Pierre Milan won his first gold bracelet on Sunday at the 2014 World Series of Poker, as did Calvin Anderson. The latter is best known for his dominance in online poker, having played as “cal42688” on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker for years. Most of his winnings have come on PokerStars with over $4 million there, but he also has more than $1.2 million on Full Tilt and notable sums on sites like 888poker and networks like Ongame.
With more than $5.5 million in lifetime online poker earnings to date, winning less than $200K wouldn’t mean as much in a live tournament, but it was accompanied by a WSOP gold bracelet. It showed that his passion for poker translates well from online to live events, as many poker fans already knew.
The WSOP is near its halfway mark, and the results of today’s events will put us into the official second half of the schedule. Where did the time go?
Event 29: $2,500 NLHE (Day 3 of 3)
This $2,500 NLHE tournament attracted a solid number of players on Friday:
Entries: 1,165
Prize pool: $2,650,375
Places paid: 117
Day 2 thinned the field from 209 players to 20, and Day 3 moved it forward. Players like Williams Reynolds and Rep Porter departed early in the afternoon, and David Benefield ultimately bubbled the final table with a tenth place finish for $30,267.
The final table proceeded with Jamie Armstrong in the lead, Andy Phan in second, and Matt Salsberg in third. But the two chip leaders lost ground and exited early, while Salsberg held on for a third place finish. Meanwhile, Justin Oliver and Pierre Milan started heads-up play with nearly even stacks, but Milan took a big pot on the second hand and took victory on the third.
1st place: Pierre Milan ($536,768)
2nd place: Justin Oliver ($332,198)
3rd place: Matt Salsberg ($207,842)
4th place: Thad McNulty ($150,859)
5th place: Barry Hutter ($111,368)
6th place: Jamie Armstrong ($83,486)
7th place: Andy Phan ($63,502)
8th place: Daniel Laming ($48,952)
9th place: Sam Cohen ($38,244)
Event 30: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low (Day 3 of 3)
Well over 500 players wanted in on the low buy-in Stud Hi-Low action offered by Event 30:
Entries: 588
Prize pool: $793,800
Places paid: 64
Day 2 started with 129 players but whittled that number down to 12. Day 3 started with the 12th place elimination of Matthew Kelly for $9,501, followed by that of David Brooker. Robert Goldfarb took $12,121 for tenth place, as did Ted Forrest for ninth.
The final table began with Joe Tehan in the chip lead and Melissa Burr at her second final table of the 2014 Series. Burr ended her run in fifth, and the third place bustout of Eric Kurtzman launched heads-up play with Calvin Anderson leading Tehan by more than two to one. It didn’t take long for Anderson, a star of online poker, to capture his first WSOP bracelet.
1st place: Calvin Anderson ($190,538)
2nd place: Joe Tehan ($118,014)
3rd place: Eric Kurtzman ($79,800)
4th place: Levon Torosyan ($55,319)
5th place: Melissa Burr ($39,181)
6th place: Sanjay Pandya ($28,346)
7th place: Jimmy Fricke ($20,932)
8th place: John Myung ($15,772)
Event 31: $1,500 NLHE (Day 2 of 3)
This Saturday’s $1,500 NLHE event had an average showing for a mid-Series event:
Entries: 1,631
Prize pool: $2,201,850
Places paid: 171
First place prize: $418,435
Day 2 brought 187 players back to the tables, and the money bubble quickly burst to pay players like Jackie Glazier, Nenad Medic, Erik Cajelais, and Perry Friedman. Play then stopped with 15 survivors and Matt Stout in the lead. The top five chip counts belonged to:
1. Matt Stout (1,130,000)
2. Aleksandr Gofman (951,000)
3. Brett Shaffer (812,000)
4. Eric Spitzer (674,000)
5. Peter Gould (639,000)
Event 32: $10K NLHE Six-Handed (Day 2 of 3)
The only thing players like better than a six-handed tournament is a $10K NLHE Six-Handed championship event. They turned out in these numbers:
Entries: 264
Prize pool: $2,481,600
Places paid: 30
First place prize: $670,041
Day 2 put 97 players back at the tables, and it took a while to burst the money bubble. When it happened, players like Larry Wright, Matt Waxman, Sam Greenwood, Nick Schulman, Jared Jaffee, Ben Volpe, Ashton Griffin, and Igor Kurganov cashed.
After Brock Parker exited in 14th place for $28,414, play ended with quite a few big names remaining, like Lee Markholt, Erick Lindgren, Martin Jacobson, Layne Flack, George Danzer, JC Tran, and Scott Clements. But the top five on the leaderboard were:
1. Max Silver (1,270,000)
2. Hiren Patel (1,056,000)
3. Joe Cada (794,000)
4. Kyle White (732,000)
5. Jeremy Ausmus (612,000)
Event 33: $1K NLHE (Day 1 of 3)
With so many low buy-in NLHE tournaments, this didn’t prove to be one of the best attended of the lot. The registration numbers settled at:
Entries: 1,688
Prize pool: $1,519,200
Places paid: 170
First place prize: $288,744
Play moved quickly, and the field broke through the money bubble late in the evening. Some of the players to end their runs with cash were Alex Masek, Fernando Brito, Jason Koon, and Kyle Cartwright. Approximately 115 players remained in the tournament. Though official counts have not yet been released, these were the top five players listed:
1. Gualter Salles (170,000)
2. Bradley Libson (127,400)
3. Amit Makhija (121,000)
4. Shelby Standley (117,200)
5. Sean Jazayeri (101,300)
Event 34: $1,500 Seven Card Stud (Day 1 of 3)
The late-afternoon event on Sunday was a regular Stud event with a low buy-in. There were more than a few interested parties, as evidenced by the registration numbers:
Entries: 345
Prize pool: $465,750
Places paid: 40
First place prize: $118,785No corresponding 2013 event.
Stud brought a number of well-known mixed game players to the field, but only 60 of them survived the first day of play. With names like Phil Laak, Alex Kravchenko, and Cyndy Violette still in action, the unofficial top five showed these players with a few more chips than the others:
1. Steve Sung (69,000)
2. Will Thompson (67,500)
3. Bryan Campanello (63,300)
4. Brian Hastings (58,500)
5. John D’Agostino (55,100)
On Tap for June 16
Events 31 and 32 will play on and through their final tables.
Events 33 and 34 will try to set their final tables or get as close as possible.
Event 35 ($5K NLHE Eight-Handed) begins at noon, and Event 36 ($1,500 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball) kicks off at 4pm.
Editor’s Note: Cardschat.com reporter Jennifer Newell is on site in Las Vegas, and will be offering daily news recaps throughout World Series of Poker 2014. Check back here daily for a detailed accounting of events, exclusive interviews, and anything of interest regarding WSOP.
