2014 World Series of Poker Day 23: Yoon Captures Second Title; Wolansky Wins, Denies Cheong
Two more bracelets were won on Wednesday at the 2014 World Series of Poker to highlight another action-filled day of poker. Brian Yoon managed to snare a bracelet for the second consecutive year after topping the field in Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em, while Steven Wolansky earned the win in Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, denying Joseph Cheong the bracelet after their heads-up battle.
Three other events were in action as well, including the talent-heavy Event #38: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship where George Danzer continues to lead entering the final day. Read on for a full recap of all of Wednesday’s highlights.
Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Originally scheduled as a four-day event, Event #35 ended up pushing through Day 3 more rapidly than expected, playing all of the way from 23 down to one with Brian Yoon of California emerging as the champion to win his second career WSOP bracelet. Yoon’s $633,341 cash in this event comes uncannily close to the $633,727 he earned after besting a big 4,756-entry field to win the Little One for One Drop event a year ago.
With 23 left from a starting field of 550, all eyes were on chip leader Jeff Madsen early on Day 3 who was seeking his fourth career WSOP win. But after the quick eliminations of short stacks Olivier Busquet (23rd), Eric Froehlich (22nd), and Ravi Raghavan (21st), Madsen slipped rapidly to fall in 20th, like those three earning $18,095 for his finish.
A key hand amid Madsen’s demise helped catapult Yoon into the lead, one that saw Yoon flop a set of treys against Madsen and then get all of his chips in on the turn with Madsen holding a flush draw and gutshot straight draw before successfully fading the river. A couple of eliminations later Yoon was sitting with 2,175,000 with 18 players left when no one else had more than 550,000.
They quickly worked down to a eight-handed final table, with Michael Rocco (17th, $18,095), Sylvain Loosli (16th, $21,946), Sam Stein (14th, $27,013), David Peters (12th, $33,734), and Sam Trickett (11th, $33,734) among those hitting the rail along the way.
Yoon continued to lead as others fell, including Tony Cousineau (in eighth) who made his record-extending 65th cash without a bracelet. Indeed the only other final tablist with a bracelet besides Yoon was Josh Arieh with two, and once Josh Bergman was eliminated in third after his Q♠10♥ couldn’t catch up to Arieh’s A♣J♦, the two bracelet holders commenced heads-up play.
Yoon had maintained his lead the whole way and had a slight edge to begin heads-up. Arieh seized the advantage during the first few hands between the pair, but Yoon grabbed it back and had about a 3-to-1 chip lead when the final hand took place.
With the board showing 6♦7♦9♦A♣, Arieh was all in on the turn with A♦2♥ for top pair and the nut-flush draw while Yoon had flopped a flush with 8♦2♦. The river then brought the 6♣, giving Yoon the hand and the bracelet.
Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Yoon | $633,341 |
| 2 | Josh Arieh | $391,575 |
| 3 | Josh Bergman | $246,169 |
| 4 | Ardit Kurshumi | $176,684 |
| 5 | Mustapha Kanit | $128,862 |
| 6 | Dan Smith | $95,515 |
| 7 | Timo Pfutzenreuter | $71,940 |
| 8 | Tony Cousineau | $55,034 |
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
Just six were left from the starting field of 241 for yesterday’s final day of Event #36, and after just a couple of hours and 77 hands, start-of-day leader Steven Wolansky won his first career bracelet after coming one spot shy of a WSOP win a year ago with a runner-up finish in the $2,500 8-game event.
It only took 42 of those hands for six players to play down to two, with German footballer Max Kruse — at the WSOP this summer after having missed landing a spot on his country’s World Cup team — was eliminated in third by Joseph Cheong after the latter drew a pat 10x-low and Kruse picked up a Jx to go with his 7x6x4x3x. Not a bad first career cash for Kruse who was given a half-hour crash course in 2-7 draw from his countryman George Danzer before the tourney began.
Like Wolansky, Cheong has come very close to winning a bracelet before, too, with three previous final tables including one runner-up and a third-place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
Alas for Cheong, after leading early during heads-up play Wolansky would win a succession of hands before Cheong was all in before the draw holding 10x7x6x3x2x. Wolansky had 8x7x5x2x and was drawing one, and when the Floridian picked up a 9x he’d drawn a better hand to earn the title.
Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Steven Wolansky | $89,483 |
| 2nd | Joseph Cheong | $55,309 |
| 3rd | Max Kruse | $36,494 |
| 4th | Christopher Mecklin | $24,908 |
| 5th | Orjan Skommo | $17,445 |
| 6th | Samuel Touil | $12,529 |
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Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Over in Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha they had reached the money on Day 1 with 113 players left from the 967 starters, and after a second full day of play worked all of the way down to just 11 with one-time bracelet winner Marcel Vonk of the Netherlands ending with the overnight chip lead, having nudged just ahead of start-of-day-2 leader Brandon Paster.
Galen Hall (in third), Kevin Saul (in fifth), and Gabriel Nassif (in 10th) are also among the returners for today’s finale, with Nassif having just made a final table one day before in Event #33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em where he finished eighth. A first-place prize of $264,400 awaits today’s winner.
Humberto Brenes was among the early knockouts on Day 2 in 102nd ($2,480), picking up his eighth cash of this year’s WSOP to put him three behind Konstantin Puchkov’s record 11 cashes set at the 2012 WSOP. Others getting deeper but falling on Day 2 included Fabrice Soulier (42nd, $5,639) who enjoyed the chip lead during the afternoon, Andrey Pateychuk (38th, $5,639), Jonathan Poche (31st, $6,670), Raj Vohra (28th, $6,670), Will Durkee (20th, $7,989), Martins Adeniya (16th, $9,712), Morgan Popham (14th, $11,957), and Erick Lindgren (13th, $11,957).
Here’s how the stacks looked at the end of play in Event #37:
Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha End of Day 2 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcel Vonk | 604,000 |
| 2 | Brandon Paster | 588,000 |
| 3 | Galen Hall | 553,000 |
| 4 | Matthew Humphrey | 549,000 |
| 5 | Kevin Saul | 506,000 |
| 6 | Millard Hale | 346,000 |
| 7 | Dmitrii Valouev | 317,000 |
| 8 | Dapreesch Scates | 303,000 |
| 9 | Matthew Dames | 219,000 |
| 10 | Gabriel Nassif | 206,000 |
| 11 | AP Phahurat | 162,000 |
Event #38: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship
The $10K Stud Hi-Low Championship saw 75 return from a starting field of 134, with George Danzer having come back to a decent-sized chip lead to begin Day 2. The German would end the day still on top with 13 players remaining, having extended his advantage further to bag nearly twice the chips as his nearest challenger, five-time bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro.
Danzer will be looking to become the first player to win two bracelets this summer after having earlier won the Event #18: $10,000 Seven-Card Razz Championship, but he’ll have a formidable group with which to contend on Thursday that includes two other 2014 WSOP bracelet winners Ted Forrest and Calvin Anderson, plus other bracelet holders in Brian Hastings, Todd Brunson, David Singer, and John Monnette.
ESPN commentator Norman Chad also made it through to Day 3. Chad hopes to make a second career WSOP final table after having finished sixth in the $2,500 Omaha/stud hi-low event in 2012.
Only the top 16 finishers made the cash, with Matt Savage and Alex Bilokur the last eliminated prior to the money. Tom Koral (16th, $22,244), Matt Glantz (15th, $22,244), and Steve Zolotow (14th, $25,569) followed those two to the rail, getting to stop off at the payout desk on their way out.
Here’s how the final 13 will stack up when play resumes on Thursday in this star-studded event, all of whom will be vying for the $352,696 up top:
Event #38: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship End of Day 2 Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Danzer | 785,000 |
| 2 | Jeff Lisandro | 420,000 |
| 3 | Brian Hastings | 415,000 |
| 4 | Ted Forrest | 387,000 |
| 5 | Calvin Anderson | 372,000 |
| 6 | Richard Sklar | 301,000 |
| 7 | Alexander Jung | 293,000 |
| 8 | Todd Brunson | 290,000 |
| 9 | David Singer | 202,000 |
| 10 | Christopher George | 162,000 |
| 11 | Norman Chad | 148,000 |
| 12 | John Monnette | 139,000 |
| 13 | John Racener | 111,000 |
Event #39: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Finally on Wednesday one new event got started, with 992 players turning out for Event #39: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (down a little from the 1,072 who entered last year) to build a $2,708,160 prize pool $548,460 of which will go to the eventual winner. After 10 one-hour levels of play there were 205 players remaining, with Daniel Makowsky leading the way just ahead of James Mackey and Matthew Lapossie in the overnight counts.
James Dempsey, Barny Boatman, Aditya Agarwal, Thomas Muehloecker, and Dario Sammartino are among others with above average stacks heading into Day 2, with the top 117 places paying out.
Here’s a look at the top of the leaderboard in Event #39 after one day of play:
Event #39: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em End of Day 1 Top Nine Chip Counts
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Makowsky | 124,500 |
| 2 | James Mackey | 116,800 |
| 3 | Matthew Lapossie | 107,100 |
| 4 | Gino Levrini | 102,500 |
| 5 | Daniel Lee | 99,700 |
| 6 | Masato Yokosawa | 98,900 |
| 7 | Richard Kellett | 98,600 |
| 8 | Pierre Milan | 97,300 |
| 9 | Zachary Korik | 96,600 |
On Tap
There will be five bracelet events in play today at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Two of them — Events #37 and #38 — will play down to winners, while Event #39 will work its way through a Day 2. Meanwhile two new events get started, both of which are highly anticipated — the Event #40: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship and Event #41: $1,500 Six-Handed Dealer’s Choice.
Here’s the full schedule of bracelet events for today (all times PDT):
- 12:00 p.m. — Event #40: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship (Day 1 of 3)
- 1:00 p.m. — Event #37: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha (Day 3 of 3)
- 1:00 p.m. — Event #39: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Day 2 of 3)
- 2:00 p.m. — Event #38: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship (Day 3 of 3)
- 4:00 p.m. — Event #41: $1,500 Six-Handed Dealer’s Choice (Day 1 of 3)
Video of the Day
Brian Yoon spoke with Caitlyn Howe following his big win in Event #35, remarking on some of the differences between his win this year and the Little One for One Drop a year ago.
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