Five Former Champions Already Knocked Out Of This Years Main Event
Over the last five weeks we have brought you news of every single bracelet winner at this years World Series of Poker (WSOP), and today we can bring you up to date with the remaining nine bracelet winners and some early news on the Main Event.
Event 53 was the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event and Brett Shaffer took the honours beating David Vamplew heads up to claim his first ever bracelet and the first prize of $665,397. In Event 54 it was Dana Castaneda who came out on top of the pile beating Jason Bigelow in the heads up battle to claim the first prize of $454,207 to become yet another first time bracelet winner at this years WSOP.
Event 55 was the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the 132 players who stumped up the cash created a massive prize pool of $6,336,000, and it was Englishmen Matthew Ashton who eventually claimed the first prize of $1,774,089 and with it his first ever WSOP bracelet. It was Ashton’s fourth cash at this years event and his fourth final table, all of which rocketed him to the top of the standings for the WSOP Player of The Year. Ashton has made eight cashes in his career at the WSOP and when he finishes in the money his worst finish is 32nd place. A great record from such a young man, Ashton is 25, and he could be one of the names to watch in years to come.
Event 56 was the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Event and it was Nikolaus Teichert who beat the 1,735 other players to claim the $730,756 winners cheque and his first ever bracelet. In Event 57, which was the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Event, Matt Perrins claimed the second bracelet of his career and the $792,275 first prize, with his first success coming two years ago in 2011. Event 58 was the $1,111 The Little One for One Drop No Limit Hold’em Event and a large field of 4,756 players took to the felt to fight it out for the first prize of $663,727, and it was yet another first time winner in Brian Yoon who took the honours.
Event 59 was the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Event and it was former bracelet winners Eli Elezra and Daniel Negreanu who were left to fight it out for the first prize of $173,236. It was Elezra who prevailed and claimed his second WSOP bracelet, with his previous success coming back in 2007. Event 60 was the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event and Loni Harwood came out on top of the pile and took home his first bracelet and the first prize of $609,017. The final bracelet to be awarded was in Event 61 which was the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event and it was three time bracelet winner Daniel Alaei who took the honours and with it his fourth WSOP bracelet and the first prize of $852,692.
As for the Main Event a total of 6,352 players started out in search of the first prize of $8,359,531 and already there have been a few notable exits with five former Main Event Champions leaving the competition. Day 1A saw 2011 Champion Pius Heinz knocked out, and Day 1B saw 1998 Champion Scotty Nguyen and 2004 Main Event winner Greg Raymer leave the competition as well. Day 1C saw another two former Main Event winners knocked out too, with 1996 winner Huck Seed and 2010 winner Jonathan Duhamel both leaving this years WSOP for the final time. At the time of writing the current chip leader is Mark Kroon with a stack of 246,300, but with 2,350 players still left in the tournament it is still all to play for with the money bubble still some way off yet as the top 648 players will walk away with at least $19,106.
Make sure you report back next week with us here at PokerNet.com where we will of course bring you up to date will all the news from the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Paradise, Nevada and the final nine players in this years WSOP.