Robert takes another for the Mizrachi family in the WSOP’s first ever Dealer’s Choice event
Robert Mizrachi won his second WSOP bracelet in the inaugural Dealer’s Choice tournament. This six-handed event put the game selection over to the players, who could choose from 16 poker variants including no-limit and limit hold’em, razz, PLO, five-card draw, badugi and 2-7 triple draw. The player on the button selects the game for the next orbit and once that’s complete the button moves to the player on the left.
It sounds niche but 419 players were confident enough in their all-round game to stump up the $1,500 entry fee and big names like Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, Jennifer Harman and Michael Mizrachi were all in the mix.
Only Harman survived to make Day 3 when 10 players returned, although another Mizrachi, Robert, was now chipleader. Harman busted in 10th, with the final female player Melissa Burr following her in 9th.
Down to the final table, and Frank Kassela was first out in a PLO hand, followed by Daniel Ideam, Bill Chen and Shane Abbott, leaving Robert Mizrachi and Aaron Scahff heads-up. Schaff had the chip lead but was ground down by the grinder’s brother and eventually bust in an A-5 triple draw hand. Mizrachi made a 6-5-3-2-A with two draws remaining to scoop the $147,092 first prize.
Event 41: $1,500 Six-Handed Dealer’s Choice
[table id=103 /]
Brits go close
Richard Ashby just missed out on his third final table of the 2014 WSOP in the $5,000 Six-Handed PLO event. Ashby finished 7th for $48,011, with another two Brits going deep (Demis Hassabis was 11th and Philip Long was 17th). Phil Laak made the final table but busted in 6th, with US player Michael Drummond taking the bracelet and the $541,747 first prize.
Event 42: $5,000 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha
[table id=104 /]
PokerPlayer writer Ryan Spittles also missed out on his first WSOP bracelet after making it to the final table of a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. Spittles was a short stack but he was also unlucky to bust in 8th when he got his chips in preflop with A♥-K♥ against Jason Johnson’s A♦-10♥. A Ten on the flop was good enough for Johnson. The two remaining players, Jordan Morgan and Evan McNiff couldn’t settle their heads-up battle last night and will return to play for the gold tonight with pretty even stacks.
Poker Players Championship
One of the biggest events of the WSOP is also underway – the $50k Poker Players’ Championship. 132 players contested the prestigious event last year, with Brit pro Matthew Ashton taking the biggest win of his career and the $1.7m first prize. Only 85 runners had entered by the end of Day 1 this year, but players could late-reg for two hours on Day 2. Matt Glantz ended the day as chipleader, with two-time winner Michael Mizrachi, Richard Ashby, Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu also bagging their chips for Day 2.
When registration ended on Day 2, a disappointing number of 102 players had officially entered. 55 remained by the end of the day, with Jason Mercier on top of the pile with 802,600, followed by Jonathan Duhamel (783k) and Shaun Deeb (724,400). Scott Siever, Eli Elezra, Bertrand Grospellier and Phil Ivey are still hopeful of catching them. There are four UK players left in – Richard Ashby (218k) and Stephen Chidwick (215,900) in mid-field, Talal Shakerchi very short (38,600) and Elior Sion (351,900) heading the Brit-pack. Action resumes at 10pm UK time.
$50k Poker Players Championship (end Day 2 top ten)
[table id=105 /]
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