In the largest buy-in event of the summer thus far, only ten players will return for the third and final day of Event #32: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em. Legendary high-stakes crusher Jason Koon is looking for his second World Series of Poker bracelet and the largest portion of the $8.1 million prize pool.
The stacked field will gather under the lights of the feature stage inside the Horseshoe Events Center. Koon will return with a healthy chip lead, coming off the heels of a massive late-night cooler versus Sean Winter. Sitting fourth on the all-time money list with over $64 million in earnings, the American poker pro will jump up one spot with a victory tomorrow.
Koon will bring a stack of 14,575,000 to the felt for Day 3, nearly three times the average of the rest of the field. Following in his footsteps is fellow American Andrew Lichtenberger with 6,735,000, who earned a big double up in one of the last hands of the night. They are the only two players remaining with a WSOP title, while the rest of the exceptional talent look to notch their first.
Final Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Koon | United States | 14,575,000 | 121 |
| 2 | Andrew Lichtenberger | United States | 6,735,000 | 56 |
| 3 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | 6,285,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Brock Wilson | United States | 6,240,000 | 52 |
| 5 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | 5,005,000 | 42 |
| 6 | Ben Tollerene | United States | 4,805,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Sergey Lebedev | United Kingdom | 3,295,000 | 27 |
| 8 | Dominykas Mikolaitis | Lithuania | 1,950,000 | 16 |
| 9 | Reagan Silber | United States | 1,275,000 | 11 |
| 10 | Chongxian Yang | China | 1,150,000 | 10 |
Day 2 Full of Coolers and Bad Beats
There were 52 players who returned for Day 2 of this event, with late registration still open for an additional two levels. The max late registration line was as extravagant as previous events, but still an additional 20 players were redrawn into the field at closing time. These players were only given a stack worth around 12 big blinds, and the eliminations were fast and furious.
There were many hands throughout the day that would often gain a roar, or at least murmur, from some fields - but these players almost seemed numb to the pain that was caused. Alex Foxen laid a beating on Klemens Roiter, not once but twice, cracking his pocket kings on multiple occasions within just minutes.
Joey Weissman was on the wrong side of a major cooler when he flopped a set of kings only to be outdone by Ben Tollerene's set of aces on the turn. Somehow, all of the chips still didn't get into the middle until the river.
Following that, it was Brandon Steven who looked poised for a double up with pocket aces against the ace-king of Dominykas Mikolaitis. However, a king on the flop and another on the turn left Steven's head spinning as he exited just prior to the money bubble.
Finally, on the money bubble with over $100,000 guaranteed for a min-cash, Pavel Plesuv saw his stack of around 40 big blinds go up in flames when his pocket kings were outdone by Brock Wilson's turned straight. Plesuv exited with nothing in his pocket while Wilson took over the chip lead at the time.
That led to a string of bustouts within minutes as the field dwindled from 26 players to 14 in one level. Some of the short stacks to hit the payout desk included Chino Rheem, Martin Kabrhel, Christoph Vogelsang, and Brian Rast.
Coming back from the last break of the night, the first heartbreak fell in the hands of Joao Vieira, who had over half of the deck to hit — literally, too many outs. Vieira flopped a Royal Flush draw against a small pair of Viktor Blom. However, two baby bricks hit the turn and river, leaving Vieira on the outside looking in.
The final elimination of the night left Winter paralyzed at the table, unable to leave for minutes. Winter was busy checking out the other table when he barely arrived back at his seat in time to receive his hand. Unfortunately for him, he looked down at pocket kings at exactly the wrong time. Koon picked up pocket aces in the same hand with all of the chips going in the middle preflop. Winter looked dazed after the runout halted his run in 11th place.
The remaining 10 players will return at 12 p.m. local time for the third and final day of this event, crowning a winner later in the evening. The action will resume on Level 19 with the blinds at 80,000/160,000 and a 160,000 big blind ante. Once they play down to six players, PokerGO will stream the action on delay, with the live updates here delayed in sync with the stream.
Each player has locked up $130,082, but the lion's share of the prize pool is still up for grabs with nearly $2 million for first place. Each elimination from this point forward will come with a pay jump that will be significant to all of those remaining.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,968,927 |
| 2 | $1,312,610 |
| 3 | $914,634 |
| 4 | $650,074 |
| 5 | $471,473 |
| 6 | $349,068 |
| 7 | $263,944 |
| 8 | $203,919 |
| 9 | $161,048 |
| 10 | $130,082 |
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all of the updates en route to crowning a champion and instant millionaire.
