WSOP What To Watch For: Phillips, Adams and Baker Each Chase Second Gold Bracelet of 2012
Two more events are scheduled to reach completion on Thursday at the 2012 World Series of Poker after wrapping up their Day 2s on Wednesday night. Those two events are Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em — Six-Handed and Event #58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Both of these events are returning with multiples tables still left in play, which means a Day 4 may be needed.
Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em — Six-Handed
Phillips and Adams Looking for Second Bracelet of 2012 WSOP
Carter Phillips and Timothy Adams have won bracelets already in 2012. Phillips earned his second piece of gold jewelry in Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em while Adams won his first bracelet in Event #28: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em — Four-Handed.
Both of these players will be entering Day 3 with plenty of chips. Phillips is fourth overall with 928,000 and Adams is sixth on the leader board with 831,000. Both excel at short-handed, no-limit hold'em play, so you can expect one, if not both, of these two to really make a run at the title. If either of them were to win, they would become the first two-time bracelet winner of 2012.
Mercier In the Hunt
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier hasn't had much going for him in terms of deep runs at the 2012 WSOP, having only made one final table this year in Event #39: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha. For many, making that final table would mean they had a successful series, but not Mercier. He measures the amount of success at the WSOP by how many bracelets he wins and how much money he bags up. He'll be looking to earn his third WSOP gold bracelet by winning this event and also claim the over $1.1 million first-place prize.
Big Names, Short Stacks
Shannon Shorr, Layne Flack, Eugene Katchalov and Josh Brikis are all well known successful poker players. They also all share some of the shortest stacks left in the event with all under 300,000 in chips. The average is just over 525,000, and they'll surely have their work cut out for them as six-max play is fast moving, but if any of them are able to grab some chips early, the field better watch out.
Event #58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Baker Looks for Second of 2012
David “ODB” Baker is looking to capture his second bracelet of the series in Event #58 and add to his 2012 WSOP Player of the Year total. If he’s able to do it, Baker will become the first multiple-bracelet winner of the year. He starts the day third in chips, but some stiff competition stands in his way including Stephen Su, Randy Ohel, Yuval Bronshtein, Kyle Bowker, Josh Field, Bryan Devonshire, Mickey Appleman, Antony Lellouche, Antonie Saout, Binh Nguyen and John Shipley.
Two Women Remain
Also in Event 58, two women remain in the field and are looking to follow in Vanessa Selbt’s footsteps and capture an open-event title. They include chip leader Felicia Johnico and online star Kami “Dr. Kamikaze” Chisholm. Day 3 action is set to get underway at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) on Thursday as the remaining 31 players will play down to a winner and capture the $330,277 first-place prize.
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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