Phil Ivey is on fire this week having made three consecutive final tables this week. It looked for all the world that Event 24 ($5k Omaha Hi-Low) was going to yield him his 9th WSOP bracelet as he entered the final 27 today as chip leader, went into a commanding lead over the first few hours and even held a sizeable lead going into three handed play. It was not to be however as he eventually faltered and was eliminated in third place.
As play reached what looked like it would be the last hour or two the blinds eventually reached 50k/$100k meaning that there were only 38 big bets left in play. All it takes with blinds like this (even in a limit game, especially a drawing game like 08) is for a couple of pots to go against you and you're in trouble. That's what happened to Ivey as he became increasingly short stacked. At one point he had less than one big blind left (40k) before hitting some miraculous cards to chip up to over 800k and it looked like we might have a major comeback story on our hands as Scotty Nguyen was by now the short stack with Joe Cassidy biding his time with well over 2 million chips. It wasn't to be for Ivey however as he tried in vain to get something going, lost a big pot to Nguyen and then had his flopped two pair outdrawn by Joe Cassidy for his last 200k chips. He may not have the bracelet yet but he is sure giving the folks he has sizeable bracelet bets with one hell of a sweat this week, and with plenty more tournaments to come who's to say his time won't yet come?
Surprisingly after Ivey busted Nyguen called a halt to proceedings as the official clock had expired for the day and Scotty said he was too tired to continue, despite Cassidy wanting to play to a finish. They will both come back tonight to settle things with Cassidy the overwhelming chip leader with 3m of the 3.85m chips in play.
One bracelet was awarded yesterday as Simon Charette took down Event 23 ($3k NLHE Six Max) beating 923 other players to take the gold and the $567k first prize. With seventeen players back today including major talent such as Freddy Deeb, ElKy Grosspellier, Andrew "LuckyChewy" Lichtenberger and Eugene Katchalov in the field. None of the big names made much of a dent on the final run in however with only Betrand "ElKy" Grosspellier reaching the official final table (strangely of seven rather than six players) and he was the first to fall as his 77 couldn't outlast Luis Rodriguez Cruz's AK.
When it came down to the final stages, Charette started opening up a decent lead with some aggressive play and ended up eliminating his final three opponents. His heads up opponent was over night chip leader Artem Metalidi but short stacked and with blinds at 25k/50k with a 5k ante Metalidi found an Ace and shoved, only to find his A2 a big dog to Charette's pocket 6's. The board blanked out and Canadian Charette went one better than last year (when he took 2nd in a $1500 NLHE event) and took home his first WSOP bracelet.
Event 25 ($1.5k Limit Shootout) reached the final table today and with WPT winner Victor Ramdin and multiple bracelet winner Brock Parker in contention there is some serious talent on show. Ramdin disposed of Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo heads up to reach the final table so is going to be one to watch as the final table plays out later today.
Event 26 ($3k PLO) played down to 18 yesterday out of the days 138 returning players. Oddly one player who returned for Day 2 was Phil Ivey, despite not playing a hand in Day 1 (he was, as you may be aware rather more occupied in his Omaha Hi-Low event). His stack was quickly eaten up by the blinds today however. Out of the 18 left chasing WSOP glory and the $362k first prize we have a splattering of big names including; Erik Seidel, John Racener, Brett Richey, Dutch Boyd and Robert Williamson III. The current chip leader is recent EPT winner Vadzim Kursevich with 741k in chips.
The only new event to start yesterday was Event 27 ($1.5k HORSE) which received an impressive 889 entries. At the end of the days play we were left with 165 contenders. Some big names who didn't make day 2 include; Phil Hellmuth, Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Shaun Deeb, Greg Raymer and Erick Lindgren whereas it was a better day at the felt for Daniel Ideman, Allen Cunningham, Huck Seen John Monnette, Linda Johnson, Eli Elezra and David Sklansky. Returning as chip leader tomorrow with 75k (average 22k) is Karle "Skip" Wilson.
Find more of the latest news and articles relating to the World Series of Poker in the 2012 WSOP-section.