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What has happened is we've had 5 eliminations
69. Marcus van Opzeeland (last Dutch player)
68. Bruce Peery
67. Lucas Fauth
66. Gabi Livshitz
65. Francisco Soares (last Portuguese player)
Last lady standing Kelly Minkin has had a double up, and the top two chip leaders have both dragged in pots to extend their lead over everyone else.
64. Justin Bonomo
63. Jonas Mackoff
62. Andrew Jenkins
61. Justin Conley
60. Jeffrey Platt
59. Samuel Gagnon
George MacDonald has had a good start, now up to over 6m and still in the Top 10, Toby Lewis at 2.7m, Chas Chattha at 1.24m and in the bottom 10 stacks.
Daniel Negreanu has lost a few and is about middle of the pack, but we do have a new chip leader Matt Guan of New Jersey and in second is the wonderfully named Erasmus Morfe of Colorado. Previous leader Philip Neuville has slipped a little but still has the 5th biggest stack. Kelly Minkin now has almost 4x her stack at the start of the day.
58. Bradley St Vincent
57. Christopher Horter
It's not been a good 40 minutes or so for the Brits, George dropped about half a million, Toby over a million and Chas although he got one 3-bet through is more or less where he was before.
Gaun & Morfe still lead, with Neuville back up to third but watch out for Anton Morgenstern who has gained loads of chips today. He was the runaway chip leader with 23 left 2 years ago but blew up spectacularly to finish in 20th.
56. Dmitri Chop (the last Ukrainian departs means no more Chop pots puns)
55. Amar Anand (chip leader earlier on in the tournament)
Chas Chattha is now getting seriously short (825K), and Toby Lewis has just had to give up a hand facing an all-in to drop him to just over 1m while George MacDonald is still doing nicely on about 5m.
Daniel Negreanu is more or less treading water today, but the last 45 minutes have seen decent moves for Patrick Chan, Justin Schwartz & Nikita Nikolaiev propelling them up the chip listings.
54. Nikita Nikolaiev (his upward movement didn't last long)
53. Toby Lewis (lost a big pot just before the last break and could never recover)
52. Robert Mitchell (AQ comes up against Upeshka De Silva's AK and doesn't improve)
51. Matt Jarvis (last former November Niner departs)
50. Charles Chattha (managed one double up to get back above 1m, but pocket aces got busted by 8-7 suited)
So we're down to just George MacDonald and 48 others. Over 99% of the hopefuls have gone.
The top 3 are still the same, but this type the order is Guan-Neuville-Morfe.
I'll try and do a early morning update but it relies on the Sky "essential maintenance" being over before I leave for work.
49. Brian Hastings
48. Thoams Arvidsson
47. Steve Gross
46. Bradley Berman
45. Calvin Anderson
44. Ghattas Kortas
43. Mark Kroon
42. Max Greenwood
41. Julian Parmann
40. Thomas Paul
39. Bob Buckenmayer
38. Shay Zurr
37. Arman Saltani
36. Upeshka De Silva
35. Chun Law
34. Jake Toole
33. Randall Clinger
32. Hans Joaquim Hein
Where does that leave the event? It leaves us with one Brit, Glaswegian George MacDonald (dangerously short stacked now).
It leaves us with still one female player, Kelly Minkin. She is currently 11th with over 7m chips.
It leaves us with one of the three or four biggest names in poker, Daniel Negreanu. Daniel is inside the Top 10 on chips, with over 8m in his stack.
The top 3 remained fairly constant for the first 3 or 4 hours until Israeli Zvi Stern took over. He still leads, ahead of Mario Sequera & Thomas Kearney. Former huge stacks Matt Guan & Erasmus Morfe are still in the Top 5, while 72-year-old Pierre Neuville is still fighting on in the middle of the pack.
Finally, I've been mentioning the strong German challenge for a day or two. Despite recently losing Hein, there are still 4 Germans remaining, Anton Morgenstern (8th), Alexander Turyansky (16th), Fedor Holz (17th) & Killan Kramer (26th)
Does anyone know anything about the Scottish lad, George McDonald?
So for continuity's sake
31. Wasim Ahmar
30. Ronald McGinnity
29. Kelly Minkin
28. Andrew Moreno
I'll do a more in-depth review of chip counts etc. after work.
So the final day before the November 9. The day when 27 players play to reach the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Pelker
Thomas Kearney is the chip leader. He has over 14m in chips, but the average to get to the FT will be over 20m, so even Kearney is going to have to move upwards at some point to remain a factor in the event.
Other big stacks are held by Mozheng Guan (a name change since yesterday), Erasmus Morfe and Joseph McKeehen, Americans all. In fact you have to go to 7th place before you meet a non-US player, one of 4 Germans still alive, Alexander Turyansky
The biggest name of the 27 is undoubtedly Daniel Negreanu, the 6-time bracelet holder and TV regular (and SKY interviewee) lies 9th with 9.4m, plenty of chips to play small ball pots as is his style.
Justin Schwartz lies just below Daniel in 9th, he may make entertaining TV but virtually no-one would expect him to become held up as a worldwide ambassador for the game.
We have players from Israel (Zvi Stern, 8th), Belgium (Pierre Neuville, 15th), Italy (Federico Butteroni, 18th) and Scotland (George McDonald, 26th) still in to try and give the FT an international flavour
George is primarily a cash player, and the last recorded tournament cash on Hendon Mob for him was in a £13 event in Newcastle, the £155 first prize ($242) a far cry from the $262,574 he has wrapped up already.
British players to reach the last 27 in recent WSOP Main Events
2014 - Craig McCorkell (13th), Iaron Lightbourne (22nd)
2013 - none (best Philip Long 29th)
2012 - none (best Sam Holden 55th)
2011 - Sam Holden (9th), JP Kelly (26th)
2010 - Redmond Lee (21st)
2009 - James Akenhead (9th)
2008 - none (best Keith Hawkins, 75th)
2007 - Jonathan Kalmar (5th)
2006 - none (best Richard Gryko, 50th)
2005 - Conor Tate (12th), Tiffany Williamson (15th), John McGrane (18th)
Cards in the air, and an early double up for Butteroni, plus some chips heading to Negreanu moving him up to nearly 100BB.
Josh Beckley has been crippled by Pierre Neuvile making runner-runner trips, down to 13BB, and blinds going up soon.
George McDonald had a double up, his 8s holding up against Zvi Stern's AQ, and he's leapt up to 17th place with nearly 5.8m chips. Gives him some breathing room. That will be about 35BB at the new level, 80K/160K with a 20K ante.
The remaining 36 minutes of Level 30 have been played, and it's time for a brief break. Guan is now chip leader, followed by Kearney & McKeehan. Still 27 left.
Into Level 31, the field of 27 intact.
Mario Sequeira makes a Full House to take a decent chunk off John Allen Hinds.
Shortly after, we have our first casualty. James Magner made at least one questionable laydown yesterday, but was more active today, getting his last chips in (shoving out of turn) with an K-10 holding on a J-Q-4 flop for an up and down straight draw. He is called by Patrick Chan who holds A-10, and the flop & river are no helps to Magner and his ME is over
Hinds gets his chips back, and more as a shove with A-10 gets called by Chad Power, an Ace on the turn and a 10 on the river sees him home and knocks Power down to 10BB
Beckley on fumes, gets Jacks and gets full value with Patrick Chan's 6s not improving. Beckley up to 15BB.
A rush of bustouts, Power never got it back after losing so much to Hinds. Then Holz goes, followed quickly by Brand.
Holz lost most of his stack to countryman Kramer and shoved his last 1m with A9 against Guan who rivered a straight to knock out the German.
Brand had over 2m when he went with it against Thomas Cannuli with pocket 3s but was rivered by Cannuli pairing his eight.
George! George! George! From being a short stack early on, he now has over 8.5m after 4-betting Neil Blumenfield, forcing a fold.
27. James Magner
26. Chad Power
25. Fedor Holz
24. Christoph Brand
Then to add to the problems with this forum, the WSOP site goes down too. Great timing.
Blake Bohn now down to fumes (less than a BB) as he gets into a hand with David Peters with them holding almost identical stacks. Peters AK beats Bohn's AJ with him getting Broadway on the river.
Shortly afterwards the inevitable happens:
23 Blake Bohn
Bohn is all in with the ante, and as luck would have it comes up against Peters again with the Aces. The flop is A-10-10 to house Peters up and that's it for Bohn.
Its one thing to lose a flip, play a hand badly, miss a draw or get sucked out on, but to get a free flop with 10 4, have the 'dream' 10 10 6 flop only to go out cos someone limped Q10. Just nothing you can do when the deck slaps you in the face when you're minding your own business in the BB.
I know I'd be walking away thinking (and stewing over for days!) 'if only someone raised pre, I'd still be in....'
Still, it's not surprising people don't play optimum strategy at this point, they've been playing 12-hour days almost every day for a week. She'll have been under a lot of pressure as "last lady" with the TV Cameras and lights on her almost continuously for at least 1 whole day, maybe even more.
Aces cracked alert! Neil Blumenfield has the rockets, but John Allan Hinds AQ gets there when the board 4-flushes and takes him up to 12m, dropping to Blumenfield down to 2.8m
Second German down. Anton Morgenstern has gone in 22nd losing with 10s against Kings, and we almost lost a third, Kilian Kramer went all in against Matt Guan, both had pocket 10s and chopped the pot.
22. Anton Morgentern
Beckley then loses a fair proportion of those chips to Pierre Neuville when they both runner-runner a flush but the Belgian's is the nut flush and that's almost a 3.5m stack hit for Beckley. George was also in the hand and lost some but managed to get out it before it got out of hand
Justin Schwarz & Daniel Negreanu have been involved in a lot of pots together, with Daniel getting the better of most of them, but Schwartz just check-raised him on the flop and shoved the river causing Daniel to fold.
This ends Level 31. Joseph McKeehen is now the big stack, followed by Matt Guan and Alex Turyansky. Neuville has fluctuated a bit but now sits 8th, George is 15th and Daniel 16th. Bottom stack is Neil Blumenfield whose 2.4m will be 20BB or so when they go back after the break.
14 Americans, 2 Germans, 1 Canadian, Brit, Italian, Israeli & Belgian.
My point was she's played for days and days, had the 'fortune' to see a free flop with rags in the BB and that has caused her demise. Someone raises, she passes and is still in the game. If she's butchered it post flop then fair enough, but I imagine at this stage the stacks weren't particularly deep and the chips would've gone in at some point, be that the flop or a later street.
Anyway, chips are moving to and fro with comparitively few showdowns until Mario Sequeira three bets with Pocket Queens and Philip Neuville four bets with K6 suted. Sequeira calls, but the board isn't kind to him as it comes 7-10-K to give Neuville the lead. Neuville bets 2m, Sequeira tries to rep the king by shoving and Neuville tanks and then calls. Two more tens on the turn and the river give the Belgian a full house and eliminates Sequeira
Five minutes later, John Allen Hinds is down to about 2m (10BB) and picks up A-10 suited. Patrick Chan makes the first raise, giving Hind the perfect opportunity to shove over the top. Unfortunately for him, Josh Beckley then cold 4-bet shoves for 5m with pocket kings which at least gives Chan an easy exit from the hand. There was a 10 on the flop to improve Hinds' hand, but that was as good as it got and he follows Sequeira to the payout window for his $262K
21. Mario Sequiera
20, John Allen Hinds
So, as I call it quits for the night, we are one elimination away from merging to two tables and a nice payjump of over $62K.
Neuville has rocketed to the top with 25m, Gaun has 20m and Turyansky 17m. Stern lies fourth with about 15m, thats 15 million chips not the 15 minutes he's been seemingly taking for ever hand.
Daniel Negreanu has been up and down bit within a relatively narrow window and sits 13th with 5.8m and George McDonald is one place behind on a swingy day so far and has just under 5m (so 25BB more or less).
Update, as I post this, Hogwarts School of Wizardry & Witchcraft alumnus Erasmus Morfe has just gone. No details at present but it means we are down to two tables and everyone has locked up about $325K.
See you all in the morning...
19. Erasmus Morfe ($262K)
18. Kilian Kramer ($325K)
17. David Peters ($325K)
16. Dave Stefanski ($325K)
15. Tom Kearney ($411K)
14. Justin Schwarz ($411K)
13. Matt Guan ($411K)
12. George McDonald ($526K)
The last two eliminations happened almost simultaneously.
Guan had been suffering ever since moving to the Feature Table, and the former chip leader made a 4-bet with pocket queens for his last 6m chips. Federeico Butterini happened to have Pocket Aces and of course snap called. Meanwhile George had about 14m chips on the other table, and he too was dealt pocket queens. He three-bet Zvi Stern who then shoved, having McDonald easily covered.
The commotion on the Feature Table was clearly heard on the other table and McDonald went into the tank, waiting for the other hand to be played out first before announcing his decision.
Back on Feature, a flop of Q-10-8 gives Guan a gutshot, a 5 on the turn does nothing and the river is a King to eliminate Guan.
As soon as it is confirmed that they are down to 12, and another $115 is in the bank, McDonald calls and is happy to see Stern shoved on him with 10-8 of spades.
The flop is A-A-7, two spades, instanly making the Scot less happy with the situation. He is gutted a few second later when a third spade comes on the turn. Needing to make a Full House on the river, the card that comes is an inconsequential 5d to eliminate the last British player standing.
Since starting level 35 (200K/400K with a 50K ante) the difference in play between the 6-handed table and the 5-handed table has become so pronounced that the WSOP have made the decision that they will play hand for hand.
The approximate stacks at this stage
Joseph McKeehan 53m
Zvi Stern 28m
Neil Blumenfield 23m
Max Steinberg 20m
Pierre Neuville 16m
Thomas Cannuli 15m
Patrick Chan 9m
Federico Butterini 9m
Daniel Negreanu 7m
Alexander Turyansky 6m
Josh Beckley 5.5m
Two more eliminations will happen tonight so this could go on late (it is already 1:15am in Vegas)
"....Since starting level 35 (200K/400K with a 50K ante) the difference in play between the 6-handed table and the 5-handed table has become so pronounced that the WSOP have made the decision that they will play hand for hand......"
I think that's the correct decision in this situation.
Almost a shame it's nearly over, Barny, your Daily Updates have been a perfect delight to read, you add a lovely bit of colour to the mundane facts & numbers, & you write so eloquently.
Another victim of the juggernaut that is Joe McKeehan, Daniel first called a pre-flop raise with A4, and shoved over McKeehan's c-bet after the flop came A-K-10, 2 diamonds. McKeehan called with J-3 of diamonds, so it was top pair against a flush draw.
McKeehan's outs improved when the 3h came on the turn, giving him approximately a million outs, and when the Queen of hearts came on the river it gave him a straight to eliminate Daniel. Daniel equals his best ever finish in the ME, he also came 11th in 2001.
The 10 remaining players will now combine for an unofficial Final Table and play until one more player is eliminated. The 10th player will get over 3/4 of a million, but make the November Nine and that becomes seven figures...
Bad news to my ears, too.
Great shame, imo.
Apart from the fact I believe him to be a tremendous Ambassador for the game (& of course his Sponsor), his presence in the November Nine would have added a lot of positive noise & publicity, which poker could well use.
Seat 1: Alex Turyansky - 6,250,000 (15 bb)
Seat 2: Zvi Stern - 29,900,000 (74 bb)
Seat 3: Pierre Neuville - 16,420,000 (41 bb)
Seat 4: Josh Beckley - 6,125,000 (15 bb)
Seat 5: Max Steinberg - 19,050,000 (47 bb)
Seat 6: Thomas Cannuli - 14,150,000 (35 bb)
Seat 7: Joe McKeehen - 60,425,000 (151 bb)
Seat 8: Patrick Chan - 8,525,000 (21 bb)
Seat 9: Federico Butteroni - 8,500,000 (21 bb)
Seat 10: Neil Blumefield - 23,300,000 (58 bb)
Turyanksy gets it all in with AJ, he is dominated by McKeehan's AK. The board double pairs and the two players get ther chips returned.
Alexander Turyansky became the latest victim of the relentless big stack that is Joseph McKeehan. He has, quite rightly, been playing big stack bully for an hour or more, raising every pot and with all the other players on his table short stacked in comparison to him, more often than not picking up the blinds and antes. When someone does play back at him, such as Beckley did and Neuville did once, he may lose a few million but with about 500K in the pot before cards are dealt he quickly makes that back up again.
Anyway, Turyanksy eventually finds a big hand, AK off. His problem is that McKeehan also finds a big one, pocket queens. Classic race situation. The flop is 7-6-5, no help to the German but an eight on the turn potentially spices things up.
Dramatic pause, the river card is dealt and it needs to be an ace or a king for Turyanksy to double up, or a 4 or a 9 for a chop. It is......the jack of diamonds, nine players become millionaires and reach the November 9 and the German is busto.
Chip counts for the return in 4 months time
McKeehan 64.1m
Stern (also known now as Serial Tanker Zvi Stern) 29.8m
Bluemfield 22.0m
Neuville 22.1m
Steinberg 20.2m
Cannuli 12.2m
Beckley 10.8m
Chan 6.2m
Butteroni 6.2m
6 Americans (4 from the East Coast, 2 from California, none from Nevada), 1 Israeli, 1 Belgian and 1 Italian
McKeehan had a dream scenario on the final table bubble. 60% of the chips in play at his table in front, and the four shortest stacks still alive to bully relentlessly on a massive pay jump. Sounds like he made the most of the dynamic to build his huge lead. Very happy so see 72yo Pierre Neuville get there in an era increasingly dominated by young internet kids.
This thread has been excellent, thanks for all your hard work FCHD.