2009 WSOP: Tenner Tops Omaha/8 #46, Greenstein Grabs Lead in #47 Mixed
$2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Event #46, Day 2 – Tenner Leads Final 23
Day 2 of Event #46, $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo, began with 196 players returning to the Amazon Room on Wednesday afternoon. When play concluded at the 3am deadline, 23 of those players still survived, with Mark Tenner emerging as the chip leader heading into Day 3.
Several short-stacked players experienced an early exit from the tournament, including Barry Greenstein, Dan Harmetz, Justin Smith, Annie Duke, Dutch Boyd, and Darus Suharto. Mike Matusow seemed destined to join the list of notable eliminations when he was down to his final 3,300 in chips. But he was able to work the short stack to an above-average 38,000 in just a few hands, as he looked to earn his first WSOP cash this year.
Thang Luu, recent winner of the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event, started the day second in chips, hoping to add his name to the list of multiple-bracelet winners for 2009. Unfortunately for him, Pat Poels turned a set of queens against Luu's flopped set of fours to take down a large pot that crippled Luu to just 3,000 in chips. Luu couldn't make a recovery and was ousted from the tournament on the very next hand. By the time the players reached the dinner break at the end of Level 12, over 100 runners were already gone.
John Racener, Vanessa Selbst, Shirley Rosario, Steve Wong, and Mel Judah were post-dinner-break eliminations falling short of the money. Level 15 would see the short stacks tightening up, trying to squeak their way into the money just ten spots away. George Lind III, Farzad Rouhani, Mickey Appleman, and Paul Parker each fell just short of that goal, with Marsha Waggoner being the unfortunate player to finish in 46th place to bust the bubble. Paul Darden and Adrienne Rowsome were the first players to visit the cashier to pick up their winnings finishing 44th and 45th respectively ($4,749 each). Claude Cohen and Mitch Schock also made the first level of the money. Jason Riesenberg and Mel Randolph were among the players able to squeak into the second level of payouts, each earning $5,890 for his effort.
As the 3am deadline loomed, John Esposito, Max Pescatori, and Benjamin Gold were among the late eliminations ($7,411 each), leaving just 23 players to return to the Amazon Room for Day 3 at 1pm Thursday to play down to a bracelet winner. Mark Tenner starts the final day with 285,000, followed closely behind by Patrice Boudet at 258,000. John Monnette (237,000), Day 1 chip leader Josh Schlein (201,000), Frankie O'Dell (194,000) James “Flushy” Dempsey (116,000), Pat Poels (89,000), and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow (63,000) will all be there as well to try and overtake Tenner and win the highly coveted WSOP gold bracelet. PokerNews will be there to report all the split-pot action.
$2,500 Mixed Hold’em Event #47, Day 1 – Greenstein Out in Front
The debut of the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event, consisting of alternating 30-minute rounds of no-limit and limit hold'em, drew a field of 527 entrants Wednesday afternoon. Some of the notables who made their presence known included Andy Black, Gavin Smith, Roland de Wolfe, David Chiu, Joe Sebok, Dennis Phillips, Jason Mercier, Hevad Khan, Roy Winston, Humberto Brenes, and Chad Brown. After ten levels of play, just 67 players remained and when the players bagged their chips and noted their totals, Barry Greenstein's name appeared at the top of the leaderboard.
Early action saw the departures of Noah Boeken, Sorel Mizzi, Liz Lieu, and Andy Black. Jean-Robert Bellande disposed of Phil Hellmuth when he rivered a third six against Hellmuth's pocket sevens. In a limit hold'em round, Joe Sebok thought he was in good shape when he held K♥K♣ in a hand that was capped preflop with Ugur Marangoz. Sebok liked his hand even better after the K♦6♣3♥ flop. The A♥ on the turn brought a series of bets that put Sebok all in for his tournament life, and that’s when Sebok saw the bad news. Marangoz held A♣A♠, leaving Sebok drawing to the case king, which didn't come on the river.
Erick Lindgren, who won this event last year when the buy-in was $5,000, would send David Williams packing when his pocket aces held up against Williams' flopped pair of kings. Jeff Shulman, Justin Bonomo, and Shannon Elizabeth joined the growing list of disappointed players whose tournament was over before the dinner break.
Eli Elezra returned from the dinner break with about 50,000 in chips, and then would add to his stack when he flopped a club flush to knock out two more players to take his stack up to 95,000. Gavin Griffin was another to show an above-average stack, moving to 78,000 after his K♥8♥ hit two pair on the 8♠K♦9♦ flop in a limit hold'em round. Karen Manfrede was set to double through Daniel Negreanu as she held pocket aces to Negreanu's pocket kings, but another king on the river sent Manfrede to the rail, while Negreanu moved to 138,000 in chips. Dennis Phillips, Julian Thew, and Allie Prescott were other notables who finished Day 1 early.
Barry Greenstein started the final hour of play with 110,000 in chips, but he didn't sit back and ride out the final hour, chipping up to 177,200 before the conclusion of play, good enough to hold the chip lead heading into Day 3. Hasan Habib finished the day in second chip position with 165,000, Eli Elezra holds the sixth-place spot with 108,800, and Daniel Negreanu finished Day 1 in ninth place with 101,000.
Other familiar faces returning include Andy Bloch (88,800), Marc Naalden (80,400), Jeff Williams (70,100), Mimi Tran (65,300), Eric Froehlich (51,800) and Shaun Deeb (41,300). PokerNews will be there to report the early eliminations, bubble boys, and money makers from this event and the other tournament action at the World Series of Poker.
