The 13th day of the 2014 World Series of Poker was filled with excitement. One of poker’s Triple Crown winners, Davidi Kitai, won his third WSOP bracelet early in the day. George Danzer won his first, and Dan Heimiller topped the Seniors Championship to take home his second WSOP title.
Meanwhile, one of the celebrity faces at the WSOP, James Woods, was playing yet another tournament when he experienced chest pains. Paramedics responded as he was positioned on the floor, and he felt as if there was a cardiac problem. The ambulance transported him to the hospital, from whence he later tweeted that it was a food poisoning incident that caused the scary symptoms. He was resting in the hospital and thanked everyone for their concern.
For today, keep an eye on the $10K HORSE tournament as it plays toward a final table. With Jeff Madsen leading the field and a number of recognizable faces in solid chip position, it will be the one to watch.
Event 15: $3K NLHE Six-Handed (Day 4 of 4)
An extra day was added to this $3K NLHE short-handed event, which started like this:
Entries: 810
Prize pool: $2,211,300
Places paid: 90
Day 2 reduced the field from 144 players to 15, and Day 3 took it down to heads-up play but only far enough to see Davidi Kitai’s initial lead shrink.
A bonus Day 4 started with Gordon Vayo holding 3.75 million chips to the 3,545,000 of Kitai, but the latter was determined. Aggression and tenacity paid off over the 70-ish hands of play that gave Kitai his third WSOP bracelet.
1st place: Davidi Kitai ($508,640)
2nd place: Gordon Vayo ($314,535)
3rd place: Anthony Ruberto ($200,476)
4th place: Mark Darner ($132,169)
5th place: John Andress ($89,734)
6th place: Zachary Korik ($62,690)
Event 17: $1K Seniors NLHE Championship (Day 3 of 3)
The Seniors event again set a record for the largest gathering of 50-and-older players:
Entries: 4,425
Prize pool: $3,982,500
Places paid: 468
Day 2 took the field down to 32 players, which made for a daunting task of finishing the tournament on Day 3. Original Day 3 chipleader Kevin Detienne exited in 11th place, and the tenth place exit of Michael Frederick set the final table.
Play moved forward in the late evening hours, and Senior Poker Tour pro Dennis Phillips ended up exiting in fifth place. Heimiller had control of the final table for the majority of play, and he emerged victorious to claim his second WSOP gold bracelet.
1st place: Dan Heimiller ($627,462)
2nd place: Donald Maas ($388,054)
3rd place: David Smith ($279,412)
4th place: Anthony Wise ($206,492)
5th place: Dennis Phillips ($153,883)
6th place: David Tran ($115,651)
7th place: Doc Barry ($87,615)
8th place: David Vida ($66,945)
9th place: Jim Custer ($51,573)
Event 18: $10K Seven-Card Razz (Day 3 of 3)
The highest buy-in Razz tournament ever required a $10K buy-in and produced these numbers:
Entries: 112
Prize pool: $1,052,800
Places paid: 16
Day 2 whittled the field from 76 players to just 12, and that dozen returned on Day 3 to continue to action.
Daniel Negreanu and Dan O’Brien were among the first to exit, and the original day’s chip leader, David Bach was the first to leave the official final table. Ultimately, George Danzer took a slight lead into heads-up play against Brandon Shack-Harris, who was already a 2014 WSOP bracelet winner. The two wrestled for a while, but Danzer controlled most of the play and took that to the winner’s circle for his first WSOP bracelet.
1st place: George Danzer ($294,792)
2nd place: Brandon Shack-Harris ($182,155)
3rd place: Todd Barlow ($114,081)
4th place: Yuval Bronshtein ($82,602)
5th place: Brian Hastings ($64,557)
6th place: Todd Dakake ($51,481)
7th place: Naoya Kihara ($41,806)
8th place: David Bach ($34,500)
Event 19: $1,500 NLHE (Day 2 of 3)
The second $1,500 buy-in NLHE event of the 2014 WSOP resulted in these stats:
Entries: 2,086
Prize pool: $2,816,100
Places paid: 216
First place prize: $514,027
Day 2 brought 233 players back, quickly moved through the money bubble, and reduced the field to just 12 players by the end of the night. The top five of them held these stacks:
1. Hiren Patel (1,873,000)
2. Mustapha Kanit (1,183,000)
3. Ted Gillis (1,118,000)
4. Jaime Kaplan (984,000)
5. Jacobo Fernandez (827,000)
Event 20: $3K NLHE Shootout (Day 2 of 3)
The high-priced set of Sit-n-Go tournaments brought these numbers into play for the Shootout:
Entries: 389
Prize pool: $1,061,970
Places paid: 40
First place prize: $254,891
Day 2 started with the 40 table winners from the first day and round of play. Those 40 players competed in Round 2 on June 8, doing it four-handed on 10 tables. Players like Chris Bell and Phil Galfond won their tables, and the very last one running finally saw Michael Stonehill defeat Daniel Alaei for the last seat.
The final table was then set for June 9 as follows:
1. Noah Bronstein (354,000)
2. Phil Galfond (347,000)
3. Chris Bell (346,000)
4. Dylan Linde (346,000)
5. Narendra Banwari (346,000)
6. Michael Stonehill (346,000)
7. Eric Wasserson (345,000)
8. Kory Kilpatrick (344,000)
9. Taylor Paur (339,000)
10. Jack Duong (338,000)
Event 21: $1K NLHE (Day 1 of 3)
The second $1K NLHE event of the Series attracted just a tad fewer players than the previous year’s corresponding tournament:
Entries: 2,043
Prize pool: $1,838,700
Places paid: 216
First place prize: $335,6592013 entries: 2,071
2013 prize pool: $1,863,900
The first day of play burst through the money bubble late in the day and paid players at least $1,875. Names like Paul Newey, Steve Brecher, Matt Brady, and Theo Tran cashed before play ended with 168 remaining. The top five were:
1. Dave D’Alesandro (154,400)
2. Bronson Tucker (108,700)
3. David Lucchesi (107,300)
4. Jonathan Neckar (98,300)
5. Thayer Rasmussen (91,200)
Event 22: $10K HORSE (Day 1 of 3)
Last year, there were two HORSE events, but this year, the executives put it on the schedule as a $10K buy-in championship. And the turnout was better than expected:
Entries: 200
Prize pool: $1,880,000
Places paid: 24
First place prize: $507,614No corresponding 2013 tournament.
The late-starting event thinned the field down to just 121 players by the end of the night, and the top five on the leaderboard were:
1. Jeff Madsen (129,200)
2. Greg Mueller (121,400)
3. Eric Rodawig (112,000)
4. Francesco Barbaro (108,500)
5. Jon Turner (106,000)
On Tap for June 9
Events 19 and 20 will play to and through their final tables.
Events 21 and 22 will try to reach their final tables.
Event 23 ($1K NLHE Turbo) begins at noon as the only event to start on Monday.
Editor’s Note: Cardschat.com reporter Jennifer Newell is on site in Las Vegas, and will be offering daily news recaps throughout World Series of Poker 2014. Check back here daily for a detailed accounting of events, exclusive interviews, and anything of interest regarding WSOP.
