The 2016 World Series of Poker featured a single Shootout final table, the Monster Stack field assembled as one for the first time and two big bet action games kicked off on Sunday.

Phillip McAllister Claims Gold in $3,000 Shootout Final Table

Sit & Go final tables are like NASCAR events where all contestants have an even playing field and it’s up to the driver to win. Ten players on their third round of Shootout tables started with even stacks and Phillip McAllister was the last player standing to win his first bracelet and $267,720.

The 22 year-old British pro final tabled the 2016 PCA Main Event for a huge score and partly credited that experience factoring into his bracelet win. “That gave me a fair amount of money doing so well in January,” he said. “Coming in third allowed me to play a heavier schedule at the Series this summer.”

“It’s really an unusual tournament since you just have to win three Sit & Gos,” he added. “It’s not at all easy, but there is some luck involved. I got lucky with my table and seat draws… the last two tables are more difficult, but I also ran very well with the table draws.”

Maria Ho pushed her WSOP earnings past $1.2 million with her fourth place finish. Faraz Jaka, Stephen Chidwick and Jesse Yaginuma also missed out on a chance to claim their first WSOP bracelet.

Final Table Payouts

1. Phillip McAllister – $267,720
2. Kyle Montgomery – $165,450
3. Christopher Kruk – $119,686
4. Maria Ho – $87,487
5. Andreas Freund – $64,628
6. Marcos Antunes – $48,252
7. Jesse Yaginuma – $36,416
8. Rhys Jones – $27,783
9. Faraz Jaka – $27,783
10. Stephen Chidwick – $16,617

Nabil Mohamed Leads Monster Stack with 267 Survivors

Day 2 of the Monster Stack event was the first time the field assembled as one with 2,001 players and after a long day of action the field was trimmed to 276 survivors. Nabil Mohamed finished way out in front with 1.9 million in the bag.

Andrew Moreno finished 28th in the 2015 WSOP Main Event and is second in chips, poker media veteran Chad Holloway sits 6th and Biloxi pro Tim Burt rounds out the top ten. Matt Stout, Brandon Meyers, Justin Liberto, Barny Boatman and Matt Affleck all finished with above average stacks.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Nabil Mohamed – 1,928,000
2. Andrew Moreno – 1,341,000
3. Donghai Wu – 1,334,000
4. Fabrizio Gonzalez – 1,084,000
5. Daniel Dipasquale – 958,000
6. Chad Holloway – 937,000
7. Alexandru Iliescu – 936,000
8. Andrew Brown – 908,000
9. Vincent Bartello – 900,000
10. Timothy Burt – 896,000

Justin Bonomo Leads Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship to Day 3

Day 2 of the Seven Card Stud HiLo Championship saw 51 players return to play and after ten levels of action a dozen players remain. It was a long, slow march of a day to hit the money at 21 players and Justin Bonomo leads the charge to the final table.

On Saturday Bonomo spent most of the day at the final table of the Six Max No Limit Hold’em Championship. He finished third in a blockbuster double elimination, shook hands with his opponents and was one of the last players to buy-in.

Adam Friedman, Per Hildebrand, Phillip Hui and Dan Shak cashed in the event but didn’t finish the day. Dzmitry Urbanovich, Mike Gorodinsky and Brian Rast began the day and busted before the money.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Justin Bonomo – 1,287,000
2. George Danzer – 1,049,000
3. Todd Brunson – 743,000
4. Scott Clements – 701,000
5. Esther Taylor-Brady – 680,000
6. Eli Elezra – 582,000
7. Randy Ohel – 550,000
8. David Benyamine – 406,000
9. Jack Duong – 336,000
10. Roland Israelashvili – 277,000

Event 44: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

The 11 AM $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event drew 2,076 entries and after nearly 12 hours on the felt only 225 players remain. The field made the money at 312 players and Iliodoros Kamatakis ended with the largest stack.

Justin Zaki, Jennifer Shahade, Cord Garcia, David “ODB” Baker and Asher Conniff all finished in the top half of the counts. Kory Kilpatrick, Victor Ramdin and Tom Cannuli also advanced but have short stacks.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Iliodoros Kamatakis – 178,900
2. Dejan Boskovic – 169,100
3. Wenlong Jin – 142,400
4. Ugarte Rodriguez – 136,200
5. Stoyanov Plamen – 135,300
6. Nathan Sheeran – 125,600
7. Eric Rivkin – 124,600
8. Uri Reichenstein – 119,000
9. Young Sik Eum – 117,300
10. Michael Shanahan – 115,700

Event 45: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Mix

Most Mixed Game events lean towards the Limit side of things but big bet poker fans were in for a treat on Sunday with the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Mix. The tournament drew 919 entries and 138 players advance to Day 2 with Loren Klein leading the field.

The entrants combined for a $1,240,650 prize pool for the 138 players advancing. The top 15 players make five-figures, a trip to the final table guarantees $16,980 and the winner walks with $241,427.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Loren Klein – 215,600
2. David Callaghan – 180,000
3. Shawn Rice – 176,200
4. Craig Varnell – 166,600
5. Martin Finger – 160,800
6. Aaron Rogers – 156,000
7. Niall Farrell – 150,200
8. John Racener – 149,100
9. Marko Neumann – 138,400
10. Brandon Shack-Harris – 135,200

Monster Moving Day, Bounties and Triple Draw Championship.

Granted, the players alive in the Monster Stack are in the money, but the payouts will climb and the jovial tone should be much more serious. The early event is the $1,500 Bounty No Limit Hold’em event and the WSOP wants players to make a single trip to the cage to cash out bounty chips. The late event is the $10,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Championship.