David Miscikowski had to beat just one player to win his bracelet on Saturday, but Norbert Szecsi was a formidable opponent. David Olson had to defeat an entire table of championship-level players, and it was a battle all the way. But both Davids made it through those battles and emerged victorious.
Sunday offers another $1K NLHE, but the big attraction for the day will be a tournament with a slightly higher buy-in. The $1 million Big One for One Drop gets underway at 1pm today, with many seats already reserved and a few more to be taken before play begins. Between high-rolling businessmen and poker’s high-stakes elite, the field will be full of interesting faces – a poker fan’s dream. There will be quite a bit of coverage all day, but we will bring you the highlights when the chips have settled.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Event 49: $5K NLHE (Day 4 of 4)
The fourth and unscheduled day of this event was the result of these original numbers:
Entries: 696
Prize pool: $3,271,200
Places paid: 72
Day 2 took the number of players down from 204 to 23, and Day 3 played on until heads-up action, which took several hours only to end with nearly even stacks.
David Miscikowski entered Day 4 with a slight lead, but the two battled for quite some time before Norbert Szecsi finally took second place and Miscikowski captured his first bracelet.
1st place: David Miscikowski ($719,707)
2nd place: Norbert Szecsi ($444,425)
3rd place: Manig Loeser ($288,912)
4th place: Margareta Morris ($212,202)
5th place: Oliver Price ($158,064)
6th place: Kevin MacPhee ($119,267)
7th place: Jean Gaspard ($91,037)
8th place: John Dolan ($70,265)
9th place: Blake Bohn ($54,792)
Event 51: $1,500 NLHE Monster Stack (Day 3 of 5)
This historic deepstack tournament began on Thursday with these numbers:
Entries: 7,862
Prize pool: $10,613,700
Places paid: 792
First place prize: $1,327,083
Day 2 thinned the field from 3,826 to 576 players, all of whom were in the money to the tune of $3,502.
Day 3 eliminated the vast majority of players, with names like Mustapha Kanit, John Monnette, Danny Wong, and Andreas Krause exiting late into the night. The payouts stopped at $21,758 with 62 players remaining, and the top five on the leaderboard were:
1. Sean Drake (4,975,000)
2. Austin Bursavich (4,915,000)
3. Lynne Beaumont (3,950,000)
4. Gary Chau (3,855,000)
5. Joseph McKeehen (3,740,000)
Event 52: $10K LHE (Day 3 of 3)
This limit championship tournament started with some modest numbers before wrapping up on Saturday:
Entries: 122
Prize pool: $1,146,800
Places paid: 18
Day 2 took the field from 72 down to just 10 players, and Day 3 saw it play out.
Robert Como was the first to exit in tenth place for $23,268, which set the official final table. David Olson was in the lower half of the chip counts to start, but his comeback was made easier as big names like Gabriel Nassif, Bill Chen, and Greg Debora departed. Olson took the lead into heads-up play against Mikail Tulchinskiy, but the two traded the chip lead before Olson eventually took his to the winner’s circle.
1st place: David Olson ($303,909)
2nd place: Mikail Tulchinskiy ($187,811)
3rd place: Greg Debora ($136,056)
4th place: Samuel Golbuff ($100,425)
5th place: Paul Mannoni ($75,470)
6th place: Bill Chen ($57,706)
7th place: Brian Tate ($44,874)
8th place: Jan Sjavik ($35,481)
9th place: Gabriel Nassif ($28,509)
Event 53: $10K NLHE Ladies Championship (Day 2 of 3)
The ladies-only championship event offered a 90 percent buy-in discount to ladies, which resulted in the registration numbers that took a big dive from the 954-player field the year before:
Entries: 793
Prize pool: $713,700
Place paid: 81
First place prize: $153,470
Day 2 brought 101 players back and didn’t take long to get the top 81 of them into the money for minimum payouts of $1,777. Some who cashed throughout the day and evening included Deanna Dozier, Cherish Andrews, Melanie Weisner, and Xuan Liu. The tenth place elimination of Karen Cameron for $9,078 ended play for the night with the final table set as follows:
1. Mikiyo Aoki (742,000)
2. Meikat Siu (460,000)
3. Haixia Zhang (311,000)
4. Pat Landis (219,000)
5. Kendra Wray (214,000)
6. Elizabeth Montizanti (184,000)
7. Persia Cahill (128,000)
8. Patricia Cahill (66,000)
9. Stacey Sullivan (64,000)
Event 54: $3K PLO Hi/Low Split-8 (Day 2 of 3)
This tournament was a popular one, finding increased participation over the previous year by a few dozen players:
Entries: 474
Prize pool: $1,294,020
Place paid: 54
First place prize: $297,650
There were just 152 players who started Day 2, but it took a while to get to the money portion of the festivities. When they did, payouts started at $5,007, and some who garnered at least that amount for their efforts included Tony Cousineau, Bart Hanson, Dylan Linde, Tom Koral, Brett Richey, and Andy Bloch. When play ended, there were still 20 players left in action with these as the top five stacks:
1. Jonathan Depa (442,000)
2. Shiva Dudani (405,000)
3. Gary Bolden (382,000)
4. Fabrice Soulier (347,000)
5. Woody Deck (322,000)
Event 55: $1,500 NLHE (Day 1 of 3)
It was the weekend and time for another $1,500 NLHE. This one resulted in these impressive stats:
Entries: 2,396
Prize pool: $3,234,600
Place paid: 243
First place prize: $582,321
The first day of play reduced the field to just 268 players, meaning the money bubble was close but still intact. The results of an unofficial chip count showed these players in the top five:
1. Michael Malm (126,000)
2. Zo Karim (117,400)
3. Aaron Massey (108,600)
4. George Kapalas (100,000)
5. Brandon Cantu (96,000)
On Tap for June 29
Event 51 will play its fourth of five days and try to determine its final table players.
Events 53 and 54 will play to the end.
Event 55 will attempt to find its final table or get as close as possible.
Event 56 ($1K NLHE) will start at noon, and Event 57 ($1M Big One for One Drop) will kick off at 1pm with much fanfare.
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.
