2012 World Series of Poker

Event 37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix
Day: 1
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
ax2x3x5x6x
Prize
$271,312
Event Info
Buy-in
$2,500
Prize Pool
$1,085,175
Entries
477
Level Info
Level
31
Blinds
0 / 0
Ante
0

Get to Know John Monnette

Level 2
John Monnette winning his first WSOP bracelet in this event in 2011.
John Monnette winning his first WSOP bracelet in this event in 2011.

If you don’t know who John Monette is by now, you obviously haven’t been paying close enough attention to the 2012 World Series of Poker. Through 36 events the man has racked up 524.25 Player of the Year points, thanks to five cashes and three top-three finishes:

Here's a look at Monnette’s 2012 WSOP thus far:

EventPlacePrize
Event #32 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E.2nd$279,206
Event #27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.94th$2,676
Event #15 $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low3rd$109,444
Event #10 $5,000 Seven Card Stud1st$190,826
Event #4 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo12th$10,051

Not too shabby for less than three week’s worth of work. As you can see, Monnette captured his second gold bracelet in Event #10, the other coming last year in this very event when he defeated 488 other players to capture the $278,144 first-place prize.

The non-hold’em cash-game specialist from Palmdale, California has 25 WSOP cashes for $1,224,734, but what’s really impressive is only eight of them come in no-limit hold’em related events. What does that mean? Simple, Monnette is one of the best-mixed game players in the world.

Given his skill level, combined with how well he’s run this summer, we wouldn’t be surprised if Monnette puts up a long and hardy fight in defending his title.

Tags: John Monnette

Who's Allen Bari?

Allen Bari after his bracelet win back in 2011
Allen Bari after his bracelet win back in 2011

Allen Bari has $2,765,110 in live tournament earnings. Allen Bari has a WSOP gold bracelet from 2011, when he won $874,116 beating Maria Ho heads up in the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em tournament. Allen Bari also has quite a big ego.

Cyndy Violette was familiar with none of these things.

"I just bet Allen $100 that Cyndy didn't know who he was," Matt Glantz just told us while everyone at the table was joking around.

"I even said, 'Do you know Allen?' about five minutes before I made the bet," Glantz smiled as he also asked Greg Raymer if he knew who the guy on his direct left was.

"Allen Boring right?" Raymer said with a straight face after which the whole table started laughing.

"How's your ego doing?" we asked Bari who smiled and said, "It's still pretty big".

Glantz and Bari are having a lot of fun together at their stacked table, which also includes David Sklansky and Ryan Tepen. While we were standing at the table the following hand went down as well.

2-7 Triple Draw

Ryan Tepen raised from the button to 800, Matt Glantz called in the small blind and Allen Bari three-bet from the big blind, after which both his opponents called.

Glantz needed three cards, Bari stood pat and Tepen took two cards on the first draw.

Both Glantz and Tepen called Bari's bet. On the second draw Glantz and Tepen both needed two cards. This time only Glantz called Bari's bet as we went to the third and final draw.

Glantz took one more card and obviously Bari stood pat again. Glantz check-folded to Bari's 800 chip bet and this got Bari up to well over twice the starting stack.

Allen Bari's ego might have taken a little beat from Cyndy Violette, but since his chip stack is looking good that might've already been forgotton.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Allen Bari us
Allen Bari
16,400
11,100
11,100
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of Greg Raymer us
Greg Raymer
9,000
3,700
3,700
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of David Sklansky us
David Sklansky
8,500
-10,000
-10,000
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Cyndy Violette us
Cyndy Violette
7,000
-500
-500
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of Matt Glantz us
Matt Glantz
6,000
3,600
3,600
Team Lucky

Tags: Allen BariCyndy VioletteMatt Glantz

Dan Kelly Leads as Approximately 209 Players Advance to Day 2

Level 8
Dan Kelly
Dan Kelly

On Tuesday night, the 2012 World Series of Poker continued with Event #37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix, which featured alternating rounds of Triple-Draw 2-7, Limit Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No-Limit Hold’em, and Pot Limit Omaha. While a dozen less players turned up than last year, 477 still took to the felt and created a juicy prize pool of $1,085,175, with $271,312 reserved for first.

The man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is Dan Kelly, who bagged up a robust 56,800. Also in contention are two former champs in John Monnette and Jerrod Ankenman. The former has had a red-hot start to 2012 and is currently leading this year’s Player of the Year race, though he is extremely short on a stack of just 1,525, while the latter bagged an average stack of 17,575.

Things kicked off with a bang after the elimination of Andy Frankenberger in the first level of play. It happened in the no-limit hold’em round when there was an all in and a call on the turn with the board reading {3-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}{4-Diamonds}{2-Hearts}.

Andy Frankenberger{4-Clubs}{4-Spades}
Opponent{A-Spades}{5-Spades}

Frankenberger was looking for the board to pair in order to stay alive, but the river was the {10-Hearts}. "Unbelievable!" Frankenberger cried as he realized his tournament lasted just under an hour. While he was one of the first eliminations, he certainly wasn’t the last.

Justin Young, Chad Brown, Galen Hall, Nacho Barbero, Ben “milkybarkid” Grundy, Shawn Buchanan, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Michael Mizrachi and Isaac Haxton all joined him on the rail in the middle levels.

By the last two levels of the night, roughly 328 players remained in the field. It was at that time that the 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event champ, Huck Seed, tangled in a hand of pot limit Omaha. With 1,350 in the pot and a flop of {9-Diamonds}{4-Diamonds}{4-Spades}, Ali Eslami checked from the small blind and the player in the big did the same. That put action on who wasted little time in betting 500. Both his opponents made the call and it was off to the {8-Hearts} turn.

This time Eslami took the initiative and led out for a pot-sized bet, which was 2,850. The big blind proceeded to raise all in for 5,775, which Seed called. The big blind thought the action was over and briefly tabled his hand, which allowed Eslami, who had just 1,500, to catch a peak. He obviously didn't like what he saw as he laid down his hand.

Seed{9-Clubs}{9-Hearts}{10-Hearts}{6-Hearts}
Big Blind{4-Hearts}{10-Diamonds}{A-Diamonds}{Q-Diamonds}

Seed had his opponent drawing to the case four, which didn't come as the {J-Hearts} appeared on the river. With that, Seed scored the elimination and would end the night with 16,175.

Needless to say, Eslami would be eliminated a short time later, but he was followed out the door by the likes of Jonathan Duhamel, David “Doc” Sands, Erik Seidel, Kirk Morrison, Mike Matusow, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Jason Mercier and Doyle Brunson, who actually opted to abandon his chip stack after experiencing chest pains.

While dozens hit the rail, a few players managed to hold on. Brendon Taylor (45,275), Miguel Benmudez (45,250), Jake Abdalla (43,750), Jeff Madsen (37,074), Ylon Schwartz (34,400), Anthony Nguyen (34,250) and Marco Traniello (33,300) all bagged up big stacks, while a slew of other notables made it to Day 2 like Greg Raymer (27,525), Barry Greenstein (25,000), Daniel Negreanu (19,575), Scotty Nguyen (11,300), Eugene Katchalov (8,225) and Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier (6,525).

Who will be the next to add their name to the list of Eight-Game Mix winners?

Former Eight-Game Mix Champions

YearPlayerEntrantsPrize
2011John Monnette489$278,144
2010Sigurd Eskeland453$260,497
2009Jerrod Ankenman412$241,637
2008*Anthony Rivera192$483,688

*Featured $10,000 buy-in.

The remaining 209 players will return on Wednesday at 2 PM PST and march through the money on the way to the final table. Join us then as we capture all the action and eliminations from Event #37: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix.

Tags: Dan Kelly