Update: Two Players Claim Their First Bracelets

Another woman at a final table, too Halfway through, the 42nd World Series of Poker noted a lot of exciting action and awarded yet another set of bracelets. Namely, in event 20, Diana Allen became the fourth woman to make a WSOP final table this year. Still, she was unable to become the first to win a bracelet, which in the end went into the hands of Jason Somerville. Another bracelet, his first, was taken down by an experienced poker pro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in event 21: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, which also brought him a hefty prize of $331,639. In the exhausting heads-up, he defeated Steven Landfish, whose runner-up position brought him $204,924. In event 22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, the third day began with Juha Vilkki in a significant chip lead over his closest rival Rafe Kibrit and the other 7 final tablers. However, Vilkki didn't keep his lead, so the heads-up saw a clash between Kibrit and French pro Elie Payan, who took the match in the end, along with $292,825 and the bracelet. For his trouble, Kibrit took home the runner-up's check for $181,222. Event 23: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix saw 25 players back on the third day of the competition, with John Racener in the chip lead. Getting near to the end of the day, only five competitors reached level 26 - Michele Limongi, John Monette, Eric Buchman, Desmond Portano and Brent Hanks. As for event 24: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, its second day gathered back 40 survivors, including Erik Seidel, Gavin Smith, Tommy Vedes, Dan Smith, Jordan Young, Justin Bonomo, Tom Marchese, Sean Getzwiller, James Akenhead, JP Kelly, James Dempsey, Toby Lewis, Maxim Lykov and Darren Kramer. By the end of the day, the play reached level 7, with a final table that comprised Sean Getzwiller, Jeffrey Gross, Adam Junglen, Tom Marchese, Dan Smith, Scott Baumstein and Todd Terry, all of the USA competing with Nicolas Fierrogottner (Chile), Nikita Lebedev (Russia) and Mark Radoja of Canada. Event 25: $1,500 Stud 8 or Better had 172 survivors of the first day's action, with Cyndy Violette and Hevan Novick jointly in the chip lead. At the end of the Day 2, the play was at level 17 and only 35 players left in contention, with Hieu Ngoc Ma some 20 000 chips ahead of his nearest opponent John Pappas. Event 26: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed began on June 15, with 1 378 entrants who generated a prize pool of $3.13 million. Some of the big names included Leo Wolpert, Justin Young, Isaac Haxton, David Benyamine, Daniel Kelly, Allen Bari, Vivek Rajkumar, Adam Levy, Tom Dwan, Jeffrey Papola, Phil Laak and Jean-Robert Bellande. Around midnight on Day 1, the action saw 189 players reach level 10, with Tyler Cornell in the lead. In terms of Event 27: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship which also kicked off on June 15, it noted 152 registrations and a prize pool worth $1.42 million, for which competed players like Jeff Lisandro, Erik Cajelais, Bill Chen, Andre Akkari, Daniel Negreanu, Maria Ho, David Benyamine, Carlos Mortenson, Phil Hellmuth, Ali Eslami, Brock Parker, Shannon Shorr, Eric Froehlich, Phil Laak and Marco Traniello. Early on June 16, 117 players remained at level 8, led by Shawn Buchanan.