One more bracelet was awarded during play at the WSOP yesterday as Nick Jikov overcame a field of 639 entrants to take the honours and the $190k first prize for the $1500 PLH Championship.
Play started at the final table today and everybody was interested to see if Daniel Negreanu, who started in 6th place, could take the event down for his 5th WSOP bracelet. Although he did improve on his starting position Negreanu could only manage 5th place as he fell (in rather unlucky circumstances) to eventual winner Jikov. Negreanu looked a massive favourite to double through as his AQ hit top pair on the flop against Jikov's AJ - Jikov however made a miracle K high straight on the river to deny Negreanu.
Another big name to fall short of glory was recent WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown Champ Tommy Vedes, sent home in 4th - and once again Jikov came from behind to take the scalp of an opponent as Vedes top pair on a J 10 4 flop fell to Jikov's 10 9 as once again the river produced the goods (pairing Jikov's 9) to send Vedes packing.
It was all going Jikov's way as he also elimated Jonathan Aguiar in 3rd (his 99 outlasting Aguiar's AQ) and after starting with a 3-1 chip lead over his heads up opponent Bryan Pellegrino Jikov never really let his foot off the gas despite Pelligrino's best efforts and a desperate Pelligrino eventually shoved his last chips in with j9 only to run into a rampant Jikov's pocket tens. That as they say, was that and a new WSOP Champion was crowned in Nick Jikov.
Other events played yesterday include the $5000 NLHE Max-Mix which played down to 31 players from the 112 left after day 1 on Thursday. The next round is a heads up round and with an odd number of players remaining, chip leader Warwick Mirzikinian will receive a bye into the next round. Big names still in the hunt include last years $50k Players Championship winner Brian Rast, John Hennigan, multiple bracelet winner Brock Parker, recent WPT Champ Marvin Rettenmaier and online sensation Aaron "aejones" Jones.
It was also Day two at the $1500 Seven Card Stud Championship and former Stud bracelet winner David Williams is currently destroying the field as he sits pretty on 493.5k chips, around 200k ahead of his nearest rivals, Andy Bloch and Barry Greenstein. Play started today with 110 and reached the final table of 9 to conclude tomorrow.
Finally, Event 8 ($2500 Omaha Hi-Low Aplit 8-or-Better) also got underway today and once morre Phil Ivey was unable to get anything going as he fell to Mike Matusow. Matusow made it to day 2 along with "ElkY" Grosspellier, Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu, Todd Brunson and Jeff Madsen among others. In total 220 of the starting 967 entrants remain to play day 2. We will need to lose around 100 more players before the bubble bursts however so expect a lot more play in this one.
Find more of the latest news and articles relating to the World Series of Poker in the 2012 WSOP-section.