WSOP Day 3: WSOP's Own Isaac Hanson Leads Casino Employees FT, $50K Gets Underway
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Yesterday's Day 3 of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) featured four events with the first gold bracelet awarded when Brian Green topped a field of 204 runners to win Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty for $345,669.
In addition to the three continuing events, today's third day of the series will also feature the start of Event #5: 50th Annual High Roller - $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Here's what's on tap today, in the daily What to Watch For on PokerNews, sponsored by 888poker.
Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event
The third day of the 2019 WSOP features a televised six-handed final table with all players guaranteed $9,776, with their eyes on the $62,345 top prize, along with the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
WSOP media relations manager Isaac Hanson (lead photo) enters the action in the lead with 5,550,000, while Montego Bay Resort casino dealer Jorge Ruiz is firmly on his heels with 4,820,000.
Team PokerNews has a sweat this tournament with PokerNews Live Reporter Adam Lamers seeking to follow in the footsteps of 2013 champ Chad Holloway and earn a bracelet of his own heading into the final table as one of the short-stacks with 1,490,000. Also in contention are ARIA poker dealer Nicholas Haynes (third - 2,745,000), Casino Caribbean pit dealer Jesse Kertland (fourth - 1,620,000), and Fallsview Casino dual-rate dealer Jeffrey Fast (sixth - 1,190,000).
WSOP Event #1 Casino Employees Final Table
| Final Table | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Jeffrey Fast | Canada | 1,190,000 | 10 |
| 5 | Isaac Hanson | United States | 5,550,000 | 46 |
| 6 | Jorge Ruiz | United States | 4,820,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Jesse Kertland | United States | 1,620,000 | 14 |
| 8 | Nicholas Haynes | United States | 2,725,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Adam Lamers | Canada | 1,490,000 | 12 |
Notable players cashing on Day 2 included final table bubble boy Errol Krupiarz (10th - $3,241), Day 1 chip leader Cosmo Andoloro (11th - $3,241), Austin Roberts (14th - $2,569), DraftKings employees Teng Zheng(18th - $2,074) and Steven McLoughlin (24th - $1,706), last woman standing Amanda Wheeler (25th - $1,706), Jose Zaragoza (31st - $1,430), Bryan Wienhoff (41st - $1,221), WSOP Bracelet winner Jon Friedberg (46th - $1,064), Filimon Zamora (53rd - $1,064), Jeremy Daum (71st - $858), and Asad Abdullah (74th - $795).
The final day of this event will be airing on PokerGO starting at 1 p.m. PST.
Follow PokerNews as our Live Reporting team will be covering this final day from start to finish with live updates from the moment the action gets back underway at noon PST. Live updates can be found here with hand-for-hand coverage.
Event #3: BIG 50 - $500 No-Limit Hold'em
The BIG 50 developed quite a buzz to celebrate the 50th annual WSOP. The $500 event with four opening flights on May 30 to June 2 is off to a great start with yesterday's Day 1a attracting a large field of 6,093 entrants with 1,580 surviving.
Cosimo Bisogno is in a good position for his first WSOP cash as he ended the Day 1a pack as the chip leader with 932,000. He's followed by Luis Pinho with 808,000, and Andrew Baldwin with 785,000. Other players bagging heaps of chips included Seung Mook Jung (541,000), Maurice Hawkins (519,000), Xiao Yu (476,000), and Amin Mostafavi (464,000).
Several former bracelet winners also bagged chips including John Reading (247,000), Loni Harwood (131,000), Chris Wallace (95,000) and Dietrich Fast (85,000).
Notables hitting the rail on Day 1a included Shaun Deeb, Mike Del Vecchio, Greg Raymer, Muskan Sethi, and Andrea Buonocore.
They all still have a chance to advance during the three remaining opening flights thanks to the re-entry element to this new event on the WSOP schedule starting with Day 1b at 11 a.m. today.
Day 2a will also kick off today at 5 p.m. PST. This is three hours later than the originally scheduled 2 p.m. PST starting time.
Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
Yesterday's start to the four-day event attracted 853 players to generate a healthy $1,151,550 prize pool. While this is down from the 911 players in last year's event, the turnout was still satisfactory considering the BIG 50 was potentially competing for some of the participants' attention.
A total of 373 entrants managed to find a bag, all led by Lawrence Michael with 79,000 and Andrew Brown with 78,000. Brown already has found WSOP gold in a similar event more than a decade ago. In 2008, Brown, who has more than $1.1 million in live tournament earnings, won the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo bracelet event for $226,483.
Also bagging big stacks were Derek McMaster (66,700), Eric Watkins (61,100), Curtis Phelps (58,200) and three-time bracelet winner Ian Johns (53,800).
Notable players advancing to Day 2 include John Esposito (46,500), David Benyamine (39,600), Allyn Shulman (38,600), John Monnette (23,700), Daniel Negreanu (17,700), and Shaun Deeb (2,000).
Today's Day 2 will feature ten blind levels of 60 minutes each starting at 2 p.m. The tournament will be in the money after 245 more players hit the rail with 128 players securing a $2,257 min-cash. The winner will be crowned on June 2 and is slated to walk home with a decent $228,288 top prize along with a WSOP gold bracelet.
Event #5: 50th Annual High Roller - $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em
The 50th Annual High Roller will attract some of the biggest names in the game with a hefty $50,000 price tag, the second largest buy-in only behind Event #83: $100,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller on July 11-13.
Last year featured a $50,000 event at the tail-end of the schedule and attracted 128 entrants to generate a $6,144,000 prize pool. Ben Yu humbly captured his third WSOP gold bracelet, his first in no-limit hold'em to win the $1,650,773 top prize.
"I don't think I'm one of the top 10 or maybe even 20 players in this hundred person field," Yu said after the win. "I was mostly just playing mixed games and the last year or two I've really started to work harder on trying to better myself because I really just want to get in there and battle amongst the best. I play all the different mixed games. I play Magic The Gathering competitively. It's going to be really hard for me to compete with some of these guys on and be the best. I'm pretty happy just to be able to compete at the highest level and have a shot to win a race against these guys."
This year's event will feature four days running May 31 through June 3. The opening day kicks off at 3 p.m. and will feature eight hour-long blind levels. Players will be able to reenter once in the event up until the late-registration period closes on Level 12 (the fourth blind level on tomorrow's Day 2.)
Two Belgian players in Kenny Hallaert and Thomas Boivin will be in today's action after winning yesterday's $5,300 High Roller Mega Satellite.
Players will need to react quickly with the event utilizing a shot clock.
Won my seat for the $50k highroller tomorrow together with @martomchat. Belgian power! https://t.co/ka9Xu3k60A
— Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB)
