2010 World Series of Poker Day 13: Steven Gee and Carter Phillips Become Bracelet Winners, Stacked Field in Event #19, and More
Lowball specialist Steven Gee picked up his first World Series of Poker bracelet in Event #13 Wednesday night after outlasting a field of over 3,000 players. Young gun Carter Phillips, just 21, bested the field in Event #16 to bag his first WSOP bracelet, and another world championship event is under way, this time the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball and, as to be expected, a small but elite field of poker's best turned out to play.
Event #13: $1,000 no-limit hold'em
A massive field of over 3,000 players turned out for Event #13, but in the end the tournament belonged to Steven Gee. Wednesday night proved to be a career highlight for this 54-year-old who has been playing the card rooms of Southern California for over 30 years and is known as one of the best lowball cash-game players around. Apparently, Gee's skills are not limited to lowball ― he captured this no-limit hold'em bracelet after a two-hour heads-up match with Matt Vance. The winning moment took place when Vance moved all-in for 1,575,000, holding J♥Q♦, but Gee's hand woke up with A♥K♥ and he made the call. The board ran out 2♦A♦5♣7♠8♠, and a pair of aces gave Gee the title and a payday of $472,479.
Find out how it all went down over at out WSOP live reporting pages.
Event #16: $1,500 no-limit hold'em six-handed
Typically, players have to wait years, even decades to come out on top of a World Series of Poker event, but Event #16 belonged to a player who is barely old enough to even set foot in a card room. Carter Phillips, 21, who PokerNews picked to have an outstanding WSOP in April, joined the ranks of WSOP bracelet winners on Wednesday.
Phillips was unstoppable throughout Day 3, and even when it seemed his tournament life was over, the young gun pulled through and never, ever died. A lucky flop skyrocketed Phillips to a 3:1 chip advantage going into the heads-up match against Switzerland's Samuel Gerber. During a hand that eventually eliminated Craig Bergeron, Phillips made a standard raise from the button. Bergeron reraised to 295,000 and Phillips four-bet all-in. Bergeron quickly shoved his remaining 1,900,000 in the pot and the showdown began. Phillips turned over J♠7♠ while Bergeron opened up two red sevens. The flop was a disaster for Bergeron when it landed J♥A♣8♥ to pair Phillips' jack. Bergeron was left with two outs that never appeared and made his exit in third place. After raking in a hefty stack, heads-up play between Phillips and Gerber began and the rest is history.
Head on over to the WSOP live reporting pages to see how Phillips took it down from start to finish.
Event #17: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
The final hour of play during Day 2 of Event #17 progressed quickly with eight players hitting the rail. Josh Arieh busted when he ran his pocket sixes into Day 2 chip leader Jason DeWitt's pocket nine. Arieh was followed byKristoff Harris, Vivek Rajkumar, David Miscikowski, Alexia Portal, Matt Iles, Eguene Todd, and with only three hands left to play for the night, Matthew Schwarmann.
Only 18 players will return for Day 3 to battle it out until one of them is named the winner. DeWitt, Jeff Williams and, thanks to a last minute tangle with Antonio Esfandiari, Amit Makhija will start with the biggest stacks in the field. A short-stacked Dragan Galic will have to play his cards just right if he wants to snag Germany's first bracelet of the 2010 WSOP.
Visit PokerNews.com for all the updates, bust outs and bad beats.
Event #18: $2,000 limit hold'em
Despite being a limit tournament, the field in Event #18 had narrowed sharply but the end of Day 1 with the tournament 109 players making it to Day 2. Among the Day 1 casualties were the "King of Limit" Terrence Chan, back-to-back LAPT champion Nacho Barbero, Players Championship winner Michael Mizrachi and Internet phenomenon Tom "durrrr" Dwan.
After what our live update crew likes to call a "min-raise marathon," Joe Serock, Bob Lauria and Matt Glantz will return for Day 2 with sizable stacks. Also among the 144 who didn't tucker out during Day 1 and who will come back for round 2 will be Mario Ho, Lex Veldhuis, Shannon Shore and Phil Laak's better half, Jennifer Tilly.
Check back to read our live updates of the action as it happens.
Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship
For the second time in as many days, poker's elite flocked to the tables for a world championship event. Just over 100 of poker's biggest and brightest sat down for Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship.
A large buy-in, a few levels of add-ons and a field full of the best players in the world made for a slow tournament. When chips were bagged for the night, 74 players were still at their seats. Only three players finished Day 1 with a stack larger than 100,000: Horman Houshiar, Tommy Vedes and David Baker lead the field with stacks of 116,100, 112,600 and 104,000 respectively. The short-stacked Freddy Deeb, Erick Lindgren andHuck Seed will have their work cut out for them during Day 2 if they want to stay in the tournament and add one more bracelet to their collections.
Others who will be back in hopes of the winning the top prize include Jeffrey Lisandro, Greg Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan and Brandon Cantu. Vanessa Rousso, Dario Minieri, Justin Smith and Phil Ivey are a few who won't be returning for another day.
Action will begin at 3 p.m. Thursday. Follow along with our live updates here.
On Tap
In addition to Events #17, 18 and 19 continuing two more events will begin Thursday. Event #20: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha will start at 12 p.m. and you can follow the action at our live reporting pages. Also on the schedule is Event #21: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud at 5 p.m. Catch up on that here.
Video of the Day
Lynn Gilmartin caught up with Antonio Esfandiari on break from Event #17. She asked him if he had any crazy prop bets, and of course, knowing Esfandiari, he did. And they talked about a new career for him if poker doesn't work out. Check it out below.
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