With an exciting weekend on the horizon, the 2012 World Series of Poker wrapped up some business on Friday. While there was one bracelet awarded, a second tournament was unable to even get within shouting distance of the final table by the end of play.
Event #49 – $1500 Ante Only No Limit Hold’em
The first-ever rendition of the $1500 Ante Only event at the WSOP – where all players would put in an ante and play would explode from there – proved to be somewhat popular in drawing 939 players. By the midpoint of last night, there was but one player standing who could say he was the first champion of the event.
Nine men came back on Friday to determine that inaugural winner, with Eugene Du Plessis (996K) holding around a 170K chip lead over Mike Sowers. These two men were way out in front of the field as there were no other players even above the 700K mark. Sitting down the leaderboard somewhat (but ready for action) were top pros Mike McDonald and Harrison Gimbel on short stacks.
To give you an idea of the action of the Ante Only event, the very first hand went down with all the players putting up an 8000 chip ante. With the button on Sameer Al-Janedi, every player at the table decided to call the bring in (which, in this case, was the lowest denomination chip in play, 1000) and saw a flop of K-8-7. The action would check to McDonald, who moved all in for 170K (for a pot worth 81K) and would take the pot. This was the type of action that was seen throughout the three days of play in the Ante Only event, presenting a new spin on the usual NLHE tournament.
McDonald was able to double up with those newfound chips through Greg Hobson, but Hobson would strike right back by knocking out Justin Schwartz in ninth place when Hobson’s pocket Aces stayed ahead of Schwartz’ A-K. Moments later, Hobson would push his stack upward again with the elimination of Al-Janedi in eighth, his A-Q better than Al-Janedi’s A-9.
Even though Hobson seemed to be active, he was only in third place by the first break after two hours of play. Du Plessis and Seth Davies had been able to maintain their positions in front of him through the early action, but the volatile nature of the Ante Only game provided the rail with excitement throughout the eight hour final table.
Hobson would make his claim for the bracelet by first doubling up through Du Plessis and then chopping some more off of Davies to take over the lead with 1.45 million chips. Gimbel would arise as a challenger in eliminating Davies from the tournament in seventh place while Hobson maintained the lead with the knockout of Du Plessis in a “Big Slick versus Big Chick” hand that saw Hobson pair his Queen on the flop.
As active as they were, it was inevitable that Gimbel and Hobson would clash. That happened after the elimination of Du Plessis when, on a 10-3-9 flop, Hobson check called a 70K bet from Gimbel. On the turn seven, Hobson did it again, although for 130K this time. The river brought a nine and Hobson checked once again. Gimbel fired another bullet for 185K and Hobson made the call again, showing A-9 for rivered trips. Gimbel would glance at his cards and shove them to the muck, handing a pot to Hobson that pushed him over the two million mark.
Sowers began to turn on the afterburners at this time, eliminating the crippled Gimbel (fourth) and John Hayes (third) to reach heads up play dead even against Hobson slightly more than five hours into the final table. Over the course of an hour, Hobson was able to pull out to almost a 3:1 lead and, after a break for dinner, the duo would end their match. With a 30K ante, Hobson brought in and Sowers moved all in immediately. Almost as quickly, Hobson called and tabled his pocket sevens against Sowers’ A-7. Once the board blanked out, Greg Hobson had become the inaugural champion of the Ante Only event at the WSOP.
1. Greg Hobson (Portland, OR), $256,691
2. Mike Sowers (Las Vegas, NV), $158,887
3. John Hayes (St. Paul, MN), $99,409
4. Harrison Gimbel (Milwaukee, WI), $72,155
5. Eugene Du Plessis (Stellenbosch, South Africa), $53,267
6. Mike McDonald (Waterloo, Ontario), $39,931
7. Seth Davies (Bend, OR), $30,373
8. Sameer Al-Janedi (Marina del Rey, CA), $23,413
9. Justin Schwartz (Milford, CT), $18,292
Event #50 – $5000 No Limit Hold’em – Day Two
The second day of the $5000 NLHE event brought back 303 players from its original 1001 contestants and those survivors ran the gamut of the poker world. While there were plenty of top pros still in contention (such as Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey, for example), the leader to start Day Two was Nick Maimone – whose only has one cash on his resume, but it is from the 2009 WSOP Championship event and his 15th place finish ($633,022) – and his 196,600 in chips.
The pace of play continued to be rapid as the shorter stacks found their way to the exit of the Rio. Blair Hinkle, Amanda Musumeci (lost when her pocket Aces were beaten by pocket nines), Eric Baldwin and Naoya Kihara were some of the eliminations within the first hour of play, joined by Ivey when Galen Hall’s A-K stayed in front of Ivey’s K-J and Hellmuth when his K-Q was vanquished by his opponent’s A-Q after a King came on the turn and an Ace arrived on the river.
This type of pace kept up throughout the afternoon as the field worked its way down to the money bubble just before the dinner break. Just before that break for sustenance, Alexandre Gomes would be the unfortunate “bubble boy” and the field could eat in comfort, knowing it was assured at least $8939 each for their efforts.
After the dinner break, it appeared as though new players had replaced those rapid gamblers from the first half of the day’s action. In the final five hours of play on Friday, the field was only able to work down to the final 48 players. While today’s action in Event #50 is supposed to be the final day, it may require some more play on Sunday to determine the champion:
1. Kyle Julius, 867K
2. Andrea Dato, 745K
3. Stanislav Barshak, 690K
4. Erik Aude, 688K
5. David Diaz, 568K
6. Derek Gregory, 536K
7. Joseph Cheong, 482K
8. Dan Smith, 477K
9. Micah Raskin, 461K
10. Chamath Palihapitiya, 456K
Lurking down the leaderboard some is Tommy Vedes (363K), Hall (304K), Alexander Kravchenko (266K) and Matt Giannetti (261K). Up for grabs – either tonight or tomorrow – will be the WSOP bracelet and a $952,694 first place bounty.
