As two events wound down, four more heated up on day ten of the WSOP. These included the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card-Stud, the $2,500 no-limit hold’em, the $2,000 Omaha high-low split eight-or-better and the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship events.
Phil Tom was the winner of the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout, earning him the top prize of $477,990, and a gold bracelet. Greg Mueller had to settle for the silver, and Leo Wolpert for third place.
German Christoph Niesert was eliminated in 8th place in the $1,500 limit hold’em event after Zach Fellows and Jimmy Shultz had him covered when he moved all in preflop. The two players checked down a board of J
95
KQ before Fellows flipped up K
8. Shultz and Niesert mucked and Niesert was eliminated.
Mark Golser from Austria had a rollercoaster ride late session. He got involved in a hand with Vinny Vinh where they each put in 120,000 chips on a board of K9
66Q. Vinh flipped up 96 for two pair, and he took down the pot. This left Golser with only 20,000 chips left in front of him to work with.
Facing elimination, Golser raised all in for 27,000 preflop and he was called down by both Ali Eslami and Brendan Taylor. The flop fell J55 and Taylor bet. Eslami mucked and then the final two players turned up their hands. Golser held J9 and Taylor turned up K10. The turn and river failed to help Taylor and Golser survived to triple up.
However, all was not calm on the horizon for Golser when he called a raise of 40,000 from Shultz preflop. The flop rolled out Q109 and Golser moved all in for 20,000. Shultz made the call and the two players turned up their hands: Golser with AJ and Shultz with 97. The turn and river bricked out and Golser was eliminated in sixth place taking home $53,453.
The two players left to tackle each other for first prize were Zach Fellows and Jimmy Shultz. Fellows made one last run at the chip lead, and almost regained it before a nearly fatal hand delivered him a huge blow. Shortly after that it was all over. Jimmy Shultz won his first gold bracelet along with $257,105 (25 percent of which he will donate to the fire department in his hometown in South Carolina). Fellows was awarded $165,165 for his hard fought runner-up finish.
With around 50 players left in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card-Stud event, Dutchman Rolf Slotboom was sent out while Russian Alexander Kostritsyn positioned himself among the chip leaders.
As the field narrowed down towards the thirty mark, Italian Dario Minieri got involved in a raising war with Phil Ivey. Minieri got the remainder of his short stack all in, and asked, "You got jacks?" Sure enough, Ivey showed that his jack was paired and Minieri was sent to the rail.
While Alexander Kostritsyn made his way towards the top of the leaderboard, fellow countryman Alexander Kravchenko was on his way out when he went all in against two deep-stacked opponents. James Paluszak fired the entire way and was called down by David Oppenfield. Paluszak showed down a set of rolled up nines, good enough to win a monster pot that had him stacking his chips well into the next hand. Kravchenko was eliminated in 13th place.
Russia need not yet worry however as Alexander Kostritsyn has made it to the final table, and although he awaits a tough battle, his large chip stack should be of some comfort.
England are still in with a chance also in the $2,500 no-limit hold’em event as Nicholas Levi successfully fought his way into the final ten. The winner of this tournament will receive a gold bracelet and $666,777.
The $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship began today with 1,190 entrants and a total prize pool of $1,082,900. 99 players will be paid and the last woman standing will receive $244,702.
Some European action of particular interest at the $2,000 Omaha high-low split eight-or-better was an incident that occurred
between Allen Kessler and Dutchman Marcel Luske. A large crowd gathered around their table where they were arguing over a particular ruling. Apparently Luske made a forward motion with a stack of chips, signifying a call, but decided to check at the last minute. Kessler felt that the forward motion should and did constitute a legal bet. The floor person came over and made the ruling, stating that forward motion does not constitute anything, the chips must fall into the pot to be a legal bet. Kessler persisted and Luske started to become aggressive, rising from his chair and yelling at Kessler. Kessler retaliated, “Well, I’m going to put this on the internet anyway.” “I don’t care what you put on the internet. Are you trying to threaten me? Huh? What’s next, are you going to send your friends after me?” said Luske.
Kessler did as he promised and described the hand in his blog saying, “Now we are playing 100/200 with blinds of 50-100. I play 3445 to Marcel Luske’s raise from the SB and see a dream flop of 4 7 Q rainbow. Marcel bets out and I raise; he calls.The turn is a 2 giving me a wheel draw and a low to go along with my set of fours. Marcel checks and I bet. The river comes an Ace to complete the wheel, I now have the nuts. Marcel checks and I bet 200. He has 8 green chips in his hand and moves them forward to call, but the chips physically have not touched the felt yet. I consider it to be a call and I say "Wow, that was a sick hand". At that point Marcel, who had basically already called the bet, quickly pulls his bet back and all the fireworks began… Marcel has always been a gentleman to me in the past, and I’m sure we will both get over this incident in the future. It was clear that he intended to call. The only reason I commented at that point of the hand was because I was certain he had already called…”
Tomorrow will see the final table of the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card-Stud and the $2,500 no-limit hold’em events battle it out for first prize, and play will heat up in the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em World Championship and $2,000 Omaha high-low split eight-or-better tournaments. Two new events to watch out for are the $1500 no-limit hold’em shootout and the $5,000 no-limit two-seven-draw lowball with rebuys.
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