Eli Elezra and Matt Perrins Each Win Second WSOP Bracelet; Negreanu Finishes Runner-Up
Day 39 of the 2013 World Series of Poker featured one of the toughest final tables we've seen so far. Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, Eli Elezra, David "ODB" Baker and David Chiu attracted a large gathering of spectators at the final table of Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. In the end, Elezra came from behind to defeat Negreanu for the bracelet.
Earlier in the day, popular British pro Matt Perrins won his second WSOP bracelet in Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Also taking place inside the Rio on Friday was Day 2 of Event #58: $1,111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em, as well as the start of Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and Event #61:$10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.
Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
In front of a raucous British rail in the Amazon Room, Matt Perrins absolutely dominated the final table of Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em to win his second career WSOP bracelet and $792,275. The young poker pro from England began the final table as the chip leader and never looked back, eventually defeating Arthur Pro heads-up for the title.
| Place | Name | Prize Money |
| 1 | Matt Perrins | $792,275 |
| 2 | Arthur Pro | $489,451 |
| 3 | Seth Berger | $315,529 |
| 4 | Antonio Buonanno | $231,147 |
| 5 | Matt Berkey | $171,822 |
| 6 | Thomas Muehloecker | $129,447 |
| 7 | Randal Flowers | $98,715 |
| 8 | Joe Serock | $76,164 |
| 9 | Kent Roed | $59,398 |
The final table got off to a quick start as the shortest stack, Kent Roed, was eliminated when he ran A♦J♣ into Randal Flowers’ A♠Q♣ and didn’t improve. Former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Joe Serock was also unable to capture his first title. He was sent packing in eighth after moving all-in with A♦9♦ and coming up short against Perrins' A♠K♠.
Perrins kept the heater going when he eliminated Flowers a short while later. Flowers four-bet shoved with K♣K♦ and was in great shape versus Perrins' A♣K♥, but the A♠ spiked on the turn to increase the Brit's lead.
Seven hands later, Thomas Muehloecker moved all in, Antonio Buonanno re-shoved, and none other than Perrins called to put both opponents at risk. At the end of the hand, Buonanno was able to double, but Muehloecker was eliminated, collecting $129,477 for his efforts, almost the same amount as his career earnings combined.
Moments later, Matt Berkey was the unlucky recipient of a beat. At his fourth final table of the summer, Berkey moved all in preflop holding A♥K♦ against the A♦7♥ of Perrins, whose rail begged for a seven. Amazing, they received two when the flop came down 10♥7♦7♠, leaving Berkey needing running cards to survive. The turn and river bricked out for Berkey, who was unable to pass Matthew Ashton for the WSOP Player of the Year lead with his fifth place finish.
Perrins would then eliminate his fifth opponent in a row when his A♣K♠ got the better of Buonanno’s A♥Q♦ after the board ran out 3♠J♠7♣5♦9♥.
The action slowed during three-handed until the biggest pot of the night between the two biggest stacks, Perrins and Seth Berger. After Arthur Pro raised his button, Seth Berger re-raised to 450,000. Perrins was next to act, and he elected to bump it up to 975,000 Pro quickly got out of the way, but Berger responded with a five-bet to 1,600,000. Perrins thought about his next move for several minutes, before announcing all in, taking Berger by surprise. He tanked for over a minute, before making the call, which ended up being the right decision.
Berger's A♠Q♠ was in great shape against Perrins’ K♣Q♦, but Perrins came from behind again when the K♦ appeared in the window, much to the delight of his monstrous rail. His pair of kings held, leaving a distraught Berger coming up just shy of a bracelet again this summer after already securing a second weeks earlier.
Heads-up play started with Perrins holding a 10-to-1 chip lead over Pro, who found some crucial doubles early in the match to stay in contention. However, on his last stand Pro was all-in with A♣J♠ against K♣Q♦ and finished second best when Perrins made a pair of kings on the turn. The Brit's rail stormed into the middle of the ESPN stage to congratulate their countryman as he joined the club of two-time WSOP bracelet winners.
Event #58: $1,111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em
Day 2 of Event #58: $1,111 Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em began with 1,016 players eyeing the top prize of $663,727. After 11 60-minute levels were completed, all but 67 had been eliminated, and Joe Wilson was leading the way with 983,000 in chips.
Several notables will join Wilson on Day 3, including a pair of pros looking to secure the Poker Triple Crown. Roberto Romanello and Andrey Pateychuk each have titles on the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour, but a WSOP bracelet has eluded them over the years. Both Romanello and Pateychuk will enter Day 3 among the top 10 in chips.
Others to look out for on Day 3 include Mikolaj Zawadzki (715,000), Scott O’Reilly (271,000), Mike Sowers (217,000), Grayson Ramage (166,000), Bryn Kenney (164,000) and Chris Bjorin (111,000).
Day 3 begins at 1 p.m. at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. We'll will be there to bring you all the action from the floor, so keep your browsers locked to PokerNews.com.
Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
Daniel Negreanu was one spot away from collecting his second WSOP bracelet of the year, but he was unable to combat a torrid rush of cards by Eli Elezra during heads-up play in Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. Elezra won his second bracelet as well as $173,236, denying Negreanu of his sixth career bracelet in the process.
| Place | Name | Prize Money |
| 1 | Eli Elezra | $173,236 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | $107,055 |
| 3 | Brian Brubaker | $70,743 |
| 4 | David Chiu | $48,077 |
| 5 | David "ODB" Baker | $33,399 |
| 6 | Scott Seiver | $23,698 |
The final day saw just 10 players return from the starting field of 282, with six bracelet winners among them. After a short-stacked Mike Watson fell in 10th place early, three-time bracelet winner Michael Mizrachi (ninth), Alexander Condon (eighth), and Eric Wasserson (seventh) followed during the afternoon, setting up a six-handed final table at which five of the players had already won WSOP gold.
Three of those bracelet winners would fall first, as Scott Seiver (sixth), start-of-day-3 leader David "ODB" Baker (fifth), and David Chiu (fourth) all hit the rail prior to the dinner break. Negreanu had pushed into the lead by then, and after a short-stacked Brian Brubaker finally fell in third, it was five-time bracelet winner Negreanu versus Elezra with "Kid Poker" enjoying the advantage to start heads-up play.
But the 41 hands between the pair mostly went Elezra's way as he soon evened the score, then pushed ahead thanks in part to a big hand in which he made a wheel on the third draw. Soon all the chips were on Elezra's side of the table. Negreanu congratulated his friend with a handshake and hug before rushing off to join Event 61: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, and Elezra was soon delivering his thanks to the crowd.
"I'm gonna try to get about five more … maybe catch Hellmuth, you know?" said Elezra as he thanked the audience for their support of his win.
For a complete look at the event, check out the PokerNews Live Reporting blog.
Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
A huge field of 2,541 players turned out for the final $1,500 event of the 2013 World Series of Poker. After 11 levels of play, only 297 remained, led by Joe Froehle with 144,200 in chips. Froehle’s lead is far from safe, however. Malek Kalayli is right on his heels with 143,000. Lauren Kling (123,300) and Ben Yu (107,500) are also close behind the chip leaders.
Also near the top of the leader board is Nate Silver, noted political analyst, blogger, and statistician famous for correctly predicting recent national elections in the U.S. His website, fivethirtyeight.com, is one of the country’s most sought-after sources for political prognostication. Silver has 134,600 in chips.
Many notables turned out for this event, but did not make it to the end of the day. Jonathan Little, Mike Leah, Jen Shahade, Jake Balsiger, Jason Koon, Shane Schleger, Matt Waxman, Dan Heimiller, Elisabeth Hille, and Lex Veldhuis, among others, have already made their exits. Several other well-known players are still in the running, including Calvin Anderson (75,000), Melanie Weisner (61,300), Bill Chen (22,200), Bryan Micon (17,200), and Jeremy Ausmus (11,100).
Play resumes Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Brasilia Room. Stay with us here at PokerNews as we bring you live updates throughout Day 2.
Event #61:$10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
The final tournament before the Main Event on the 2013 WSOP schedule saw 386 players put up the $10,000 buy-in, creating a top prize of $852,692 for the eventual winner on Sunday. After eight one-hour levels of play, Matt O'Donnell is best positioned to make a run at the title as he leads the 169 advancing players with 269,200 in chips. Others who bagged big stacks are Jonathan Duhamel (253,000), Jared Bleznick (246,500), Alexey Rybin (245,600), Joseph Cheong (244,800), Scott Palmer (190,300), Mike Watson (158,500) and NBA All-StarPaul Pierce (143,100).
Pierce was extremely active throughout the day and it seemed to pay off, especially in Level 8 when he made a full house against John Kabbaj. Pierce, formerly of the Boston Celtics and now playing for the Brooklyn Nets, will enter Day 2 with a decent stack and looks to add a gold bracelet to go with his NBA Championship ring.
Among the less fortunate Day 1 were Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky, A.P. Phahurat, John Juanda, Matt Marafioti, David Williams, Daniel Weinman, Josh Arieh, John Beauprez, Erick Lindgren, Ashly Butler, Justin Bonomo, Michael Mizrachi, David “Doc” Sands, Scott Clements, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and high-stake online regular Hac Dang, all of whom were eliminated.
Likewise, the defending champion, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, was unable to survive the day. He fell in the last level of the night when got his stack all in preflop holding the Q♥7♥10♣8♣ and was up against Tom Marchese's A♣J♣K♠Q♦. The 8♥5x5♥ flop gave Jachtmann the lead with a pair of eights and a flush draw, but Marchese took it back when the K♣ turn paired his king. The A♦ river gave Marchese two pair and would be the last card Jachtmann would see in the very event he won one year ago.
While many fell there are still quite a few big-name players left in the field including Christian Harder (153,400), Nacho Barbero (138,800), Matt Stout (121,600), Daniel Alaei (111,800), Ben "Bttech86" Tollerene (89,300), Jason Mercier (83,400), Eric Baldwin (77,100), b (72,800), Marcel Luske (68,000), Tom Marchese (63,100), Darryll Fish (59,400), Jan Collado (36,700), Phil Hellmuth (33,200) and Daniel Negreanu (29,900).
Day 2 action will begin at 2 p.m. PDT on Saturday. Join us then as we bring you another full day of action from Event #61.
On Tap
The Little One for One Drop returns for Day 3 as 67 players attempt to reach the final table. Meanwhile, the last two events before the $10,000 Main Event will also attempt to reach the final nine: Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and Event #61:$10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha. But all eyes will be on the Main, which kicks off at noon with the first of three Day 1 flights.
Video of the Day
Eli Elezra won his second WSOP gold bracelet in Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. He spoke with Lynn Gilmartin after his victory.
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