WSOP What to Watch For: Danzer Racing Ahead in $10K Stud Hi-Low; Bonomo, Savage, Chad Chasing
The poker keeps coming without pause at the 2014 World Series of Poker with five different events in action on Wednesday. As is characteristic at the WSOP, there will be a variety of games being dealt today at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino with no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, NL deuce-to-seven draw, and seven-card stud hi-low all being spread.
One event — Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball — will be playing down to a winner today, with Joseph Cheong among the contenders in that one seeking to claim WSOP gold for the first time. Meanwhile other big names continuing their battles for bracelets today include Jeff Madsen, Sam Trickett, and George Danzer, just to name a few.
Also returning to healthy chips in the seven-card stud hi-low event is tournament director Matt Savage, with ESPN commentator Norman Chad likewise coming back in that one to battle further. Inconceivable? Hardly!
Here’s a full rundown of what to watch for in all five events playing out today:
Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Just 23 are left from a big starting field of 550 in Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em in which three-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Madsen starts with the chip lead today with a stack of 661,000, with Justin Conley (592,000) and Brian Yoon (587,000) his nearest challengers at the moment. Meanwhile Sam Trickett (currently in seventh position, 456,000), Timo Pfutzenreuter (eighth, 429,000) and Josh Arieh (10th, 385,000) are all also positioned to make a run at the bracelet and $633,341 first prize.
Madsen earned his third bracelet a year ago in a $3,000 pot-limit Omaha event where he also started the third day of play with the chip lead (with 19 remaining). That was Madsen’s first WSOP triumph since 2006 when as a 21-year-old he won two bracelets within a single week on his way to becoming that year’s WSOP Player of the Year.
Trickett is making his first cash of the summer after a rocky start thus far. He’s looking to earn his first WSOP bracelet and add further to his $11.2 million-plus WSOP winnings, more than $10 million of which came from his runner-up finish in the 2012 Big One for One Drop.
Scheduled as a four-day event, the plan today will be to play 10 more one-hour levels and see how many of the 23 are left standing for tomorrow’s finale. Play resumes at 1 p.m. PDT, so start checking the Event #35 live updates then to see who makes it through.
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
From a small field of just 241 players, just six remain in Event #36. Steven Wolansky returns to the chip lead with a stack of 257,000, putting him ahead of Samuel Touil (233,000) and Joseph Cheong (221,500). Rounding out the final table are Christopher Mecklin (145,000), German footballer Max Kruse (131,000), and Orjan Skommo (109,000).
None of these six players has ever won a WSOP bracelet, but Wolansky came as close as one can a year ago when he finished runner-up in the $2,500 8-game event. Cheong, of course, has come close as well, his third-place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event being one of three previous WSOP final tables for him. Like Wolansky, Cheong also has finished second in a WSOP event, taking runner-up in the $5K NLHE Mixed-Max event in 2012.
Of the others, Touil, Mecklin, and Kruse are all making their first WSOP cashes in Event #36, while Skommo has three previous in-the-money finishes to his credit, the highest previous one being a 14th-place finish in a $1K NLHE event last year.
Begin refreshing the Event #36 live updates starting at 1 p.m. today to see who of these six players wins his first WSOP bracelet and the $89,483 first prize.
Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
A big field of 967 played down to 113 and into the money yesterday in Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, with Brandon Paster (135,300) ending play on top of the counts ahead of Fabrice Soulier (129,300) and Michael Wang (113,900).
Others with decent chips to begin today’s Day 2 will include Erick Lindgren who bagged an even 100,000, as well as Taylor Paur and Raj Vohra who each collected 85,000.
Meanwhile down at the bottom of the counts to start today is two-time WSOP bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Fame nominee Humberto Brenes who managed to make the money for an eighth time this summer. Here is a list of the prizes captured thus far in 2014 by the “Shark”: