Wednesday was a busy day at the WSOP with two more bracelets awarded, two more events started and two more getting closer to completion. The day also saw Phil Ivey make his first "Day 2" of this years series - and he will also be guaranteed a cash in the $1500 NLHE Shoot out (event 14) as he was one of the 120 players from the 1,138 entries to best their opening tables.
Event 9's bracelet ($1500 NLHE with Re-Entry) was finally won last night by Ashkan Razavi and with it the whopping $780k first place prize. This is the first time this format has been played at the WSOP and it proved a success with a grand total of 3,404 entrants hustling for glory.
Going into the final table there were some big stacks and fearsome opponents, all eyes being on the chip leader Ryan Olisar (3.7m chips) and the phenomenal Brian "tsarrast" Rast (2nd with 2.45m) - with Razavi way down in 6th with under a million chips. Things looked ominous as Olisar immeidately set to work on taking chips from his biggest rival Rast (and also from eventual winner Razavi) but eventually succumbed the chip lead to Amanda Musumeci in a pot where Musumeci's pocket Aces could have given her a much bigger pot had the tournament officials not called a string bet on her allowing her only to bet 100k on the river when she had much bigger intentions. Musumeci was hoping to become the first female WSOP champion since 2008 and looked good for some time before a resurgent Ravazi, who had recently eliminated Brian Rast in sixth spot took the lead when his pair of 10's bested Musucemi's hand to take the chip lead.
From here it was all about Ravazi as he bulldozed through the table to start heads up play against Musumeci as a 6:1 chip leader. Alas Musumeci couldn't claw her way back into the match and eventually got her chips in with Q9 only to be beaten by Ravazi's K 10 (Ravazi hit a 10 on the flop to settle things). Musumeci can at least take consolation in the near half million dollar reward she takes home for second place. Ravazi however will be celebrating right now, that's for sure.
The other event to be settled yesterday was Event 11 ($1500 PLO) which was taken down by Dutch pro Vincent Van Der Fluit who started the day 2nd in chips. By all accounts action was swift on this final table and eliminations came thick and fast. By the heads up stage the two remaining players were relatively even with Chuck Tonne (2.3m) slightly ahead of Van Der Fluit's 2m although in swift fashion Van Der Fluit turned the tables to assume a 3-1 chip lead before taking the event as the chips flew in with both players holding flush draws. Before the last two cards were dealt it was looking very grim for Tonne as not only did Van Der Fluit have a better flush draw but had also picked up two pair on flop. The Kc on the river (bringing the flush to both players) only served to give Van Der Fluit an even better winning hand and the high stakes pro walked away with the gold bracelet and $265k for his 3 days work.
Event 12 ($10k NLHE Heads Up) reached the semi final stage today and coming back for the final days play tomorrow will be Tommy Chen, Jason Mo, multiple bracelet winner Brock Parker and online high stakes superstar Brian "$tinger 88" Hastings. Each player is guaranteed a $130k payday although all win by vying for the bracelet and the $371k that comes with it.
As you'd expect from such an expensive event the 32 players who started the day included a lot of big names with the likes of Vanessa Selbst, Andrew "good2cu" Robl, Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew "nutsinho" Lyndaker and Andrew "LuckcyChewy" Lichtenberger all failing to make the grade today.
Parker will be looking for his 4th bracelet today, while Hastings will look to add a WSOP bracelet to the WPT regional title he took down last year. You can see Brian Hastings recent interview with highstakes database here
In other news as well as Ivey's safe path through to a Day 2 (along with notables including Joe Cada, Erik Seidel, Blair Hinkle, David "Doc" Sands, Jeff Madsen and Melanie Weisman) we also saw our first glimpse of "Texas Dolly" Doyle Brunson yesterday as he ponied up for event 15 ($5000 Seven Card Stud Hi Low) which played out it's first day yesterday. Brunson received a well deserve round of applause upon his arrival and also progressed to Day 2. Phil Ivey rounded off a good day by finishing pretty high up the leader board to secure another second day outing courtesy largely of a huge four way pot in which Ivey held quad 6's. Other big names riding high include Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Mike "gordo16" Gorodinsky, Bryan Devonshire and Eli Elezra, while Jeff Lisandro, Matt Glantz, John "Pearljammer" Turner and Shaun Deeb failed to make Day 2. Current chip leader is US Pro Chris Tryba with 63.6k in chips.
Find more of the latest news and articles relating to the World Series of Poker in the 2012 WSOP-section.