After a couple of early limps, Shota Nakanishi raised to 70,000 from late position. On his left, Sean Winter started counting his chips, then he put a large portion of them to work.
Winter three-bet to 360,000, well over half of his remaining chips. Action folded back around to Nakanishi who thought for a bit before mucking and releasing the pot to Winter.
On the last hand before the break, It was a four-way limped pot and the flop came . The action checked around and the landed on the turn.
It checked to Brian Rast on the button who put in a bet of 30,000 and Ben Lamb check-raised to 120,000. Stephen Chidwick just called from the cutoff and Rast stepped aside.
The river was the and Lamb checked for the third time. Chidwick used a time bank before counting out a bet of 340,000. Lamb instantly mucked and then the table started to discuss the hand.
"You either got ace-jack, four sevens, or four jacks," Lamb said to Chidwick. "I had f*** all."
"Yeah," Rast answered. "I had an ace, that's about all I could have there."
Stephen Chidwick raised to 65,000 from early position. Action folded to Scott Smile in the cutoff who made the call, leaving himself with about 180,000 behind.
The flop came . Chidwick continued with a bet of 50,000. Smile moved all in fairly quickly and Chidwick immediately called.
Scott Smile:
Stephen Chidwick:
Smile was drawing thin against Chidwick's top two pair. The turn and river sealed the deal and ended Smile's run.
Only five players remain in Event #60: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em. Shota Nakanishi leads the remaining bracelet hopefuls in this only Short Deck event of the summer here at the World Series of Poker at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
Nakanishi (2,562,000) is a Short Deck specialist out of Japan who has played many hours of the variant online. He was also in this same event at last year's WSOP. He has already surpassed last year's result and looks to turn his chip lead into his maiden gold bracelet.
Final Day Seat Assignments
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Antes
1
Sean Winter
United States
553,000
69
2
Stephen Chidwick
United Kingdom
1,423,000
178
3
Brian Rast
United States
855,000
107
4
Ben Lamb
United States
1,207,000
151
5
Shota Nakanishi
Japan
2,562,000
320
Action was fast and wild in the early parts of Day 2. The day started with 49 entries; eliminations came quickly at the beginning of the day. Some early casualties included Phil Ivey, Chance Kornuth, Daniel Zack, David Williams, and Sam Soverel.
Players blew right past the bubble, only going to hand-for-hand play for a few hands. It was Michael Watson who left just shy of the money when he ran his ace-king into the pocket kings of Sean Winter.
One player that was happy to find a cash, albeit not as deep a run as he would have liked, was Daniel Negreanu. He placed 15th after his combo draw ran into the flopped trips of Nakanishi. He was in good spirits all night and showed off some Korean and Japanese language skills to the delight of his tablemates who spoke the languages.
Once play reached the final table, Robert Wilke was the first to bow out. He flopped top and bottom two pair against the pair and straight draw of Stephen Chidwick. Chidwick made running trips on the turn and river to send Wilke home.
The final elimination of the night was of Bristol, Tennesse native Scott Smile. A home game lover, Smile wore that namesake smile all night and enjoyed his deep run in the event. Family and friends were following along with his run. In addition to his poker playing, Smile mentioned that he's involved with music production and his son is in the band "The Buddz."
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
Place
Winner
Country
Prize (in USD)
1st
$277,212
2nd
$171,331
3rd
$121,718
4th
$88,168
5th
$65,143
6th
Scott Smile
United States
$49,113
7th
Robert Wilke
Germany
$37,800
The final five will return tomorrow to play down to a winner. Action will resume at 1 p.m. local time in Bally’s Event Center.
Tune in right here at PokerNews to get your fix of short deck action as we close out this event and crown a new champion.