WSOP Day 35: Scotty Nguyen, Joe Hachem, Ray Romano Advance in Main Event
Yesterday's first Day 1 flight in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship saw several big names bagging chips to move on to Day 2, including WSOP Main Event champions Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, and Joe McKeehen. Others advancing included Erik Seidel, actor Kevin Pollak, and comedian Ray Romano.
Elsewhere Michael Mizrachi will be among the final nine today in Event #11: PLO GIANT - $365 Pot-Limit Omaha and hoping for his fifth bracelet. Over in Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed, Galen Hall returns as chip leader. And in Event #64: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship defending champ Chris Vitch returns again as chip leader with a shot at back-to-back titles in the event.
Event #11: PLO GIANT - $365 Pot-Limit Omaha
After five starting flights and 3,250 entries, this event finally played Day 2 on Monday. Now only nine return for a shot at the title and top prize of $116,015, with Srinivas Balasubramanian leading the field with 18,325,000.
The remaining eight players include Robert Cicchelli (11,055,000), Pete Arroyos (10,550,000), Tim Andrew (10,425,000), Michael Mizrachi (10,150,000), Kevin Nomberto (7,700,000), James Sievers (5,450,000), Sandeep Pulusani (4,375,000), and Raymond Walton (3,075,000).
Mizrachi is fresh off winning his third $50,000 Poker Players Championship and fourth career bracelet.
Day 3 begins at 2 p.m. and PokerNews will have all your live updates.
Event #62: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed - $888,888 Guaranteed 1st Place
Just 29 players return from a total field of 8,598 entries with Galen Hall the chip leader after bagging 6,595,000. From San Francisco, Hall has nearly $4.25 million in live tournament winnings and is looking for his first bracelet. Like others, he'll also be eyeing the $888,888 first-place prize awaiting the winner.
Just behind Hall are Paul Vas Nunes (6,410,000), Hunter Frey (5,730,000), Men Nguyen (3,320,000), Arthur Conan (3,140,000), and Alexandre Novaes (2,835,000). 888poker ambassador Chris Moorman is also among the leaders after bagging 2,620,000.
Also advancing was Mike Barlow, who has a touching story of playing in a friend's place after he passed away just before the event. Barlow bagged 2,600,000 — click here to read his story and learn about his journey to the WSOP.
The PokerNews team will have you covered with live updates all of the way until someone wins the bracelet. Click here to follow along. Also, click here for a bit of the history of this event.
Event #64: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
With two days in the books, only 15 players return from a field of 141 players. That total created a $1,325,400 prize pool with $364,387 going to the winner. Defending champ Chris Vitch bagged a stack of 1,014,000 and has a legitimate shot at going back-to-back. Vitch also led after Day 1 and is looking for his third bracelet.
Rounding out the current top five are Scott Bohlman (883,000), Bryce Yockey (539,000), Ken "Teach" Aldridge (538,000), and Jesse Martin (506,000). Other notables remaining include Tom Koral (392,000), Mike Watson (348,000), and Jack Duong (343,000).
Day 3 begins at 2 p.m. and by the end of it should crown a champion. Stay plugged in to PokerNews for start-to-finish coverage.
Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship
The first Day 1 flight of the Main Event yesterday drew 925 players and only 659 advanced to Day 2. Timothy Lau bagged up the chip lead with a 338,700. Lau is followed by Truyen Nguyen (324,800), Chris Fraser (316,100), David McCaw (220,400), and John Vossoughi (220,300).
The biggest news of the day may have been the elimination of 2017 WSOP Main Event champion Scott Blumstein by Brian Yoon on the ESPN feature table. Yoon went on to Day 2 with 145,000. Blumstein was disappointed, but handled the elimination with class.
What it shows is how strong mentally you have to be to play this game at the highest level... I knew the right answ… https://t.co/Khz0fAUHm3
— Scott Blumstein (@SBlum2711)
Main Event champions Qui Nguyen and Jerry Yang also hit the rail on Monday.
Meanwhile other players returning include [Removed:508] (215,000), Kevin Boudreau (186,300), Nick Jivkov (186,000), Matt Berkey (185,600), Alexandru Papazian (147,100), Gordon Vayo (87,100), Erik Seidel (72,100), and Main Event champions Joe Hachem (84,700), Scotty Nguyen (84,400) and Joe McKeehen (36,200).
Poker commentator David Tuchman (111,000) also moves on, as does actor Kevin Pollak (71,300) and comedian Ray Romano (61,100).
The second starting flight kicks off on Monday at 11 a.m. and PokerNews will have all the big hands and eliminations. Click here to follow along with the live reporting team. Fans can also check out all the action live on ESPN and PokerGO. Here's a link to when and where to watch.
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas. His work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions. He is also the host of the True Gambling Stories podcast, available on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn Radio, Spotify, Stitcher, PokerNews.com, HoldemRadio.com, and TrueGamblingStories.com.
