2013 WSOP Day 13: Athanasios Polychronopoulos Wins 2nd Bracelet; Phil Ivey Eyes No. 10
It took Phil Ivey a couple weeks to get his first cash at the 2013 World Series of Poker. But he's certainly making it count.
Ivey, who has played nearly every event of the series so far, finally picked up his first cash in Event #18 and will enter the final day seeking his 10th WSOP bracelet. Ivey tied Johnny Moss by winning his ninth bracelet earlier this year at the 2013 WSOP-Asia Pacific series in Melbourne, and he can pass the Poker Hall of Famer if he is the last man standing on Tuesday.
While Ivey was building a stack in the corner of the Amazon Room late Monday evening, Athanasios Polychronopoulos won Event #17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the ESPN Feature Stage. Polychronopoulos claimed his second career WSOP bracelet by outlasting a tough final table that included Joe Cada and David "Bakes" Baker, who was the first player to reach three final tables this summer.
Event #17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Athanasios Polychronopoulos used to be known simply as the player with the longest name in poker. Now, he's the player with two World Series of Poker bracelets. Polychronopoulos bested a field of 2,105 runners to claim victory in Event #17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. The New York native won his first bracelet in 2011 in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $650,223, and he won another one early Tuesday morning, this time for $518,755. He even happened to bring his 2011 bracelet with him to Monday's final table.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Athanasios Polychronopoulos | $518,755 |
| 2 | Manuel Mutke | $322,908 |
| 3 | Everett Carlton | $224,455 |
| 4 | Joe Cada | $161,642 |
| 5 | Samuel Taylor | $118,145 |
| 6 | Michael Kurth | $87,398 |
| 7 | Joe Ward | $65,502 |
| 8 | David "Bakes" Baker | $49,716 |
| 9 | Thomas Nicotera | $38,178 |
Day 3 began with 15 players looking to make the march toward the final table, and along the way Barry Greenstein was gunned down in 11th place. Greenstein moved all in for approximately 230,000 holding the A♣3♣, and Baker called with the K♥Q♣. The board ran out Q♥9♦6♦7♠2♠, sending Greenstein to the rail and the remaining 10 players over to the ESPN Feature table for the "unofficial" final table. Polychronopoulos was active from the get-go, eliminating Thomas Nicotera in ninth place. Then, after Baker ran into Everett Carlton's aces to fall in eighth place, Joe Ward and Michael Kurth hit the rail in seventh and sixth places, respectively.
Polychronopoulos held the chip lead and was pushing his remaining four opponents around, taking a huge chip lead into the dinner break. Joe Cada doubled through Sam Taylor shortly after the break, and Taylor made his exit on the next hand.
Four-handed play lasted well over an hour, and for the second time this summer, Cada landed in fourth. Cada, who placed fourth in Event #4, took a cruel beat at the hands of Polychronopoulos when hisA♦Q♥ fell to A♠J♥ after all the chips went in preflop.
An hour later, Carlton made his exit in third place after he three-bet shoved with A♦6♣ over the top of Polychronopoulos' preflop raise. Polychronopoulos called with the A♣J♥, and the board bricked out for Carlton to send the tournament into heads-up play.
Twenty minutes later, it was over. With the blinds at 50,000/100,000 Polychronopoulos raised to 250,000 on the button and Mutke three-bet to 650,000 from the big blind. After a few moments, Polychronopoulos four-bet all in for 4.13 million, putting Mutke to a decision for his entire stack. Mutke snap-called.
Polychronopoulos: Q♦J♥
Mutke: A♦J♦
The flop fell J♣5♠3♦, keeping Mutke in front with his ace kicker. The 2♣ turn changed nothing, and Mutke was in excellent shape to take a massive chop lead. However, the Q♣ spiked the river, and the rail stormed the stage to celebrate with Polychronopoulos for his second WSOP bracelet in three years.
Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
It isn't often you see top pros navigate the $1,000 buy-in minefields at the World Series of Poker. But this year is proving to be an exception.
Phil Ivey is among the 14 players who will return for Day 3 of Event #18 on Tuesday afternoon. He'll be chasing chip leader Taylor Paur, who bagged a massive stack of 1,318,000 when Day 2 came to a close. The next closest competitor to Paur is Alexander Barlow with 792,000.
Chip Counts after Day 2
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taylor Paur | 1,318,000 |
| 2 | Alexander Barlow | 792,000 |
| 3 | Adam Sanders | 557,000 |
| 4 | DJ MacKinnon | 605,000 |
| 5 | Phillip Hui | 419,000 |
| 6 | Daniel Idema | 400,000 |
| 7 | Robert Deppe | 371,000 |
| 8 | Tai Nguyen | 359,000 |
| 9 | Phil Ivey | 285,000 |
| 10 | Kyle Cartwright | 267,000 |
| 11 | Nick Colbrese | 260,000 |
| 12 | Ryan Austin | 233,000 |
| 13 | James Epner | 201,000 |
| 14 | Roy Weiss | 189,000 |
Ivey was nearly out the door with four tables left, but a miracle on the river vaulted him near the top of the leaderboard. Ivey min-raised to 16,000 from the hijack and action folded to Dash Dudley in the small blind. Dudley three-bet to 43,500, and Ivey responded by moving all in for 189,000. Dudley snap-called.
Ivey: 5♣5♦
Dudley: K♦K♠
The board ran out 3♥J♥6♠J♣5♠, and the rail exploded upon seeing Ivey's rivered set. That pot sent him into second in the chip counts with 28 remaining, and while his stack oscillated the rest of the night, he is still in good shape to collect his 10th WSOP bracelet, which would be his first in no-limit hold'em.
Play will resume at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Amazon Room. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for up-to-the minute coverage of Event #18.
Event #19: $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em
Day 2 of Event #19: $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em came to a close with the 16 of the original 195 still in contention for the bracelet and top prize of $224,560. Leading the way heading into the final day is Jesse Martin, the only player to bag more than 400,000 chips (402,000). He will return for the third and final day looking for his first career World Series of Poker bracelet, but several pros are still in contention for the title.
Joining Martin on Day 3 will be a host of notables, including Dan Kelly, John Hennigan, Davidi Kitai, Dimitar Danchev, Dario Minieri,Bertrand Grospellier, and Eugene Katchalov. This marks Kelly's fourth Day 3 of the 2013 WSOP - he made the final table of the $5,000 Eight-Handed Event and the Millionaire Maker, but failed to capture his second career bracelet in both events.
Day 2 started with 77 players, but only 27 would walk away with money. Reaching the bubble was quick and painless, but the bubble itself took more than an hour and a half. Finally, after Marco Traniello blinded all the way down to a single T1,000 chip, he was eliminated by Danchev.
Once the bubble burst, several pros quickly hit the rail, including Amit Makhija, Volpe, Vitaly Lunkin, and Ted Lawson.
Two-time bracelet winnerJason Mercier also exited before the two-table redraw, unable to improve his queen-eight suited enough to best JJ Liu's ace-six off.
Play will resume Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time, and the action won't end until a winner is crowned. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com all day for continuing coverage of Event #19.
Event #20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better
Event #20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better kicked off Monday with 1,104 players packed the in Brasilia Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. After 10 levels of play, John Larson (73,700 in chips) was leading the 219 players who advanced to Day 2.
Several notables will be chasing Lasron when play resumes on Tuesday, including Thomas Besnier (66,600), Eric Sclavos (53,600), Brian Hastings (47,900), Robert "Chip Burner" Turner (47,700), Dmitrii Valouev (42,400), James Bord (40,000) and Matthew Kelly (39,700).
Also returning on Day 2 will be Max Steinberg (36,300), Carlos Mortensen (31,500), David Chiu (29,000), Daniel Weinman (28,400), Barry Greenstein (27,900), Men "The Master" Nguyen (27,000), Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (23,700), Owais Ahmed (23,000), Mike Sexton (22,900), Tom Schneider (18,600) and Jennifer Harman (17,000).
Day 2 is set to kick off at 1:00 PST on Tuesday. Join us then as we bring you all the updates on the way to the money and on to the final table.
On Tap
Day 14 of the 2013 World Series of Poker will feature four events on Tuesday. Phil Ivey and 13 others will play for a bracelet in Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, and several other top pros will be playing for gold in Event #19: $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em. Event #20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better will resume with Day 2 action, and Event #21: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em (Six Handed) will get underway at noon.
Video of the Day
Athanasios Polychronopoulos was almost speechless after winning his second WSOP bracelet on Monday. Lynn Gilmartin managed to get a few words out of him during his winner's interview, plus several more out of his friends.
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