How do you follow up on yesterday’s record-breaking day? By having six separate World Series of Poker events playing out across the Rio, including two events awarding bracelets, two getting down to final tables and two starting with star-studded fields.
Event #19: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #19 began its final day, fittingly, with 19 players spread out among three tables. Within the first 10 minutes of play, Jean-Paul Delay was eliminated — pocket jacks against the ace-nine of Justin McGill — and the field was reduced to the final two tables. The chip leader at the start of the day was Gregg Wilkinson with 1.227 million, but still within his reach were David Peters, Barry Shulman, and Jason Wheeler.
One name not on anyone’s lips when Day 3 began was 24-year-old Cliff Goldkind, a student from Potomac, Maryland. But in the end, he was the last man standing, taking home the gold bracelet and the top prize of $559,514, far eclipsing his mid four-figure cash last month at a WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
Event #19 Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cliff Goldkin | $559,514 |
| 2 | Kennii Nguyen | $347,036 |
| 3 | Adria Balaguer | $245,197 |
| 4 | Patrick Smith | $176,299 |
| 5 | Gregg Wilkinson | $128,441 |
| 6 | Justin McGill | $94,815 |
| 7 | David Peters | $70,886 |
| 8 | Barry Shulman | $53,669 |
| 9 | Gary Burks | $41,145 |
Goldkind had some amazing swings on the last day of play. With 16 left, Goldkind took the chip lead, but he lost almost all of those chips when it was down to 11 after going all-in with pocket kings on a 
board only to find his opponent, Adria Balaguer, sitting with 
. The river blanked and Goldkind shipped a million chips to his opponent and was down to 445,000.
Goldkind got a double-up just a few hands later when he caught Balaguer’s hand in the cookie jar, pushing all-in with 
. Goldkind called with 
and improved to trip queens.
The final table bubble boy was Ismael Bojang. He was heads-up and at risk with 
against the 
of Gary Burks. After the board ran out, 
the field was down to nine. Burks was the chip leader with 1,775,000, but, with blinds at 15,000/30,000, no one was in extreme peril. The shortest stack had over 17 times the big blind, with 525,000.
But after just two hands, the first person knocked out of the final table was none other than Gary Burks. He surrendered his chip lead to Goldkind in the first hand, but was still sitting with 1.5 million when the two went at it again. The hand began with Gregg Wilkinson opening with a raise in early position. Burks three-bet to 190,000 and action folded to Goldkind in the big blind who made it 420,000 to go. Wilkinson folded, but Burks announced he was all-in. No slow roll for Goldkind, who insta-called and turned over 
. Burks turned over 
and was in need of a small miracle.
The stars seemed to be aligning for Burks as the cards were spread out 
giving Burks trips. But there was one more card to come, and the dealer flipped over 
. Goldkind and his friends erupted in celebration as his diamond flush took down the massive pot. Burks was sent to the rail in ninth place for $41,145.
While his son, Jeff, was battling it out in Event #20, a short-stacked Barry Shulman saw his latest attempt at bracelet number three fall short. Shulman shoved for 635,000 from early position and Goldkind called from middle position. Action folded around, and Shulman was none too happy to see that Goldkind had woken up with aces again. Shulman was drawing live, but thin, 
to the of Goldkind. The board ran out uneventfully, 
, giving Goldkind a turned full house, and Shulman exited in eighth place for $53,669.
Goldkind was unstoppable. He didn’t have to do much of the heavy lifting at first, as his opponent’s knocked each other out in seventh, sixth and fifth place. But then he stepped in and eliminated the rest of the field one by one. He took out Patrick Smith calling Smith’s check-raise all-in after the flop brought a dangerous looking 
. Smith had for top pair and the gunshot straight draw, but Goldkind had for two pair. The 
on the turn gave Smith additional outs, but the 
on the river was not the card he needed and he was out in fourth place for $176,229.
Balaguer was the next one out. He was all-in and ahead of Goldkind — 
to 
— until the board ran out 
. Balaguer had to console himself with the third place prize of $245,197. Meanwhile, Goldkind had a date with destiny.
But first, there was a dinner break for Goldkind and his last opponent, Kennii Nguyen. When they returned, it took just one hand for the match to be over. It went all-in and call with over cards versus a pair. Nguyen had 
and Goldkind had 
. No paint for Nguyen meant the match was over. He collected $347,036 for his second place finish.
Goldkind’s $559,514 payday was a terrific return on his $1,500 investment — not bad for his first WSOP cash.
To review all the great final day action, make sure to check out our live reporting blog.
Event #20: $5,000 Limit Hold’em
The last day of play began with 17 players vying for the top prize of $206,760 and the gold bracelet. Leading the field at the start of the day was Matthew Woodward with 265,000 and Terrence Chan not far behind with 238,000. Jeff Shulman was vying for another bracelet while his father was battling in the $1,500 NLHE event. In the end, after 14 hours of play, Benjamin Scholl emerged from the field to take down the title.
Event #20 Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benjamin Scholl | $206,760 |
| 2 | Andrew Prock | $127,773 |
| 3 | Jeff Shulman | $92,562 |
| 4 | Jesse Martin | $68,322 |
| 5 | Raymond Dehkharghani | $51,344 |
| 6 | Matt Glantz | $39,259 |
| 7 | Matthew Woodward | $30,529 |
| 8 | Nicholas Derke | $24,139 |
| 9 | Ayman Qutami | $19,395 |
Terrence Chan earned his sixth cash with no final table when he was knocked out in 12th place by Ayman Qutami. The final table bubble boy was Samuel Golbuff. He was eliminated in 10th place by Andrew Prock with nines versus queens on a ten-high board.
With the final nine in place, and blinds at 12,000/24,000, Shulman was the chip leader with 642,000, Prock was way behind him in second place with 373,000 and Nicolas Derke was the super short stack, with 51,000. He managed to chip up and stayed around long enough to outlast ninth place finisher Qutami. But Derke ended up out in eighth when he ran into the pocket aces of Prock.
Start-of-the-day chip leader Woodward had an up and down day, that ended with his elimination in seventh place. He was followed out the door by Matt Glantz, who followed up his seventh place finish four days ago in Event #16: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em with a sixth place finish in this event. Glantz put all his chips in after the board came 
and was called by Jesse Martin. Martin had top pair with and Glantz had bottom pair and a gunshot straight draw with 
. But an on the river was no help and he added $39,259, to his cashes for this year.
Raymond Dehkharghani was the next player sent to the rail, at the hands of Andrew Prock. Dehkharghani put his tournament life on the line after the dealer spread out a flop of 
. Dehkharghani’s was way behind Prock’s , and when the hit the turn, it was all over, and Dehkharghani was on his way to the cashier to collect his $51,344 payday.
Jesse Martin was next out in fourth place for $68,322, also at the hands of Prock. Down to three-handed, it was Benjamin Scholl in the lead, followed by Martin and Shulman. Shulman was the next one out. He raised from the button and Scholl called from the big blind. Shulman called Scholl’s check-raise after the flop. Shulman was all-in after the turn. Shulman looked poised for a double up when he flipped over against the 
of Scholl. However, a 
on the river sent Shulman home two spots short, with $92,562, but with a higher finish than his dad.
Scholl raised the button and Prock made it another bet to go. Scholl called and the flop came 
. Scholl called Prock’s bet on the flop and they both saw a 
on the turn. Prock committed his last 15,000 in chips and Scholl called. Prock showed 
and he was behind Scholl’s . The river missed Prock’s two outs and he was the second place finisher with $127,773.
Benjamin Scholl improved on his previous best WSOP finish, fourth place in the 2009 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. This win gives the 26-year-old financial analyst from Pennsylvania his first WSOP bracelet and a nice payout of $206,760.
Follow all the action as the final 17 fought to be the last player standing by checking out our live reporting blog of this exciting Day 3.
Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
After starting with a field of 2,799 runners, only 222 returned on Monday to play down to the final table, or at least as far down as they could get before the end of the day. Leading the field at the start of Day 2 was Edward Locke with 133,200, but there was still a lot of poker to be played. When the last hand of the night was over, the field was down to the final two tables. Chip leader going into Tuesday will be Jamie Armstrong with 1,434,000. Close on his heels is Noah Vaillancourt with 1,212,000. Sitting in third place is Eric Baldwin with 887,000.
Everyone who returned on Monday was in the money since the money bubble burst Sunday night. Jon Aguiar was the first one out on Monday ($2,015) and many other well known players joined him heading for the payout line earlier in the day, including Jonathan Little ($2,015), John Duthie and Alex Jacob ($2,217), Martin Staszko ($2,771), Kory Kilpatrick ($3,149), Joe Tehan ($4,877), Max Steinberg ($6,928), and Justin Pechie ($8,363).
Christian Harder was knocked out in 27th place, Maria Ho was eliminated in 24th place and Alan Keating went out in 21st Place (each for $12,621). Ho was particularly unlucky, having called Mitch Merritt’s all-in holding ace-king to her opponent’s ace-queen. Looking for a nice chip-up, she instead saw a queen on the flop that cost her a good chunk of her stack. She tried for a double up, ace-jack versus pocket sixes, but the board ran out without hitting her and she was done for the day.
The 17 remaining will return at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) to battle down to the bracelet and the top prize of $440,829.
Make sure you don’t miss any of the action, by checking into our live reporting blog.
Event #22: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
On Sunday, the number of players for this event went from a starting field of 228 down to 79 after eight levels of play. The first order of business for those returning on Monday was to make it past the money bubble. There was no official bubble boy because two players busted simultaneously before hand for hand play could start. The 24 remaining players were guaranteed a minimum payday of $4,782.
Allen Kessler, Thomas Keller and Stuart Rutter were among those who managed to make it into the money, but were unable to move on to Day 3. Bryan Devonshire went out in 13th place, earning his third cash this year. Devonshire tweeted his unlucky busto hand: “Got all in on 1st w/2357 3 ways 1:1:1 and bricked out. Ayaaaaa.” Barry Greenstein had his third cash of the series as well, but missed out on his third final table, after he was eliminated in 12th place. Julie Schneider was one of the last eliminated on Day 2, finishing in 11th place. Devonshire, Greenstein and Schneider each took home $8,169. Nam Le went out in 10th place for $10,970.
David "Bakes" Baker finished the day atop the leaderboard with 381,000. Further behind, but still in contention with 153,000, is Shawn Buchanan, who had been the chip leader entering the day. Both of these players are looking for their first bracelet after racking up impressive tournament results. They are joined by multiple bracelet winners Layne Flack, Farzad Bonyadi and Josh Arieh moving on to Day 3.
In all, nine players will return at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) on Tuesday to determine who will receive the top prize of $145,247 and the gold bracelet.
To follow all the ups and downs of the exciting final day of action, be sure to follow our live reporting blog.
Event #23: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em — Six-Handed
Last year’s version of this event had a $2,500 buy-in and was won by Ukranian Oleksii Kovalchuk who outlasted a field of 1,378 players to win his first WSOP bracelet. He defeated a power-packed final table that included Chris Moorman (3rd), Dan O’Brien (4th) and Will Failla (7th).
Kovalchuk did not return to defend his title, but Moorman, O’Brien and Failla did come back to see if they could improve on last year’s finish. Moorman hit the rail on Day 1 and was joined by Fabrice Soulier, Daniel Negreanu, Lex Veldhuis, Frank Kassela, Soi Nguyen, POY point leader Andy Frankenberger, Isaac Haxton, and Tony Dunst and former WSOP Main Event winners Jerry Yang and Jamie Gold.
This year’s field has 924 runners, 108 of whom will finish in the money. Payouts range from a minimum $5,019 to a the first place prize of $567,624.
After 10 levels of play, 141 remain. They will return on Tuesday at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) to play down first to the money and then through ten levels or to the final six-handed table, whichever comes first. Chip leader at the end of Day 1 was Jeff Manza with 275,000 chips. Manza won most of those chips when he flopped a set of sevens in a three-way pot worth 195,000 chips late in the day.
Right behind Manza is Aaron Jones, who had been in the chip lead for much of the day. Also moving on to Day 2 are Will Failla, Liv Boeree, Daniel Alaei, Alan Goehring, Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand Grospellier, Roberto Romanello, Matt Stout, Kevin Saul, Jason Senti, Brad Booth, and Jason Mercier.
To see who else survived, and who fell short, and to follow the Day 2 action, read our live reporting blog.
Event #24: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Last year, Viacheslav Zhukov won the $10,000 version of this event and took home $465,216, defeating a field of 202 players to win the title. It was the last event of the day, with a starting time of 5:00 p.m. local time, and many players who had busted out of other events earlier in the day entered. By the time registration had closed, 256 players had signed up.
Among the notables entering the field were Men Nguyen, Eli Elezra, Daniel Negreanu, Perry Friedman, Nick Schulman, Mike Baxter, Dan Shak, and Justin Bonomo. None of them will be moving on to Day 2.
One interesting min-controversy surrounded Table 351. The table, which hosted Mike Sexton, Brett Richey, Alex Dovzhenko, Chris George and Roland Israelashvili, among others, was forced to swap out their deck a number of times. Tournament staff warned the table against using marked cards and instituted additional security to watch the table. Even after this warning, another marked card was purportedly found at the table. But a new dealer and a half hour of clean cards, put the issue to rest.
At the end of the day, 185 were left in the field. Chip leader going into day two will be Neal Friets with 53,500, followed closely by two-time bracelet winner Vitaly Lunkin with 50,600. Also still alive and near the top of the field are Richard Ashby, Michael Chow, Pat Pezzin, Jimmy Fricke, Vanessa Selbst and, still looking for his ninth bracelet, Phil Ivey.
They will all return on Tuesday at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) to play down as close to the final table as possible.
Make sure to keep up on all the exciting action by checking out our live reporting blog throughout the day.
On Tap
On Tuesday, Event #21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #22: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball will each play down to a winner.
Day 2 of Event #23: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em — Six-Handed and Event #24: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better will bring us closer to a final table.
Finally, two new events will get started, Event #25: $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout will begin at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) and Event #26: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha will get underway at 1700 PDT (0100 BST on Wednesday).
Video of the Day
Lynn Gilmartin stops by to chat with Allen Kessler during the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven event and asked him to rate a number of different questions on a scale of — you guessed it — 2-to-7.
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