2012 World Series of Poker Day 3: Bazeley Leads Event #2; Kelly and Selbst Vying for Gold

Shari Geller

May 30, 2012 5 min read

A new event was just part of the story for a busy Day 3 of the 2012 World Series of Poker. Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, saw 240 players play down first to get into the money and then to advance the final day of play. Jacob Bazeley leads the 15 players who will return to crown a winner and award the first open bracelet of the series. At 1200 PDT (2000 BST), the first of three rounds of matches began in the inaugural Event #3: $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha. The star-studded field of 317 was reduced to 64 with many pros listed in either the win or loss columns. Later in the day, Event #4: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better got under way with 622 players.

Event #2: $1500 No-Limit Hold'em

The first order of business was breaking the money bubble. The bubble boy may not have cashed, but he gets a mention in this recap. According to Kenny Hallaert, who observed the hand, Jason Berilgen shoved all-in with A♠8♠ and was called by Matt Juttelstad with 8♥8♦. Berilgen missed on every street and hit the exit, to the elation of the 216 remaining players who were in the money.

Phil Hellmuth, earned his 86th WSOP cash ($7,204) on Tuesday but fell short of his goal of a 12th bracelet when he was eliminated in 61st place during Level 17. Hellmuth unsuccessfully took ace-jack against the pocket jacks of Antoine Nowak, who then tested the new “celebration allowed” rule by screaming and running around after he dispatched “The Poker Brat.”

The story for most of the day was Vanessa Selbst's ever-changing chip stack. Although she was playing at a “table of death” with the likes of Hellmuth, Alan Sass, Hoyt Corkins, and John Juanda, she amassed a field-leading stack going into the Level 20 break, courtesy, in part, to aces versus two short-stack all-ins (pocket eights and ace-queen). She stayed atop the leaderboard for some time before losing an all-in race of K♠Q♣ versus the 4♣4♠ of Michael Kaufman and then folding to the five-bet all-in of Dan Smith. By the end of the day, Selbst had recovered, finishing fifth in chips.

Day 1 chip leader Sadan Turker was knocked out in 24th place. Other notables busting late in the day included Juanda (25th place), Paul Wasicka (20th place) and Hoa Phan who got it in good (kings versus queens) but was bad beat into 21st place. All four take home $15,287 for their almost two days of play.

At the end of play on Tuesday, 15 remained. Bazeley, a regular on the WSOP Circuit, was chip leader with 1,291,000. The biggest names left in the field are Selbst in fifth place with 706,000 and JP Kelly just ahead of her with 721,000

For more on the roller-coaster ride of today, check out our live reporting blog.

Event #3: $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha

The first time for this format brought out most of poker’s heavy hitters, at least those who were not still in the running in Event #2. The format involved head-to-head matches, with alternating rounds of NLHE and PLO. Players start with a third of their starting stack and then have two lammers of equal amounts they can use any time between hands to chip up to the full stack. Although the number of runners was capped at 512, only 317 players entered, so many players received byes in their first round.

Some pros not lucky enough to skate on to the second round include Daniel Negreanu, Marco Traniello, Phil Ivey, Tom Marchese and Jake Cody. Those who had to actually beat a living player to proceed to the round of 256 include Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dan Fleyshman, Olivier Busquet, Scott Seiver and Max Steinberg.

Round 2 saw Jonathan Duhamel take out Noah Boeken, Andy Frankenberger eliminate former WSOP Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen, Justin Smith take down Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and Sam Stein knock out Katchalov, among other matchups.

Round 3 was an elongated bubble round with half the field of 128 going home empty-handed, and the remaining 64 guaranteed at least $3,395. Some of the notables who will be returning on Wednesday include David Williams, Mike Sexton, Victor Ramdin, Josh Arieh, Justin Bonomo, Guillaume Darcourt (who knocked out ElkY), Eric Froehlich (who beat recent SCOOP multiwinner Shaun Deeb), David Chiu, and Annette Obrestad.

For complete coverage of the day's action, check out our live reporting blog.

Event #4: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better

With the late starting time for this event, a number of pros who were knocked out of Events #2 and #3 were able to post the buy-in. When registration closed and 622 had registered, this became the first event to exceed the numbers from last year. The top 64 will finish in the money, ranging from a minimum of $2,754, up to the top prize of $201,559.

Last year’s winner, Chris Viox, was in attendance, as well as Paul "Eskimo" Clark, "Miami" John Cernuto, David Sklansky, ESPN announcer Norman Chad, Bill Chen, and Allen Kessler. Of that group, only the reigning champ will move on to Day 2.

After the last hand of the day was dealt, 210 players were left. Sitting at the top of the chip count is William Carroll, with Michael Mizrachi right behind him in second and Jeff Madsen further down in eighth place. Other notables remaining in the field with above-average chip stacks include Jon "PearlJammed" Turner, Todd Brunson, Frankie O'Dell, David Singer and Robert Mizrachi. Sitting with a below-average chip stack going into day two of play is the most-watched player in the field, Phil Ivey.

To read up on all the action from the day, check out our live reporting blog.

On Tap

Event #2 will crown its winner, the first open-event bracelet winner of the 2012 series. Much attention will be on Selbst, who has the chance to break a long bracelet dry spell for female players. The action will get under way at 1300 PDT (2100 BST). At the same time, in Event #3, the remaining 64 players will pair off to get down to the final eight. Players will have 72,000 in chips, 24,000 to start with two rebuy lammers behind. In Event #4, play will resume at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) in which the remaining 210 players will play 10 levels, breaking the money bubble and getting closer to awarding a bracelet. Finally, Event #5: $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em, will get under way at 1200 PDT (2000 BST).

To make sure you don’t miss any of the action, check out all of the action from all the events in our live tournament reporting blog.

Video of the Day

Today’s video has our own Kristy Arnett talking with Eugene Katchalov during a break in Event #3. Katchalov discusses the new format, some unexpected drama earlier in the day, and his (later to be dashed) hopes for the next round in the $3,000 heads-up NLHE/PLO.