On Monday, Day 30 of the 2012 World Series of Poker, five tournaments played out around the Rio. In Event #41: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, Greg Ostrander defeated Jackie Glazier in their heads-up match for the bracelet. In Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, Henry Lu outlasted Neil Channing and a nearly 5:1 heads-up chip disadvantage to win his first bracelet. Event #44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em played down to the final 16 players. Event #45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship had exciting and controversial Day 2 action, which pared the field down to 62. Finally, Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em got under way.
Event #41: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Two players returned on Monday for an unscheduled Day 4 to see who would win their first WSOP bracelet. Australian pro Jackie Glazier began the day with a 3:1 chip advantage over Greg Ostrander, as she attempted to become the first woman to win an open event since 2008. But in just over an hour, Ostrander ended up with all the chips, and Glazier had to console herself with a second-place finish.
Glazier took the first big pot of the day with two pair and had 10.7 million of the 12.5 million chips in play, but Ostrander was able to double up on the next hand. Glazier raised to 250,000 on the button and Greg Ostrander called from the big blind. Ostrander checked and Glazier bet 500,000 after the flop came 
. Ostrander then moved all-in for 1,595,000 total and Glazier called. She had an over pair with 
but Ostrander had flopped trips with 
. Glazier had no help as the board ran out 
and Ostrander was above his starting stack for the day.
Ostrander battled to almost even, then slipped back down before making his final push. In one pivotal hand, Glazier opened for 250,000, Ostrander three-bet to 700,000, Glazier moved all-in and Ostrander called. Ostrander put his tournament life on the line with 
and was slightly ahead of Glazier’s 
. The board managed to miss them both, running out 
and Ostrander pulled to even.
Glazier tried to bluff Ostrander with a 550,000 bet into 1.25 million pot on a board reading 
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, but Ostrander made the call and Glazier insta-mucked. The next hand was their last. Ostrander raised to 200,000 on the button and Glazier called from the big blind. Action went check-check on the 
flop, then Glazier check-called a bet of 450,000 on the 
turn. After an 
fell on the river, Glazier checked, Ostrander bet 1 million and Glazier came over the top all-in for over 3 million. Ostrander made the call and turned over 
for a turned straight. Glazier flipped over 
for just two pair, and it was all over.
Jackie Glazier had achieved two milestones — making her first WSOP final table and earning a six-figure cash of over $450,000. And Greg Ostrander, the 40-year-old father of two, former police officer, and one-time Calvin Klein briefs model from Rochester, New York, had his third WSOP cash and first bracelet along with the first place prize of $742,072.
Event #41 Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Greg Ostrander | $742,072 |
| 2nd | Jackie Glazier | $458,996 |
| 3rd | Paul Van Nunes | $290,407 |
| 4th | Morten Mortensen | $210,793 |
| 5th | Roger Fontes | $155,498 |
| 6th | Darryl Ronconi | $116,452 |
| 7th | Joseph Chaplain | $88,481 |
| 8th | Kyle Frey | $68,121 |
| 9th | Dylan Hortin | $53,126 |
To see out all the final day’s action, and to check out any of the previous days of play, make sure you check out the live reporting blog.
Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
At the start of the day, 20 players returned to battle for the bracelet. Leading the pack was Zach Clark with 1.342 million in chips, but there were four others with over 1 million in chips and it was anyone’s game. In the end, Henry Lu mounted an improbable comeback to defeat English pro Neil Channing to win the event, his first WSOP bracelet, and the top prize of $654,380.
Down to fewer than two big blinds earlier in the day, Lu ended up eliminating three in a row — twice coming from behind — to reach the final table. Then he managed another turnaround when he was down to heads-up.
Lu won a flip against Randy Lew (pocket sixes against suited ace-jack) to knock Lew out in 12th place. Then Lu was behind the all-in Jesse Yagninuma, suited ace-nine to ace-queen with a queen on the flop, only to river a flush against his opponent to send him to the rail in 11th place. In the third hand, Lu came from behind again, this time to eliminate Zach Clark.
Clark may have entered the day as chip leader but ended up the final table bubble boy despite being an 80/20 favorite to avoid elimination. Clark had lost his chip lead earlier in the day and was back in the pack when he four bet all-in preflop and Lu called. Clark looked in great shape for a double-up, sitting with pocket kings versus the pocket queens of Lu, until the flop came 
. With no king on the turn or river, Clark just missed his first final table.
Jared Rosenbaum and Francois Dur were the next two eliminated. Both were up against Neil Channing, and both times Channing had pocket queens that held, the first time against Rosenbaum’s ace-four off and the second against Dur’s pocket tens.
Seven-handed, and with blinds at 15,000/30,000, Channing was the chip leader with 3,750,000 and Balazs Botond was the short stack with 200,000. Botond more than doubled up after going all-in ace-four versus the ace-nine of James Mackey, when a four fell on the flop. But he could not continue the momentum, and next time he open-shoved and was dominated, sixes versus nines. When no miracle card came on the board, Botond was out in seventh place.
The next-shortest stack belonged to Hovan Nguyen who open-shoved from the small blind with just jack-four. Channing, however, in the big blind, woke up with ace-jack. The board ran out 
and the field was down to five. Channing delivered another knockout punch, this time to John Nelson. Nelson was getting low and went all-in after a flop of 
. He had 
for a gunshot Broadway draw and one over to the board, but Channing had top pair with 
. The turn and river bricked ( ) and Nelson was on his way to collect the fifth-place prize money.
Four-handed, with blinds at 25,000/50,000, Channing had over 6.5 million in chips and the new short stack was Tom Alner with 675,000. They took a dinner break, and not long after they returned, Alner began open shoving and picked up a couple of pots. He moved all-in from the small blind, with Channing acting after him in the big blind, but this time he got a call. Alner was in trouble with 
versus 
. The board came 
and after eliminating Alner, Channing has nearly 75 percent of the chips in play.
James Mackey doubled through Channing with pocket fives against ace-six and looked to be on the verge of a second double-up, which would have brought him to 4 million. He was all-in with king-queen against Channing’s pocket fives when the board read 
, but there were two more cards to come, and though the turn changed nothing, the same could not be said of the 
river.
Going into heads-up, Channing had 10.2 million to the 2.25 million of Lu. One of the earliest hands of heads-up saw Lu double up, ace-queen versus ace-jack, and the took the lead and momentum from Channing. They battled it out for nearly three hours and twice Lu was all-in and at risk but survived his all-ins and surged back into the lead. In the final hand, Channing moved all-in on the button with and Lu called with . The flop came all blanks for Channing, 
but the 
turn gave him additional outs. When the river card brought the Channing was out of luck and out of the tournament.
Channing, whose nickname is “Bad Beat,” ended up just missing out on his first WSOP bracelet, matching his second place finish in the 2010 WSOP $5,000 NLHE Shootout event. For his amazing comeback, Lu had his third WSOP cash, his first bracelet, $654,380 in prize money.
Event #43 Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Henry Lu | $654,380 |
| 2nd | Neil Channing | $406,409 |
| 3rd | James Mackey | $286,633 |
| 4th | Tom Alner | $207,019 |
| 5th | John Nelson | $151,338 |
| 6th | Hovan Nguyen | $111,961 |
| 7th | Balazs Botond | $83,802 |
| 8th | Francois Dur | $63,459 |
| 9th | Jared Rosenbaum | $48,614 |
To make sure you don’t miss a single hand from the last day of play, make sure you check out the live reporting blog.
Event #44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
The remaining field of 297 players began Day 2 knowing that they were all going to finish in the money, so the only goal was to amass enough chips to come back on Tuesday and play for the bracelet. Chip leader at the start of today was Tony Welds with 131,900 chips. Also coming back with above average stacks were Amnon Filippi, Jude Ainsworth, Blair Hinkle, Keven Stammen, Jonathan Little, and Justin Young. All had their eyes on the top prize of $464,464 and the gold bracelet, but of that group, only Stammen managed to survive.
In the end, 16 players were remaining to bag up their chips for the day. They will return on Tuesday to battle down first to the final table and then to last person standing. Chip leader going into the final day will be Thomas Conway with 880,000 chips. Right behind him is Nelson Robinson with 871,000 in chips.
One player who probably prefers to forget Monday is former November Niner Soi Nguyen. First he was crippled after calling an opponent’s all-in holding ace-three on an board, only for the all-in to flip over ace-king. No three on the river decimated Nguyen’s stack. He managed to build back up, only to lose it all-in two hands when he lost with pocket kings then with ace-king.
Other notables who left as the day wore on included Victor Ramdin, Erik Seidel, Pascal LeFrancois, Joshua Tieman, Konstantin Puchkov, Matt Keikoan, Steven Kelly, Jarred Solomon, Joe Cada, and Mickey Peterson.
Late in Level 16, Joe Tehan moved all-in from the button with ace-nine was called by Nelson Robinson in the small blind with ace-three. But Tehan’s plan of a double up to near the top of the chip counts was foiled. If the 
wasn’t bad enough, Robinson managed to spike a third three on the river. Tehan went to pick up his eighth cash of this World Series of Poker, but far earlier than he expected.
At the start of Level 19, Blair Hinkle doubled up Adam Heger, ace-eight versus pocket eights, and saw his once formidable chip stack move in the wrong direction but doubled up later during the level when a different opponent also had pocket eights. This time, Hinkle, armed with pocket queens, moved back up among the chip leaders, but his run fell short in a really unfortunate hand.
With the board reading , Niel Mittelman led with a bet, as he had on the flop. Instead of calling, this time Hinkle raised all-in, and Mittleman called, turning over for top set. Hinkle revealed 
for two pair, and the meaningless sent him to the rail in 24th place.
To follow all the action as the field played down to the final 16, make sure you check out the live reporting blog.
Event #45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
Nearly the entire starting field returned on Day 2 and was joined by four late registrants, creating a final field of 108 and top prize $1,451,527. Chip leader at the start of the day was Matt Glantz with 310,700 and he was joined at the top of the leaderboard by Ali Eslami, Andy Bloch, Alexander Kravchenko, David “ODB” Baker, Jeff Lisandro, Jon Spinks, and Joe Cassidy. All of these Day 2 players survived and will be returning on Tuesday.
At the end of the day, 63 players remained to battle for the $1,451,527 top prize. Bloch is leading with 687,000 chips. Among those still in the race are two previous Poker Players Championship winners: Michael Mizrachi and Brian Rast. Joining Mizrachi in Tuesday’s field will be his brother, and former PCC final tablemate, Robert Mizrachi. Also coming back is Phil Hellmuth, as well as Phil Ivey who was short for most of the day but managed to hang on to eliminate Gus Hansen, who was making his first WSOP event of 2012.
Day 1 had its share of imposing table draws and Day 2 had tables that were just as daunting. As one might imagine, the field was packed with notables, so every bust-out would likely be of a well-known pro. Indeed, it was Justin Bonomo who was the first eliminated on Monday, and just the second player to be knocked out of the event. Following him to the rail were Shawn Buchanan, Scott Seiver, George Lind, Bertrand Grospellier, Mike Sexton, Nick Schulman, Allen Cunningham, Jesse Martin, David Bach, Eric Cloutier, Daniel Negreanu, and Jonathan Duhamel,
There was a controversial five-way hand of pot-limit Omaha just before the day was wrapped up that involved Nikolai Yakovenko, Shaun Deeb, Abe Mosseri, an out-of-turn Victor Blom, talking about hands, showing hands and other interesting details that you can read about here and here. Yakovenko busted in that hand, but the rest of the players will be coming back for more exciting action.
Play will resume at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) on Tuesday and the remaining 63 players will play another five levels, drawing close to the money bubble at 16 as the march to the final table continues.
Don’t miss out on any of the action from this stacked field, check out the live reporting blog.
Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Last year, 1,734 players signed up for this event and the eventual winner was Mikhail Lakhitov who took down $749,610 and the gold bracelet. This year, the event drew 1,607 players and the top prize will be a still-impressive $694,609.
A number of famous faces were in the crowd including Nick Binger, Joseph Cheong, Faraz Jaka, Jennifer Tilly, Antonio Esfandiari, Victoria Coren, Tony Dunst, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, JJ Liu, Dennis Phillips, Vanessa Russo, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Gavin Smith. Unfortunately, all were eliminated on Monday.
The first player to break the 100,000 chip barrier was Spanish pro Adria Baliagler, who finished third in Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit earlier this year. He ended the day slightly under that figure, good for top 25. Chip leader at the end of the day, however, was Ryan D’Angelo with 190,300. He leads a field of 233 who will return on Tuesday to battle out for another ten levels of play, or down to the final nine, whichever comes first.
Among the notables returning for Day 2 are Shankar Pillai, Celine Dion’s husband Rene Angelil, Fabrizio Gonzalez, Jean Gaspard, Marvin Rettenmaier, John Phan, Jason Wheeler, and reigning Main Event champ Pius Heinz. They and the remaining player will play down past the money bubble, where the top 171 will be able to add a WSOP cash to their resume.
To follow all the action as this large field played down on its first day, check out the live reporting blog.
On Tap
On Tuesday,Event #44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em will crown a winner, with action starting at 1300 PDT (2100 BST). Day 3 of the five-day Event #45: $50,000 Poker Players Championship will continue in the march to the gold, starting at 1300 PDT (2100 BST). Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em will play down as close to a final table as possible, commencing at 1300 PDT (2100 BST). Finally, two events will get started — at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) Event #47: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better and at 1700 PDT (0100 BST) Event #48: $3,000 Limit Hold’em.
To make sure you don’t miss any of the action on Tuesday, check out the live reporting blog throughout the day.
Video of the Day
Lynn Gilmartin had a chance to talk with the $50K Poker Player’s Championship Day 1 chip leader Matt Glantz about his stacked table, and they played a game of “who would you rather?” See who Matt would rather rob a bank with and how he dodges the “accidentally see naked” question.
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