Idan Raviv pipped the UK’s Iaron Lightbourne to the WSOP bracelet last night
1. UK goes close in spooky repeat of 2014 Main Event
The UK had its first chance to warm-up its infamous rail last night as not one but two of its players made the final table of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event.
And, after Cord Garcia and his roommate making the final table of The Colossus, this was perhaps an even weirder story. Iaron Lightbourne and Craig McCorkell both went super-deep in the WSOP Main Event last year. Lightbourne finished 22nd and McCorkell almost bubbled the November Nine finishing an unlucky 13.
They were in tandem again last night, with positions reversed. McCorkell finished fifth for $82,467 and Iaron Lightbourne almost won his first bracelet but lost heads-up to Israeli Idan Raviv. Lightbourne took $283,063 for second and Raviv took the bracelet and $457,007.
2. Second chance saloon
The UK gets another chance to break its duck tonight, in Event #13: $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better. Three players will come back at 2pm and Benjamin Dobson is currently in second place. Hani Awad from the States has double the chips in first, with Russian Konstantin Masiak bringing up the rear.
3. Women smash the numbers game
The final table of the $1,500 No-Limit Shootout plays tonight and two women are in the frame, Elizabeth Montizanti and Huichen ‘Kitty’ Kuo. If either of them won they’d bag the first bracelet for a female player this year, and the firt NLHE Shootout bracelet by a female player ever. Standing between them and glory is two men who have experience of WSOP final tables, Dennis Phillips and Daniel Strelitz. Phillips finished third in the 2008 Main Event, and has finished 2nd and 5th in the Seniors Event. Strelitz finished 3rd in a NLHE Six-Handed event last year.
The action starts at 9pm and the live stream, will start 30 minutes later. Avoid Twitter if you don’t want spoilers.
4. Stacked final table for the $10k PLO Championship
Lots of big names fell before the end of the day, including Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu who stone-cold bubbled the event in 19th. Todd Brunson made the cash but crashed out in 14th. However, the final table is still uber-stacked… Jason Koon (24 WSOP cashes) leads the way, with Shaun Deeb, Paul Volpe (runner-up in the $10k Heads-Up), Greg Merson and Dario Sammartino all with decent stacks. Play resumes at 2pm and it will be streamed live with commentary on a 30-minute delay.
5. Who wants to be a millionaire?
Day 1A of the Millionaire Maker is in the bag and 3,347 entries have become just over 500, with Tomas Altamirano bagging up the biggest stack. Day 1B is set to to be another monster today, with the action kicking off at the rather poker-player unfriendly time of 10am.
Update
As far as we know the investigation into the allegations of cheating at the $10k Heads-Up are ongoing. There has been no official word from organisers yet, beyond that their initial tests on cards in play had come back as negative. In an interview Valeriu Coca has denied all the allegations and accused his accusers of poor sportsmanship and being bad losers.
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