With just 13 players remaining in event no. 29, the $10,000 limit hold’em championship, there are still four players who already have a WSOP gold bracelet to their name, along with one well-known professional who is looking to break through for his first.
At the start of day 2, there were 102 players remaining in the field, but after 10 levels of min-bets and raises, there were just 13 left standing. Brock Parker (pictured left), David Chiu, Michael Mizrachi, and Matt Keikoan are all still alive and are looking to add another bracelet to their trophy case. Chiu has the most bracelet of the group, with four to his name thus far, and Parker won two bracelets in 2009.
Chiu and Mizrachi are extremely short on chips and with the limits getting bigger, they will need to find a good spot to get their chips in and double up in order to have a real chance at adding some more hardware to their trophy case.
Keikoan and Parker are in a little bit of a better situation, however, as they are both hovering around an average stack and aren’t in a real rush to accumulate chips.
With all of this success from these four, it almost seems like David Baker (pictured right) is flying under the radar.
Baker, not to be confused with the David Baker who won the $10,000 2-7 single draw event, has over $1,000,000 in tournament earnings and has already had a close call this year, finishing third in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event. Baker is currently fourth in chips and well above the chip average.
As Wednesday night turned into Thursday morning, the bubble became closer and closer, with only 18 players leaving the Rio with more money than they came with. Once Michael Reed was eliminated in 20th place, the bubble was officially underway and there were several short stacks fighting to get into the money.
The bubble lasted seemingly forever, and since players do not switch levels during hand-for-hand play, the 17th level of play went 20 minutes longer than it normally would have. After several short stacks doubled up in front of him, Greg DeBora’s A-3 couldn’t fend off Simon Morris’ 7-5. A seven on the flop sealed the deal for Morris and all of the other short stacks breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they were guaranteed at least $22,809.
After the bubble burst, play loosened up considerably and there were several all-ins with five players hitting the rail in the last level of day. They included Kenney Hsiung (18th), Gianluca Marcucci (17th), Matthew Gallin (16th), Patrick Walsh (15th) and Albert Minnullin (14th).
Some notable players who weren’t lucky enough to make the money included Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, Lex Veldhius, Vanessa Rousso, Chad Brown, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, and Barry Greenstein.
All 13 players are guaranteed $27,069 heading into day 3, but they all have their eyes on the gold bracelet and the $425,969 that goes with it. Players will return to the Rio’s Amazon room on Thursday at 3 p.m. to play down to a winner.
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