1,629-players decided to buy a lottery ticket for Event #34: $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) and at the dinner break there are around 200-players left in the field. The fast and furious format is scything people down like a bad case of Ebola, but as has become standard at this years series, there are some top quality players left in the field as we approach the money bubble period.
One of the luminaries studying his mobile phone during the break was the five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder Allen Cunningham. You have to go back to 2007 for Cunningham’s last WSOP victory when he defeated Jeff Lisandro to take the $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em (PLH) event, and two years since he has had any significant scores at the WSOP when he captured six figures for a deep run in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. So was finishing runner-up to Lev Rofman in Event #12: $1,500 PLH seen as a success or disappointment?
“Second place is not disappointing considering it’s my best finish in my last 30 WSOP events…so no.” Said Cunningham.
Rofman told PokerNews that facing Cunningham was ‘extremely intimidating’ and he is one of the few people who has an aura about him as he moves in and out of the many tournaments areas in the Rio; an aura well earned as his five WSOP bracelets testify.
His second place finish in that event earned him a $102,819 pay day, and a 62nd place finish in Event #21: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Six-Max means he is already in the black for the series. With a below average stack it remains to be seen if Cunningham is going to make it three cashes with success in the Turbo, but you wouldn’t bet against it.
