2015 WSOP Day 27: Seiver Leads $50K for Second Day in a Row; Super Seniors Nears End
Only one bracelet was awarded on Day 27 of the 2015 World Series of Poker, but there were plenty of other events taking place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, including Day 2 of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship. Those stories and more in PokerNews' daily WSOP recap.
Baker Needs a Nap After Taking Down Seniors Championship
Event #40: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship began with 4,193 players (the fourth consecutive year the event drew 4,000+ runners), which created a prize pool of $3,773,700. On Monday, the final nine players returned to action at 11:00 a.m., and within five hours a winner was crowned. After four players busted within 35 minutes, 50-year-old construction manager Travis Baker of Enid, Oklahoma emerged as the last man standing to capture the gold bracelet and $613,466 first-place prize.
According to updates from the event, the final table lasted just 124 hands. On Hand #27, the most notable player at the final table, WSOP bracelet winner and former Octo-Niner Steve Gee, was sent to the rail in eighth place after his J♣J♦ failed to hold against the A♠Q♠ of Carl Torelli after the board ran out 8♥Q♦7♣K♥K♦.
As for Baker, he only scored two knockouts at the final table, but they were the two biggest. On Hand #123, he sent Jim Hopperstead packing after Baker called a four-bet jam with the A♠A♥. Hopperstead held the 9♣9♥ and failed to find a third.
One hand later, Baker raised to 560,000, Torelli called, and both players checked the 5♠7♠J♠ flop. The 5♦ turn saw Torelli bet 1.5 million and then shove after Baker raised to 4 million. Baker called with the K♠10♠ for a flopped flush, and Torelli was in trouble with his J♦7♣. The 3♥ river failed to pair the board, and Torelli had to settle for runner-up and a $378,766 consolation prize.
"I'm an old man, I need to go take a nap," Baker joked when asked if he had any plans to celebrate. "No, we haven't got that far. We went out last night and celebrated a little bit, but we haven't even talked about tonight."
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Travis Baker | Tulsa, OK | $613,466 |
| 2 | Carl Torelli | Pahrump, NV | $378,766 |
| 3 | Jim Hopperstead | Cookeville, TN | $274,989 |
| 4 | Michael Smith | Union, KY | $202,157 |
| 5 | Justin Tucker | Flushing, NY | $149,929 |
| 6 | Lee Budin | New Albany | $112,154 |
| 7 | Stephen Nussrallah | Alpharetta, GA | $84,644 |
| 8 | Steve Gee | Sacramento, CA | $64,417 |
| 9 | Shane Goldsmith | Newton, KS | $49,435 |
For more on Baker's win, click here.
Barny Boatman Leads Remaining 26 Players in Extended Play
Event #42: $1,500 Extended Play No-Limit Hold'em – a tournament that originally began with 1,914 players who created a prize pool of $2,583,900 – saw 115 players return for Day 3 action, but by the end of the night just 26 remained with WSOP bracelet winner and Barny Boatman and his stack of 1,152,000 leading the way.
The only other players to bag up seven-figure stacks are Luis Duarte (1,079,000) and Artem Metalidi (1,056,000). Also still in contention are Patrick Leonard (581,000), Justin Zaki (381,000), Konstantin Puchkov (367,000), and Yevgeniy Timoshenko (226,000).
Among those to fall on Day 3 were Zo Karim (112th - $3,514), Andy Frankenberger (100th - $3,514), Martins Adeniya (69th - $5,762), Anatoly Filatov (46th - $7,932), Antonio Esfandiari (40th - $9,457), and 1997 WSOP Main Event runner-up John Strzemp (27th - $13,953).
In regards to Esfandiari, he took a huge hit just before the dinner. It happened when a player on the button opened for 11,000 and Boatman three-bet to 30,000 from the small blind. Esfandiari four-bet to 64,000 from the big, the original raiser folded, and Boatman five-bet to 174,000. Esfandiari then moved all in and Boatman called off for 467,500.
Boatman: K♥K♠
Esfandiari: A♥A♣
Boatman was in trouble, but he was lucky to improve on the 5♥5♠K♣ flop. Neither the 5♠ turn nor Q♥ river helped Esfandiari, and he sent more than half his chips over to Boatman.
Top 10 Day 3 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barny Boatman | 1,152,000 |
| 2 | Luis Duarte | 1,079,000 |
| 3 | Artem Metalidi | 1,056,000 |
| 4 | Yehoram Houri | 895,000 |
| 5 | Anthony Diotte | 817,000 |
| 6 | Ross Gottlieb | 780,000 |
| 7 | [Removed:4] | 732,000 |
| 8 | Auddie Reynolds | 605,000 |
| 9 | Patrick Leonard | 581,000 |
| 10 | Adrian Apmann | 574,000 |
Day 4 will kick off at 1 p.m. Tuesday with the plan of playing down to a winner, who will take home a $478,102 first-place prize.
Three-Time Bracelet Winner Perry Green Contending in Super Seniors
The first edition of the Super Seniors tournament has undoubtedly been a big success, drawing 1,533 players for the $1,000 buy-in. After two days of play, just 25 remain in contention for the $262,220 first-place prize.
The headliner among them is Perry Green, who has won three bracelets and notably finished second to Stu Ungar in the 1981 Main Event. Green has earned nearly $700,000 at the WSOP in his career and looks likely to add considerably to that as he bagged sixth place with 404,000.
Meanwhile, Wayne Knyal sits atop the counts with 779,000.
The tournament hit the money on Day 2 with 171 places paid. Perhaps the biggest notable to cash thus far was Barry Shulman, who busted out in the later stages in 31st place when he ran his tens into the pocket jacks of Wisconsin's Wallace Havens.
Day 3 commences at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Level 21 (5,000/10,000/1,000).
Top Five Chip Counts
| Player | Stack |
|---|---|
| Wayne Knyal | 779,000 |
| Jon Andlovec | 652,000 |
| Wallace Havens | 644,000 |
| Mark Schwartz | 457,000 |
| Paul Keller | 445,000 |
Smallest $50K PPC in WSOP History; Seiver Leads for Second Day in a Row
Day 2 of Event #44: $50,000 Poker Players' Championship saw a handful of players take advantage of late registration (neither Doyle Brunson nor Phil Ivey made an appearance), which brought the total number of players up to 84, the tournament's lowest ever (previous low was 95 players in 2009). Still, a juicy $3,696,000 prize pool was created that will be distributed to the top 12 players, with the eventual winner taking home $1,270,086.
For the second day in a row, Scott Seiver bagged up the chip lead, though his 688,500 isn't too far ahead of Abe Mosseri and former champ Matthew Ashton, who finished with 657,400 and 607,900 respectively. Others who were among the 47 survivors were two other former champs, two-time winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (361,500) and David Bach (258,400), online star Ben Sulsky (425,300), and Jason Mercier (212,400), who won a bracelet just a few days ago.
Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fall were Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed, Brian Hastings, Daniel Negreanu and defending champ John Hennigan.
According to updates from the event, Hennigan busted in Level 10 in a round of no-limit hold'em. It happened when Chau Giang opened for 5,000 and Jean-Robert Bellande called. A short-stacked Hennigan came along from the small blind and it was three-way action to the 4♠5♠3♣ flop. Two checks saw Bellande bet 16,000, Hennigan call off his last 2,800, and Giang fold.
Bellande: 2♣2♥
Hennigan: Q♦9♥
Hennigan needed some help, but he failed to find it as the 10♣ blanked on the turn followed by the 8♦ on the river.
Top 10 Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Seiver | 688,500 |
| 2 | Abe Mosseri | 657,400 |
| 3 | Matthew Ashton | 607,900 |
| 4 | Dee Tiller | 602,400 |
| 5 | Mike Gorodinsky | 488,000 |
| 6 | Ben Sulsky | 425,300 |
| 7 | Michael Glick | 414,900 |
| 8 | David "ODB" Baker | 387,100 |
| 9 | Ben Yu | 375,500 |
| 10 | Joe Cassidy | 375,500 |
Fritzshall Leads Day 1 of Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em kicked off on Monday, and Florida's Brayden Fritzshall bagged the chip lead at the end of Day 1, having run his 7,500 starting stack up to 194,700.
Fritzshall is having quite the 2015 so far, already hitting huge scores both live and online. In March, he was part of a chop of the 9th Anniversary Sunday Million on PokerStars, banking just under $600,000 when he took first for the remaining prize money after the deal. Less than two weeks later, he got third in the $1,200 Battle at the Beach in his home town of Pompano Beach for $61,333. A bracelet would be the ultimate topper to his career year.
The tournament drew 1,655 and 260 made it through. Among them: Andrey Pateychuk (128,800), Eric Baldwin (105,900), Barry Hutter (93,800), Jason Koon (84,200), Faraz Jaka (76,900), and German high roller Fabian Quoss (58,300).
Day 2 of the tournament is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Player | Stack |
|---|---|
| Brayden Fritzshall | 194,700 |
| Justin Kindred | 183,000 |
| Jorden Fox | 147,600 |
| Eyal Revah | 146,800 |
| David Jackson | 141,900 |
| Andrey Pateychuk | 128,800 |
| Jaime Kaplan | 127,500 |
| Matt Woodward | 120,600 |
| Tyler Patterson | 119,200 |
| Doanh Le | 118,300 |
Erick Lindgren in Top 10 of Six-Max PLO
The 4 p.m. tournament on Monday was Event #46: $3,000 Six-Max Pot-Limit Omaha. Few forms of poker engender so much action, and the end of 10 levels of play saw 154 of 682 entrants survive, with Arseniy Makhaev atop the counts at 213,700.
Makhaev won a huge pot just before the players bagged up to end the night. He got a set of deuces in on a 2♣9♥8♠3♣ board against a player holding J♥10♥8♣7♣ for a monster combo draw. Makhaev managed to fade everything as the 3♥ fell, and that was enough to propel him to the end-of-night lead.
Other survivors included Ashton Griffin (168,300), Erick Lindgren (150,700), Joe Ebanks (135,600), Mohsin Charania (112,500), Robert Mizrachi (82,800), Ami Barer (78,200), and Joe Hachem (43,000).
Play resumes at 2 p.m. Tuesday on Level 11 (600/1,200).
Top 10 Day 1 Chip Counts
| Player | Stack |
|---|---|
| Arseniy Makhaev | 213,700 |
| Bjorn Wiesler | 185,700 |
| Ilya Krupin | 183,500 |
| Jeffrey Gibralter | 168,600 |
| Ashton Griffin | 168,300 |
| Christopher Sensoli | 173,700 |
| Iaroslav Boiko | 151,000 |
| Erick Lindgren | 150,700 |
| Cole Jackson | 149,600 |
| Nipun Java | 148,300 |
Tuesday will also see the start of two new events – Event #47: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em at 12:00 p.m. local time and Event #48: $1,500 Seven Card Stud at 4 p.m.
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