WSOP Day 38: Barber Wins $10K H.O.R.S.E., Hofer Takes Little One & More
Day 38 of the 2015 World Series of Poker saw a $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Champion crowned, a winner in The Little One For One Drop and the first ever bounty event get all the way to heads up.
Plus, the final two events on the schedule before the Main Event got going and the $1,500 Stud 8 played down to just 17 remaining.
All the details can be found below in the PokerNews WSOP daily recap.
Barber Cuts Out $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship Win
Andrew Barber took down the 2015 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship Friday night, winning his first WSOP bracelet and $517,766. Barber, who has had tons of success grinding the WSOP Circuit to the tune of 17 cashes and $80,375 in earnings, beat Viacheslav Zhukov heads up and a final nine that included legends of the game like Joe Hachem (5th), Frank Kassela (6th), Scotty Nguyen (7th) and Eli Elezra (9th).
The win marked Barber's 13th cash at the WSOP but was by far and away the biggest of a career that previously included $75,736 in WSOP earnings and $240,097 overall.
"It was a tough lineup for sure, but I feel Like I can play with anybody in at least a couple of these games and in H.O.R.S.E. that's all that you need," Barber said.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Barber | Sacramento, CA | $517,766 |
| 2 | Viacheslav Zhukov | Stary Oskol, Russia | $319,989 |
| 3 | Don Zewin | Las Vegas, NV | $210,629 |
| 4 | Jared Bleznick | New York, NY | $153,638 |
| 5 | Joe Hachem | Melbourne, Australia | $114,308 |
| 6 | Frank Kassela | Rossville, TN | $86,541 |
| 7 | Scotty Nguyen | Las Vegas, NV | $66,579 |
| 8 | Arash Ghaneian | Henderson, NV | $51,986 |
| 9 | Eli Elezra | Henderson, NV | $41,170 |
Heads Up in the $1,500 Bounty
The WSOP's first ever bounty event played all the way down to heads-up Friday before play was halted and an extra day added. A total of 34 players from a field of 2,178 began play Friday with the $333,351 first-place prize and WSOP gold bracelet in sight.
The final table was set just after 7 p.m. local time when Jose DeLaGuardia busted 10th. By the time they got heads-up, New Jersey's Jack Duong, who made fourth in the 2014 WSOP $3,000 Shootout, looked primed to win his first bracelet. However, the Czech Republic's Vitezslav Pesta refused to continue once ten levels of play were through, despite holding only 965,000 in chips to Duong's 15,380,000.
Play will resume at 1 p.m. local time Saturday with both players guaranteed at least $206,734.
Hofer Ships Little One
German amateur Paul Hofer won Event #61: $1,111 The Little One for One Drop, beating out one of the biggest fields of 2015 – 4,555 players – for $645,969 and his first gold bracelet. He did so in front of a loud and supportive German rail that included plenty of stars of the poker world, players such as Ole Schemion, Thomas Muehloecker, and Dominik Nitsche.
“The German guys...I think we're one of the best groups,” said Hofer, who hails from Leipzig. “It's a super community who came together over the last year, and its almost like a family.”
He needed some timely luck as a slow pace of play led to stacks being short across the board for much of the final table. That increased the variance, but Hofer capitalized as he caught the cards at the right times. He eliminated Carlos Chang in fifth by jamming the 8♥3♥ in the small blind for eight big blinds and outdrawing Chang's J♣10♣. Then, he hit a wheel with A♥5♥ all in preflop against the A♦8♣ of bracelet winner John Reading to send him out fourth, much to the delight of the boisterous railbirds.
That gave Hofer a 3-1 lead over the final two players' combined stacks, and he eliminated Senovio Ramirez III and Mario Lopez the very next two hands.
“I was running super well in the end,” Hofer said. “I played well, and I ran pretty well. That's the best mixture to win a tournament.”
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Hofer | Leipzig, Germany | $645,969 |
| 2 | Mario Lopez | Argentina | $399,455 |
| 3 | Senovio Ramirez III | Mission, TX | $287,620 |
| 4 | John Reading | Rochester, MN | $212,559 |
| 5 | Carlos Chang | Taipei, Taiwan | $158,404 |
| 6 | Dustin Lee | Waipahu, HI | $119,049 |
| 7 | Rainer Kempe | Berlin, Germany | $90,189 |
| 8 | Jason Caulk | New Palestine, IN | $68,912 |
| 9 | Brett Shaffer | Beloit, KS | $53,088 |
Bracelet Winners Abound in Stud Hi-Low
Event #65: $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low played down to 17 survivors on Friday, and a stacked field remains, topped by bracelet winner John Esposito and his 630,000. The rest of the top five includes Gerald Ringe (586,000), Chris George (441,000), and bracelet winners Owais Ahmed (403,000) and Daniel Idema (306,000).
Other former WSOP champions to bag included Vladimir Shchemelev (158,000), Todd Brunson (136,000), John Monnette (124,000), Eric Rodawig (67,000), and Jesse Martin (57,000).
The tournament began the day with 125 players and hit the money at 56. Dylan Linde (22nd), Daniel Strelitz (27th), Naoya Kihara (34th), Tony Ma (37th), and Matt Vengrin (54th) were among those cashing.
The tournament is scheduled to play to a winner on Saturday.
First Ever Dealer's Choice Championship Draws 108
After the popularity of the first ever Dealer's Choice event at the WSOP last year, a $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship was added to the schedule for 2015. Day 1 of the event kicked off at 4 p.m. Friday, and it drew 108 runners for a total prize pool of $1,015,200. Whoever ships the tournament will bank $319,792.
More than half of the field advanced to Day 2 as 61 survived. Matthew Ashton has the chip lead with 152,700. Ashton is most noted for winning the Poker Players' Championship in 2013 for over $1.7 million.
Other players surviving the first five levels with above average stacks included 2014 WSOP Player of the Year George Danzer (106,825), Stephen Chidwick (101,875), Jeff Madsen (88,525), and Robert Mizrachi (74,575). Mizrachi was the WSOP's first ever Dealer's Choice champion.
Players get back in action at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Top Five Chip Counts
| Player | Stack |
|---|---|
| Matthew Ashton | 152,700 |
| Yehuda Buchalter | 138,150 |
| George Danzer | 106,825 |
| Stephen Chidwick | 101,875 |
| Ray Dehkharghani | 97,150 |
Lucky Sevens Draws 4,422
The 2015 WSOP Event #66: $777 Lucky Sevens No-Limit Hold’em kicked off at the Rio Friday with two seperate starting flights drawing a total of 4,422 players to this new low buy-in level event. A $3,095,400 prize pool was created which will pay 468 spots. A min-cash is worth $1,361 while a WSOP gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $487,784 awaits the winner.
Sean Munjal grabbed the Day 1A chip lead with 159,300. Diana Svensk appeared to take the lead by the end of Day 1B on some 115,000. A total of approximately 648 players will return Saturday for Day 2.
Saturday will also see the final six in Event #64: WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold'em play down to a champion live at the Rio.
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