apiece, and a slew of top players still in a remaining field of 238.