Lee Davy brings you a round up of the main stories from the 39th day of the 46th Annual World Series of Poker, including a shock in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championships, two bracelets for good old Britannia, and a clever little Italian leading the Lucky Sevens.
The melodies of a mass of different songs make a jukebox worth turning on. I understand why the World Series of Poker (WSOP) decided to create the fetus known as the first online poker bracelet. I just don’t agree with it.
One person who couldn’t give a monkey’s about my opinion is Anthony “casedismissed” Spinella. A Playa del Carmen resident – we’ll assume he moved there for the grind, and not THE GRIND – managed to defeat 905 entrants on his way to winning the first online poker bracelet in series history, and the first of his career.
The $859,750 prize pool, and $197,743 first prize, set new records in their respective fields in a US online poker industry that’s started to creep into regulated territory at the pace of a snail with a tack stuck in it’s foot. Did anybody expect anything different though?
I did.
I expected more players to participate. The fact that they didn’t leads me to believe that people think, like I do, that there is no place in the WSOP for an online event. That’s why PokerStars invented SCOOP and WCOOP, and didn’t whack them on the tail end of the European Poker Tour (EPT).
There will be plenty of people who will say this was a success. Not only did players compete from all over Nevada, but there were also qualifiers from New Jersey, and globally from Winamax, 888 and PlayNow.
The final table housed some impressive specimens. David Tuthill finished 5th, and Ryan Franklin 6th; in a final table that was over in the time it takes you to watch Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
This was Spinella’s 21st WSOP cash, and his second final table appearance. Mike Gorodinsky stretched his WSOP Player of the Year (POY) lead over Anthony Zinno with a 26th place finish: Joe Kuether (28th), Jesse Sylvia (54th), Nick Rampone (87th) and Shannon Shorr (97th) also cashed.
Final Table Results
1st. Anthony Spinella – $197,743
2nd. Hunter Cichy – $116,066
3rd. Craig Varnell – $73,079
4th. Andrew Rose – $55,884
5th. David Tuthill – $47,286
6th. Ryan Franklin – $33,530
Andrew Barber Wins the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship
For the second year on the bounce we have had a surprise winner of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship. Last year, Chris Wallace was the underdog done good, and this year it’s a 32-year old PhD student called Andrew Barber who fell into the role.
204 entrants created a total prizepool of $1.9m, and according to WSOP reports, Barber ‘obliterated a star-stacked final table’ on his way to the $517,766 first prize.
The term ‘star-stacked’ was dragged out of the thesaurus, as there were eight former bracelet winners in the final 12-players. This included Viacheslav Zhukov (2nd), former WSOP Main Event winners Joe Hachem (5th) and Scotty Nguyen (7th) and the former WSOP POY Frank Kassela (6th).
Barber told the WSOP that he found jet-fuelled motivation after an opponent called him a bad player.
“That really riled me up and got me motivated to win.” Said Barber.
I gather Phil Hellmuth uses the same trick.
Final Table Results
1st. Andrew Barber – $517,766
2nd. Viacheslav Zhukov – $319,989
3rd. Don Zewin – $210,629
4th. Jared Bleznick – $153,638
5th. Joe Hachem – $114,308
6th. Frank Kassela – $86,541
7th. Scotty Nguyen – $66,579
8th. Arash Ghaneian – $51,986
Other notables to run deep included Eli Elezra (9th), Barry Greenstein (12th) and Brock Parker (16th).
Paul Hoefer Wins the Little One for One Drop
The German’s are officially the second most dominant poker nation at the 46th Annual WSOP, after Paul Hoefer bagged another bracelet for the country where they speak English with all the emotion of that annoying little robot that used to leave me to hacking my bell end off during episodes of Buck Rogers.
Hoefer won the Little One for One Drop. The event attracted 3,214 unique entries, 1,341 re-entries, meaning 4,555 entrants created a total prizepool of over $4.1m.
It was a dazzling dream for the 24-year old student from Leipzig. He was making his debut at the WSOP and had cashed three times prior to his groundbreaking win.
“There’s no question I ran super good. But I played good, I think. When you play good and the cards hit you, that’s an unstoppable combination.” Hoefer told the WSOP after his win.
Final Table Results
1st. Paul Hoefer – $645,969
2nd. Mario Lopez – $399,455
3rd. Senovio Ramirez III – $287,620
4th. John Reading – $212,559
5th. Carlos Chang – $158,404
6th. Dustin Lee – $119,049
7th. Rainer Kempe – $90,189
8th. Jason Caulk – $68,912
9th. Brett Shaffer – $53,088
Alex Lindop Wins Event #59: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Day #39 contained two victories from the British Isles. The first was Alex Lindop. The 25-year old from Stoke-on-Trent defeated 2,155 players to capture the bracelet in Event #59: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
It was an interesting final table with former WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold making his deepest run since that record breaking performance finishing (5th), World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member Yorane Kerignard finished 3rd, and former WSOP bracelet holder Haixia Zhang finished 4th.
Final Table Results
1st. Alex Lindop – $531,037
2nd. Aurelien Guiglini – $330,578
3rd. Yorane Kerignard – $229,787
4th. Haixia Zhang – $165,492
5th. Jamie Gold – $120,952
6th. Luis Fabio Fonseca Freitas – $89,473
7th. Jason Herron – $67,058
8th. Joshua Evans – $50,897
9th. Rick Alvarado – $39,085
Gerald Ringe Wins Event #65: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
The second Brit to win a piece of gold on Day #39 was Gerald Ringe. He was making his third WSOP cash of his life, and earned more money than the entirety of the eight years he had previously spent racking up scores on the Hendon Mob website with his $180,943 score.
Daniel Idema was making his third final table of the summer, but his third place finish wasn’t quite good enough to bag his second bracelet, and Noah Bronstein was making his second final table after previously finishing third in the $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) event.
547 entered, $738,450 was raised, and Ringe has become the third British player to win a bracelet this year after the aforementioned Lindop and John Gale.
Final Table Results
1st. Gerald Ringe – $180,943
2nd. Christopher Vitch – $111,860
3rd. Daniel Idema – $70,322
4th. Noah Bronstein – $50,473
5th. John Esposito – $36,811
6th. Owais Ahmed – $27,285
7th. John Cover – $20,551
8th. Chris George – $15,721
Other notables that went deep included Adam Owen (10th), John Monnette (12th) and Todd Brunson (13th)
Jack Duong Wins Event #62: $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em Event
Jack Duong won the inaugural Bounty No-Limit Hold’em event. He defeated a field of 2,178 entrants to take the first prize of $333,351, and $6,000 worth of bounties. According to WSOP.com some players cashed in 18 bounties, making this event another that will probably become a mainstay for years to come.
Duong has an impressive record at the WSOP. He only started racking up WSOP scores last year, and since then has cashed six times with this being his third final table appearance.
The 26-year old from New Jersey told WSOP.com that he came into this event stuck $75,000, after ‘bricking everything.’
All that has no doubt been forgotten.
Final Table Results
1st. Jack Duong – $333,351
2nd. Vitezslav Pesta – $206,734
3rd. Adam Johnson – $146,067
4th. Scott Sisler – $105,024
5th. Paul Warren – $76,514
6th. Ronald Sullivan – $56,483
7th. Vojtech Ruzicka – $42,228
8th. John Myung – $31,971
9th. Peter Murphy – $24,511
Other notables to run deep were Ruben Visser (11th), Michel Abecassis (12th) and Govert Metaal (14th).
Rocco Palumbo Leads Event #66: $777 LUCKY SEVENS No-Limit Hold’em
Another new, and popular event is the $777 LUCKY SEVENS No-Limit Hold’em event. 4,422 players created a total prizepool of $3m and close to $500,000 are reserved for the winner.
61 players return for Day 3 with the WPT Champions Club member, Rocco Palumbo, leading the lot. Other notables with chips include Faraz Jaka (659,000), Joe Kuether (509,000) and Andrew Teng (27th).
Top Five Chip Counts
1st. Rocco Palumbo – 1,137,000
2nd. Robert Toye – 1,133,000
3rd. Bao Nguyen – 829,000
4th. John Gallaher – 766,000
5th. Matt Matros – 699,000
Rep Porter Leads Final 12 in Event #67: $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship
Finally, the first iteration of the $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship has reached its final day of activity. Rep Porter leads the final 12 players, but just look below this sentence to see for yourself how many exciting players remain in that one.
The winner will pick up $319,792.
Top Five Chip Counts
1st. Rep Porter – 558,500
2nd. Jeff Madsen – 455,500
3rd. Jussi Nevanlinna – 398,500
4th. David Benyamine – 379,000
5th. Jens Lakemeier – 325,000
Other notables remaining include Stuart Rutter (137,500), David Chiu (127,000) and Paul Volpe (70,500)
