WSOP numbers exceeded in several events

With 17 World Series of Poker events either completed or in progress by Friday, it appears that Black Friday has not had the dampening effect that many feared it would. Player turnouts have in general been good, with several events recording bigger entry fields than last year.

Without the actions against online sites Full Tilt, Pokerstars and Absolute there would almost certainly have been bigger numbers still, but in general the organisers appears satisfied with the way in which this 42nd WSOP is developing.

In event 13: $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, the sixteen survivors from an original entry field of 1,440 returned to the felt on Friday to find out who would take the bracelet and the $369,371 main prize for this event.

Among those taking their seats for the last day of the tournament were Dan Kelly, Erik Cajelais, Frank Kassela, David Pham, Lars Bonding, and Vitaly Lunkin.

The format was two eight handed tables, scheduled to combine into a single once the eleventh elimination took place. All players started with 450,000 in chips and with a re-started structure unique to the day.

Daniel Fischer was the first to head for the rail, eliminated in 16th Place ($13,238) by Joe Webber.

Approaching midnight Friday Vegas time Daniel Makowsky had just been eliminated in third place for $151,379 by Andrew Badecker, clearing the path for a heads up between Badecker and Robbie Verspui, with the former holding a 4 to 1 chip lead.

Event 14, the $3,000 buy-in Limit Hold'em appeared to be running parallel with event 13 as 18 players took their seats Friday for the third day of the competition, all that remained of an initial field of 337.

Shawn Keller was the chip leader when play restarted, chased by Sorel Mizzi, Jeff Shulman, and Victor Ramdin, but they were all gone before midnight Friday, leaving just two players - Tyler Bonkowski and Brandon Demes - hotly contesting the heads up with similar chip counts when InfoPowa went to press.

Event 15, the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em recorded an initial entry field of 765 players - 115 up on last year's registrations. By Day 2 only 88 survived with Ronald Lee holding the chip lead when the remaining contestants returned to their seats Friday.

Prominent among them was James Dempsey, Joe Sebok, Ali Eslami, John Dolan, John Racener, and Alessio Isaia, and with the money bubble looming at the 72nd elimination, the action was fast and furious.

By late Friday night the field was down to 16 at level 18, with Brian Rast holding a comfortable chip lead twice that of his nearest opponent.

Event 16, the $10,000 buy-in NL 2-7 Lowball Championship entered its second day, having shedded 38 of its Day 1 registration field of 126 - 25 players more than entered in 2010. Vincent Musso started the day's action as the chip leader, but there was plenty of quality opposition remaining in the field, including Shaun Deeb, Jennifer Harman, Nick Shulman, Jeffrey Lisandro, and last year's champion of this event, David "Bakes" Baker.

Approaching midnight Friday and at level 16 there were 14 players still in contention, led by Steve Sung.

Event 17, the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. was the only competition to launch Friday but it attracted 963 players, well over expectations and generating a prize pool of $1,300,050.

In this event players compete in five poker disciplines, Limit Hold’em, Omaha Eight or Better, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Eight or better, and have to exhibit an ability to play all five games at a high level if they hope to advance to the final table.

Notable names seen taking their places included Todd Brunson, Ylon Schwartz, Jean-Robert Bellande, Scott Clements, Tom Dwan, Eric Baldwin, Eddie Blumenthal, John Racener, Chad Brown, Eli Elezra, Alexander Kostritsyn, Victor Ramdin, Lyle Berman and Andre Akkari.

Approaching midnight Friday, play was well into the tenth level scheduled for Day 1, with 196 players remaining, led by Eli Elezra.

Source: InfoPowa News