2015 WSOP Day 10: Idan Raviv Captures Gold; Shootout Final Table; & Millionaire Maker
Day 10 of the 2015 World Series of Poker saw five events take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Just one event – Event #12: $1,500 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em – crowned a winner, while several others players down close to it. Just one event kicked off on Friday, but it was a big one in the third annual $1,500 Millionaire Maker.
Here's a look at everything you need to know from Day 10 of the 2015 WSOP.
Israel's Raviv Tops Tough Final Table to Win Event #12 Gold Bracelet
Professional players usually thrive in a six-max format, which forces players to open up their ranges and make more marginal decisions, and a tough final table emerged in Event #12: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed. Idan Raviv of Israel took home the gold bracelet and $457,007 for defeating the 1,651-player field.
Raviv is an aspiring pro who said he works in information technology. The score is bigger than the rest of his career tournament cashes combined.
Notables like former November Niner Scott Montgomery (23rd), Zo Karim (20th), Mike Dentale (14th), and Steve Billirakis (12th) advanced to Day 3 but fell short of the final table. Possibly the scariest runner to make final table was Mike “SirWatts” Watson, but he didn't have the firepower to get anything done and busted in sixth. Fellow pros Craig McCorkell got fifth and Markus Gonsalves fourth, while Brazilian businessman Manoel Filho got third.
That left Raviv and Iaron Lightbourne, a British player who ran deep in last year's Main Event and finished 22nd. Lightbourne took command of the table three-handed when he five-bet small with queens and induced a six-bet shove from Raviv's 10♣5♣. Raviv retook the lead heads up when he flopped top two with J♦10♦ in a three-bet pot and faded Lightbourne's Q♠9♥ on the J♠10♥5♠ flop. He rolled that advantage into a win and his first bracelet.
Three Contenders Remain as Event #13 Goes to Day 4
Forty players came back for Day 3 of Event #13: $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. The event was scheduled to play down to a victor, but it didn't quite happen as three players remain. Hani Awad leads the way with 3.3 million in chips, while Benjamin Dobson (1.645 million) and Konstantin Maslak (975,000) also remain in the hunt.
Viacheslav Zhukov made the final table in pursuit of his third bracelet but busted out in fourth when Maslak and Dobson chopped a Stud Hi-Lo pot to take the last of his chips.
Scotty Nguyen (39th), John Racener (37th), James Obst (34th), Brian Rast (33rd), Vladimir Shchemelev (24th), Aditya Prasetyo (21st), Eric Wasserson (19th), Barry Shulman (17th), and Eric Buchman (10th) hit the rail over the course of Day 3 play.
The remaining runners will battle it out on Saturday as Level 31 begins with limits of 80,000/160,000. With stacks relatively short, expect a winner to be crowned in relatively short order.
Down to the Final 10 in Event #14 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
What started with 1,000 players in Event #14 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout is down to the final table of 10. Day 2 of the tournament began with 100 players spread across 10 tables, but only one from each would advance (in a shootout format each table players down to a winner).
Among those to punch their ticket to the third and final day were two women – Elizabeth Montizanti and Kitty Kuo – who are both looking to become the first woman to win a no-limit hold'em shootout bracelet; poker pros Barry Hutter and Grayson Ramage; and 2008 WSOP third-place finisher Dennis Phillips.
The Final Table
| Place | Place | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orson Young | 744,000 |
| 2 | Kitty Kuo | 743,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Strelitz | 743,000 |
| 4 | Benjamin Zamani | 742,000 |
| 5 | Dennis Phillips | 742,000 |
| 6 | Anton Smirnov | 741,000 |
| 7 | Grayson Ramage | 741,000 |
| 8 | Elizabeth Montizanti | 741,000 |
| 9 | Randy Pfeifer | 740,000 |
| 10 | Barry Hutter | 740,000 |
Among those to fall on Day 2 – all of who took home $5,413 – were Stephen Chidwick (100th), Justin Bonomo (98th), Pratyush Buddiga (53rd), Bryan Huang (34th), Matt Giannetti (22nd), Samantha Abernathy (17th), and Dominik Nitsche (15th).
Final table action will kick off at 1 p.m. local time.
Negreanu Bubbles; 10 Remain in Event #15: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 2 of Event #15: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship, a tournament that attracted 128 players and created a prize pool of $1,203,200, began with 64 players still in contention for the $318,857 first-place prize. By the end of the night, just 10 would remain with Jason Koon and his stack of 890,000 leading the way.
The Final 10 Players
| Place | Place | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Koon | 890,000 |
| 2 | Paul Volpe | 586,000 |
| 3 | Dario Sammartino | 521,000 |
| 4 | Shaun Deeb | 488,000 |
| 5 | Sam Stein | 299,000 |
| 6 | Kristijonas Andrulis | 288,000 |
| 7 | Greg Merson | 276,000 |
| 8 | Jason Les | 213,000 |
| 9 | Tom Marchese | 180,000 |
| 10 | Ismael Bojang | 80,000 |
With only 18 players slated to get paid, 46 had to leave empty handed. Among them were Mike Leah, Antonio Esfandiari, Scott Seiver, Bryn Kenney, Alexander Kostritsyn, David Benyamine, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Daniel Negreanu, who actually finished in 19th place as the bubble boy.
According to updates from the event, it happened when Negreanu raised to 28,000 from middle position and left just 1,000 back. Dario Sammartino then three-bet from the big blind and Negreanu called off with the A♦8♣, which was racing against his Italian foe's 5♦5♣. The board ran out a clean 4♠10♠10♦7♠2♣, and Negreanu was sent to the rail.
Among those to finish in the money were Shane Douglas (18th - $17,038), Michael Ferrell (17th - $17,037), Connor Drinan (16th - $17,037), Matt Waxman (15th - $17,229), Todd Brunson (14th - $17,229), Mark Fisher (13th - $17,229), Josh Arieh (12th - $22,288), and David Peters (11th - $22,288).
The final 10 players will return at 2:00 p.m. local time on Saturday to play down to a winner, who will ultimately take home $318,857.
Altamirano Leads Day 1a; Dimmig Looks to Defend in Millionaire Maker
Day 1a of Event #16 $1,500 Millionaire Maker, which is in its third year, attracted 3,347 players, and after 10 levels 500 remained with Panama's Tomas Altamirano leading the pack with 265,700 in chips.
Also in contention is the defending champ, Jonathan Dimmig, who topped a field of 7,977 entrants last year to win the title and more than $1.3 million in prize money, not to mention the gold bracelet. The upstate New Yorker advanced to Day 2 with a solid stack of 75,800.
Others still in contention include Austin Buchanan (195,900), Seth Berger (140,000), Justin Bonomo (136,200), Calvin Anderson (135,700), Antonio Esfandiari (116,900), Martin Jacobson (50,000), Ray Henson (34,000), and Phil Hellmuth (9,400).
Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fall in the first flight were Jeff Madsen, Jessica Dawley, Lee Davy, Jamie Gold, James Woods, David "Doc" Sands, Allen Kessler, Barry Greenstein, and Chris Moorman.
Day 1b will kick off at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Players who busted on Day 1a have the option to reenter.
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