Day 23 of the 2011 World Series of Poker saw a bracelet awarded in the first ever $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed event. Both the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em and the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship reached the money and got ever closer to the final table. Finally, the latest $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event drew another large field while the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha / Hold’em Event drew out the pot-limit poker specialists.
Event #35: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed
The final day of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed event began with 15 players looking to take down the bracelet. Eventually the final table was reached with Jason Mercier as chip leader. He led with 1.9 million and was looking for his second career bracelet. David Chiu started the final table second in chips and was looking for his fourth career bracelet and first since the poker boom.
Chiu faltered at the final table and finished in fourth place. Mercier, on the other hand, made it to heads-up play. By the time heads-up play was reached, he was slightly behind Hans Winzeler, who held a 4.1 million to 3.4 million chip lead to start the heads-up match.
The two battled for a while, with the chip lead moving between them, but neither gained a huge advantage. Mercier pulled ahead by nearly a million chips, but as many expected, it took a huge hand to finish this match. Mercier raised to 160,000 on the button and Winzeler three-bet to 480,000. Mercier called to see the flop of 
. Mercier led out for 960,000 and Winzeler moved all-in. Mercier called and showed 
for a pair and wrap draw while Winzeler showed 
for a pair of kings. The 
turn missed both, but the river brought the 
to give Mercier his straight and his second bracelet.
Jason Mercier proved why he is one of the best pot-limit Omaha players by winning his second bracelet in the game. In addition to winning the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed bracelet, he received $619,575 in prize money.
To read more on this final table, check out our live coverage of the event.
Event #36: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event started with 291 players looking to make it through to the money and begin their quest for the final table. It took a couple of levels to get to the money because 120 players had to bust to reach it, and when that time arrived, a double elimination sent players into a payday. Jack Jacouvou was all-in for 9,200 with 
against Benjamin Jenkins’ 
. The flop and turn missed both, but a river 
ended Jacouvous’ day. On another table, David Hedley decided to commit 45,000 with . He ran into Bradley Augsburger’s pocket queens — which held. Because both players busted at the same time, they chopped 171st place prize money and each received $5,207.
After 10 levels of play on Wednesday, 39 players remain. Thomas Miller has more than lapped the field and takes a 1.35 million chip lead into the final day. Randy Dorfman is the next closest player with 566,000. Eddy Sabat sits in sixth place, and both Dwyte Pilgrim and Tom Marchese advanced.
Who finished in the money in this event? Read our live reporting pages to find out.
Event #37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Action started on Wednesday in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship with 173 players returning to play through the field to make the money. With such a tough field, it took almost the entire day to reach the bubble in this event. Eugene Katchalov and Felipe Ramos were eliminated together to send the field into the money. Tom Dwan eliminated Katchalov and Yuval Bronshtein took care of Ramos.
Daniel Alaei was the first player to make the money and the last player eliminated on Day 2. With his elimination, 23 players will return on Thursday to battle to the final table and the bracelet. Michael Binger leads a stacked field with 742,000 in chips. Fabrice Soulier, Shawn Buchanan, Ram Vaswani, Fu Wong, John Monnette, Frankie O’Dell, Chau Giang, and Max Pescatoir are all in contention. Robert Williamson III and Tom Dwan are both still alive in the event, but they are nursing short stacks.
Find out more about who advanced to the final day in our blog.
Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Wednesday saw the start of yet another $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2011 WSOP. This time around, 2,192 players turned out and looked to battle for the bracelet and $540,136 in prize money. Plenty of notables will have the chance to focus on the $5,000 six-max event on Thursday because they failed to make Day 2 of this one. Some of them include Beth Shak, Dutch Boyd, Faraz Jaka, Bertrand Grospellier, David Williams, Scott Clements, Tom Dwan, Bill Chen, Joseph Cheong, Jon Turner, and Liv Beoree.
After 10 levels of play, Jon Spinks emerged as the chip leader. He will lead a field of 320 players into Day 2 action. Bryan Devonshire, Melanie Weisner, and Sam Trickett are all in the top 10 in chips to begin Day 2 play.
Another day, another big field. Find out more in our live reporting blog.
Event #39: $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha
The $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha event kicked off on Thursday and drew a strong field of 606 players to battle for the only mixed pot-limit bracelet of the Series. This was a jump of 124 players over the 2010 edition of this event. Eliminations abounded as players gambled it up. Among those not advancing to Day 2 in this event were Eric Froehlich, JC Tran, Gavin Griffin, Layne Flack, Daniel Negreanu, Andy Black, Ted Lawson, Jeff Lisandro, Erik Seidel, Dan Shak, Phil Hellmuth, Al Barbieri, Vinny Vinh, Liv Boeree, John Racener, Phil Laak, and David Sklansky.
David Williams worked his way into the chip lead by the end of Day 1. He will take 136,700 chips into Day 2 where 130 players remain. Scott Clements, Carter Gill, and Tom Schneider all finished the day in the top 10 of chips.
This is only half of the story. To find out more read our live coverage blog.
On Tap
Bracelets will be awarded on Thursday in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event and the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. Players in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event and the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha event will make the money and begin the battle for the final table. Finally, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event will take center stage as the only new event scheduled for Thursday.
Podcast
The PokerNews Podcast was guest-less on Wednesday, so that means that it’s not worth listening to, right? Wrong. The crew still went over a ton of material, including Tom Dwan multi-tabling, women in poker, and the ridiculousness of the Toby Maguire lawsuit.
You won’t know what was said unless you listen. Click here to listen.
Video of the Day
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow always says what’s on his mind. Sarah Grant caught up with Mike during the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship to talk about how he’s doing in the event, his prop bet with Eli Elezra that cost Elezra his hair, and his opinion about "Internet kids" and their ability to truly grind live poker.
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