WSOP What to Watch For: July 11, 2017
Today's What to Watch For is brought to you by the VerStandig Law Firm, LLC. Combining a keen understanding of the gaming world and an equally keen understanding of the law, Mac VerStandig and his colleagues are devoted to fighting on behalf of the poker community and its members.
The VerStandig Law Firm, LLC represents poker professionals, sports bettors and advantage players across the United States. The firm assists clients in connection with legal issues including personal LLC formation and operation, tax planning that focuses on gaming deductions and exemptions, casino disputes, and personal matters spanning from divorce to criminal dust-ups.
After three World Series of Poker Main Event starting flights and thousands of players filing into the Rio, Day 2 action finally begins on Tuesday with those who advanced in Day 1A and 1B returning for five more flights of play. The numbers for the first two flights have been up compared to recent years as was Monday’s flight 1C for a grand total of 7,221 players.
That makes this year’s Main Event the third-largest in history (only topped in 2006 and 2010) and the prize pool sits at almost $68 million. First place is guaranteed $8,150,000, and the total places paid is 1,084 with a min cash of $15,000.
The first flight brought in 795 players, the biggest Day 1A since 2013. That was followed up by an overflow crowd of 2,164. That made for a total field of 2,959 in the first two flights of play, which will return to the Rio for Day 2A and 2B on Tuesday at 11 a.m. Those advancing from the third flight, which brought in a massive 4,262 players, will advance to Day 2C on Wednesday at noon.
Morten Mortensen was the chip leader in the 1A field with 279,000 chips. Mortensen has almost $1.2 million in lifetime tournament winnings including four cashes at the WSOP for $297,481. Others with big stacks include Sam Grafton (231,600), Griffin Abel (226,000), Jonathan Little (210,300), and David Eldridge (207,000).
Defending champ Qui Nguyen advanced with 96,700 chips and 2014 champ Martin Jacobson bagged up 36,800. Other notables still remaining include Barny Boatman (150,000), Alex Foxen (140,000), Faraz Jaka (119,800), Donnacha O'Dea (111,000), Barry Shulman (106,700), Richard Seymour (105,000), Jon Turner (103,900), Mike Matusow (99,000), Matthew Ashton (93,500), and Hoyt Corkins (84,300).
Taking command in the 1B field was Argentina’s Richard Dubini (254,500), who has a bit over $1 million lifetime tournament winnings including a win in 2014 in the Brazilian Series Of Poker for $126,397. Other big stacks continuing to a second day of action were Alan Schein (229,800), Brandon Meyers (215,700), Tobias Ziegler (215,300), Brandon Adams (205,000), and 2005 WSOP Main Event third-place finisher Tex Barch (200,000).
Other notables remaining from 2B include: Kenny Hallaert (168,700), Jordan Morgan (166,300), Fabrice Soulier (160,300), Hasan Habib (154,100), Barry Greenstein (146,800), Nick Schulman (131,200), Adrian Mateos (129,000), Scott Seiver (123,900), Andy Frankenberger (116,400), Jeff Shulman (112,600), Patrick Mahoney (109,200), Layne Flack (107,000), and Terrence Chan (101,800).
Play is scheduled to reach the final table on Day 7 (Monday, July 17). Days 8-10 will then resume and be played on July 20-22 to reach a winner – all played out live in front of ESPN’s cameras. Tuesday’s action will be on PokerGO from 11:30 through 4:30. The show switches to ESPN from 4:30-8 p.m. and again on PokerGO for the last half hour (8:00-8:30 p/m.). Here is a look at the payouts for the final table:
- 1st – $8,150,000
- 2nd – $4,700,000
- 3rd – $3,500,000
- 4th – $2,600,000
- 5th – $2,000,000
- 6th – $1,675,000
- 7th – $1,425,000
- 8th – $1,200,000
- 9th – $1,000,000
PokerNews is your stop for all the Main Event action from around the Rio. Don’t miss a hand – click here to follow along.
