Our daily review from the 50th Anniversary of the World Series of Poker and it’s a first cash and bracelet for Derek McMaster in Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better.
Can you remember the first time you tried to fix a puncture, danced in a nightclub or made a clay ashtray for your mum?
One doubts you were perfect.
Not the first time.
Derek McMaster is different.
McMaster was one of the 853-entrants to compete in Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better. Having never cashed in a WSOP event, as he passed his money to the cashier in the Rio, he wasn’t expecting to see it again.
Now he has $228,228 and a gold bracelet.
It’s McMaster’s second live tournament win, both in derivatives of Omaha, and his bounty surpasses the personal best of $20,988 he earned back in 2009 for finishing 3/117 in the 2009 Great Minnesota Freezeout in the Canterbury Card Club.
It was a stellar final table with the partypoker ambassador, Patrick Leonard, hoping to add a victory to his side event win at the recent MILLIONS South America event. John Esposito and David Halpern were in the hunt for bracelet #2, and last year’s WSOP Player of the Year, Ben Yu, was also hoping to avoid an errant stick in the spokes of his wheel.
Then you had the two stalwarts.
Tom McCormick was making his 15th WSOP final table, and Shannon Shorr took a seat for the 9th time. How frustrating it must be for people to exert so much time, money and sweat only to see someone rock up and take what they yearn for at the first attempt.
None of them reached the end zone.
Jason Berilgen, who once finished 5/466 in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event back in the 2005 WSOP, did reach the end zone but he wasn’t able to overcome the end boss. McMaster began with a 6.2m>2.3m chip lead, and he never surrendered it.
Final table results
1. Derek McMaster – $228,228
2. Jason Berilgen – $141,007
3. John Esposito – $98,807
4. David Halpern – $70,231
5. Joseph Aronesty – $50,646
6. Tom McCormick – $37,063
7. Ben Yu – $27,530
8. Shannon Shorr – $20,760
9. Patrick Leonard – $15,897
Three more stars who went deeper than Jacques Cousteau were WSOP bracelet winners Mike Matusow (17th), Andrey Zaichenko (20th) and Jeff Madsen (28th).
The best of the rest
The Short-Deck buzz hasn’t reached Vegas, yet. Only 61 players entered Event #8: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em, and at the end of Day 1, 18 remain with Triton reg Gabe Patgorski leading the way. Ben Lamb, Jason Somerville, Sean Winter, Justin Bonomo and Peter Jetten are still in the mix.
The first online event of the series – Event #7: $400 WSOP.com No-Limit Hold’em attracted 1,965 entrants, and they are currently playing down to a winner. Phil Hellmuth remains in the hunt for bracelet #16 in that one.
Event #3: BIG 50 – $500 No-Limit Hold’em pulled in 6,095-entrants from the first four starting flights, and 1,580 made it through to Day 2. Event #6: $2,500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw attracted 296-entrants, and Jake Schwartz leads the final two tables, with Mike Gorodinsky, Bryce Yockey and Andrew Brown seeking more bracelets.
Finally, Ben Heath leads the final six players in Event #5: 50th Annual High Roller No-Limit Hold’em. The event attracted 110-entrants, and the winner will pick up $1.4m.
Here are the chip counts in that one.
1. Ben Heath – 7,630,000
2. Sam Soverel – 7,540,000
3. Andrew Lichtenberger – 5,615,000
4. Chance Kornuth – 5,000,000
5. Nick Petrangelo – 4,100,000
6. Dmitry Yurasov – 3,660,000
