Action picked up on a board showing 2♥9♠J♦10♦ with the river card yet to arrive.
Nikolai Mamut held 3♦2♦ for bottom pair, while Faraz Jaka had 10♣7♣ for second pair.
The dealer placed 10♠ on the river, giving Jaka trip 10s and he moved all in. Mamut asked the dealer for a count, and then stood up with both hands on the rail.
After a few moments, Mamut eventually folded and watched as the dealer pushed the pot to Jaka, who extended his chip lead after recently doubling up his opponent.
Faraz Jaka and Darius Samual will compete for the WSOP gold bracelet and $500,000 first-place prize.
The match is set to begin at 4 p.m. local time and will be streamed on PokerGO on a one-hour delay. PokerNews will live report to match the stream to avoid spoilers.
The 2024 WSOP is only five days in, but already there have been some moves and shakers in the $25K Fantasy League.
As of this writing, David Coleman is the top point earner with 42 points thanks to a sixth-place finish in Event #1: $5,000 Champions Reunion NLH Freezeout for $69,231. That’s great value for Team The Dinkers (Josh Kay & the Florida crew) as they bought him for just $3 in the draft, meaning Coleman is putting up 14 points per dollar (Pts/$).
Not far behind with 39 points is league commissioner Daniel Negreanu, though his points per dollar is a paltry 0.3 Pts/$. Negreanu, who belongs to Team DPMC (defending champs Donnie Peters and Matt Clark) finished 50th in Event #1: $5,000 Champions Reunion for $9,141 and the following day placed 16th out of 3,485 players in Event #3: $500 WSOP Kickoff NLH Freezeout for $8,541.
The best value of the draft so far is Team Lady Gaga’s (Ren Lin) Qiang Xu, who they bought for a dollar. Xu, who won a bracelet at the 2023 WSOP, has 35 points (35 pts/$.) thanks to 37th-place finish in Event #3 for $4,596.
$25K Fantasy Points Leaders (as of 6/1/24)
Rank
Player
Team
Score
Salary
Cashes
Pts/$
1.
David Coleman
Team The Dinkers
42
3.00
1
14
2.
Daniel Negreanu
Team DPMC
39
132.00
2
0.3
3.
Qiang Xu
Team Lady Gaga
35
1.00
1
35
4.
Shaun Deeb
Team Lady Gaga
21
104.00
2
0.2
5.
Ben Yu
Team Baker
14
67.00
1
0.21
6.
Brian Rast
Team The Dinkers
12
37.00
1
0.32
6.
Aram Zobian
Team Wilson
12
7.00
1
1.71
6.
Chris Hunichen
Team Kalas
12
15.00
1
0.8
9.
Jeff Madsen
Team AJ's Eagles
10
1.00
1
10
10.
Yingui Li
Team Lady Gaga
4
1.00
3
4
Team Lady Gaga is out to an early lead in the league with 61 points, though Team The Dinkers are close behind with 58 points. Team DPMC sits with a respectable 39 points, while Team Baker (David “ODB” Baker) is next closest with 17 points. On the other end of the spectrum, a trio of teams sit with a single point, though Team Sepiol (Dan Sepiol) is in dead last with zero points.
Faraz Jaka raised 55,000 while holding K♣3♠, and Darius Samual defended with J♠7♠.
The dealer fanned 8♠Q♣6♠ on the board, giving Samual the flush draw. Both players checked, and K♠ arrived on the turn.
Jaka hit top pair, but Samual hit his flush draw. Samual check-called Jaka's 55,000 bet, and action went to the river, where J♥ appeared.
Samual checked once again, prompting Jaka to bet 150,000. Samual methodically took his time before check-raising to 500,0000. Jaka made the call and saw the bad news, and the dealer pushed the 1,220,000 pot to Samual.
