Trevor Pope has half of the chips in play at the final table of Event #2, Scott Seiver and Boyne are still in the hunt in Event #3, WSOP bracelet winner Brendan Hobbs has the chip lead in Event #4 and the UK’s Matthew Ashton leads the first non Hold’em event.
Fans of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are in for a treat, as Event #2 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) has reached it’s climax, and there is quite a cast battling it out for the bling.
Trevor Pope has a huge advantage over the final eight with nearly half of the chips in play. The former European Poker Tour (EPT) champion, David Vamplew, is the only non-American in the field and he will start tied in second place with Jared Hamby – both on 629,000.
The final table could have been even stronger with the likes of Tom Marchese (10th), Brian Rast (14th), Griffin Benger (16th) and Ben Hamnett (19th) all starting off their series with impressive performances that just failed to have the legs when it mattered most.
Event #3 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) has managed to lose more men than Chelsea F.C lose football managers. 3,162 players condensed into a much more manageable 38-players after two days of action. In a tournament that many people believe is nothing but a game of bingo there are, once again, some cracking players remaining in the field: Vladimir Geshkenbein, Nam Le, Dermot Blain and Scott Seiver all have a chance of winning the first-prize of $491,360.
Event #4: $1,500 NLHE (Six-Max) completed its first day of action. 1,069-players entered the event and 117 players found their way into the draw for the second day. The chip leader, Brendan Hobbs, knows the route to the summit of a $1,500 event after he won the ‘ante only’ event last series for a $256,691 first prize. Two more WSOP gold bracelet winners are chomping at the heels of Hobson. The 2009 WSOP Main Event champion, Joe Cada, is in second place with 127,000, and the 2009 bracelet winner Keven Stammen is settled in third with 112,800 chips. Chris Moorman, Bryan Piccioli, Jon Turner, Matt Salsberg, Jonathan Duhamel, Shannon Shorr and Phil Hellmuth just a few starlets who have also made it through to Day Two.
Finally, the first non-bracelet event has started. Event #5: $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low-or-better attracted a field of 350 entrants and only 100 have bitten the dust as the first day came to a close.
Leading the way is the British pro Matthew Ashton who has 57,800 in chips. Eli Elezra, Max Pescatori, Matt Glantz, Jeremy Ausmus and Men Nguyen are also in the top end of the chip counts. The first prize is $216,958.
