CasinoCityTimes.com

Home
Gaming Strategy
Featured Stories
News
Newsletter
Legal News Financial News Casino Opening and Remodeling News Gaming Industry Executives Author Home Author Archives Search Articles Subscribe
Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter!
Related Links
Related News
Recent Articles
author's picture
 

WSOP Update - Day 28

24 July 2006

Two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets were awarded on Sunday night/Monday morning at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, both to relatively unknown players. Meanwhile, the final table for the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event will be contested Monday, and Phil Hellmuth will try to make another final table in his quest for his 10th gold bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys tournament.

Event # 33 - $1,500 Seven-Card Razz
James Richburg of Long Beach, Calif., came from behind to defeat Carlos Mortensen to claim his first WSOP bracelet and win $139,576 in the $1,500 Seven-Card Razz early on Monday morning.

Play started with 40 players at 4 p.m. on Sunday and stretched until nearly 5 a.m. on Monday.

Mortensen, who made his third final table of the 2006 WSOP, started heads-up play with more than 60 percent of the chips on the table, but Richburg chipped away at the lead, finally claiming the title after nearly two hours of heads-up to denying the Spaniard his third gold bracelet.

Richburg makes his seventh WSOP cash in making his second final table. His best previous finish was second place in a Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo event in 1991, winning $53,100.

Event # 31 - $2,000 No Limit Hold'em
Justin Scott was completely unknown in the poker world when he finished fifth in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Event in Lake Tahoe just over a month ago. The finish netted the Detroit resident a $72,380 payday, and he parlayed those winnings into almost a million dollars on Sunday night.

Scott held a 13-1 chip lead over Farzad Rouhani entering heads up play and never faltered, claiming his first WSOP bracelet and $842,262 for first place. Rouhani, making the money for the fifth time in his WSOP career, won $429,065 in his first final table appearance.

Carl Olson, who has cashed in four WSOP events this summer, and Bryan Micon, who has cashed in three, both made their first final table appearance, but finished in sixth and ninth, respectively.

Event # 32 – $5,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
Jason Lester headlines a final table mixed with experienced pros and newcomers today in Event # 32. Lester, who starts the day fourth in chips with $222,000, is best known for finishing fourth in the 2003 Main Event. He is making his seventh WSOP final table and has 16 WSOP cashes, but has never finished better than fourth in a major tournament.

Lester will be chasing Alan Sass, who holds the chip lead with $431,000 chips. Sass has just one WSOP cash, coming this year with an 80th place finish in a $2,000 No Limit Hold'em event.

Other players in the hunt include Stuart Fox, an experience player from the European circuit, and Kirill Gerasimov, a Russian who makes his sixth career final table appearance and sixth WSOP cash in 2006.

Chip Stacks Entering Final Table Play (Begins at 2 p.m. PST)
Alan Sass - $431,000
Michael Tedesco - $278,000
Tommy Smith - $238,000
Jason Lester - $222,000
Stuart Fox - $214,000
Tony Hartmann - $163,000
Kirill Gerasimov - $124,000
Gregg Turk - $122,000
Emad Tamtouh - $97,000

Event # 34 - $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys
While John Spadavecchia built a whopping 3-1 chip lead over his nearest challenger, much of the attention on Day Two of Event # 34 will be on Phil Hellmuth, who is already assured of building his record number of WSOP cashes to 55. The number Hellmuth really wants to focus on, however, is 10.

Hellmuth, who fell behind Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson in the all-time bracelet winner category when each player won a bracelet last year, will be looking to tie the duo with his 10th bracelet in Event # 34. Hellmuth, who has $109,600 in chips, sits in third place with 61 players remaining. Hellmuth will finish in the money for the sixth time in this WSOP, and he is looking for his third final table appearance of the season.

The tournament will go on until nine remain for a final table to be contested on Tuesday.

Spadavecchia, who has 20 WSOP cashes and has made 11 final tables, has $361,000 chips. He already owns one WSOP gold bracelet, winning the $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw event in 1991.

Other contenders after Day One include:
5th: Hasan Habib - $93,200
7th: Juha Helppi - $80,100
10th: Julian Gardner - $72,200
23rd: Joe Sebok - $43,500
35th: Humberto Brenes - $30,000
47th: Mark Seif - $20,800

Events # 35 and # 36 Begin Today
As things begin to gear up for the Main Event, which begins on Friday, just four more events are set to prior to the beginning of the Maine Event. Two, $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo (Event # 35) and $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout (Event # 36) begin this afternoon.


AT OffSuite
In his previous life, Aaron Todd was a sports journalist by day and a poker player by night. He can now be found covering the poker beat for Casino City and making horrendously unsuccessful bluffs in his home game.
Write to Aaron at aarontodd@casinocity.com.
Aaron Todd

Home-game hotshot Aaron Todd was an editor/writer at Casino City for nearly eight years, and is currently the Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications and Marketing at St. Lawrence University, his alma mater. While he is happy to play Texas Hold'em, he'd rather mix it up and play Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, and Badugi.

Aaron Todd

Home-game hotshot Aaron Todd was an editor/writer at Casino City for nearly eight years, and is currently the Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications and Marketing at St. Lawrence University, his alma mater. While he is happy to play Texas Hold'em, he'd rather mix it up and play Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, and Badugi.