2010 World Series of Poker Day 30: Gavin Smith Wins First WSOP Bracelet and More
Gavin Smith finally won his first World Series of Poker Bracelet on Day 30, Sam Trickett leads event Event #45 going into the final day, an impressive group of players are still in the $2,500 mixed-game event, and much more.
Event #44: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em
After years of being considered one of the best poker players with out a WSOP bracelet, Gavin Smith has finally gotten the monkey off of his back, winning his first bracelet along with $268,238 by defeating a field of 507 players over three days of play.
Smith came into the final table in a virtual tie for the chip lead and went on a bit of a ride from the big stack to the short stack over the course of the final table. When he began heads-up play with Danny Hannawa, the two were locked in a dead heat and played a long match before Smith was finally able to get a strangle-hold on his opponent.
The final hand saw Hannawa all-in preflop with 10♣8♦, and Smith holding A♥Q♥. The board rolled out A♦K♥2♦J♦J♠, and Smith's cheering section, which included Jeff Madsen, Jon Friedberg, Erick Lindgren, Chau Giang, Joe Sebok and Layne Flack, all swarmed the stage to congratulate their friend.
Check out how the entire final table played out in our WSOP live reporting pages.
Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
A tournament that began with almost 3,100 players has only 35 remaining, led by Englishman Sam Trickett who looks to lock up the sixth WSOP bracelet of the year for the Brits. Trickett gained a large chunk of his chips late in the day when he shoved over the top of Francois Safieddine early position raise with A♠10♦. Safieddine made the call with K♠Q♥, and when the board came out 9♠6♣6♦4♥A♥, Safieddine had been eliminated and Trickett grabbed the chip lead.
Also in contention going into the final day of play are Dutch Boyd, who won his second WSOP bracelet earlier this summer, and Team PokerStars Pro Thomas Bichon, who sits as one of the shorter stacks left in the field.
Play will resume on Sunday afternoon, and you can follow along with the battle in our WSOP live reporting pages.
Event #46: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better
After another long day of play at the WSOP, 130 players were whittled down to 21 players on Saturday night all of which will return on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. to play down to a winner.
Sergey Altbregin is the chip leader going into Day 3 although he dropped a little from his high point on the last few hands of the night but is still sitting on an impressive 486,000. Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott is in second place with 415,000, and Perry Green, who holds three WSOP bracelets and finished second to Stu Ungar in the Main Event back in 1981, is third in chips with 367,000.
Also still in the running are Erik Seidel, Rob Hollink, Allen Kessler, Andy Black and Dan Heimiller.
You can follow all the action on Sunday in our WSOP live reporting pages.
Event #47: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Day 1A saw 1,759 players fork up the thousand bucks to have a chance at WSOP glory, and when play was complete for the day, only 257 of those hopefuls remained.
Only a handful of notables were able to survive the day including Antonio Esfandiari, Matt Glantz, Lars Bonding, André Akkari,, and Scott Montgomery who won last weekend's $1,000 buy-in event.
Among those who fell along the way were Chau Giang, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Dwan, Jerry Yang, Chris Ferguson, Billy Baxter, Dennis Phillips and Bernard Lee.
Day 1B gets under way Sunday at 12 p.m., and our WSOP live reporting pages will have all the updates.
Event #48: $2,500 Mixed Event
Only 192 players of our original 453 will return for play on Sunday after Saturday's Day 1. Leading the pack are Jared Jaffe (68,600) and Justin Smith (66,000). It was, however, a talent-heavy pool of players and it's going to be an interesting ride to the final table. Heavy hitters such as Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Alex Kravchenko, Michael Mizrachi, Bill Chen, Justin Bonomo, Chris Ferguson and Andrew Robl are all in the mix vying for WSOP gold.
Because of Sunday's Tournament of Champions, Day 2 has been pushed back to 4:10 p.m. and the plan is to play nine levels before returning on Monday to settle things for good.
PokerNews will have all your updates in our WSOP live reporting blog.
On Tap
In addition to Day 1B of Event $47, the Tournament of Champions will also be getting under way. Twenty-seven of the world's greatest poker players will take to the felt in a million-dollar all-star freeroll. PokerNews will have all the updates in our WSOP live reporting pages as always.
Video of the Day
With only a few events remaining, the WSOP Player of the Year is closer than ever. Kristy Arnett breaks down those still in the running.
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