Even as the first flight of the Main Event of the WSOP began to an unprecedented response, bracelets continued to be awarded in other events with Bryn Kenney and Pat Walsh joining the party. The last of the $1500 buyin NLHE events also winded up with another 2500 plus field and Salman Jaddi winning the title. Matt Grapenthien showed his mettle in $10K Seven Car stud event beating Todd Brunson.
In another area at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the Main Event Day 1 a started with much buzz. 771 runners started Day 1a and Martin Jacobsen sat atop when days play ended. Joe Hachem who won the event in 2005 sent the cards in the air as this was the 10th year running for the WSOP at the same venue.
Event 60: $1,500 NLHE
The 3 day event went into an extra day’s play as an epic heads up battle was fought between Salman Jaddi and Brandon Hall after they had skittled down the 2563 playing field. Jaddi who is a poker amateur by most standards was the unlikely winner of this event and didn’t start the FT as the favorite. It was his first ever WSOP Final table performance but he single handedly took the first five knockouts of the table. Soon he was in chip lead and play was down to two players. Then was the real battle began and play was forced into an unscheduled day 4.
There were 2,563 players in the event, generating a $3,460,050 prize pool. The top 270 players finished in the money. Some of the notables who cashed include Will Failla (227th), Vinny Pahuja (165th), Shannon Shorr (149th), Dutch Boyd (45th) and Jamie Armstrong (18th).
1st: Sam Jaddi – $614,248
2nd: Brandon Hall – $381,885
3rd: Zachary Gruneberg- $270,299
4th: Guillauma Marechal – $194,393
5th: Cherish Andrews – $142,346
6th: David Bravin – $105,185
7th: Thomas Dietl- $78,681
8th: Steve Sung – $59,547
9th: Kurt Jewell – $45,603
Event 61: $10K Seven Card Stud
Another first time bracelet winner stood out in Event 61 as Matt Grapenthien aka ‘Grapes’ won $268,473 in an event which isn’t his forte. The poker player who is known for his online exploits is a little known live tournament player and defeated Todd Brunson, Doyle Brunson’s son in heads up play. Grapes, who has had 3 other WSOP final tables had many bracelet holders for company with Phil Helmuth and Henry Orenstein also in attendance.
The $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Championship drew a field of 102 players, generating a prize pool of $958,800. The top 16 finishers made the money. Some of the players ITM include Barry Greenstein (13th), Richard Ashby (10th), and final table bubble boy Jesse Martin (9th).
Here are the final table results from the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Championship:
1st: Matt Grapenthien – $268,473
2nd: Todd Brunson – $165,891
3rd: James Obst – $103,895
4th: Ben Yu – $75,227
5th: Steve Landfish – $58,793
6th: Phil Hellmuth – $46,885
7th: Henrick Hecklen – $38,073
8th: Henry Orenstein – $31,419
Event 62: $1,111 The Little One for One Drop
Igor Dubinskyy won over the huge field of Event 62 to take down his forst WSOP bracelet and top prize of $637,539. It was his straight on the river that got him the title to overcome Theodore Driscoll and his Trip Threes.
This year’s $1,000 buy-in Little One for One Drop event which is a charity linked event included two starting days, producing a prize pool of $4,046,400. The top 468 players each earned a payday. Some of the notables who cashed include Carlos Mortensen (421st), Shannon Shorr (419th), Ray Henson (396th), Matt Glantz (359th), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (250th), Barry Shulman (203rd), Annette Obrestad (173rd), Paul Volpe (134th), Leo Wolpert (84th), Maurice Hawkins (13th), and recent bracelet winner Kevin Eyster, who bubbled the final table in 10th place.
Here are the final table results of the $1,000 Little One for One Drop event:
1st: Igor Dubinskyy – $637,539
2nd: Ted Driscoll – $394,281
3rd: Brandon Eisen – $283,895
4th: Shai Zurr – $209,805
5th: Eric Baldwin – $156,352
6th: Jackduyph Duong – $117,507
7th: Matthew Lapossie – $89,020
8th: Vimy Ha – $68,019
9th: Bao Nguyen – $52,400
Event 63: $1,500 10 Game Mix 6 Handed
Bryn Kenney had a topsy turvy ride to his first WSOP Bracelet as he won Event 63 in a tough game format. While he ended Day 1 with chip lead, he was quite drained on Day 2 but gained momentum on Day 3 and chipped up to chip lead on the final table. While this is Kenney’s biggest live tournament win, he is a known name in the poker fraternity. His great run at the 2014 WSOP could only have been made better by this bracelet win as he has had 4 cashes this summers with 3 final table appearances.
Ten-Game Mix requires participants to play a rotation of ten poker variants, consisting of Razz, 2-7 Triple-Draw Lowball, 2-7 Single-Draw Lowball, 7-Card Stud, 7-Card Stud High-Low Split, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha High-Low Split, Badugi, Limit Hold’em, and No-Limit Hold’em. Action tends to be accelerated because of shorter-handed play.
Among the more notable players to cash were Jeremy Ausmus (47th), Scott Clements (46th), Phil Laak (44th), Justin Bonomo (24th), Victor Ramdin (23rd), Mel Judah (22nd), Jose Luis Velador (20th) and Allen Cunningham (13th).
The final table results of the $1,500 10 Game Mix 6 Handed are as follows:
1st: Bryn Kenney – $153,200
2nd: Jan Suchanek – $94,618
3rd: Fabio Coppola – $61,396
4th: Dan Zack – $40,550
5th: Andrey Zaichenko – $27,033
6th: Randy Ohel – $18,923
Event 64: $10K Pot Limit Omaha
This was the final event scheduled before the Main Event started and drew a lot of enthusiasm. Pat Walsh collected his first WSOP Bracelet and a $923,379 payday for his win. The 38 year old poker pro from Missouri is better known for cash games and plays very few tournaments. This was only his 3rd WSOP cash where he denied Javed Abrahams the chance to win a second WSOP Gold for United Kingdom.
The $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha championship attracted a record 418 entrants. It was the largest PLO tournament the WSOP has ever held at the $10,000 buy-in level, and the largest field size for a WSOP $10,000 buy-in event outside of the Main Event. The prize pool amounted to a record $3,929,200. The top 45 finishers each collected a payday. Some of the notables who cashed include Daniel Idema (40th), Chance Kornuth (34th), Jared Bleznick (32nd), J.C. Tran (21st), David Williams (19th), Sam Trickett (18th), Leif Force (13th), and Alex Kravchenko, who bubbled the final table in 10th place.
Here are the final table results for the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event:
1st: Pat Walsh – $923,379
2nd: Javed Abrahams – $570,284
3rd: Miltiadis Kyriakides – $412,408
4th: Isaac Baron – $301,369
5th: Marko Neumann – $222,549
6th: Matt Marafioti – $166,087
7th: Michael Shklover – $125,223
8th: Michal Maryska – $95,361
9th: Jonas Entin – $73,358