Event 45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship Day 2 | 2012 World Series of Poker

06-26-2012 02:40 UTC-6

Andy Bloch Leads the Remaining 62; Rast Still in the Running to Defend His Title

Happy_Freaked

Level 10

Rast still in the hunt to defend his title

After a very slow first day of play in which only one player busted out, the action heated up on Day 2. After 500 more minutes of tournament poker we are down to 62 players, all of whom are gunning for that $1,451,527 first-place prize. Tomorrow we will make serious progress towards the money, with Andy Bloch as our chip leader with 687,000.

The first player that got eliminated was Justin Bonomo who started the day very low on chips. Towards the end of the first level we also lost Lee Goldman when he ran into Antony Lellouche's nuts in 2-7 Triple Draw. Stephen Mack busted out to John D'Agostino and slowly but surely we started losing more players in the second level.

Lellouche did not only crush Goldman's dreams, but he also took a big pot off David 'Bakes' Baker. Baker was left behind with little chips and busted shortly thereafter. It also wasn't Shawn Buchanan nor Scott Seiver's day today as both players didn't make it to the second break.

George Lind and Bertrand Grospellier also didn't have great days, as they both were eliminated rather quickly. The first Japanese bracelet winner, Naoya Kihara, who took down the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-max tournament, also made it to Day 2, but he came up short in Seven Card Stud against Nick Schulman.

One of the biggest pots of the day went down in the third level of the day. Jason Mercier tangled with Dan Shak, and within a couple of seconds we saw a pot worth around 370,000 chips. Shak got it in with an open-ended-straight draw and an overpair against Mercier's top set. The turn gave Mercier a flush draw, killing some of Shak's out. But the river was an off suit nine filling up Shak's straight. Read the entire hand here. Mercier's stack took a big hit, but he grinded himself back up and closed out the day with 253,200 while Shak finished with 464,400.

Cory Zeidman won a WSOP bracelet earlier this summer in the $1,500 Stud-8 tournament, but he won't be the first double bracelet winner this year. He busted out in Razz against Hasan Habib.

After the dinner break we quickly said goodbye to Eugene Katchalov. He came up short in Stud-8. John Juanda is also one of the players who didn't make his way through to Day 3. In No-Limit Hold'em he got his money in with ace-deuce and ran into Joe Cassidy's kings.

Gus Hansen showed up for his first tournament of the World Series of Poker, but that didn't pan out the way he had hoped. Phil Ivey, who was short for most of the day, took out the Dane. Ivey himself recovered well from a rough start and closed out the day with 166,200. Michael Mizrachi and Brian Rast will be the two only previous champions returning on Day 3 as David Bach was eliminated. Mizrachi will return tomorrow with 572,200 and is one of the biggest stacks. Robert Mizrachi, who made the final table when his brother won, also had a great day and he closed out with 500,200 chips. Rast has over twice the starting stack going into Day 3 with 303,900.

During the last of play, Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel were eliminated. However, the last half of the level was dominated by the controversy a table #360 which you can read about here and here.

Sixteen players will make the money and here is the breakdown:

Place	Prize
1	$1,451,527
2	$896,935
3	$561,738
4	$406,736
5	$317,882
6	$253,497
7	$205,856
8	$169,879
9-10	$142,197
11-12	$120,994
13-14	$105,235
15-16	$91,549

Play resumes at 2:00 PM local time tomorrow, so be sure to keep it here for updates on all of the exciting action and drama as it takes place.

06-26-2012 01:59 UTC-6

Massive Pot and Controversy On Table 360 (Part 2)

donpeters

Level 10

Continued from below...

With the request coming from Shaun Deeb that he wanted an official ruling from World Series of Poker Tournament Director Jack Effel, the lead floor supervisor was called in and arrived on the scene within a few minutes to try and solve the issue as Effel was no longer in the building.

This floor first needed to hear things from the dealer upon arriving on the scene. By this time it had been over 20 minutes since it all began. The dealer ran through the actions to the floor, what had happened, what was said and how it ended. The floor then heard from the players again before making the final ruling.

The ruling was reversed in that it was deemed "accepted action" by all parties that all of the money was in the middle, even though Abe Mosseri had only said, "I call." Nikolai Yakovenko would have only committed about 60% of his stack by putting in the pot-sized reraise, but it was now ruled that he had to pay off Mosseri's entire lot.

There was a lot of back and forth between the players, even the ones not directly involved in the hand. All were trying to get the entire story straight and the pot set so play could move forward. Because of the time this had taken, which was around 30 minutes at this point, the players requested something be done about putting time back on the clock. Although the other tables in the tournament weren't directly involved in the hand, all tables had suffered because everyone was paying attention to the commotion rather than playing at a normal speed.

While the back and forth between Mosseri, Yakovenko and the floor was going on, Yakovenko had told the floor about Mosseri talking about his hand, showing them when he looked back at them and also about how he himself said to Mosseri that he reraised the pot, but was not actually all in. There was also a little bit of back story between the two that Ali Eslami filled us in on.

Early in the night, a hand happened where Yakovenko made a wheel, but turned over the two cards he wasn't using for the wheel first. A few seconds later, he turned over the cards that showed he had a wheel and scooped the pot after slowrolling Mosseri. Mosseri was upset and picked up the chips he owed to Yakovenko and tossed them across the table. Yakovenko had pulled this move because prior to this, Mosseri was doing some unpleasant joking towards Yakovenko's play in the event.

Eventually, Mosseri said he didn't want Yakovenko to ever talk to him again and the two got quiet. Yakovenko now directed most of his attention to the floor because he was rather upset with the ruling and having to pay Mosseri's entire amount. Mosseri, on the other hand, was busy stacking up his new stack of over 600,000 in chips. Mosseri also added that he thought the players were all in and said he would have just left if he had lost the pot. Deeb was also busy stacking up his chips as he had more than tripled his stack.

It took a few minutes to actually sort out the pot and get it correct before play resumed at the table. The players seated at Table 360 did ask the floor if there was something they could do about the time they had missed. The floor went to work on that, if possible, while the dealer dealt the next hand.

Yakovenko was left with just under 15,000 in chips and got them all in on the next hand in a hand of Limit Hold'em. He was all in preflop against Viktor Blom and Roland Israelashvili. At the showdown on the {Q-Clubs} {7-Spades} {3-Spades} {3-Hearts} {5-Diamonds} board, Yakovenko's {A-Spades} {J-Spades} couldn't beat Blom's {2-Hearts} {2-Clubs} . Israelashvili had the {A-Hearts} {J-Diamonds} . Yakvenko was eliminated, but that only brought up another issue.

With everything taking so long with the big hand, a table needed to be broken, but it was held up. The table was eventually broken and Phil Ivey took the seat once claimed by Yakovenko. The players at the table wanted more time because of the issue, but it had just been announced that there was only four hands left in the day and the clock was paused. Because Ivey had now joined the table, the floor said they couldn't play extra time as Ivey would be playing double because he came from an active table.

The table came up with a solution on the behalf of Eslami to finish out the four hands with Ivey, then remove him from the table and play an extra 15-20 minutes on their own. They believed it would be like they were "going back in time to fill the space," as Eslami put it. Problem was, Ivey said he wanted to be a part of it as he had missed some hands at the other table due to the slow play and the table not breaking because of the controversy that had happened. In the end, though, it was ruled that no time would be added and the players would simply finish their four hands for the night and then bag up their chips.

After it was all over some 40-45 minutes after the first limp from Charles Pacheco, Yakovenko did some debating with the floor staff on the side, which lasted a few minutes. After he was done, Mosseri talked to the floor to give his final thoughts. Eslami also spoked with the floor and said what he felt on the situation and the final ruling.

While many of the players were leaving the tournament area following the completion of the day, many of them complimented the floor on the correct ruling given all that had happened. It seemed to be well understood by all that it was a very difficult situation and something that hadn't been seen before, making it truly a unique issue.

Tags: Abe Mosseri Ali Eslami Jack Effel Nikolay Yakovenko Phil Ivey Shaun Deeb

06-26-2012 01:43 UTC-6

Massive Pot and Controversy On Table 360 (Part 1)

donpeters

Level 10

"Somebody get a writer over here to write this one down!" yelled out Ali Eslami from Table 360 before popping up out of his chair and looking around. PokerNews was right there as Eslami made the cry for a reporter. "Look at this crazy five-way pot," he said.

The action when our reporter arrived at the table was as follows.

From under the gun, Charles Pacheco limped in. Viktor Blom limped in from middle position and then Abe Mosseri limped in behind him in the hijack seat. Shaun Deeb then called on the button and John D'Agostino completed the bet from the small blind. Then, things got a bit interesting.

Nikolai Yakovenko was in the big blind and he raised to 12,400. Pacheco, Blom and Mosseri all made the call before action was back on Deeb. He took some time to think about his decision and then announced that he raised the pot.

Deeb actually had less than a full, pot-sized raise. His stack was a total of 68,800 and he was in for all of it. D'Agostino folded his hand from the small blind and then Yakovenko took some time of his own to think. After a minute or two, Yakovenko said, "All right, I'm all in."

While Deeb had less than the pot, Yakovenko had more and wasn't exactly all in just yet, but he slid a couple of giant stacks forward. Pacheco checked his cards again and made some facial movements. Blom quickly tossed his hand away, but had acted out of turn. A little bit longer passed and Pacheco then folded. With Blom already out of the way, Mosseri was up and had a very big decision in front of him.

Mosseri had a little under 400,000 in his stack and asked Yakovenko to count his stack. Yakovenko said to Mosseri that he actually had more than the pot, but Mosseri still wanted a count on Yakovenko's entire stack, using a few choice words. With all the chips Yakovenko had, it took him and the dealer a little bit to break down all the stacks. When it was finished, Yakovenko was said to have had 407,300. Now it was Mosseri's turn to tank.

Mosseri went into the tank, while Deeb stood up next to the table and watched. While Mosseri tanked for several minutes, a large crowd gathered around the table. It seemed as though every few seconds that passed, a new person showed up to watch what was going on. Everyone wanted to see what was going on and some were commenting on the action, which Yakovenko jumped in and asked people to stop doing. Deeb backed him up and silenced the spectators.

It was several long minutes in the tank for Mosseri. D'Agostino was pacing around behind the table telling people they weren't even going to get to play another hand because of how long this had been taking. D'Agostino was very short at the time and was looking to get some more hands in.

At one point when Mosseri was in the tank, he did some talking about his hand out loud, which Yakovenko wanted him to stop doing. Mosseri had announced his hand, saying, "I have aces and one suit," while plenty of other players were hovering around. Yakovenko took this as Mosseri "polling his friends" about his hand. There was also a point when Mosseri looked back at his cards and Greg Mueller leaned down to peak in from behind, which Yakovenko also requested be put to a stop.

Mosseri tanked for what most estimated at 10-15 minutes before Yakovenko finally called the clock on him. "Wow, this is the first time in my life anyone has called the clock on me," said Mosseri. Mosseri was given a minute to act on his hand by the floor staff and eventually said, "I call."

After Mosseri said he made the call, he turned his hand over, which was followed by Deeb turning his hand over and Yakovenko turning his over. Here's what was seen:

Mosseri: {A-Clubs} {A-Spades} {J-Clubs} {5-Clubs}
Deeb: {J-Hearts} {J-Spades} {10-Clubs} {7-Spades}
Yakovenko: {K-Clubs} {K-Spades} {3-Diamonds} {3-Clubs}

With all the cards turned up, the dealer quickly ran out the flop, turn and river with the {Q-Spades} {J-Diamonds} {2-Diamonds} {10-Spades} {8-Spades} . Deeb had made a spade flush to more than triple up and win the main pot. For the side pot, Mosseri's aces held up and he was the winner of that one. But then, there was more controversy.

After the board ran out, Yakovenko said, "Wait a minute, he only said call," speaking of Mosseri's preflop action. Because Yakovenko had more than the pot when he raised, he wasn't actually all in. He stated that he only reraised the pot, which caused issue about whether or not everyone's money actually went in. It was clear that Deeb was all in, but the side pot between Mosseri and Yakovenko was in question due to Mosseri saying only, "I call."

The floor staff was called over again and the dealer informed him that the hands were prematurely tabled with action still pending between Mosseri and Yakovenko. It took another few minutes to get the story of the hand straight and figure out what was to happen.

The aftermath with all the hands tabled and the board in the middle of the felt

The pot was counted, which Eslami's iPad calculator was needed for, to determine that Yakovenko's reraise was to 246,000. With Mosseri's stack at around 150,000 more than that, the first floor ruled that the turn and river would have to be rerun as the flop action hadn't been complete. Deeb flung his arms up in the air and couldn't believe the ruling. Neither could anyone watching or the players at the adjacent tables who could hear things.

Shouts of, "That is the worst ruling of all time," and "I can't believe that's the rule," and "Are you joking?" rang out within the tournament area. Deeb spoke up and said he wasn't accepting the ruling and that he wanted the ruling of World Series of Poker Tournament Director Jack Effel.

More to follow...

Tags: Abe Mosseri Ali Eslami Charles Pacheco Jack Effel John D'Agostino Nikolay Yakovenko Phil Ivey Shaun Deeb Viktor Blom

06-26-2012 00:32 UTC-6

Berman Hits River To Bust Johnson

donpeters

Pot-Limit Omaha

From under the gun, Marco Johnson limped in and action folded to Lyle Berman on the button. He raised the pot and made it 10,800 to go. The blinds folded and then Johnson made the call.

The {9-Hearts} {3-Hearts} {2-Diamonds} rolled out on the flop and Johnson checked. Berman tossed out 25,200 and Johnson took a minute to make the call. From there, the {5-Diamonds} landed on the turn. After another minute of thought, Johnson moved all in for approximately 71,000. Berman quickly called.

Johnson: {5-Clubs} {5-Hearts} {4-Hearts} {3-Clubs}
Berman: {A-Spades} {A-Hearts} {8-Spades} {7-Hearts}

Johnson had flopped a straight and flush draw, but turned a set to take the lead. Berman needed a six or a heart on the river to win the pot and bust Johnson, but Johnson did have some blockers against Berman's draw.

The river completed the board with the {Q-Hearts} — it was red and it was a heart. Berman nailed his flush and won the pot, sending Johnson out the door and moving up to 325,000 in chips.

Player	Chips	Progress
Lyle Berman	325,000	30,000
Marco Johnson	Busted

Tags: Lyle Berman Marco Johnson

06-25-2012 20:41 UTC-6

Bari Finds a Double

donpeters

Pot-Limit Omaha

With approximately 19,000 already in the pot, the board read {A-Spades} {6-Hearts} {5-Diamonds} {J-Hearts} between Allen Bari and Andrew Robl. The two got all of the money in on the turn with Bari the one at risk. He held the {Q-Hearts} {Q-Diamonds} {5-Hearts} {5-Spades} for a set of fives and a flush draw. Robl held the {A-Hearts} {K-Spades} {8-Hearts} {7-Clubs} for a pair of aces, a flush draw and a straight draw.

The river completed the board with the {7-Spades} and Bari won the pot to double up. Robl was left knocked down to 10,000 in chips while Bari moved to about 225,000.

Player	Chips	Progress
Allen Bari	223,000	121,000
Andrew Robl	10,000	-98,000

Tags: Allen Bari Andrew Robl

06-25-2012 18:20 UTC-6

Bakes Quadruples Up

donpeters

Pot-Limit Omaha

Eric Rodawig raised to 3,200 from middle position and Keith Gipson called from the hijack seat. David Benyamine called in the cutoff seat and Ben Yu called from the button. In the big blind, David "Bakes" Baker raised all in for 11,700. Rodawig folded, but the three other player made the call.

The flop came down {4-Diamonds} {2-Diamonds} {2-Clubs} and Gipson checked. Benyamine bet 25,000 and Yu folded. Gipson also folded, leaving Baker heads up with Benyamine to stay alive.

Benyamine: {A-Diamonds} {J-Diamonds} {10-Diamonds} {4-Clubs}
Baker: {K-Hearts} {Q-Clubs} {10-Spades} {3-Hearts}

Baker was on the ropes with nothing on the flop against Benyamine's two pair and flush draw. The turn was the {9-Hearts} and river the {Q-Spades} . With the black lady on the river, Baker won the pot to quadruple up.

Player	Chips	Progress
David Benyamine	302,000	-3,000
Ben Yu	260,000
Keith Gipson	215,000	-22,000
Eric Rodawig	59,000	-13,000
David Bakes Baker	41,000	31,200

Tags: David Baker Ben Yu Keith Gipson Eric Rodawig David Benyamine

06-25-2012 16:34 UTC-6

Lee Goldman Third Player to Bust

Happy_Freaked

2-7 Triple Draw

Lee Goldman was just eliminated, and Ben Yu told us what happened in the hand that was won by Antony Lellouche.

Lellouche raised, Yu called and Goldman three-bet after which both players called. On the first draw Lellouche needed one card, while Yu and Goldman took two.

Goldman bet, Lellouche raised, Yu called and the action was back on Goldman. He had a little less than one bet left, and decided to move all in. Lellouche put in the fourth bet, and Yu called giving us heads up action on the side.

On the second draw all three players took one card. Lellouche bet and Yu called. Lellouche didn't need another card on the final draw, while both Yu and Goldman took one card. Lellouche bet again, Yu folded and Goldman showed {J-} {5-} {4-} {3-} {2-} . Lellouche had made the nuts, which is a {7-} {5-} {4-} {3-} {2-} and knocked out Goldman.

Player	Chips	Progress
Antony Lellouche	246,000	53,000
Ben Yu	234,000	-8,900
Lee Goldman	Busted

Tags: Antony Lellouche Ben Yu Lee Goldman

06-25-2012 15:14 UTC-6

Goodbye Bonomo

Happy_Freaked

Omaha-8

On the hand first of play the first player got eliminated. Justin Bonomo was all in against both Bertrand Grospellier and Lyle Berman.

The board read {2-Spades} {4-Clubs} {K-Diamonds} {7-Clubs} {K-Spades} when Grospellier tabled {A-Clubs} {A-Hearts} {3-Diamonds} {5-Spades} for the nut low and two pair, and Bonomo mucked his cards. Berman showed {2-Diamonds} {4-Diamonds} {5-Hearts} {7-Hearts} and his hand was no good either.

Bonomo is the second player to be eliminated after David Singer lost his chips early on day one.

Player	Chips	Progress
Lyle Berman	268,000	-7,200
Bertrand Grospellier	50,000	16,500
Justin Bonomo	Busted

Tags: Bertrand Grospellier Justin Bonomo Lyle Berman

06-25-2012 14:30 UTC-6

Glantz Leads Into Day 2

donpeters

Welcome back to Event 45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Today, 103 players will return for Day 2 action after taking to the felt yesterday. There should also be a few late registrants as players are allowed to sign up until the start of today's play. Once those players roll in, we'll let you know who they are and where they're seated.

Matt Glantz was the man who bagged up the most chips at the end of the night on Day 1. He finished on 310,700 and was the only player to eclipse the 300,000-chip mark. Coming in behind Glantz are Ali Eslami, Keith Gibson and Lyle Berman.

With two previous final tables in this event from 2008 and 2011, Glantz is now the early favorite in the field. Still, it's very early in the event and anything can happen. Today is going to be an important day on the felt for all players, especially the ones who couldn't get much going on Day 1.

Of those to finish Day 1 with short stacks are Justin Bonomo, Lee Goldman, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Chris Klodnicki. It's a new day, though, and there's still plenty of time for them to turn it around.

Also still left in the field are Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier. Mercier bagged up the most chips of those three at 201,000.

Play is scheduled to kick off at 2:00 PM and PokerNews will have all of the live updates that you won't want to miss!

In the meantime, Lynn Gilmartin spoke with some of the pros before they took their seats last night, which you can watch here: