All eyes were on the start of the WSOP Big One for One Drop on Sunday as one of the biggest events ever got underway. We’ll get back to how the 48 entrants got on later as one woman continued to send shockwaves through the poker world with her latest win.
Vanessa Selbst won out for girl power for the first time since 2008 as she took down Event #52: Six-Max Ten-Game Mixed Event. Poker’s newly crowned queen took home $244,259 by beating out a field of some 421 players and became the sixth woman ever to win multiple bracelets at the WSOP. Selbst was also the last woman to win a WSOP bracelet in an open buy-in event and celebrated her victory with her roommates and railers for the night – Vanessa Rousso, Liv Boeree, Maria Ho and Tiffany Mitchell. After the win, she told Bluff Magazine: “I feel so lucky to have the friends that I do, and we travel around the circuit together. We spend a lot of time together talking poker and having fun”.
It was a busy day for the women of poker as the $1,000 Ladies NLHE Championship came to an end with Yen Dang taking down Event #51. Whilst Selbst will take the headlines, Dang showed that she has that much needed WSOP mettle. There was a huge field of 936 at this year’s event and it all contributed to the $170,587 prize that she managed to garner.
The WSOP’s latest male victor came in the shape of Panayote “Peter” Vilandos in the $5,000 NLHE Event #50. Vilandos managed to beat out a field of 1,001 and take a huge prize of $952,694 home with him. It’s the victor’s third WSOP bracelet and confirms his place as “a part of the furniture” as far as the WSOP is concerned.
Most of you will have come here to read about Event #55 and we’re not going to disappoint any longer. Of the 48 entrants at the start of the day, 11 already know that it was a million wasted after they were eliminated within hours of their respective outlays. The list includes Jens Kyllönen, Jonathan Duhamel, Paul Phua, Erik Seidel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Giovanni Guarascio. Brian Rast is out in front on 10,710,000 chips with Phil Hellmuth close behind on 8,395,000 chips. Phil Ivey is still alive with 2,840,000 chips and Tom Dwan looks well placed with a stack of 4,810,000 in 10th.
Of the “amateur” players that paid to be in the mix, French businessman Frederique Banjout is in third place with the remaining hedge fund managers, CEOs and so on staying on for the second day.
Day two of Event #53, $1,500 NLHE, is done and the 3,166 that started the tournament are down to just 28. Hugh Henderson holds a slender lead with 1,168,000 chips, marginally ahead of Randy Ashe, with 1,150,000 and Bryan Piccioli on 1,097,000. Britain’s Victoria Coren is still alive in fourth place with a stack of 934,000.
Last but not least the $1,000 buy-in Event #54 NLHE got underway with 3,221 posting the entry price. 265 remain with Clayton Fletcher and Jonas Mackoff sharing the lead with stacks of 148,500.
