WSOP What to Watch For: Hall, Jaddi Heads-Up for Bracelet; Suchanek, Kenney Lead 10-Game

Martin Harris

Jul 04, 2014 4 min read

WSOP What to Watch For: Hall, Jaddi Heads-Up for Bracelet; Suchanek, Kenney Lead 10-Game 0001

They’re getting close. There are four final preliminary events to follow today at the 2014 World Series of Poker, but when it comes to what most are watching for, it’s the start of the Main Event tomorrow that is starting to capture a great deal of the poker world’s attention at the moment.

Even so, Friday’s schedule promises a lot of excitement, too, with two more bracelets to be won and two other events working their way down to finishes this weekend. Here’s a rundown of all that’s happening at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino this Fourth of July in the last four preliminary events of the 2014 WSOP.

Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

From 2,563 just two remain in Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em — Brandon Hall and Salman Jaddi. The pair (pictured at right), went deep into the evening yesterday, playing nearly 200 hands of heads-up before deciding to call it a night and come back today to continue working out which of them will be taking away the bracelet and $614,248 first prize.

This marks Jaddi’s third career WSOP cash and Hall’s eighth, and it is a first WSOP final table for both. Hall realized one larger score before, having won the 2009 UltimateBet Aruba Poker Classic and a more than $750,000 first prize.

When play resumes Jaddi will have the chip edge with 6,820,000 (about 57 big blinds to start) to Hall’s 4,725,000 (about 39 BBs).

They’ll get back at it starting at 1 p.m. PDT, so revisit the Event #60 live updates beginning then to see which of the two comes out on top.

Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop

Survivors from the two Day 1 flights in Event #62: The $1,111 Little One for One Drop will combine for today’s Day 2, meaning out of 4,496 total entries there will be 885 players left to fight for the top 468 spots and the money, then to play on in hopes of claiming the bracelet and $637,539 first prize.

Gerald Karlic managed to grab the overall chip lead last night, building a stack of 79,500. Mykailo Krasnytskyi (second, 73,925) and Jason Wheeler (third, 71,500) will be just behind him in the counts to start today.

Meanwhile Maurice Hawkins (seventh, 65,400), Ray Henson (ninth, 64,675), Matthew Lapossie (10th, 64,225), Matt Woodward (24th, 53,550), Matt Glantz (26th, 52,700), and Bjorn Li (27th, 52,125) will also begin well above the average.

They’ll be playing down to the money today, then work further to trim the field down for the tourney’s final two days this weekend. Play starts at 1 p.m. local time, which is when you can point your browser to the Event #62 live updates.

Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix

They are down to just nine in Event #63: $1,500 Six-Handed 10-Game Mix, all that’s left from the 445 who began the tournament on Wednesday, with the plan being to play down to a winner tonight. Jan Suchanek returns to a big chip lead with 494,000, well clear of Bryn Kenney sitting in second position at present with 298,500. A first prize of $153,220 is scheduled to go to today’s winner.

Hailing from New Zealand, Suchanek’s career tourney earnings of just over $530,000 puts him just inside his country’s top five all-time. He final tabled a WSOP Asia Pacific event last year, finishing third in the A$5,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em event, and also had a 17th-place finish in Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em this summer.

Kenney meanwhile has amassed over $3.5 million in live tourney earnings in addition to enjoying significant success online as well. He’s already made two final tables this summer at the WSOP, taking fourth in Event #24: $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em and fifth in Event #34: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud, his best finishes among more than two dozen WSOP cashes.

Andrey Zaichenko (third, 259,000) is another player who has posted a lot of big results online, winning both WCOOP and SCOOP titles on PokerStars while earning more than $1.2 million in live tourney cashes. Like Suchanek and Kenney, Zaichenko seeks his first WSOP bracelet today while Randy Ohel (fourth, 212,500) hopes to win his second after taking down the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event in 2012.

Each of the other remaining players — Fabio Coppola (fifth, 212,000), Daniel Zack (sixth, 205,000), Michael Mixer (seventh, 172,000), Haresh Thaker (eighth, 116,500), and David Blatte (ninth, 41,000) — are looking to win a first WSOP bracelet as well, with Mixer laying claim to being the most appropriately-named contestant to win the top prize in a 10-game mix event.

Play resumes at 2 p.m. Vegas time, so go get into the mix then with the Event #63 live updates.

Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

They’ll also be continuing with the Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship today, an event that drew a whopping 418 participants, easily the most well-attended of all the $10K “Championship” events this summer.

There are 132 players left to start play today, with only the top 45 making the cash and having a shot at the big $923,379 first prize going to the eventual champion. Chance Kornuth returns to the biggest stack today with 338,200, only barely ahead of Ruslan Dykshteyn in second position with 338,000.

Meanwhile there are a number of other notables who thrived during Day 1, among them Tom Marchese (third, 300,100), Will Durkee (fifth, 295,000), David Williams (seventh, 224,200), JC Tran (eighth, 214,900), Sam Trickett (ninth, 214,000), Sergey Rybachenko (14th, 178,900), Ludovic Lacay (15th, 169,200), Daniel Negreanu (20th, 149,700), and Alex Kravchenko (28th, 126,200).