Day 5 of the 2011 World Series of Poker saw Eugene Katchalov win his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Stud Event. Maria Ho became the first woman this year to make a final table when she final-tabled the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. The $1,500 Limit Hold’em and $10,000 Pot-Limit Championships burst the money bubble while the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em and $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball events kicked off.
Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Day 3 of the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event started with 42 players looking to play to the final table and the bracelet. Maria Ho made the first WSOP final table of her career in this event and became the first woman this year to make a WSOP final table. Joining her at the final table were Allen Bari and Farzad Bonyadi. Bari amassed a huge lead at the final table before play was suspended with four players left. Bari will come back with 9.125 million in chips, a nearly 6:1 lead over Sean LeFort in second place. Ho is still alive and still has a shot to take down her first bracelet.
Can Maria Ho take it down for the ladies? Follow our live coverage and find out.
Event #5: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
The $1,500 Stud event started with 13 and quickly made its way to the final table. Eric Buchman led going into the final table that included Alessio Isaia, Eugene Katchalov, Kai Landry, and two-time stud bracelet winner Vasili Lazarou. Buchman failed to play for the bracelet as he was knocked out in third place. It was Isaia and Katchalov in the end battling for the bracelet with Isaia holding a more than 5:1 chip lead going into heads-up action.
Just when it seemed that Isaia would win his first bracelet, Katchalov caught fire and not only did he battle back but he also built his own 5:1 chip lead. In the final hand of the event, Isaia got the last of his chips in on third street holding 
. Katchalov held 
. Neither player improved on fourth, but on fifth Isaia caught a pair of kings. On sixth, Katchalov caught a pair of nines and Isaia picked up a straight draw to go with his pair. Isaia looked in great shape to double-up, but the river brought aces-up for Katchalov and Isaia was unable to improve his hand. Eugene Katchalov won the $1,500 Seven Card Card bracelet and $122,909.
Find out more about Katchalov’s first bracelet victory in our live blog.
Event #6: $1,500 Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of this event began with 135 players looking to cash and make the final table. The bubble burst in the event and 63 players will earn a payday. Among those in the money were Dutch Boyd, John Monette, Jon Aguiar, and Kevin Iacofano. JJ Liu was the last woman standing in the event and finished in 30th place. Seventeen players remained at the end of the day, including the defending champ for this event Matt Matros. William Davis will lead all players going into Day 3 with 416,000.
Can Matros repeat in this event? Find out by following our live reporting pages.
Event #7: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship
The 249 players who began Day 2 of this event had two goals in mind: make the money and then the final table. Unfortunately, only the first goal was accomplished on Saturday. Notable players that hit the rail on Saturday included Barry Greenstein, Josh Arieh, Phil Laak, Annette Obrestad, Will "The Thrill" Failla, David Benyamine, and Jason Mercier. Play will resume on Sunday with 27 players remaining — all in the money. Stephen Chidwick leads the field with 697,000. Others still in strong contention are Robert Mizrachi, Nicolas Levi, Mike Matusow, Chris Moorman, and Jason Somerville.
Sunday should be a long one for this event. Follow all of the action in our blog.
Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
The first $1K "donkament" event of the 2011 kicked off on Saturday with a massive field of 2,116 players. While this event primarily draws out amateurs and low-rollers, there were still plenty of pros playing in this event. Among those playing were Tony Dunst, Vanessa Selbst, Antonio Esfandiari, Adam Junglen, Freddy Deeb, Eli Elezra, David "The Dragon" Pham, Dennis Phillips, Chad Brown, Vitaly Lunkin, Eric Mizrachi, and 2010 Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel. Duhamel finished the day in the top 10 but it was Albert Kim who finished Day 1 as the chip leader with 74,675.
Day 1b kicks off Sunday at 1200 PDT (1900 GMT). Follow all of the action here.
Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
The first lowball event of the 2011 WSOP drew a total of 275 players. Players started this "triple chance" event with 1,500 in chips and two add-on chips. Doyle Brunson made his first appearance of the 2011 WSOP and busted in short order. Other players in the field included Frank Kassela, Layne Flack, Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein, David Sklansky, Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, Chris Bjorin, and lowball master Billy Baxter. George Lind finished with 52,200 to end the day as chip leader. Jimmy Fricke is in third with 34,725.
To find out how the rest of the field fared, check out our live coverage of the event.
On Tap
A bracelet will be awarded on Sunday in the $5,000 NL event and two others are scheduled to be awarded in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em and $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship. Both the $1,000 NL Event and $1,500 2-7 Event will reach the money bubble and Day 1b of the $1,000 NL starts at 1200 PDT (1900 GMT).
Podcast
Although the crew of the PokerNews Podcast may be taking the weekend off, it doesn’t mean you can’t check out all this week’s podcasts. Daniel Negreanu, Ty Stewart, and Zach Gruneberg all stopped by to talk about the WSOP. In addition, the crew talked about the Phil Ivey vs. Full Tilt Poker saga, the opening events of the 2011 WSOP, and more.
To find out what you missed this past week, check out the podcasts here.
Video of the Day
Jake Cody became the youngest player to win poker’s Triple Crown on Friday after winning the $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship. Lynn Gilmartin caught up with Cody following his epic bracelet win.
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