Day 40 of this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) is one of those that saw the tumbleweed gathering as far as bracelet awarding is concerned. It’s a day that was supposed to see two players leave with a gold encrusted wrist. The reality was that a whole day’s play wasn’t enough to separate the wheat from the chaff in two events as they rolled onto the reserve day.
Event #57 was one that was supposed to crown a winner with Gregory Merson and Keith Lehr the two players left at the poker altar in this $10,000 NLHE/Six-Handed event. Merson leads the pair with a stack of 9,835,000, which is double that of Lehr who sits on 4,380,000. If Merson were to win it would be his first WSOP gold whereas Lehr already has one after winning back in 2003. This one also has a huge prize of $1,136,197 for the winner.
When we went to press Event #58: $3k Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better was still rolling along with the three players left all bunched together on a similar stack. Late in the day David “ODB” Baker saw his chances of a second WSOP 2012 bracelet evaporate as he was eliminated and it means that Viacheslav Zhukov, Roch Cousineau and Chris Bell should be the three who’ll be returning tomorrow.
Day 1b of the final big pre Main Event $1k NLHE concluded earlier today with Alex Cordero taking a slender lead into the second day. The Canadian player grabbed the moose by the horns and rode it to a stack of 100,475 in Event #59. It means that Ronald Lee, day 1a’s leader, has to settle with second and British poker prodigy Jake Cody is in third place.
“From Russia with love” is a phrase that well describes the first day of Event #60 after Konstantin Puchov showed what he was made of in the $10k 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit). He emerged from a field of just 101 and built up a stack of 133,400 along the way. Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Andy Bloch are all lurking menacingly among the 101 still in the frame and they will play down to a final table of seven tomorrow.
Find more on WSOP and CalvinAyre.com’s Poker month coverage.
