Shack-Harris Leads the Unofficial Final Table of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship
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The penultimate day of the 2014 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players' Championship is in the books, and leading the unofficial final table of eight is Brandon Shack-Harris. The Chicago native, 2014 WSOP bracelet winner, and Player of the Year contender bagged 4,101,000 chips, and was the only player to finish the day with more than 3.5 million.
Melissa Burr is not among the leaders at the unofficial final table, but she is the first woman to ever cash in this event. By simply reaching the final table Burr has already doubled her career lifetime tournament earnings, and she’ll be looking to climb the ladder tomorrow and possibly capture the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
Joining Shack-Harris and Burr on Day 5 will be Frank Kassela, Abe Mosseri, Allen Kessler, Jesse Martin, Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou, and John Hennigan. This is Hennigan’s third straight cash in the Poker Players’ Championship, and his second consecutive final table. The only other player at the final table with a previous cash in this event is Mosseri, who finished 11th in 2010 for $129,957.
Officially, Mosseri is only guaranteed $165,435 with seven players remaining, but it is rumored that he has already locked up $600,000 in side bets by reaching the final table. If he wins, he could earn an additional $300,000 on top of the $1,517,767 first-place prize.
Shack-Harris, who already has first, second, and third-place finishes at the 2014 WSOP, is nipping at George Danzer’s heels in the Player of the Year race, Martin is looked to capture his second gold bracelet in as many years, and Kessler and Zhou are both looking to win their first and only.
With his 36th WSOP cash, Kessler now has as many as the legendary Doyle Brunson.
Day 4 kicked off with 22 players – just eight shy of the money – and Vladimir Shchemelev’s early exit led to a three-table redraw. From there, Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgard, David Oppenheim, David Steicke, Gary Benson, and Jason Mercier all busted. Benson four-bet shoved with pocket nines and Burr, the three-bettor, tank-called with two kings. The cowboys held up, and the Australian hit the rail.
The bubble lasted nearly two hours before Elior Sion exited in a hand of stud hi against Shack-Harris. The Brit was check-raised by his opponent on fourth street, then check-called bets on all subsequent streets with a queen-high flush draw on board. Shack-Harris rolled over a full house after Sion called all-in on Seventh, and the Brit mucked.
Robert Mizrachi, Jonathan Duhamel, Matt Glantz, and Todd Brunson all busted shortly after the bubble burst. Duhamel and Glantz were both looking for return trips to the Poker Players’ Championship final table – for Glantz it would’ve been number three.
Australian James Obst was out-kicked with top pair in a hand of no-limit hold’em against Kessler, exiting in 10th place, and the unofficial final table was formed when Seiver dipped out in ninth.
Unofficial Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips | WSOP Bracelets | Career Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Kassela | USA | 2,507,000 | 2 | $2,425,393 |
| 2 | John Hennigan | USA | 1,878,000 | 2 | $4,750,934 |
| 3 | Allen Kessler | USA | 439,000 | 0 | $2,830,973 |
| 4 | Abe Mosseri | USA | 3,485,000 | 1 | $1,149,000 |
| 5 | Chun Lei Zhou | Macau | 1,389,000 | 0 | $199,137 |
| 6 | Melissa Burr | USA | 661,000 | 0 | $151,368 |
| 7 | Brandon Shack-Harris | USA | 4,101,000 | 1 | $611,679 |
| 8 | Jesse Martin | USA | 840,000 | 1 | $1,396,180 |
The final table bubble lasted two hours and 45 minutes before play concluded in the last level of play, and the surviving eight players will return at 2 p.m. on Friday to play down to a winner. Be sure to return to PokerNews for exclusive live updates from this and every event at the 2014 WSOP.