Welcome back to Event #53, the $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Max. The unofficial final table was set in the early hours of Thursday and the final seven players return today to play down to a winner with first place worth $172,645.
Max Silver, a professional poker player from England, is the currently chip leader with over 25 percent of the chips in play. He surged into the lead in the last three levels of play despite his repeated assertions delivered over Twitter that, “I still have no idea what I’m doing.” Silver has 24 WSOP cashes worth $1,127,940, but he has yet to place a gold bracelet around his wrist.
Ayman Qutami leads the chase pack with 792,000. Georgios Kapalas from Greece on 475,000 is the only other non-American in the field and David Olson returns as the short stack with 97,000.
Play resumes at 2 p.m. in Brasilia when the next player to be eliminated will receive $16,760. From there the official final table will be set and they will play until a new champion has been crowned.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you continuing exclusive coverage from the 2017 World Series of Poker.
David Olson was eliminated in seventh place. On his final hand, Max Silver raised from under the gun and Olson reraised all in for 31,000. Mickey Craft raised and Silver called.
The flop came and Silver checked. Craft bet and Silver raised. Craft called. Craft called the turn, , and the river, , as well. Silver showed and won the hand. Olson was eliminated.
Georgios Kapalas has been eliminated in sixth place.
Hand #39: Kapalas opened in middle position, and Mickey Craft and Lena Wang both called.
The flop came , and the action checked to Kapalas. He bet, and Craft was the lone caller. The turn was the , and both players checked. The river was the , and Craft bet. Kapalas took a moment before calling all in. He was eliminated when he showed queen-high and Craft showed .
Hand #64: Lena Wang raised from under the gun off the shortest remaining stack. Max Silver raised behind, and the last of Wang’s chips were in the middle.
Lena Wang:
Max Silver:
The board ran out . Wang hit a pair, but the river delivered a straight for Silver to knock her out.
Hand #205: Guowei Zhang raised from the button. Max Silver three-bet from the small blind, and Mickey Craft four-bet all in for 120,000. Both Zhang and Silver called.
The remaining two active players checked down the board, and all cards were exposed.
Zhang:
Craft:
Silver:
Zhang's king-high was marginally better than Craft's, meaning the latter was eliminated in third place. He took home $69,789 for his efforts.
Play is now heads-up, with both Guowei Zhang and Max Silver taking a short break.
Hand #235: Guowei Zhang limped and called a raise from Max Silver.
The flop was . Silver bet, then called a raise from Zhang. The turn card was the , and a check from Silver saw Zhang move all in. Silver was at a loss for a moment or two, but a glance at the pot seemed to convince him to call.
Guowei Zhang:
Max Silver:
The river was the . Silver hit a better pair to eliminate Zhang, and the two shook hands as cheers rang out from the rail.
Max Silver took down Event #53: $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed for $172,645 after a dominating performance at the final table.
Coming back to the six-handed final table as the chip leader, Silver took just under nine hours to see his competitors off and walk away as the newest recipient of a WSOP gold bracelet.
Although Silver has several other large scores, including a UKIPT title from seven years ago, this has to rank as the most significant score of his career so far.
Silver started off how he intended to go on, eliminating David Olson in seventh place with Big Slick.
With the official final table underway it took a while before the next elimination. Georgios Kapalas fell in sixth place ($22,952) when his hero-call with queen-high was picked off by Mickey Craft's pair of kings.
The lone female at the final table, Lena Wang lasted a while short-stacked before Silver picked her off. Wang finished in fifth place ($32,345).
Eventual winner Silver stretched his lead to around two million before the next elimination, when Craft knocked out another player — this time, it was Ayman Qutami in fourth place ($46,871). Qutami held ace-five, but Craft’s queen-eight had made a pair, and Qutami couldn’t find an ace on the river.
Three-handed, Silver had more than half the chips in play, and it was apparent that both Craft and Geowei Zhang were aware of the pay jump between third and second. Eventually, and despite a couple of doubles, Craft fell to Zhang in a three-way all in for third place ($69,789), and the heads-up battle was set.
Coming into heads-up, Silver still held a commanding chip lead, and despite a straight flush for Zhang at one point, the American wasn’t able to put more than a dent in Silver’s stack. In the end, Silver spiked one of his six outs to deny Zhang a chance to get back into the match.
Zhang took home $106,694 for second place, but Silver took home $172,645 for his efforts, along with his very first WSOP gold bracelet.
Position
Name
Country
Payout
1
Max Silver
United Kingdom
$172,645
2
Geowei Zhang
United States
$106,694
3
Mickey Craft
United States
$69,789
4
Ayman Qutami
United States
$46,871
5
Lena Wang
United States
$32,345
6
Georgios Kapalas
Greece
$22,952
Reflecting on his win shortly after having his photo taken, Silver said he was "so happy" to win a bracelet.
"I can't really describe it," he began. "It's always been a dream for me to win a bracelet. I've come third, sixth, ninth...whatever. It's nice to get the win. I haven't had a big win in a while.
"I did what felt right at all times, and it seemed to work out. I don't claim to be a limit expert by any means, but I played reasonably well and I'm pretty proud of it."
Silver went wire to wire to win his first WSOP gold bracelet and nearly $180k in prize money, but he said that the chip lead didn't really play as big a part as people might expect.
"Really it's just playing the cards each hand, not playing the chips," he said. "But, for sure, it helps!"
Silver added, "It's poker and you get what you get. I was optimistic but this is far higher than anything I could have hoped for!"
The first person to hear about Silver's win? His wife, whom he telephoned from beside the final table.
"She was so happy. She's currently six months pregnant, so she was crying — extra emotions! — but, to be fair to her, she would probably be crying anyway.
"I'm going to see her in about 12 hours. I'm flying to New York, she's flying to New York, and we're going to meet in the middle!"
Silver finished his interview with a veiled warning to his fellow competitors: "I'll be back in five days."