WSOP What To Watch For: Cassidy Against Nguyen; Ramdin Chases First Bracelet
If you missed out on Wednesday's action at the 2012 World Series of Poker, you missed a great day. Not only are two events moving forward to their third and final day, but Event #24: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better has a final heads-up battle between two greats in the game — Scotty Nguyen and Joe Cassidy. The other two events set to conclude are Event #25: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout and Event #26: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.
Event #24: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Cassidy Attempts To Defeat a Legend for First Title
Joe Cassidy is widely considered, by both peers and media, to be one of the best all-around players in the game. Outside of those two groups, not many fans know too much about the young, quiet star. One reason is because he has yet to win a WSOP gold bracelet — which is often what people refer to when they talk about success in poker.
Cassidy's opponent on Thursday in Event #24 is none other than Scotty Nguyen — "The Prince of Poker" himself. Nguyen has five gold bracelets, so he's been there before; he has won the WSOP Main Event and he has a win in the the $50,000 Players Championship. Clearly the experience lies with Nguyen on this one, but he'll have to overcome a greater than 3.5-1 chip lead on Thursday to get his sixth gold bracelet. Cassidy will be looking to drive the dagger a little deeper into Nguyen in order to finish him off and capture his first piece of WSOP hardware.
Event 25: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout
Can Ramdin Finally Earn Gold?
Victor Ramdin has plenty of WSOP cashes on his record, but he has never finished better than sixth place. That happened a couple of years ago in 2010, so clearly Ramdin has the itch to make another run at a bracelet. He has made his way to the final table of Event #25 and will only have nine others to defeat before he can etch his name forever in the WSOP history books by picking up his first piece of gold jewelry. Standing in his way will be some tough competition including two-time bracelet winner Brock Parker.
Event #26: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
Stacked Field for Pot-Limit Omaha
With 18 players left and plenty of notables remaining, we just couldn't narrow it down to just one or two here. That said, we're going to give you a list of names to watch for in this one.
First up will be Erik Seidel. He's a walking poker legend and has eight WSOP gold bracelets. He'll be looking for his ninth, but will have to fight through 17 others and come back from starting the final day second to last in chips.
John Racener most famously finished runner-up to Jonathan Duhamel in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. He also still has chips and will be looking for his first WSOP gold bracelet. Another player looking for his first piece of gold after coming close a few times is Brett Richey.
Galen Kester, Dutch Boyd, Oleksii Kovalchuk and Robert Williamson III all hold WSOP gold bracelets and will be looking to add another to their collection. This makes for one heck of a stacked field and we know the game of pot-limit Omaha really ramps up the action. Be sure to stay tuned in to this one all day as it promises to not disappoint.
As always, you can find PokerNews' coverage of the 2012 WSOP on our Live Reporting Pages. We look forward to having you follow along and stay tuned for plenty more from our What To Watch For series.
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