2013 World Series of Poker Day 25: Naydenov and Moore Capture Gold
With another long day of poker in the books at the 2013 World Series of Poker, more history has been written. Concluding on Saturday night and early into the hours of Sunday morning were two more events that saw gold-bracelet winners crowned. First, it was Bulgarian Simeon Naydenov capturing gold in Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for $326,440. Then, Michael Moore captured the Event #37: $5,000 Limit Hold'em title for a payday worth $211,743.
Naydenov already had one deep run earlier in the Series, placing 10th in Event #9: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for $18,609, but that result has been long put in the past now as Naydenov has snatched poker's greatest prize: a WSOP gold bracelet. To achieve this feat, Naydenov had to best a 1,194-player field that included a final table of Noah Bronstein, Salman Behbehani, Mike Watson, Nacho Barbero and Jake Schwartz.
Moore captured his gold bracelet deep into the night, defeating Gabriel Nassif heads-up after former WSOP bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah fell in third. Outside of those two events, four others advanced to another day, and PokerNews is here to give you a recap of it all.
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
After a rather short three days of play in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout event, Naydenov proved himself the best as last man standing. It was a tough road for Naydenov, having to first win two tables to advance to Day 3, and then having to best 11 others to win the title.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simeon Naydenov | $326,440 |
| 2 | Jake Schwartz | $202,035 |
| 3 | Andrew Kloc | $126,250 |
| 4 | Tobias Wenker | $91,740 |
| 5 | Nacho Barbero | $67,732 |
| 6 | Mike Watson | $50,774 |
| 7 | Jan Kropacek | $38,621 |
| 8 | Salman Behbehani | $29,771 |
| 9 | Noah Bronstein | $23,259 |
On Day 3, the final 12 players recommenced on two tables of six. With each of them starting with right around the same amount of chips, it was really anyone's game. Vladimir Kochelaevskiy was the first to bust in 12th place, and then Kevin Vandersmissen fell in 11th. Sumanth Reddy bubbled the official WSOP final table, which set the stage for Naydenov to shine.
Andrew Kloc fell in third place and earned $126,250. He was eliminated on Hand #148 of the final table when he got his money in with the A♣9♦ against the A♦J♣ for Naydenov. The flop, turn and river ran out J♠9♦5♦A♥A♠, giving both players full houses, but leaving Kloc second best. From there, it was was Naydenov's 4.075 million to Schwartz's 1.3 million to begin heads-up play.
On the 10th hand of heads-up action, things were all over. With the blinds at 15,000/30,000/5,000, Schwartz raised to 60,000 from the button, and Naydenov called from the big blind to see the flop come down A♠9♠4♠. Naydenov checked, and Schwartz fired 55,000. Naydenov raised to 150,000, then Schwartz fired back with a reraise to 455,000. Naydenov moved all in, and Schwartz called.
Naydenov held the lead with the K♠8♠ for a flopped flush. Schwartz had flopped top two pair with the A♥9♦, but would need to fill up on the turn or river to stay alive. Following the 7♦ on the turn and the 2♥ on the river, Naydenov's hand held, and he was officially crowned tournament winner.
For more on Naydenov's victory, check out our live reporting blog on the event.
Event #37: $5,000 Limit Hold'em
Back on Thursday, the biggest limit hold'em tournament at the 2013 WSOP kicked off and 170 players ponied up the $5,000 buy-in for a shot at glory. In the end, Moore walked away with the title and over $210,000.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Moore | $211,743 |
| 2 | Gabriel Nassif | $130,852 |
| 3 | Ronnie Bardah | $94,793 |
| 4 | Brian Aleksa | $69,968 |
| 5 | Todd Witteles | $52,582 |
| 6 | Dom Denotaristefani | $40,205 |
| 7 | Ben Yu | $31,264 |
| 8 | Greg Mueller | $24,721 |
| 9 | Justin Bonomo | $19,863 |
Much like Event #36, Event #37 began Day 3 with 12 players remaining. Of that bunch, reaching the final table were notable players Justin Bonomo, Greg Mueller, Ben Yu, Todd Witteles, Bardah and Nassif.
Bardah and Nassif made it to three-handed play along with Moore, but it was the eldest of that trio who proved best in the end. Nassif finished off Bardah in third place, taking home a respectable $94,793 before beginning heads-up play with the lead over Moore, 1.68 million to 870,000. Nassif maintained his lead for a bit of time, but eventually Moore battled back and took over. Nassif began to do some battling back himself, but in the end it wasn't enough.
On the final hand, Hand #334 of the final table, Nassif raised from his button, and after a series of raises, Nassif moved his short stack all in for his tournament life. The hands were turned up, and it was Nassif's Q♦J♠ against Moore's 10♠4♣. The J♣10♥8♥ flop kept Nassif in front, but the 10♦ on the turn landed Moore with trips. The 2♠ completed the board on the river and that was it. Nassif finished in second place for $130,852, while Moore, who finished 10th in the 1995 WSOP Main Event for $27,680, finally captured his long-sought-after bracelet and tripled his WSOP career earnings in one fell swoop.
You can find the complete hand-for-hand coverage of the final table here.
Event #38: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em (Four Handed)
Returning for Day 2, Event #38 had 64 players back in action from the original starting field of 566. Saturday saw the field cut down to just eight players remaining with David "The Dragon" Pham leading them all. His stack of 911,000 was at the top, followed by Nick Schwarmann in second with 789,000 and Jared Jaffee in third with 617,000.
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Pham | 911,000 |
| 2 | Nick Schwarmann | 789,000 |
| 3 | Jared Jaffee | 617,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Park | 480,000 |
| 5 | John Juanda | 466,000 |
| 6 | Jonathan D'Souza | 446,000 |
| 7 | Justin Oliver | 300,000 |
| 8 | Mike DeGilio | 253,000 |
The day was a long, hard-fought one for Pham, who endured several bad beats that kept setting him back. Still, he prevailed in the end to finish as chip leader and will be looking to add a second final table run at this year's WSOP.
Five-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda will enter Day 3 fifth in chips with 466,000, and Mike DeGilio will bring up the rear with the short stack of 253,000.
Day 3 will begin at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, so be sure to stay tuned in for the action then.
Event #39: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better
The second event of the day wrapping up Day 2 and advancing to Day 3 was Event #39. Just 17 players remain from the original 558, and it will be Matt Vengrin on top.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matt Vengrin | 504,500 |
| 2 | Tony Gill | 249,500 |
| 3 | Joseph Hertzog | 249,500 |
| 4 | Mike Leah | 220,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Idema | 218,500 |
| 6 | Linda Johnson | 161,500 |
| 7 | Raul Paez | 155,000 |
| 8 | Randy Sim | 151,000 |
| 9 | Artie Cobb | 138,000 |
| 10 | Young Phan | 115,000 |
As you can see from the list above, that's a very stout group of competitors still remaining. Of note from that bunch are Linda Johnson and Artie Cobb. Johnson is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and holds one WSOP gold bracelet. Cobb has four WSOP gold bracelets, all in stud games, and will be looking to add a fifth.
Sitting outside the top 10 are Kristy Gazes in 15th place overall and Layne Flack in 17th place. Flack has six WSOP gold bracelets to his credit, but the seventh may seem a bit farther away than he had hoped given he will only be returning for Day 3 with 8,500 in chips. It was on the very last hand of the night that Vengrin crippled Flack.
To follow coverage of Day 3 and the quest for the bracelet, head over to our live reporting blog.
Event #40: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Another $1,500 no-limit hold'em event kicked off at the 2013 WSOP on Saturday, and that meant another big field of competitors. At the end of registration, 2,161 had signed up. After 11 grueling levels of poker, it looks to be Nicolas Fierro leading after bagging up a huge stack of 176,500. Jonathan Driscoll (142,000) and Jeremy Menard (141,100) also finished with big stacks.
The field sits just a few places off the money, with 249 remaining and 243 paying out. As is always the case in these events, many notables were lost on the way to completing the day. Some of the many who came and went today included David “ODB” Baker, Phil Ivey, Victor Ramdin, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Matt Waxman, Greg Raymer, Antonio Esfandiari and Jake Cody.
It wasn’t all bad news for our notables; there were plenty of familiar faces who bagged up for the night. This list includes Matt Berkey (126,600), Jake Balisger (85,600), Jeremy Ausmus (70,000), Tuan Le (59,000), Garry Gates (51,900), Matt Salsberg (35,400), and PokerNews' very own Frank Op de Woerd, who will come into Sunday with 43,600.
Day 2 will begin at 1 p.m. local time, and you can follow along here.
Event #41: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (Six Handed)
And last, but certainly not least on the day, was Day 1 of Event #41. The big buy-in six-max pot-limit Omaha event attracted an even 400 players and generated a prize pool of $1.88 million. Of that, $488,817 has been reserved for the winner, and Sorel Mizzi is the man best positioned to make a run at the title following the completion of Day 1. He bag up a field-leading 146,400 in chips.
Chad Brown also ended the day well, concluding several levels' worth of chip accumulation to end with 139,600. Peter Charalambous likewise made a late push to end with 126,200.
Others enjoying successful Day 1s that ended with their bagging above average stacks included Juha Helppi, Davidi Kitai, Phil Galfond and the two Deebs — Freddy and Shaun. Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, Brian Rast and Sam Farha will also be returning for Sunday's Day 2.
Meanwhile, among the many big names who came out for this one who didn't survive the first day of player were Phil Ivey, Frank Kassela, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren, David "Doc" Sands, Jason Mercier, Joe Hachem, Dan Kelly, Ben Lamb, Vanessa Selbst, Scott Clements, Mike Sexton, Erik Seidel and Jeff Madsen.
Play resumes Sunday at 2 p.m. Be sure to join us then for continuing coverage of Event #41.
On Tap
Another six events will be in action on Sunday, Day 26 of the 44th annual WSOP. Events #38 and #39 are headed to a Day 3 and will aim to crown a winner, while Events #40 and #41 are onto Day 2 and hoping to reach a final table.
Beginning on Sunday at 12 p.m. will be Event #42: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, and Event #43: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball kicks off at 5 p.m. The latter of those two is always a star-studded affair with the most elite players in the world, so you definitely won't want to miss out on following the updates for that event.
Video of the Day
Dee Tiller, high-stakes cash regular, was in action on Saturday evening in the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event, and PokerNews' very own Sarah Grant was able to chat with him a bit on a break.
Be sure to follow our Live Reporting page for continuing coverage of every event at the 2013 World Series of Poker, and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
