Just 19 more players between Hellmuth and bracelet #13
Day 1 of Event #4: €3,250 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout has come to a close, and a long day it was. From the original starting field of 141 players, an extremely stacked field of 20 remain. Due to the shootout format of this event, all of the advancing players will take approximately the same amount of chips into Day 2. The one player that stands out, though, is Phil Hellmuth. The 12-time WSOP gold bracelet winner bagged up 71,775 due to his table having an extra player to start the day.
Numbers were down a lot for this event, but the WSOP staff was quick on its feet with making an alteration to the structure. Instead of a three-day event, this event will now end tomorrow on Day 2. The 20 players that have advanced will play a regular, multi-table tournament format down to a winner. As it stands right now, everyone left is in the money, earning at least €5,428.
Some of the names moving on to join Hellmuth are Matt Stout, Chance Kornuth, Dan O'Brien, Daniel Negreanu, John Monnette, Faraz Jaka, Mohsin Charania, Oleksii Kovalchuk and Dominik Nitsche. That's quite an amazing field that's left, which should set things up for one outstanding final table.
Play is scheduled to resume at 2:00 PM CET. You can find all the live updates right here on PokerNews, so please be sure to join us then.
With around 15,000 chips already in the middle, Charles Sklar was all in for 8,450 on the flop of against John Duthie. Duthie made the call with the , but Sklar had flopped the goods with the . The turn was the and river the to complete the board and double up Sklar.
Phil Hellmuth held a huge lead over Frederic Casalta and has been chipping down the Frenchman all level. It finally came to a head when Casalta got his last few thousand in preflop with against the of Hellmuth. The board ran out a clean and Hellmuth punched his ticket to Day 2; what's more, because his table had the most players, he'll take a stack of 71,775 to the final 20—enough to make him the chip leader.
"This is the first shootout I've ever won at the World Series," Hellmuth told Tournament Director Jack Effel with glee.
Dominik Nitsche and Dan O'Brien have both advanced to Day 2.
O'Brien defeated Paul Newey heads up to win. On the final hand, the two got the money in on the board with O'Brien holding the and Newey the . The river completed the board with the and gave O'Brien a flush to deliver him with the win.
On another table, Govert Metaal was eliminated with three players remaining at his table.
On the button, Erik Cajelais raised to 1,200. Daniel Negreanu called from the big blind, and the dealer ran out the flop. Negreanu checked, Cajelais fired 1,000, and Negreanu check-raised to 2,700. Cajelais called.
The turn was the , and Negreanu opted to check. After Cajelais fired 4,000, Negreanu called to see the river.
The completed the board, and Negreanu checked. Cajelais fired 6,000, but Negreanu made the call.
Cajelais turned over the for just queen high, but that was no good to Negreanu's and he won the pot.
Faraz Jaka has become to the first winner advancing to the second round of the event. He first eliminated Oliver Speidel and was faced with David Peters heads up.
On the final hand of the heads-up match, Peters had about 18,000 and reraised all in after Jaka opened on the button. Jaka called with the . Peters held . The board ran out , and Jaka made a diamond flush to win the hand and his table.
Jaka will be back tomorrow at 2:00 PM. He's already locked up €5,428 for winning his first-round match.
The evening event today at the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe is Event #4: €3,250 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. Last year, the 258-entrant field was topped by Tristan Wade as the American from Florida won his first-ever gold bracelet. For his win, Wade captured a first-place prize worth €182,048, and he plans to give it all he can to successfully defend his title this year.
Although all of the numbers have been down so far this year in Cannes, this event should be the start of things creeping back up. There have been several events that have wrapped up around the world and more and more players are flocking to the South of France in hopes of winning some WSOP hardware. Checking the wide world of social media, some of the players who we'll see in action this evening are Eugene Katchalov, Fabrice Soulier, Dan O'Brien, Mike Watson, Mike McDonald, Kyle Julius and Timothy Adams.
Each player will begin this event with 9,000 in starting chips and tables will be a maximum of 10-handed. There is no set schedule of length for the event today, as each table is required to play down to one winner in this shootout format. Then tomorrow, all the winners from Day 1 will return to do it all again for Day 2.
The cards are scheduled to be in the air at 5:00 PM local time and the event should pack loads of notables in action. Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews for the live coverage coming to you shortly. And while you wait, head over and check out our coverage of the other two events running today: Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em and Event #3: €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha.
against John Duthie. Duthie made the call with the 
, but Sklar had flopped the goods with the 
. The turn was the 
and river the 
to complete the board and double up Sklar.
against the 
of Hellmuth. The board ran out a clean 
board with O'Brien holding the 
and Newey the 
. The river completed the board with the 
flop. Negreanu checked, Cajelais fired 1,000, and Negreanu check-raised to 2,700. Cajelais called.
for just queen high, but that was no good to Negreanu's 
and he won the pot.
, and Jaka made a diamond flush to win the hand and his table.
