Jason Mercier raised it up in early position, and Timothy Finne three bet it from the big blind. Mercier called, then drew two cards. Finne drew one, then fired out a bet. Mercier raised it up, leaving himself just 1,500 behind. Finne called, then drew one card. Mercier stood pat, and both players checked. The exact same thing happened both on the draw and with the betting action, and Finne simply said "you win." Mercier rolled over , and he took down the pot to get to 6,000.
Tom Schneider raised from middle position and got a single caller in a short-stacked Dan O'Brien playing from the big blind. O'Brien drew two and Schneider three, then O'Brien check-called a bet from Schneider. O'Brien then took two on the next draw while Schneider stood pat.
O'Brien checked again, Schneider bet, and O'Brien folded, showing he had both a pair of deuces and a pair of treys among his five cards. Schneider flashed a as well as he scooped the chips.
As Table 364 pushed through the last four hands of the night, a short-stacked Jason Mercier tried on a couple of occasions to get his last chips in the middle, finally getting a taker on the final hand in Timothy Finne.
Mercier raised, Finne three-bet from the blinds, and Mercier called. Finne took one card and Mercier two, then Finne bet, Mercier raised, Finne reraised, and Mercier called all in.
Both then stood pat on the last two draws, and Mercier showed . Finne flashed a , and Mercier scooped the chips to survive to Day 2.
"2 p.m. can't come soon enough!" said Mercier somewhat wryly, noting tomorrow's restart time. He then looked up at the board to see the number of remaining players. "There's only f***ing 90 people left? Why not just give me the bracelet now!" he cracked.
Today saw the start of the last non-flop games at the WSOP, as Day 1 of Event #59 $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball completed. After eight levels of drawing and standing pat, Juijen Chang leads the way with a massive stack of 66,000. The only player within 20,000 of him is none other then Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who ended the night with 58,300 despite sitting out the last level of the night.
282 players ponied up the buy in for this event, well above the 228 from last year. Over half of the field was eliminated today, and some of the causalities included Phil Galfond, Greg Raymer, John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Billy Baxter, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, and Alex Kravchenko.
It wasn't all bad news for the notables, as a slew of them made it through the day. Amongst those still alive are David “ODB” Baker (46,900), Gavin Smith (36,900), Daniel Negreanu (24,400), Mike Leah (23,000), Scott Seiver (18,900) and 2013 WSOP bracelet winners Marco Johnson (40,000), Tom Schneider (32,300), David Chiu (28,500), Daniel Idema (21,500), Vladimir Shchemelev (13,700), and Jesse Martin (12,800).
The 88 surviving players will return tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time to play ten more levels of triple draw poker. The plan is to play ten levels, or until a final table has been reached: whichever comes first. As always, Pokernews.com will be here with all of your up to date action. Thanks for tuning in, and good night from Las Vegas!
, and he took down the pot to get to 6,000.
