WSOP What to Watch For: Friday the 13th a Lucky Day for Eyster or Neuville

Martin Harris

Jun 13, 2014 5 min read

WSOP What to Watch For: Friday the 13th a Lucky Day for Eyster or Neuville 0001

A half-dozen tournaments will be in action on Friday at the 2014 World Series of Poker, including two that will conclude with bracelets won. The final two players in Event #24: $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em are coming back to finish that tournament this afternoon, then later Friday night one of 12 players left in Event #26: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em will be winning the second bracelet of the day.

Here’s the lowdown on those two events as well as the other four that will be playing out today as WSOP players return to see if Friday the 13th might be their lucky day.

Event #24: $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

From a starting field of 541 just two players remain in Event #24. After 28 hands of heads-up play, Kevin Eyster and Pierre Neuville chose to sleep on it rather than finish it out last night, and so they’ll return this afternoon with Eyster enjoying a chip advantage with 5,515,000 (about 55 big blinds) to Neuville’s 2,605,000 (about 26 BBs).

Known as “1sickdisease” online, Eyster has over $1.4 million in career live tourney earnings highlighted by a big victory at the 2013 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown where he bested a field of 542 to win a $660,395 first prize. The Lousiana-based player also picked up a WSOP Circuit ring in early 2013 while his best previous showing in a WSOP event was a quarterfinal finish in 2010 in the WSOP Europe NLHE Heads-Up High Roller.

Neuville meanwhile has just over $1.6 million in career winnings with two runner-up finishes in European Poker Tour events providing his biggest career scores to date, one coming at EPT6 Vilamoura (for €257,681, or about $380K) and the other at EPT8 Copenhagen (for DKr1,600,000, or about $280K). The Belgian’s previous best WSOP performances include a couple of 13th-place finishes in NLHE events.

Besides the bracelet, the winner will earn a big $622,998 prize while $385,041 will go to today’s runner-up. The pair resume their duel at 1 p.m. PDT today, which is when hand-for-hand coverage will continue as well in the Event #24 live updates.

Event #26: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Ryan Welch returns to a big stack of 1,524,000 to lead the final 12 in Event #26, putting the Henderson, Nevada player way in front of nearest challenger Dan Smith who’ll be unbagging 887,000 to start the third and final day of play today. Welch will be seeking his second WSOP bracelet today after winning a $3,000 Triple Chance NLHE event in 2010.

None of the other 11 players remaining have earned WSOP gold before, with Smith coming into the event with the longest tourney résumé of success with more than $6 million in career tourney earnings but just one WSOP final table when he finished third. Will Failla (currently in eighth position) also has more than $4.3 million in career winnings and 27 previous WSOP cashes. Failla has made a WSOP final table once before, too, and interestingly it was in the same Triple Chance event Welch won back in 2010 where “the Thrill” finishing fourth.

Start following who makes this event’s final table and eventually wins at 1 p.m. Vegas time when the Event #26 live updates will begin.

Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.

From a starting field of 743 just 144 made it through Day 1 of Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. yesterday, with Jason Riesenberg of Las Vegas enjoying the overnight chip lead with 72,600 and four-time WSOP bracelet winner and 1996 WSOP Main Event champion Huck Seed sitting in second position with 59,400.

Work remains to get to the money in Event #27 as only the top 80 finishers will get to divide the $1,003,050 prize pool, $230,744 of which sits up top for the eventual winner.

WSOP bracelet holder James Van Alstyne and two-time winner John Monnette both return to top 10 stacks in this one, with a couple of other WSOP winners, Dutch Boyd (with two bracelets) and Jim Collopy (with one), lurking close as well.

They’ll also be resuming at 1 p.m., so click over to the Event #27 live updates beginning then as well.

Event #28: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship

There were 160 runners who showed up for Day 1 of the Event #28: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship yesterday, a turnout that translated into a $1,504,000 prize pool to be split among the final 18 players with $398,567 going to the winner.

Just 66 remained at night’s end, with Floridian Tony Ruberto having built a leading stack of 203,300. Five-time bracelet winner John Juanda finished in second position with 171,200, with Dan Shak (fifth, 144,500), Antonio Esfandiari (seventh, 144,300), Pratyush Buddiga (ninth, 130,600), and Chino Rheem (10th, 122,700) among the many notables also ending Day 1 with above average chips.

As has happened with all five of the preceding $10K “Championship” events, this one, too, will undoubtedly produce another final table full of decorated pros, so be sure to follow the Event #28 live updates starting at 2 p.m. today to see who makes it through to Saturday’s finish.

Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

Also today will see two other events get started, the first being Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em, the first and only $2,500 buy-in NLHE event on the 2014 WSOP schedule.

Nikolaus Teichert won this event in 2013, topping a big group of 1,736 players to earn a $730,756 first prize. This one kicks off the day with a 12 noon start, so head over to the Event #29 live updates then to see how many show up this year.

Event #30: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low

Finally later in the afternoon will come the start of Event #30: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low, an event that attracted 558 entries a year ago with Dan Idema earning his second gold bracelet and the $184,590 first prize. Cory Zeidman (2012), Chris Viox (2011), David Warga (2010), and David Halpern (2009) comprise other recent winners of the event.

They start splitting and scooping pots at 4 p.m. Pacific time in this one, so check those Event #30 live updates beginning then.

Here again is a full rundown of the schedule of events happening on Friday (all times PDT):