It was another fast-paced day in Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball on Thursday as Day 2 played from 88 players all of the way down to 10. And what a line-up players remaining, led overnight by last year's third-place finisher in this same event, David "ODB" Baker.
The afternoon saw several familiar faces hitting the rail shy of the top 30 and the cash, with Jason Mercier, Joe Tehan, Steve Zolotow, Shane Schleger, Daniel Idema, David Bach, Scott Clements, Gavin Smith, and Tom Schneider among them.
Just before the dinner break Timothy Finne became the unfortunate 31st-place finisher to bubble the event, after which the march to the payout desk began with Ryan Tepen (30th) and Jon Turner (29th) simultaneously busting on the first post-bubble hand.
A couple of former bracelet winners soon followed in Naoya Kihara (28th) and Dario Alioto (27th), with a couple more — Marco Johnson (16th) and Konstantin Puchkov (14th) — among those lasting until the latter portion of the evening, as did start-of-day-2 chip leader Juijen Chang who ended his run in 13th.
Meanwhile it was three-time bracelet winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi emerging as the big stack during the early evening, and for a time it looked as though he'd likely end the night bagging the most of anyone. But David Chiu overtook him late, and then David "ODB" Baker passed them both to carry the lead to tomorrow's Day 3.
As mentioned, it's quite a line-up returning tomorrow, including no less than six WSOP bracelet holders in Baker (1), Chiu (5), Mizrachi (3), Scott Seiver (1), Eli Elezra (1), and 2013 WSOP Player of the Year contender Daniel Negreanu (5).
Action resumes at 2 p.m. on Friday. Be sure to return then to PokerNews to see who among this top group of players emerges to claim the Event #59 WSOP bracelet.
Hernan Salazar had survived several all-in situations with his short stack over the last stretch, including a hand just a short while ago that saw him all in and drawing a pair of treys on the last round but still surviving after Michael Mizrachi drew a seven-high straight.
Shortly after that hand Salazar's luck ran out, however, again in a hand versus Mizrachi.
All in before the first draw, Salazar drew one card on all three rounds while Mizrachi drew two, then one, then one.
Mizrachi quickly spread his hand to show he'd made a number one — . Then Salazar showed his and expressed amazement when flipping the fifth card as he'd ended with a number two (!) — . "The Mizrachi Show," deadpanned Scott Seiver at the sight of the hands.
With a half-hour to go tonight, just 10 players remain.
Farhad Momeni was just now all in before the first draw in a hand that saw both Daniel Negreanu and Michael Mizrachi put in three bets apiece while Momeni was all in for his last 12,000 or so.
Negreanu would be the one leading the betting in this hand out of the small blind after drawing one on the first round then standing pat thereafter. Momeni was out of chips and drew two, then two, then one. Meanwhile Mizrachi drew one card on all three rounds, calling Negreanu after the first two draws and then folding after the third.
Negreanu tabled an eight-smooth — — and Momeni mucked.
Start-of-day 2 chip leader Juijen Chang had been on a short stack for a while, then lost most of his stack in a hand versus David "ODB" Baker when the latter drew a to beat Chang's hand.
Down to less than 15,000, a hand soon arose in which Chang and Baker bet back and forth to get Chang all in before the first draw. Chang then drew two, one, and stood pat, while Baker drew one, one, and stood pat. Baker tabled , and when Chang studied Baker's hand and then his own, he mucked and rapped the table before departing.
Now down to 12, the players will be redrawing once more for the final two tables. There are 46 minutes left in Level 18, which will be the last level of the night.
Brian Brubaker raised it up in early position, and Ismael Bojang put out three bets, leaving just 1,500 behind. It folded to Konstantin Puchkov in the big blind, and he looked down at his cards, tanked for about 45 seconds, then put out chips for the call. Brubaker raised, Bojang committed the rest of his chips, and Puchkov called, leaving himself just 1,000 behind.
Both Brubaker and Puchkov drew one while Bojang drew two. The last of Puchkov's chips got in the middle, and Brubaker stood pat, while Puchkov drew one and Bojang two. Both of these players drew one on the final draw, while Brubaker once again patted. Here were the hands.
Brubaker:
Puchkov:
Bojang:
Puchkov would need a deuce and a deuce only, but he drew a , confirming his bust out. Bojang was drawing much more live, but he too drew paint, a , giving Brubaker, who himself was one of the shorter stacks left, a double knockout, boosting his stack to 115,000.
The bubble having burst, they played one additional hand before the dinner break, and there ended up being two eliminations to reduce the field to 28.
It started with Ryan Tepen calling all in with the couple of thousand chips he had left from under the gun, then it folded to David "ODB" Baker who raised from the button.
The action was on new chip leader Scott Seiver in the small blind who three-bet, leaving it up to Jon Turner to decide what to do from the small blind. Turner had been crippled earlier by Seiver in a big hand that saw the latter make a wheel to claim most of Turner's stack, but "PearlJammer" had managed to squeak into the cash nonetheless.
The others had a lot of fun watching Turner's exasperation over whether or not to save his last 800 chips or put it at risk against three players with a hand he admitted was not worth playing. Finally he called, and after Seiver drew one card, Turner drew four.
"First time all tournament I've drawn four," he laughed.
Tepen then took three and Baker two, and after Seiver led with a bet, Baker called. The next round saw Seiver standing pat, Turner and Tepen take two, and Baker one. Again Baker called Seiver's bet. The third round then went identically, with the all-in players both again taking two, Baker again drawing one, and Baker once more calling Seiver.
"Number three," said Seiver, showing . Baker said he had an eight-seven and mucked. Turner then showed three of his cards — — then the last two he drew — . Tepen meanwhile examined his final five and and when he saw they were beaten he mucked.
Afterwards, Turner said he'd started with .
Tepen takes 30th and Turner 29th, the first players to cash in Event #59. Meanwhile, Seiver goes to break with a big chip lead with over 193,000.
Attention players and fans, if you frequent the PokerNews Live Reporting blog, then you've probably noticed a new tab here at the 2013 World Series of Poker. If you haven't yet, or you're new to our live coverage, then let us be the first to introduce you to the Player Updates tab powered by the PokerNews My Stack app.
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Ali Sarkeshik was just wandering around between the tables for a moment, chatting briefly with Scott Seiver who was doing the same. Both players have around 60,000 sitting at their respective places at the moment, currently representing above average stacks with 48 left.
Seiver asked Sarkeshik how he was doing and he shrugged. "Okay, okay," he said. "Fifty or sixty," he added. "That's good," insisted Seiver. "Yeah but the Grinder has like 150," added Sarkeshik.
"Yeah, but the Grinder is special," said Seiver, and several chuckled at nearby tables. "You can't go comparing yourself to the Grinder!"
Seiver then walked over to Mike Watson and pointed to his stack — now up over 100,000 as well — and proceeded to do just what he advised Sarkeshik against doing.
"You probably think this is special, don't you?" grinned Seiver as he continued to point at Watson's stack, then added the news that Mizrachi currently had more.
2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson joins the PokerNews Podcast to talk about the controversial tweet he released on Tuesday regarding private public cash games at Aria, and respond to criticism regarding the language of the tweet. Merson also discusses Macau, the potential return of online poker to New Jersey, and his friend Tony "End Boss" Gregg's win in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller.
Yesterday saw 282 Triple Draw players get whittled down to just 88, and after eight levels of play, Juijen Chang comes into today’s play with a chip leading stack of 66,000. The only other player close to that marker is Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who finished up with 58,300 even though he sat out the entire last level.
The 2-7 tournaments always draw a majority of pro heavy fields, and it was no exception in this event as nearly half the field is made up of notable players. Some of the players returning today are David “ODB” Baker (46,900), Marco Johnson (40,000), Gavin Smith (36,900), Tom Schneider (32,300), Daniel Negreanu (24,400), Mike Leah (23,000), David Chiu (28,500), Daniel Idema (21,500), and Scott Seiver (18,900).
The 88 surviving players will be walking through the doors of the Rio at 2 p.m. local time to play ten more levels of triple draw poker. As always, Pokernews.com will be here with all of your up to date action. The action will be getting underway soon!
Until we get started, check out one of our video gals Kristy Arnett catching you up on all of the action from yesterday's events.
. Then Salazar showed his and expressed amazement when flipping the fifth card as he'd ended with a number two (!) — 
, confirming his bust out. Bojang was drawing much more live, but he too drew paint, a 
, giving Brubaker, who himself was one of the shorter stacks left, a double knockout, boosting his stack to 115,000.
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