Another busy week of WSOP action kicked off with Greek pro Athanasios Polychronopoulos winning his second career bracelet. The win came in one of the many $1,500 no-limit hold’em tourneys and was good for $518,755. Meanwhile 2009 Main Event champion Joe Cada came up just short this time finishing in fourth place.
With 14 players left in event 18 and Phil Ivey still in the mix, everyone in Vegas had one eye on the live updates to see if the games greatest player could win his first ever hold’em bracelet. Unfortunately it was not to be, but something tells us he will back back in a similar spot soon. In the end though it was Taylor Paur who came out on top of the 2,071 field to claim his first ever bracelet and a cheque worth $340,260.
The next tournament – a $5,000 pot-limit hold’em affair – only got 195 entrants but was packed full of the games top players. The man who rose to the occasion though was Davidi Kitai, the talented Belgian poker pro who became the week’s second multiple WSOP winner after collecting the second bracelet of his career. The well-earned win which was worth $224,560 was anything but straight forward with a star-studded final table that featured the likes of Dario Minieri, Eugene Katchalov and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.
In event 20 all the smart money was on Todd Brunson who looked set to win the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better title, but in the end the son of the godfather of poker came up just short eventually finishing in third place. A bumper 1,014 player turnout was partly to blame for play taking a day longer than scheduled, but one person who didn’t mind the extra wait was Canadian Calen McNeil who ended up winning his first ever bracelet along with $277,274 in prize money.
With two final table appearances and six cashes already, all the talk at the start of the final day of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed event was if online ace Dan Kelly could make his third final table and perhaps even go one better and win a second career bracelet. In the end though the American narrowly missed out on the final table after crashing out in tenth place. But Kelly’s exit was good news for 22-year-old Austrian pro Martin Finger who added a WSOP bracelet and $506,764 to his already impressive poker CV which also includes an EPT title.
In other WSOP news, event 22, the $1,500 Pot-limit Omaha tournament is down to the final 9 with Noah Schwartz leading the way, while Frank Kassela has the largest stack of the ten remaining players in event 23. Meanwhile event 24 is down to the final 200 players and Main Event runner-up Paul Wasicka is looking good, currently sitting with a the chip lead.
If we’re being honest it hasn’t been the most exciting start to a WSOP ever. Fingers crossed that we see some big names making some final tables soon.
