Robert Mizrachi has already won his third bracelet and is looking good in the $10k 2-7
1. Wang takes down the $5k NLHE
The first open event of the 2015 WSOP created a stacked final table, with Byron Kaverman, Amir Lehavot, Greg Merson and Bryn Kenney all battling for the bracelet and the $466,120 first prize. And it was Kenney who looked like taking it when he eliminated Artur Koren in third place when his K-Q spiked a King on the river to crack Koren’s Queens.
It left Kenney with a 7-1 chiplead over Michael Wang, but Wang – who came third in this year’s Irish Open – wouldn’t let go and eventually took the lead when he flopped the nut straight with 9-10 and got paid on all three streets. The end come immediately after, when both players rivered a flush. Wang raised all-in over Kenney’s bet and after tanking Kenney called with 6♥-9♥ and lost to Wang’s J♥-2♥.
Afterwards, Wang said, ‘I’m still trying to process it. This is the most prestigious prize in poker. This is the best thing in the game that’s ever happened to me. It’s going to take some time for this to sink in.’
Vanessa Selbst won last year’s first open bracelet event, but it was always going to be hard for another female player to emulate that in 2015 – only seven of the 422 entrants were women.
2. Mizrachi wins his third
His slightly more famous brother, Michael, has three bracelets, now Robert has as well after winning the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event for $255,022. Mizrachi came out on top of a field of 918 runners and had to battle a cold on the final table as well as his poker opponents.
Mizrachi benefited from a break that saw the two remaining players return on Day 4 to crown the winner. Jacob Dahl had a 2-1 chiplead and had Mizrachi all-in for the title but couldn’t finish him off and eventually the pendulum swung Mizrachi’s way. Talking afterwards, Mizrachi said how important his family support is.
‘Anytime one of us is playing, we cheer for each other,’ Mizrachi said. ‘When (Michael) is playing, I’m always wanting him to do well, and win if I’m not in it. There’s never been a rivalry between us.’
3. $3k Shootout gets the real star power
Actor James Woods has always enjoyed the World Series of Poker but had never made a final table before. That all changed when he beat one of the game’s toughest players, Doug Polk, in his second round match-up. Woods couldn’t keep his run-good going at the ten-handed final table though and bust out in seventh when his Twos were no good against David Peters K-Q. Woods survived the flop but a King on the turn did for his tournament life.
Nick Petrangelo went on to triumph, winning his first WSOP bracelet and moving his winnings for this year over the $1m mark.
4. Colossus breaks records but first prize disappoints
If you’re going to break the record for the largest live event in the history of the game, why not do it in style… 8,773 was the number to beat and, when the dust had settled, and voids removed from the field The Colossus ended with an incredible 22,374 entries creating a prize pool of $11,187,000. It showed the WSOP could have been a lot braver with the guarantee it had set at just $5m.
Day 2 finished a few hours ago and 3,447 players remain in the hunt – but not all of them are over the moon with the first prize that was announced. $638,880 is a pretty good return on investment, but with a tournament that’s all about the numbers, it’s slightly anti-climactic. Plus, as some pros such as JC Tran pointed out on Twitter, with $65 rake coming off every player, the WSOP actually took more than double first prize for running the event.
Action resumes today at 2pm.
5. Hyper Hold’em lives up to its name; first $10k event brings out the big names
11 hours is all it took for the Hyper Hold’em event to play down to the final table. After final tabling the $3k Shootout, James Woods made another deep run here finishing in 37th. Greg Merson finished 35th and Jason Mercier hit the rail in 29th. The final table starts today at 1pm and you can watch the final table on the live stream.
Meanwhile, the first $10k Championship event, the Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, brought out all the big names. 109 players entered and this number was halved by the end of the day. Big names still in contention are Phil Galfond, Calvin Anderson, Bryn Kenney, Scott Seiver and Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth is at the wrong end of the pile though – with just 4,100 in chips he’s the smallest stack left and he’ll need to draw on all of his short stacking skills to make a comeback when action resumes today at 2pm.
One other name returning today is Robert Mizrachi. He hopped into this event after winning his third bracelet and he’s well stacked in 15th place. Could this be the year of the Mizrachi?
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