In today’s World Series of Poker review, Mike Wattel made it bracelet #2 after beating Chris Ferguson in the heads-up phase of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, and the Main Event draws 7,221 players – the third largest in the past 48-years.
There was a baseball stadium full of people who wanted Mike Wattel to beat the living crap out of Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson in the heads-up phase of Event #72: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, but Wattel was laser-focused on one person – himself.
That type of intensity comes about when you last won a bracelet 18-years ago, and still had the memory of losing to Nick Schulman in the heads-phase of the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball in 2012. Full Tilt Ponzi schemes don’t enter the equation.
Jesus and the resurrection continue to spark debate throughout the poker community over his involvement in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Had he beat Wattel, when heads-up, he would have taken the lead in the Player of the Year (POY) race, but Wattel put an end to that by taking the most lusted after scalp in this series.
With Ferguson failing to capture 100% POY points, John Monnette moves into the lead, with John Racener, and Ferguson not that far behind. Monnette finished fifth in this one, his 14th WSOP cash. Ferguson and Mr Angry weren’t the only two players running hotter than a siwmming pool filled with lava – Bryce Yockey appeared in his fourth final table of the summer, and it was number three for Deeb. David Benyamine also made an appearance after finishing sixth in this event last year.
In the end, though, it was Wattel who broke his 18-year hoodoo and saved the poor cameraman from having to ask Ferguson to say cheese while holding a gold bracelet.
The event attracted 87 entrants, one less than last year.
Final Table Results
1. Mike Wattel – $245,451
2. Chris Ferguson – $151,700
3. Perry Friedman – $104,416
4. Sean Mirrasouli – $73,810
5. John Monnette – $53,621
6. Bryce Yockey – $40,066
7. Shaun Deeb – $30.817
8. David Benyamine – $24,419
Other players who needed a cold compress after hitting the rail hard at the business end were Randy Ohel (10th), Jason Mercier (11th), and Todd Brunson (13th)
WSOP Player of the Year Top 10
1. John Monnette – 865.21
2. John Racener – 853.16
3. Chris Ferguson – 848.31
4. Ryan Hughes – 820.71
5. Ray Henson – 722.86
6. Ben Yu – 718.72
7. Daniel Negreanu 717.76
8. Alex Foxen – 708.73
9. James Obst – 667.48
10. Barry Greenstein – 638.90
WSOP Main Event Round Up
The WSOP Main Event has breezed through the first three starting flights with the efficiency of a Starbucks Employee of the Month making cups of coffee.
Day 1a attracted 795 players including the reigning champion Qui Nguyen who sat down donning the same wolf motif baseball cap that served him so well throughout last year’s hike to the summit. It was the largest Day 1a turnout since 2013 when Ryan Riess picked up the $8.3m first prize.
Here are the Top 10 chip counts:
1. Morten Mortensen – 276,000
2. Sam Grafton – 231,600
3. Griffin Abel – 226,000
4. Jonathan Little – 211,300
5. David Eldridge – 207,000
6. Nachman Berlin – 205,000
7. Frank Crivello – 192,000
8. Michael Ravn – 188,800
9. Rahul Byrraju – 186,100
10. Ronnie Brown – 181,100
Other stars who made it through the day included Billy Baxter (94,800), Mike Matusow (94,000), Qui Nguyen (96,700), Tom Schneider (45,900), Doug Polk (42,700), and Martin Jacobson (36,800).
Day 1b was also very popular with 2,164 players making good use of the overflow space, the largest Day 1b field in six years. 1,643 players made it to Day 2.
Here are the Top 10 chip counts:
1. Richard Dubini – 254,500
2. Lawrence Bayley – 247,400
3. Serge Chechin – 229,800
4. Naoya Kihara – 220,700
5. Sergio Fernandez – 218,800
6. Alan Schein – 218,000
7. Brandon Meyers – 216,000
8. Tobias Ziegler – 215,300
9. Yisheng Cheng – 214,400
10. Brandon Adams – 203,500
Also making the cut were Barry Greenstein (146,800), Nick Schulman (131,200), Adrian Mateos (129,000), Andy Frankenberger (116,400), Layne Flack (107,000), Max Pescatori (84,200), Jonathan Duhamel (67,500), Mike Gorodinsky (62,200), Erik Seidel (53,400), Benny Glazer (40,700), Erick Lindgren (34,200), David Bach (33,300), Brian Yoon (29,500), and Brian Hastings (14,200).
Day 1c rounded things off nicely after 4,262 players entered to make the 2017 WSOP Main Event the third largest in the history of the game, with only the Jamie Gold win (2006) & Jonathan Duhamel’s win (2010), pulling in a better haul than 7,221.
Here are the Top 10 chip counts:
1. Jerome Brion – 248,000
2. Tyson Mao – 242,800
3. Michael Pedley – 240,900
4. Rudy Sawa – 238,600
5. Carl Carodenuto – 237,800
6. Jason Mann – 236,000
7. Eric Nathan – 228,500
8. Daniel Barry – 224,500
9. David Toneman – 221,300
10. Adam Levy – 220,700
Other legends of the felt to make it to Day 2 included, Brian Rast (126,900), Johnny Chan (120,600), Scotty Nguyen (108,400), Phil Hellmuth (87,400), Rep Porter (82,000), Michael Mizrachi (81,500), Allen Cunningham (80,000), Davidi Kitai (76,300), Antonio Esfandiari (72,100), Dominik Nitsche (32,200), David Pham (30,200), Jason Mercier (28,500), Farzad Bonyadi (26,400), Daniel Negreanu (26,000), and Frank Kassela (16,000).
The prize pool is $67,877,400, you need to register 1,084 or higher to get some money back, and the winner will receive $8,150,000.
