Daniel Negreanu Denied WSOP Gold by Poker Power Couple Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov

6 min read

The third day of the 2017 World Series of Poker was a big one, both in buy-in and scope. Not only were two bracelets awarded in a single event, but the biggest WSOP buy-in of the summer, the $111,111 One Drop High Roller, and what is sure to be the most attended, Colossus III, both kicked off.

Bracelet Winners Igor Kurganov & Liv Boeree 2017 WSOP
Getting their smooch on, poker couple Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree captured gold bracelets in Event #2, the 2017 WSOP $10K Tag Team Championship. (Image: Joe Giron/pokerphotoarchive.com)

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How the $10K Tag Team Works
Negreanu WSOP 2017 $10K Tag Team event
Daniel Negreanu missed capturing his first WSOP 2017 gold bracelet of the summer at Friday’s $10K Tag Team event at the Rio in Las Vegas. (Image: CardsChat.com exclusive)
  • Teams must be 2-4 players
  • Each teammate must play at least one complete blind round
  • Players may tag a teammate to take over any time they are not in an active hand

On Friday, the final six squads in the $10,000 Tag Team event came together to battle down to a winner. All eyes seemed to be on Daniel Negreanu and his three partners, especially considering “Kid Poker” has a bet with Ben Lamb to win three bracelets this summer. Unfortunately for him and his fans, his crew fell short of their goal and had to settle for third place.

That set up a heads-up battle between long-time poker couple Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree against accomplished poker pros Ankush Mandavia and Joe Kuether. Actually, it ended up being a 90-hand match between Mandavia and Kurganov, as neither player tagged in their partner.

The pair swapped the chip lead several times, but on Hand #268 of the final table, Kurganov rivered the nut Broadway straight while Mandavia made a king-high straight. The chips went in, and Kurganov and Boeree captured their first bracelets.

“The money is nice, but for me it’s winning the bracelets together that matters the most when comparing the ratio of people that are happy from the cash to having the hardware,” Kurganov told WSOP officials after the win.

They backed up those sentiments by donating half their winnings to Raising for Effective Giving (REG).

Final Table Results

1 Liv Boeree & Igor Kurganov $273,964
2 Ankush Mandavia & Joe Kuether $169,323
3 Daniel Negreanu, Eric Wasserson, Mark Gregorich & David Benyamine $119,753
4 Anthony Ajlouny, David Fong & Mike McClain $86,237
5 Javier Gomez & Lander Lijo $63,253
6 Martin Jacobson & Mark Radoja $47,271
7 JC Tran, Nam Le & Antonio Gutierrez $36,008
8 Connor Drinan & Mike Aron $27,967
9 Dietrich Fast, Mortiz Dietrich & Jan Schwippert $22,156

Martin Jacobson Leads One Drop

Last year, the $111,111 One Drop High Roller was held at the end of the summer. This year, it’s Event #6 on the schedule and kicked off on Friday with 119 entries. That number is sure to go up as registration remains open until the third level on Day 2.

After 8 levels of play, 74 players remained, including 2014 WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson, who bagged up the chip lead with 1.677 million. Others who bagged and tagged were Charlie Carrel (1.624 million), Doug Polk (1.522 million), and former Big One for One Drop winners Antonio Esfandiari (905,000) and Dan Colman (377,000)

Among the players to fall on Day 1 were defending champ Fedor Holz, 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada, and the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl champ Christoph Vogelsang. Day 2 of the tournament will get underway at 2 pm PT on Saturday.

10 Players Survive Shootout

Day 2 of Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout saw 50 players return to action, all of whom were in the money. Ten of them won their respective tables to advance to Day 3, including three bracelet winners in Jean Gaspard, Taylor Paur, and Upeshka De Silva.

They will be joined by poker commentator Olivier Busquet and Heartland Poker Tour champ Casey Carroll. The eventual winner will walk away with a $229,923 first-place prize.

Final Table Lineup

1 Upeshka De Silva (Katy, TX) 550,000
2 Mark McMillin (San Diego, CA) 550,000
3 Casey Carroll (Wyoming, MI) 562,000
4 Jean Gaspard (Evanston, IL) 550,000
5 Jan Schwippert (Brighton, GB) 564,000
6 Linglin Zeng (Lincoln, NE) 548,000
7 Louis Helm (Austin, TX) 548,000
8 Olivier Busquet (Katonah, NY) 571,000
9 John Richards (Roxana, IL) 521,000
10 Taylor Paur (El Dorado Hills, CA) 536,000

Another Colossal Turnout

Flight A of the $565 Colossus III attracted 2,756 entries, but only 93 survived, with Mark Peters and his stack of 426,000 leading the pack. Others who made it through the first of six flights was seven-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Josh Reichard (186,000), 2004 WSOP champ Greg Raymer (78,000), and 2016 MSPT Venetian winner Thomas Boivin (37,000).

In the afternoon, Flight B drew 1,982 more entrants and played into the early morning hours. Hunter Frey (400,000) bagged up the chip lead among the surviving 64,000 players. Others to advance to Monday’s Day 2 were Mike Dentale (217,000), Mike Sexton (225,000), and Michael Rocco (133,000).

The first two flights also saw a number Team CardsChat players, who are all engaged in a last-longer competition, take their shot, including Debi O’Neill, Joe Mussat, Avinash Patibandia, David Kopp, Connie Bruce, Kristin Ting, Michael Northwick, and Ryan Laplante.

Of those, O’Neill, a CardsChat forum administrator (you may know her better as “dakota-xx”) had the most luck, finishing 198th in the first flight for $1,238.

Two more flights will be held on both Saturday and Sunday. Players are allowed one re-entry per flight and can also re-enter into other flights.

O8 Ain’t It Great

Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better began with 905 entrants, but after Day 2 concluded, just 29 remained, with Christopher Logue and his stack of 498,000 leading the way.

Others still vying for the $238,620 first-place cash are Marco Johnson (224,000), Jim Collopy (433,000), and Ben Zamani (340,000).

Among the players to make the money on Day 2 were actor James Woods (70th for $3,116), Day 1 chip leader Rex Clinkscales (53rd for $4,027), and France’s Paul Tedeschi (35th for $5,574).

Players will play down to a winner on Saturday, with action resuming at 2 pm PT.

Saturday’s WSOP Schedule

Both the Shootout and Omaha Hi-Lo events will award bracelets on Saturday, while Colossus III and the One Drop continue as well.

There are no new events scheduled for Saturday, but two more flights in the Colossus will be held. Flight C will kick off at 10 am local time, followed by Flight D at 4 pm PT. CardsChat will be bringing you daily updates from the 2017 WSOP, so be sure to check back tomorrow.



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