Lee Davy brings you up to speed on the fifth day of action at the 46th Annual World Series of Poker. Stories include a third bracelet for Robert Mizrachi, a great turn out for the new Hyper Turbo event, and controversy reigns in The Colossus.
Imagine your sibling working in the same industry as you. Imagine that sibling reaching the very top of that industry. How would that make you feel? Would you feel pride, jealousy, happiness, or envy?
Robert Mizrachi is in that spot. His brother Michael is one of the most famous names in the game. He has earned over $14.6m in live tournament earnings, has been sponsored by more companies than Lewis Hamilton, and has won three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets.
Robert may not wear the patches, he may not have earned $14.6m, but as of yesterday he does own three WSOP bracelets.
Event #3: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better attracted a field of 918 entrants. A 13% decrease in field size after Nicholas Kost won this same bracelet last year. Interestingly, Mizrachi cashed in 43rd place from 1,036 entrants in that event.
The total prize pool was $1,239,300, and Mizrachi now owns $255,022 of that after beating Jacob Dahl in a tough heads-up battle. It was one hell of a ride for Mizrachi. Feeling under the weather, he was able to coast when three-handed because he held 4.6m of the 6.8m chips in play. After eliminating Don Zewin in third place, that amount rose to 5.2m.
Not much is known about Dahl. Mizrachi is one of the greatest mixed game players in the world. He has a penchant for Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Hi-Lo. He had all of the chips. So let’s give credit where credit is due. Dahl overturned that deficit and the pair bagged up at the end of Day 3 with Dahl holding a 5:1 chip lead.
An unscheduled fourth day of action was needed. Mizrachi had one more night of dreaming to rid himself of his sickness. It worked. After the pair returned to the felt, Mizrachi stepped on the gas, used all of his big time final table experience and brought home the gold.
Mizrachi won his first WSOP bracelet in 2007 when he defeated 314 people to win the $768,889 first prize in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championships. He had to wait seven years for his second when he took down the inaugural $1,500 Dealers Choice – Six Handed event for $147,092, after beating a field of 419 entrants. It took 12-months for him to win bracelet number three.
Victory means Mizrachi now has over $5.4m in live tournament earnings. He hopes to increase that somewhat in Event #7: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship. He’s doing mighty fine as well, finishing Day 1 with a top 15-chip stack.
Controversy Surrounds The Colossus
The excitement surrounding the record breaking Colossus event turned to controversy yesterday, as professional players took to social media in their droves to complain about the pay structure.
WSOP Tournament Director announced that 22,374 entrants had broken the previous world record by 150%. The prize pool was $11,187,000, 241 players would walk home with $1,096 in prize money, and the winner would receive $638,880.
Signal cries of anguish from the gallery.
When you expect a minimum of a million, and only picture $638,880, it can leave a sour taste in the mouth. I will cover my views on this in a separate op-ed. For now, all you need to know is 506 players managed to get through a hectic Day 2. Here are the top chip counts, and a series of high profile names in contention for the record-breaking bracelet.
Top Five Chip Counts
1st. Valentin Vornicu – 1,237,000
2nd. Shahen Martirosian – 799,000
3rd. Travis Miller – 770,000
4th. Adam Lamphere – 669,000
5th. Will Givens – 632,000
Ray Henson (616,000), Mike Leah (571,000), Zo Karim (443,000) and Dan O’Brien (371,000) are all in contention.
Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold’em
Event #6 was a new format brought in to satisfy those that like to get in and out as quickly as possible.
1,436 players entered Day 1, and by the end of the day they had reached a final table of nine. When you consider that over 2,300 people were also being seated in the Colossus, you have to give a hat tip to the WSOP officials for managing everything as smoothly as they did.
At the time of writing there are four players remaining in contention for the bracelet. Live action is available on the WSOP.com livestream.
Here are the current chip counts
1st. Harrison Beach – 2,480,000
2nd. John Reading – 1,690,000
3rd. Marc MacDonnell – 1,500,000
4th. Aleksandr Gofman – 1,495,000
Stars Galore in the Day 2 Field of the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship
The first $10,000 World Championships of the series is underway. The derivative is Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, and 109 entrants created a total prize pool of $1,024,600. Tuan Le won this event in 2014 when he defeated 120 entrants to win the top prize of $355,324.
56 players bagged up chips at the end of the day. A whole host of star names from past and present remain in the field. Here is a selection of those at the top end of the counts, followed by the official top 5: Phil Galfond (112,000), Calvin Anderson (86,200), Bryn Kenney (81,100), and Robert Mizrachi (79,400).
Top Five Chip Counts
1st. Craig Hartman – 147,300
2nd. Rep Porter – 141,800
3rd. Maximilian Casal – 138,700
4th. Ismael Bojang – 121,900
5th. Layne Flack – 116,200
