2014 WSOP Day 30: Shack-Harris Leads Final Day of $50K PPC; Burr Makes History
History was made at the World Series of Poker on Wednesday. Not only did Melissa Burr become the first woman ever to cash in the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, she survived the day and will return on Thursday to attempt to claim the title and the $1.5 million top prize.
Only one bracelet was awarded on Day 30 of the 2014 WSOP as Jesse McEuen took down the $1,500 Ante Only event. Meanwhile, two new events got underway at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino on Wednesday before the madness of the Monster Stack event takes over on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the highlights from all five bracelet events in action on Wednesday:
Event #46: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
Day 4 of the 2014 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players' Championship came to a close early Thursday morning, and leading the unofficial final table of eight is Brandon Shack-Harris. The Chicago native, 2014 WSOP bracelet winner, and Player of the Year contender bagged 4,101,000 chips, and was the only player to finish the day with more than 3.5 million.
Melissa Burr is not among the leaders at the unofficial final table, but she is the first woman to ever cash in this event. By simply reaching the unofficial final table Burr has already doubled her career lifetime tournament earnings, and she’ll be looking to climb the ladder Thursday and possibly capture the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
Joining Shack-Harris and Burr on Day 5 will be Frank Kassela, Abe Mosseri, Allen Kessler, Jesse Martin, Chun Lei "samrostan" Zhou, and John Hennigan. This is Hennigan’s third straight cash in the Poker Players’ Championship, and his second consecutive final table. The only other player at the final table with a previous cash in this event is Mosseri, who finished 11th in 2010 for $129,957.
Shack-Harris, who already has first, second, and third-place finishes at the 2014 WSOP, is nipping at George Danzer’s heels in the Player of the Year race. Martin is looking to capture his second gold bracelet in as many years, and Kessler and Zhou are both looking to win their first and only.
Event #46: $50,000 Poker Unofficial Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips | WSOP Bracelets | Career Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Kassela | USA | 2,507,000 | 2 | $2,425,393 |
| 2 | John Hennigan | USA | 1,878,000 | 2 | $4,750,934 |
| 3 | Allen Kessler | USA | 439,000 | 0 | $2,830,973 |
| 4 | Abe Mosseri | USA | 3,485,000 | 1 | $1,149,000 |
| 5 | Chun Lei Zhou | Macau | 1,389,000 | 0 | $199,137 |
| 6 | Melissa Burr | USA | 661,000 | 0 | $151,368 |
| 7 | Brandon Shack-Harris | USA | 4,101,000 | 1 | $611,679 |
| 8 | Jesse Martin | USA | 840,000 | 1 | $1,396,180 |
The final table bubble lasted two hours and 45 minutes before play concluded in the last level of play, and the surviving eight players will return at 2 p.m. on Friday to play down to a winner. Be sure to return to PokerNews for exclusive live updates from this and every event at the 2014 WSOP.
Event #47: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em
For three days, poker players seemed to be learning and evolving their strategy in the relatively new Ante Only variant at the World Series of Poker. This unique no-limit hold'em format does not have blind levels; instead, each player is required to post an ante every hand, and if a player wants to participate in the hand they may call the bring in for a small amount or raise.
In the end it was Jesse McEuen who emerged victorious, topping a field of 714 players. It was his first ever final table and he seized the day as well as the bracelet after defeating a tough final table that included Adam Levy, Ryan D'Angelo and Rhys Jones.
Arthur Pro lasted just seven hands at Wednesday's final table, getting his chips in good with A♥10♠ versus Jones who had shoved with Q♣10♣. Pro hit his ace on the turn, but the river brought Jones a queen-high-straight to send Pro out in ninth for $16,145.
There followed a flurry of eliminations as - in the space of four hands - Jeremy Joseph went out in eighth ($20,704), Herbert Yarbrough in seventh ($20,704) and D'Angelo fell in sixth ($35,143).
The remaining five players would swap chips as they tried to out-maneuver each other in the battle for the antes in the middle at the start of each hand. There were a number of double ups, making it anyone’s tournament.
Levy was eventually the player eliminated in fifth place for $46,575. Levy got it all in with A♠Q♦ on the flop of Q♣8♦A♦ against the K♦4♦ of Jones. The turn 5♦ and river 7♦ flush for Jones felted Levy.
Again, it was Jones who dealt the fatal blow to the next player to be eliminated: Simeon Naydenov. Jones got it all in preflop with A♣K♠ and Naydenov called it off with A♠Q♥ and was out in fourth for a $62,528 payday.
That put Jones in the lead, but a succession of bad river cards for him saw his active approach to the three-handed game fail to pay off, and he was the next player out when he three-bet-shoved his short-stack holding A♠9♥ and got looked up by McEuen with 10♥8♥. A run out of K♦8♣10♦K♣9♠ meant Jones would have to settle for third place and $85,131.
Heads-up play between Jonas Lauck and McEuen started with pretty even stacks, but McEuen began to pull ahead by the time of the next break. When they returned, it was all over in one hand as they got it all in preflop.
Lauck had a good hand with the A♥10♦ but McEuen had him dominated with the A♦A♣. A runout of 2♠2♣2♦3♠5♥ secured $212,093 and a gold bracelet for McEuen.
Event #47: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse McEuen | $212,093 |
| 2 | Jonas Lauck | $130,955 |
| 3 | Rhys Jones | $85,131 |
| 4 | Simeon Naydenov | $46,575 |
| 5 | Adam Levy | $46,575 |
| 6 | Ryan D'Angelo | $35,143 |
| 7 | Herbert Yarbrough | $26,825 |
| 8 | Jeremy Joseph | $20,704 |
| 9 | Arthur Pro | $16,145 |
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Event #48: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low
The penultimate day of Event #48: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low came to an end after 10 levels of play. The day started with 157 hopefuls vying for an in-the-money finish, and only 117 would get there. After 10 levels of play on Day 2, 11 remain with their sights set on World Series of Poker gold.
The chip leader at the end of the night was Scott “BigRiskky” Clements. Clements bagged up 699,000, leading pros Jeff Madsen (654,000), Dylan Wilkerson (552,000), and Tyler Patterson (425,000) going into the final day.
Here is how the final 11 players stack up going into Day 3:
| Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Scott Clements | 699,000 |
| Jeff Madsen | 654,000 |
| Dylan Wilkerson | 552,000 |
| Tyler Patterson | 425,000 |
| Derek Raymond | 420,000 |
| Cody Crawford | 403,000 |
| J.R. Flournoy | 400,000 |
| Tom Schneider | 315,000 |
| Gary Kosakowski | 249,000 |
| Brian Brubaker | 175,000 |
| Philip Sternheimer | 167,000 |
Entering play on Day 2, Cale MacLean brought the biggest stack into the room. MacLean maneuvered through half the field in the money and busted in 54th. Some notables players earning a pay day were Phil Ivey (30th), David Chiu (35th), Roberto Romanello (37th), Joe Hachem (43rd), Bryan Campanello (61st), Joe Serock (62nd), Matt Waxman (84th), and Jeff Gross (100th).
Join us for Day 3 on Thursday at 1 p.m. when the final 11 will return to play down to a champion. As always, you can find live coverage right here at PokerNews.
Event #49: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #49: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em got underway on Wednesday afternoon and as one might expect it attracted some of the best tournament poker players in the business.
By the time registration closed a total of 696 buy-ins had been recorded, creating a prize pool of $3,271,200 with $719,707 is reserved for the eventual champion.
Of those 696 starters only 204 managed to navigate their way through the shark-infested waters of Day 1. Leading all of those 204 survivors is Ken Einiger who turned his 15,000 starting stack into a tournament leading 174,000 over the course of 10 hour-long levels.
Einiger has five cashes at the World Series of Poker, one of which came in the Millionaire Maker earlier in this series. Although there is a long way to go until the money – 72 places are paid — Einiger has given himself the best chance to add a sixth WSOP cash to his name in this event.
Also progressing to Thursday’s Day 2 with plenty of chips is seasoned pro Josh Arieh. He will start with 173,400 chips, narrowly missing out on the title of overnight chip leader by 600 chips.
Other notables to look out for when play resumes include Vanessa Selbst (117,300), Jason Koon (104,300), Matthew Jarvis (101,000), Lauren Kling (100,300), JC Tran (93,300), Andrew Lichtenberger (69,800), Ole Schemion (57,000) and Joe Cada (39,800).
Day 2 kicks off in the Amazon Room at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday and efforts will be made to whittle the field down towards the final table of nine. Join us here at PokerNews for updates of all of the action, as it happens, from this star-studded event.
Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix
The 50th event of the 2014 World Series of Poker got underway on Wednesday! After 10 full levels of play, just 106 of the 485 total entrants in the $1,500 Eight-Game Mix advanced to Day 2. Leading the field with a sizable chip lead is none other than Eric Crain with 71,600.
This marks the second year in a row that Crain has bagged up the Day 1 chip lead in the eight-game event. During last year's $2,500 Eight-Game, Crain bagged up 69,925 for the official chip lead. This year he managed to put more total chips in the bag with a significantly smaller starting stack. Crain ultimately finished in 4th place last year for just over $64,000 in prize money. Despite Crain's success during last year's WSOP, he's been unable to gain footing in 2014. His performance today puts him in the best position of the remaining 106 and could allow him to turn his summer around. Late in the day, we caught up with Crain to find him eliminate an opponent from play during a round of limit hold'em. From that point on, Crain soared to the top of the chip counts, adding well over 50,000 to his stack in the last two levels of the night.
While Crain certainly had the most successful day, many other players built their 4,500-chip starting stack up to a respectable size for Day 2. Some of the recognizable players returning for Day 2 include Mike Gorodinsky (45,000), Aaron Steury (35,575), Brandon Cantu (30,200), Martin Staszko (26,725), Ali Eslami (26,700), Dan Heimiller (23,950), Justin Bonomo (21,900), Amnon Filippi (20,450), Joe Hachem (13,000), Maria Ho (11,575), Bill Chen (11,575) and Calvin Anderson (10,025).
Play resumes on Thursday at 2 p.m. As always, be sure to keep your browsers locked on PokerNews for all of the latest as this tournament returns for Day 2!
On Tap
Here’s the full schedule of bracelet events for Thursday (all times PDT):
- 12:00 p.m. — Event #51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack Flight A (Day 1 of 3)
- 1:00 p.m. — Event #49: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Day 2 of 4)
- 1:00 p.m. — Event #48: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low (Day 3 of 3)
- 2:00 p.m. — Event #46: $50,000 Poker Players Championship (Day 5 of 5)
- 2:00 p.m. — Event #50: $1,500 Eight-Game Mix (Day 2 of 3)
- 4:00 p.m. — Event #52: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship (Day 1 of 3)
- 5:00 p.m. — Event #51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack Flight B (Day 1 of 3)
Video of the Day
Jesse McEuen won his first bracelet in Event #47. PokerNews' Caitlyn Howe talked to McEuen about his emotional win.
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