Who Will Reach the Final Day? Event #11: $5,000 NLHE Sees 27 Players Return at 2 p.m.
The penultimate day of Event #11: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em is in town and by the end of it, six players will have made it through to the final day which will be streamed on CBS All Access and Poker GO. At 2 p.m. local time, 27 players will return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to compete for their share of the $1,860,000 prize pool and currently leading the pack is Finland’s Pauli Ayras with around 1,000,000 in chips.
Three Finnish bracelets have already been awarded so Ayras could be the fourth player to win one for Finland but he still has some way to go as the 26 other players won’t be sitting ducks. The tournament attracted the crème de la crème of the poker world and 400 of them entered to take a shot. Players like Ognjen Sekularac, Daniel Strelitz, Pete Chen, Krasimir Yankov, Daniel Buzgon, Shannon Shorr, and Simon Deadman for example have all bagged an above average stack and are all on the hunt for their first bracelet.
Maria Ho is also chasing her first bracelet and came close in this event back in 2011 when she lost heads-up against Allen Bari. Another Maria is Maria Mcalpin, Mcaplin has only cashed twice before here at the WSOP, both of them in a $1,500 event in 2018, with two other cashes recorded on The Hendon Mob. Either of them could be the first woman to win a bracelet in an open event in 2019 as the last was Nikita Luther in 2018 together with Giuseppe Pantaleo in the tag team event.
Anthony Zinno, Jeremy Ausmus, and Niall Farrell are all chasing to win a bracelet for their other wrist to balance it out. Pantaleo bagged 50 big blinds while the rest has some work to do with 21, 17, and 14 bigs in their bags. Also still in the tournament are Ali Imsirovic and Randall Emmett. Who doesn’t know them? They got seated at the same table for a bit during the first day which caused some loud banter and if they make it to the final 18 or nine players, this might happen again. They have some history already and there could be more in the making.
All players are guaranteed at least $11,969 today but probably won’t be satisfied with just that amount as the winner will walk away with $442,385 and the gold WSOP bracelet. When they return at 2 p.m. to the gold section in the Amazon room, they will continue play with Level 19 which features a small blind of 6,000, big blind of 12,000, and a big blind ante of 12,000. Play is scheduled to go on until there are six players left with a 15-minute break after every two 60-minute levels. A 60-minute dinner break will take place after the sixth level of play around 8:30 p.m.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all the hustle and bustle from the 50th Annual World Series of Poker so sit tight as the updates will be coming to you right here.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 404 | 1 | Randall Emmett | United States | 164,000 | 14 |
| 404 | 2 | Pete Chen | Taiwan | 691,000 | 58 |
| 404 | 3 | Marton Czuczor | Hungary | 372,000 | 31 |
| 404 | 4 | Michael O'Grady | Australia | 316,000 | 26 |
| 404 | 5 | Anthony Alberto | United States | 359,000 | 30 |
| 404 | 6 | Ian Steinman | United States | 212,000 | 18 |
| 404 | 7 | Keith Ferrera | United States | 72,000 | 6 |
| 404 | 8 | Maria Mcalpin | United States | 648,000 | 54 |
| 404 | 9 | Taylor Hart | United States | 325,000 | 27 |
| 408 | 1 | Brett Bader | United States | 355,000 | 30 |
| 408 | 2 | Andreas Kniep | Germany | 456,000 | 38 |
| 408 | 3 | Shannon Shorr | United States | 553,000 | 46 |
| 408 | 4 | Niall Farrell | United Kingdom | 162,000 | 14 |
| 408 | 5 | Daniel Strelitz | United States | 694,000 | 58 |
| 408 | 6 | Arsenii Karmatckii | Russia | 459,000 | 38 |
| 408 | 7 | Giuseppe Pantaleo | Germany | 597,000 | 50 |
| 408 | 8 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 208,000 | 17 |
| 408 | 9 | Ali Imsirovic | United States | 334,000 | 28 |
| 409 | 1 | Simon Deadman | United Kingdom | 540,000 | 45 |
| 409 | 2 | Anthony Zinno | United States | 249,000 | 21 |
| 409 | 3 | Emile Schiff | Jamaica | 303,000 | 25 |
| 409 | 4 | Mario Hofler | United States | 154,000 | 13 |
| 409 | 5 | Ognjen Sekularac | Serbia | 909,000 | 76 |
| 409 | 6 | Maria Ho | United States | 632,000 | 53 |
| 409 | 7 | Krasimir Yankov | Bulgaria | 597,000 | 50 |
| 409 | 8 | Pauli Ayras | Finland | 1,000,000 | 83 |
| 409 | 9 | Daniel Buzgon | United States | 594,000 | 50 |