Isaac Hanson Leads Final Six in Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event; PokerNews Live Reporter Adam Lamers in the Hunt
From a Day 2 field of 103 hopefuls, players have been whittled down to six in Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event. With 5,550,000 in chips, WSOP Media Relations Manager Isaac Hanson holds the chip lead going into the final day. Hanson, who has worked at the WSOP since 2012, will be looking for his first WSOP gold bracelet and has almost a third of the chips in play.
Hot on his heels is Jorge Ruiz, a poker dealer at Montego Bay casino in Wendover, Nevada, with 4,820,000 in chips. Nicholas Haynes, a poker dealer at Aria, sits in third at 2,745,000. Casino Caribbean pit dealer Jesse Kertland is fourth with 1,620,000, while PokerNews Live Reporter Adam Lamers looks to follow in the footsteps of 2013 champ Chad Holloway and earn a bracelet of his own with his 1,490,000. Rounding out the final table is Fallsview Casino dual-rate dealer Jeffrey Fast with 1,190,000.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Final Table | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Jeffrey Fast | Canada | 1,190,000 | 10 |
| 5 | Isaac Hanson | United States | 5,550,000 | 46 |
| 6 | Jorge Ruiz | United States | 4,820,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Jesse Kertland | United States | 1,620,000 | 14 |
| 8 | Nicholas Haynes | United States | 2,725,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Adam Lamers | Canada | 1,490,000 | 12 |
Action of the Day
With everyone already in the money, a host of notables hit the rail before the final table was reached, including final table bubble boy Errol Krupiarz (10th - $3,241) Day 1 chip leader Cosmo Andoloro(11th - $3,241), Austin Roberts (14th - $2,569), DraftKings employees Teng Zheng(18th - $2,074) and Steven McLoughlin (24th - $1,706), last woman standing Amanda Wheeler (25th - $1,706), Jose Zaragoza (31st - $1,430), Bryan Wienhoff (41st - $1,221), WSOP Bracelet winner Jon Friedberg (46th - $1,064), Filimon Zamora (53rd - $1,064), Jeremy Daum (71st - $858), and Asad Abdullah (74th - $795).
Travis Williams lost a big flip to Hanson early at the final table, and was never able to recover, eventually getting his last chips in with Big Slick, only to run into the aces of Joseph Appler. He settled for ninth-place and a $4,161 payday.
Appler would eventually be the next to go, however, after getting short and jamming his last ten big blinds with king-ten suited, only for Haynes to make the call with ace-ten. Appler failed to improve and was out the door in eighth-place, taking home $5,438.
Two hands later, Christopher Bowen bowed out just short of the final table, getting his last fifteen big blinds in with ace-jack suited, and Hanson woke up behind him with ace-king. A dry board left Bowen with $7,229 for his seventh-place finish.
The final six are all guaranteed $9,776, but will all be seeking the $62,345 top prize, along with the coveted WSOP gold bracelet. They will return Friday, May 30th at 12 PM local time to play down to a winner. Action will resume with 32:20 left in Level 30 (60,000/120,000/120,000).
The final day of this event will air on PokerGO starting at 1 PM, and you'll be able to follow the action throughout, as well as right here on the blog, as we follow all the action from start to finish.
