What started as the biggest poker extravaganza of the year on planet earth has come down to the climax at Rio. 2015 World Series of Poker has already rewarded over 60 champions with the illustrious gold bracelet and hefty prize sums. Now, the time has come for the marathon battle of the $10,000 Main Event which started on Sunday, July 5th.
Meanwhile, several side events met its champions in the 6th week of the tussle. Anthony Zinno won the $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha bagging over a million dollar and Anthony Spinella triumphed the first ever online bracelet event. Although, Indian players are yet to clinch the maiden bracelet, they continued to cash in the events in the sixth week. The bracelet-dream in still alive with a big team of Indians which includes the 10-member team of Adda52 ready to storm the Main Event. Apoorva Goel bagged his 3rd and the biggest cash ($10,658) of 2015 WSOP finishing 51st in the $1,111 The Little One for One Drop event. Gaurav Law joined the Indian money list of 2015 WSOP by placing 22nd in the Event 62 – $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em. Going further, Rahul Byrraju, Amit Ajwani and Shashank Jain cashed in the Event 66 – $777 LUCKY SEVENS No-Limit Hold’em.
Event #68A: No-Limit Hold’em MAIN EVENT
The 1st flight of the $10,000 Main event started on Sunday drawing 741 entries out of which 480 secured their place for the Day 2 action. William Kakon emerged out to be chip leader at the end of the day’s play with 152,325 chips closely followed by Gjergj Sinishtaj (149,100). Van Hoof (90,650), Jonathan Duhamel (82,200), Max Pescatori (46,075) and Mike Matusow (88,225) were among the notables who made it to the Day 2.
Event #67: $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship
108 entries made a prize pool of $1,015,200 in this inaugural Dealers Choice event of WSOP. The Vietnam-origin player Quin Do clinched his 2nd bracelet beating Rep Porter in the heads-up. Do bagged the top prize of $319,792 while Porter took home $197,608.
“Winning this gold bracelet was better than the first,” Do said. “This one was for Mixed Games which is something I have worked on for a long time. I spent ten years playing these games so to come here and win for this event is really better for me.”
Event #66: $777 LUCKY SEVENS No-Limit Hold’em
One of the lowest buy-in events of 2015 WSOP saw 4,422 players coming in to grab a share of the $3,095,400 prize pool. After 3 days of battle at Rio, the field has come down to the top 10 players. When the game restarts on the ESPN Main Stage on Monday, David Yu (3,965,000) will start in the chip lead followed by Jeffrey Dobrin (3,630,000).
3 Indian players cashed in this event lead by Rahul Byrraju who finished 51st for $8,048. Amit Ajwani bagged his 2nd WSOP cash this year finishing in 331st place for $1,764 while Shashank Jain placed 440th for $1,361.
Event #65: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Gerald Ringe clinched his 1st WSOP bracelet besting a field of 547 players in this event. He defeated Christopher Vitch in the heads-up to take down the top prize of $180,943 with the prestigious WSOP bracelet. Vitch took home $111,860 for his efforts to the runner-up place.
Event #64: WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em
One of the most talked about events of 2015 WSOP was played online to reach the final table. The final table battle was played the next day at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino which Anthony “casedimised” Spinella took down for $197,743. Anthony beat Hunter Cichy in the heads-up to own the first ever online event bracelet. In the final hand:
Anthony Spinella:
Hunter Cichy:
Table:
Event #63: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship
Andrew Barber who had 13 money finishes in the WSOP event so far went on to win his first bracelet this year in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E event. The Russian Viacheslav Zhukov finished in the runner-up place taking home $319,989 while the champion Barber bagged the top prize of $517,766. Scotty Nguyen, the 1998 Main Event champion finished 7th in this event earning $66,579.
Event #62: $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em
Jack Duong triumphed the field of 2,178 players winning the bracelet with $333,351 in top prize. He defeated Vitezslav Pesta of Czeck Republic in the heads-up to win his first ever WSOP bracelet. Among the Indian contingents, Gaurav Law ran deep in this event finishing 22nd for $9,534. In the final hands:
Vitezslav Pesta:
Jack Duong:
Table:
Event 61 – $1,111 The Little One for One Drop
24 year old German player Paul Hoefer won the WSOP bracelet of The Little One for One Drop event with the top prize of $645,969 besting a field of 4,555 players. He beat Mario Lopez of Argentina who took home $399,455 in the runner-up place. The Indian player Apoorva Goel made a valiant 51st place finish adding $10,658 to his tournament winnings.
“I did make it look easy,” Hoefer said afterward. “There’s no question I ran super good. But I played good, I think. When you play good and the cards hit you, that’s an unstoppable combination.”