The world’s biggest and best live poker tournament, the annual World Series of Poker, is continuing this month in Las Vegas with new winners everyday claiming the enviable gold bracelets.
Day 32 saw the frequent champ Scott Seiver ending the first day of Event #55, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, as the chip leader, with 593,000 sitting in his stacks. Seiver was lucky to be the runner-up in the 2015 Super High Roller Bowl and was a 2008 WSOP bracelet winner, and he has already cashed for more than $47,000 in two events so far at this year’s tournament. That wasn’t the only notable news this weekend, as Brandon Shack-Harris was the biggest winner on Saturday, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson both made good appearances, and Andrew Lichtenberger is potentially only a day away from a coveted gold bracelet.
Timofey Kuznetsov is arguably the top Russian poker player on the scene right now, and he is due to start play today in 2nd place when it comes to chips. The Mizrachi family has made a promising start this year too, as brothers Robert and Michael have both made it into the top seven after Day One.
Jason Mercier, another top player, has effectively ended Day One with 384,800 chips in his pocket, putting him in a great position. The controversial poker player Howard Lederer also made a WSOP appearance this weekend and earned 316,200 chips, putting him in the 25th spot overall. Lederer, refuses to address the media.
Brandon Shack-Harris has made himself a WSOP winner, after a four day battle against a tough field in Event #51, the $10,000 8-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha. Shack-Harris won his second career WSOP bracelet and earned a tidy sum of $894,300. His previous gold bracelet was won back in 2014 in a $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. The Chicago player has been a consistently good performer at the World Series of Poker over the past few years.
Loren Klein was aiming for his second gold bracelet of the tournament but he had to make do with a second place position and his fifth cash out of the series. Tommy Le (3rd), Melad Marji (4th), Matthew Parry (5th), Harley Stoffmaker (6th), Junayed Khan (7th), and Dominique Mosley (8th) finished out the final table in the event.
Andrew Lichtenberger has been viewed as a top player for quite a while, but hasn’t been able to get himself a WSOP bracelet as of yet. This status could potentially all change, as he has more than a 3-1 chip advantage over Craig Blight in Event #52, the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, after Day Three. They two of them are the only remaining players in the event.
First place will pay $569,158 and the runner-up will receive $351,721. Blight is also hoping for his first WSOP bracelet in his career. This is just the second cashout he has made in his WSOP career thus far. His last one came in 2013 for $3,461 after finishing 52nd in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Lichtenberger has achieved over $2.3 million in lifetime earnings at the WSOP tournament.
