Players of the $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack WSOP Event have just entered Level 12. This is the final level for entering or reentering the tournament.
Michael "Smash" Phizicky bet 10,000 from under the gun on a 9♥A♥6♣ flop and Mitchell Collins called from the big blind.
When the turn came 3♠ Phizicky bet 21,000 and Collins called, leaving each with not much more than that behind.
Phizicky fired his third barrel, going all-in on the 10♦ river and Collins called. Phizicky showed A♠Q♣ and Collins was outkicked with A♦5♦, finding himself a short stack.
On the last hand before the break, Samiyel Duzgun saw the player on the button going all-in. Covered, Duzgun looked at his cards and called.
Samiyel Duzgun: 6♣6♠
Opponent: 10♥9♣
Duzgun's pair had to hold to keep him in the tournament. And it happened with a 4♦Q♦K♦6♥2♦ board that gave him a set to double up.
At the table behind him, Jason Wheeler doubled his stack to 128,000 on the previous hand. His neighbor Alan Helfenstein is also running well, as he left the area as one of the chipleaders with 380,000 chips.
After the under the gun player had raised to 6,500 and Michael Clough had called from early position, Billy Kopp moved all in for 35,000 from the small blind.
Billy Kopp: 5♣5♥
Michael Clough: A♥6♥
"Hey, best case scenario," said Clough, discovering he had two overcards. He hit one of them on a Q♣4♦6♣ flop, and Kopp stood up to leave.
The 4♣ turn had him one more step toward the door, but the 5♦ spiking the river got him back in his seat.
Players are now on their third break of the day. This break will last 20 minutes. Currently, the screen shows 3,730 entrants and the official numbers will be known at the restart.
Poker Hall of Famer Jennifer Harman has seen the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in all of its iterations. Harman won two bracelets when the World Series played at Binion's Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas and made several final tables after the transition to Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in the mid-2000s.
Now, 27 years after her first WSOP final table in 1996, Harman finds herself at yet another World Series rendition at the rebranded Horseshoe Casino on the Strip. And while the golden U-shaped emblem outside the hotel is by and large the same, Harman said the modern venue doesn't compare to the WSOP's original home.
"It was such a cool atmosphere playing at Binion's; it's just nothing like that," Harman told PokerNews. "Now it's just like, you know, poker blew up and it's more ... it's still a really cool atmosphere, but it's just different. It's not a small room, musty, that kind of stuff. But it's still really cool. Poker's still really popular, so that's a pretty awesome thing."
PokerNews caught up with Harman last week as she played Day 1 of Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship at the 2023 WSOP to ask about her summer schedule, pick for the Poker Hall of Fame and her memories with the late Doyle Brunson.
