Brit Player Narrowly Misses Another WSOP Bracelet

And still no gold for Dwan Day 19 saw another action-packed session at the 41st World Series of Poker as new bracelets were won and fresh events kicked off, with UK player James Dempsey narrowly missing his second bracelet and serial side better Tom Dwan still hunting for his first. By the completion of Day 3 play around 9pm Vegas time Tuesday in event 24, a $1,000 No-limit Hold'em competition, a final table had been formed from the nine survivors of an original field of 3,289, with JD McNamara holding the lead on 2,393,000 ahead of Kiet Tran Tuan (2,311,000) and Blake Kelso (1,166,000). Other members of the final table, which will play to a conclusion on Day 4, were John Tolbert, David Cai, Denis Murphy, Greg Pohler, Michael Gross and Jeffrey Tebben. The event saw 512 players start Day 2 (see previous InfoPowa report) but only 30 of them lasted through to the start of Day 3. Casualties along the way included a multi-tournamenting Tom Dwan and UK female ace Liv Boeree. Poker pro Sammy Farha was jubilant as he achieved his third WSOP bracelet after a 16 hour final table jam-packed with top players in event 25 – the $10 000 buy-in Omaha/8 contest. Four hours of the final table were taken up in the tough heads up struggle with never-say-die Brit player James Dempsey, whose pursuit of a second bracelet ended in a runner-up prize of $301,790. Farha put on a masterful display of discipline and talent in besting the skilled and determined Dempsey before the contest ended in his $488,237 victory at 7am in the morning. In event 26 – the $2.500 buy-in NLHE/Six Handed competition, Day 1 saw a total of 1 245 players start out, with only 156 of them making it into Day 2. Among the survivors were Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Shulman, Annette Obrestad, Jerry Yang and Amnon Filippi. Less fortunate and crashing out on Day 1 were names like Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth. With only thirty positions to last before the money bubble, Day 2 got off to a brisk start Tuesday afternoon with William Haydon as chip leader with 179,300 chips, followed by Luigi Caramatti (171,400), Timothy Begley (167,700) and Erik Cajelais (163,000). By midnight Tuesday names like Annette Obrestad, Marco Traniello, former WSOP champ Jerry Yang and Steve Billirakis had all been eliminated, and the field was down to just 18 players, led by Taurean Davis on 810,000, chased by William Haydon (760,000) and Martins Adeniya (760,000). 644 contestants faced off in event 27, a $1 500 buy-in Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better competition which attracted well known players like Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Haschem, Mike Sexton and recent stud bracelet winner Men the Master Nguyen. The money bubble was set at position 64, and with plenty of side bets between the pros there was a definite buzz as the cards hit the air. By the end of Day 1, Odette Tremblay led the field and the money had still not been reached, with 196 players bagging up for another day of action Tuesday. Howard Lederer was not among them, having busted out in Day 1, but Tom Dwan was still in the hunt as Day 2 started. Other top pros still alive included Jeff Lisandro, John Juanda, and Marcel Luske. By 10.30pm Tuesday night Vegas time there were still 51 players fighting it out at level 15, with Kevin MacPhee holding the chip lead. Odette Tremblay was further down the field, as was Phil Ivey and Annie Duke. Notable departures were John Juanda and 2002 WSOP main event winner Robert Varkonyi. Midday Tuesday saw the start of event 28, a $2,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha competition. This year's entry field was some 160 players larger than last year at 596 and included Erik Seidel, Lee Watkinson, Michael Binger, Joe Sebok, Robert Williamson III, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, T.J. Cloutier, Kirill Gerasimov, Mike Sexton, Scotty Nguyen, Jonathan Little, Andy Black, Scott Seiver and Tom Schneider. By 11pm Vegas time Tuesday level 10 had been reached and 124 survivors were still battling it out, with Eric Rabl holding a slim lead over Brit star Richard Ashby and Norman Collingsworth somewhat further back. Departures in Day 1 included Chip Jett, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Nam Le, Eric Baldwin, Mike Beasley, Vivek Rajkumar, Sigi Stockinger and Jason DeWitt. Event 29 is another world championship contest and started at 5pm Vegas time Tuesday. The event is a $10 000 buy-in Limit Hold'Em competition and attracted a starter field of 171 - lower than last year's field. Seen taking their seats were Erick Lindgren, Barry Shulman, Nikolay Evdakov, Doyle Brunson, Mike Mizrachi, Shaun Deeb, Eli Elezra, Vitaly Lunkin, Phil Hellmuth, Vanessa Rousso, Isaac Haxton, John Monnette, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Alex Kravchenko, Carlos Mortensen and Greg Mueller. By 11pm Tuesday, Day 1 play had reached level 6 with 166 players still very much in the running, led by Shaun Deeb on 79,000, pursued by Michael Mizrachi (60,000), Jameson Painter (58,100) and the legendary Doyle Brunson (54,500). Departures included Liz Liu, Nikolay Evdakov, Noah Boeken, Howard Lederer and Soheil Shamseddin.