WSOP Day 31: Seidel Hunting For Ninth Bracelet at $1,500 PLO8 Final Table

June 28, 2019

Day 31 at the 2019 World Series of Poker will be another big one with five continuing events and two new ones to come, including the first two of four opening flights in the $888 Crazy Eights.

All eyes are on who will win the $50,000 Poker Players Championship with Josh Arieh in the lead. In other big news, Erik Seidel is hunting for his ninth bracelet at the final table of the $1,500 PLO8 with Scott Abrams kicking off the action in the lead.

Meanwhile, the $600 Deepstack Championship is also set to award a bracelet with five players remaining and Joe Foresman holding a big chip lead against his nearest competitor Will Givens.

Ow and Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Hakim, Scott Seiver, Anthony Zinno, Jon Turner, Connor Drinan, and Chris Ferguson are also among players going deep in events. Here's what's on tap today, in the daily What to Watch For on PokerNews, sponsored by 888poker.

Event #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship

Despite entering the penultimate day with the chip lead with a dozen players remaining, ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey was unable to make the final day after hitting the rail in eighth place for $124,410.

Today's six-max final table line-up will kick off at noon PDT and be broadcasted via PokerGO at 1 p.m. PDT. The line-up includes a top five that has nine WSOP bracelets combined; two-time winner Josh Arieh (6,220,000), bracelet winners Bryce Jockey (4,465,000), Phillip Hui (4,135,000), and John Esposito (3,630,000), and four-time winner Shaun Deeb (2,485,000). Rounding off the table is another big name in Dan Cates with 1,260,000; "jungleman" is looking for his first bracelet but starts the shortest.

The final six are each guaranteed a $168,305 payout with the winner walking away with $1,099,311.

You can read more about this event in our dedicated $50,000 Poker Players Championship Day 2 recap.

Event #59: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship

It comes as no surprise that a fourth-day was added to this tournament that was initially scheduled as a three-day event. A massive field of 6,140 entrants came out to grab a piece of the $3,223,500 prize pool.

The action will resume today at 2 p.m. PDT with blinds at 400,000/800,000 and a big blind ante of 800,000 with Joe Foresman (74,600,000) holding the big chip lead against the rest of the field.

Also competing for the bracelet today are yesterday's chip leader Will Givens (45,500,000), Steffan Logen (30,100,000), Jeff Hakim (24,300,000), and Gleb Kovtunov (9,800,000).

Event #59: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship Final Table Seat Draw

Event #59: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Championship Final Table Payouts

After yesterday's final table eliminations of Linda Huard (ninth - $35,128), Jean-Francois Alexandre (eighth - $45,348), David Goodman (seventh - $58,988), and Mrityunjay Jha (sixth - $77,308), the remaining five players are guaranteed a six-figure payout of $102,077. The winner will walk away with the bracelet and a huge $397,903 top prize.

Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

This event is another one that needs an extra day as three days proved to be not enough with 1,117 entrants generating a $1,507,950 prize pool. The action will resume today at 2 p.m. PDT with blinds at 80,000/160,000 with just nine players remaining.

Scott Abrams enters the final table with a chip leading stack of 6,600,000. Also in the top five are Rodney Burt (4,675,000), Jordan Spurlin (4,250,000), WSOP bracelet winner Anthony Zinno (3,995,000), and Thomas Schropfer (3,565,000).

Erik Seidel is in the hunt for his ninth bracelet with a stack of 1,490,000. Rounding off the final table are Jon Turner (1,460,000), Connor Drinan (1,125,000), and Kyle Miaso (560,000).

Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table Seat Draw

Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table Payouts

All players at the final table are guaranteed at least a ninth-place prize of $20,410 with all eyes on the $279,920 top prize and the bracelet slated for the winner.

Event #61: COLOSSUS - $400 No-Limit Hold'em

The COLLUSUS squeaked past last year's field size of 13,070 entrants with the 5,238 entrants on Wednesday's Day 1a and the 7,871 entrants on yesterday's Day 1b creating a total field of 13,109 entrants. This was even though last year featured six opening flights and this year featured only two.

A total of 1,948 players survived, including 1,178 yesterday, to battle it out for two more days until a winner is crowned. Of course, it is possible with such a large field remaining the tournament could see another day added.

The action will resume today at 11 a.m. PDT with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a big blind ante of 10,000 and is scheduled to end after 15 blind levels are played of 40 minutes each.

Romik Vartzar (2,170,000) has the biggest stack according to the official report. If correct, he has a sizable lead over the rest of the pack with John Goyette (1,453,000), Hien Tran (1,152,000), Kyle Shaw (1,130,000), and Ian Steinman (1,127,000) making up the top five.

Maurice Hawkins, who has won a record 13 WSOP Circuit gold rings, is in the hunt for his first bracelet with a healthy stack of 811,000.

Event #62: $10,000 Razz Championship

The field size in this four-day championship event grew from 96 to 116 entrants to start yesterday's Day 2 to create a $1,090,400 prize pool with a first-place prize of $301,421.

The field is down to just a dozen hopefuls who are scheduled to battle down to a final table of six today starting at 2 p.m. PDT. It is a who's who in the dirty dozen led by disgraced six-time gold bracelet winner and 2017 WSOP Player of the Year Chris Ferguson with 1,280,000.

Also entering today's penultimate day with above average stacks are three-time bracelet winner David Bach (1,280,000), bracelet winner Andrey Zhigalov (976,000), bracelet winner Dan Zack (815,000), two-time bracelet winner Scott Seiver (622,000), and George Alexander (593,000).

Six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (478,000) is still alive hunting for his first bracelet of the year, as is defending champion Calvin Anderson (385,000). Rounding off the survivors are two-time bracelet winners Marco Johnson (297,000) and Mike Gorodinsky (227,000), bracelet winner and Day 2 chip leader Andre Akkari (106,000), and PokerGO founder Cary Katz (97,000).

Event #62: $10,000 Razz Championship Day 3 Seat Draw

Event #63: $1,500 Omaha Mix

This event features three different split pot Omaha games with the game changing every eight hands between Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, and Big O (Five Card Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better).

Yesterday's opening day attracted 717 entrants to create a $967,950 prize pool, which is slightly down from the 773 entrants last year when Yueqi Zhu won the $211,781 top prize.

After ten levels of play, the action is down to 228 players with several players bagging six-figure stacks including John Evans (130,400) Anatolii Zirin (117,800), and Bart Hanson (107,800).

Today is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. PDT with ten more blind levels of an hour each. Those surviving today's action will compete for two more days until a winner is crowned on Sunday, June 30.

Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em

This event is another low buy-in affair guaranteed to attract thousands of entrants to the Rio Convention Center with plenty of players qualifying from around the world via the tournament's online partner 888poker. As the title suggests, the event has a Crazy Eights theme with the winner guaranteed a top prize of $888,888.

The first two of four opening flights take place today at 10 a.m. PDT and 5 p.m. PDT with players starting with 40,000 in chips. This is a five-fold increase from the 8,000 chips this event has featured in the past.

Players will have plenty of chances to bag a big stack into Day 2 with unlimited reentries permitted during each opening flight until the start of Level 13. Each opening day will end after 19 blind levels of 30 minutes each.

Surviving players from the four opening flights will merge for three more days of play on July 1-3 with blinds doubled to one hour in length until a winner is crowned.

History of the Crazy Eights

The Crazy Eights was introduced in 2016 when Hung Le outlasted a field of 6,761 entrants to win the bracelet. The tournament grew to 8,120 entrants in 2017 when Alexandru Papazian found WSOP gold and established a new record of 8,598 entrants last year when Galen Hall was the last player standing.

Event #65: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

While this event won't nearly have as many entrants as the Crazy Eights, it will be a who's who in poker with those with big wallets competing for the latest of the Championship events.

This event will begin the first of its four days today at 3 p.m. PDT with players starting with 60,000 in chips and will end after ten blind levels of an hour each are played. The final field size won't be determined until tomorrow with late-registration open in this freeze-out event until the start of Day 2.

Surviving players will compete for three more days with blind levels of an hour each until a winner is crowned.

History of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Eight or Better Championship

This event is one of the newest Championship events but has proven to be popular in its short history. Bryce Yockey won his first bracelet in this event's inaugural running in 2017 when he finished on top of a 207 player field to win the $511,147 top prize.

The event was even more popular last year in 2018 when Phil Galfond won his third WSOP bracelet after besting a field of 237 players to win the $567,788 first-place prize.

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