What to Watch For: June 27, 2017
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After a busy Monday at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, longtime pro Chino Rheem bagged the chip lead among 19 players left in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed event as he seeks his first bracelet. Several big names are also returning today for both the Monster Stack and $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty event.
Event #47: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em MONSTER STACK
After two days of play in the Monster Stack, only 234 players advance to Day 3 on Tuesday from the original 6,716-entry field. The last player standing will take home the bracelet and a huge $1,094,349 first prize.
Scott Baumstein currently leads those remaining with 1,592,000. The player from New York has 23 career WSOP cashes for just over $500,000 and is looking for his first bracelet. He's followed in the counts by Adrien Allain (1,500,000), Claas Segebrecht (1,337,000), Alessandro Esposito (1,065,000) and Brandon Meyers (1,052,000).
Other notables still in the field include Paul Volpe (1,043,000), Scott Montgomery (880,000), Maurice Hawkins (740,000), TJ Cloutier (414,000), Stanley Lee (360,000), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (305,000), Ole Schemion (287,000), Will Failla (206,000), Elizabeth Montizanti (200,000), Men Nguyen (183,000), Tammy Wing (172,000) and Michael Moore (80,000).
PokerNews will be there with continuing coverage once Day 3 kicks off at 11 a.m. today. Click here for all the live updates.
Event #49: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed
Play wrapped up on Monday with the final 127 players narrowed down to 19 who return for Day 3, with a plan today to play down to a winner and find out who wins the $362,185 first prize.
David "Chino" Rheem will return to the chip lead with 952,000. Rheem has more than $8.7 million in career tournament winnings including a seventh-place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $1,772,650. He's won numerous titles, including three on the World Poker Tour, but the WSOP bracelet has eluded him thus far and there's no doubt he'd like to change that today.
Rounding out the top three are Louie Calvo (914,000) and Daniel Reijmer (770,000). Meanwhile other notables still remaining include Alberto Fonseca (611,000), Aleksei Altshuller (593,000), Eric Hicks (563,000), Kenneth Wong (331,000) and Jeff Madsen (207,000).
Players return for Day 3 on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Check back to the PokerNews live updates starting then to follow along.
Event #50: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em BOUNTY
The bounty hunters were out in force on Monday with 1,927 players entering this event to create a prize pool of more than $1.5 million. First place will take home $266,646 plus $500 for every bounty collected.
After 10 levels of play yesterday, only 264 players remain. The money bubble burst just before the end of the day with the remaining players all securing at least a min-cash of $1,414.
Leading the pack is Will Berry with 219,700 followed by two-time bracelet winner Brandon Cantu (216,500), Fred Berger (197,800), Chen Yu Hung (189,600) and Harrison Gimbel (188,800). Others still remaining include Joseph Cheong (138,700), Sam Grafton (55,000), Chris Bjorin (34,600), Maria Ho (33,000), Mike Leah (32,700), Tom Hall (24,200), Dzmitry Urbanovich (20,700) and Pierre Neuville (8,700).
Players return at 12 noon today with the PokerNews team bringing you every significant bet made and bounty collected. Click here to follow along.
Event #51: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
This new PLO Hi-Lo championship event attracted 207 entries for a total prize pool of $1,945,800 and a first-place prize $511,147.
From that group 116 players moved on to today's second day of play, with Italy's Dario Sammartino the current chip leader with 294,300. Sammartino has just over $6.5 million in career tournament earnings, but has yet to secure a WSOP bracelet. He's had a great summer with five cashes thus far, highlighted by a third-place finish in $111,111 buy-in High Roller for One Drop for $1,608,295.
Sammartino is followed by Ryan Miller (228,700), Sean Remz (224,700), Josh Arieh (212,500), Tommy Chen (209,200) and Joe Tehan (200,300).
Other notables still remaining include current WSOP Player of the Year leader Ray Henson (169,200), Scott Clements (193,600), David "ODB" Baker (167,500), John Monnette (166,100), Marco Johnson (118,000), Shaun Deeb (97,400), Brian Rast (90,400) and Jason Mercier (67,300).
Day 2 picks up on Tuesday at 2 p.m. — click here then for all of the PokerNews live updates.
Event #52: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Texas hold'em enthusiasts will be welcomed back into the Rio today for two more events featuring the classic game, this one at the lower price. Last year 1,860 players ponied up for a $2.5 million-plus prize pool in this one, with David Peters taking home his first bracelet for $412,557.
Play begins at 11 a.m., and PokerNews will be there with all the live updates.
Event #53: $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Handed
For those preferring short-handed hold'em and a bigger buy-in, this one will serve their purposes and should attract a decent-sized field. In last year's version Rafael Lebron took home his first bracelet and $169,337 first prize, topping a 245-entry field that created a $669,000 prize pool.
This is the late-starting event today, with the first hands scheduled to be dealt at 3 p.m. Be sure to follow along with PokerNews for all the fun.
