WSOP: Christopher Vitch Wins $10K Stud Hi-Lo; Hellmuth Denied #15
Phil Hellmuth woke up Monday morning with a chance at adding his 15th World Series of Poker bracelet in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship event but as the cards played out, Hellmuth didn’t even make the final table. Instead it was yet another repeat bracelet winner topping the field. While that $10K event played to a winner, another was just starting up on an action-packed day at the 2017 WSOP.
Scott Baumstein On Top of Monster Stack Heading to Day 3
New York’s Scott Baumstein went from just 94,400 chips at the start of play Monday to 1,592,000 at the end of it to finish with the overnight chip lead. Just 233 players remain in pursuit of the bracelet and the $1,094,349 first place prize money.
Right behind Baumstein is Adrien Allain of France with 1,500,000. Former #1-ranked PocketFiver Paul Volpe bagged up the sixth biggest stack at 1,043,000. Other notables moving onto Day 3 include Scott Montgomery, Simon Deadman, Maurice Hawkins, Joe McKeehen, TJ Cloutier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Ole Schemion.
Monday’s action saw 1,711 players eliminated – just under three each minute – but a fortunate few managed to bust in the money. Ari Engel, Scotty Nguyen, Gordon Vayo, Loni Harwood, Noah Vaillancourt, Matt Berkey and David Peters were amongst the more notable names that managed to finish in the money on Monday.
Action resumes at 11 am PT on Tuesday with another 10 levels on the schedule.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Scott Baumstein – 1,592,000
- Adrien Allain – 1,500,000
- Claas Segebrecht – 1,337,000
- Alessandro Esposito – 1,065,000
- Brandon Meyers – 1,052,000
- Paul Volpe – 1,043,000
- Oldrich Miklik – 1,042,000
- Andrii Novak – 1,004,000
- Jacob Naumann – 958,000
- Jason James – 937,000
Christopher Vitch Wins Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship
For the second year in a row, Christopher Vitch is taking a bracelet home from the WSOP. Last year he took home the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw event for his first bracelet. This year he beat out a tough final table, including Benny Glaser heads-up, to win the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship.
Things went really smoothly all day. Mostly I had plenty of chips throughout the whole thing. Only in the heads-up it did it get where Benny had the advantage for a while. Overall it was just one of those days where everything went my way,” said Vitch.
When the day started there were 11 players still hoping to take home the bracelet and $320,103 first place prize including 14-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The Poker Brat came into the day with the seventh biggest stack but fell just short of making the final table, eventually busting in ninth.
Massive disappointment: PAIN! Chip leader 14 left, finished 9th (not even an official final table!). Had bad run outs, misplayed one hand
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 27, 2017
Glaser finished second for $197,838, his third biggest WSOP score to date. Abe Mosseri, who earlier this WSOP won the Omaha Hi-Lo Championship event, finished third for $138,608. Jonathan Duhamel also made the final table, eventually busting in fifth place.
Andrew Kelsall started the day with the chip lead, eventually settling for a sixth place finish.
Final Table Payouts
- Christopher Vitch – $320,103
- Benny Glaser – $197,838
- Abe Mosseri – $138,608
- Jameson Painter – $99,342
- Jonathan Duhamel – $72,876
- Andrew Kelsall – $54,748
- Brock Parker – $42,146
- Alex Luneau $33,265
Chino Rheem Leads Final 19 in $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Chino Rheem improved his overnight position in the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event by just one position on Day 2, but it’s the best he could considering he came into the day second in chips. Rheem, who has four World Poker Tour titles to his credit but no bracelets, finished with 952,000 to put him just ahead of Luis Calvo with 914,000. No other players managed to cross the 800,000 chip mark.
The bubble did burst on Monday with Mike Sexton, Robin Ylitalo, John Racener, Anthony Zinno, Felipe Ramos, Sam Soverel and Christian Harder all among the notable players to finish in the money.
The remaining 19 players represent nine different countries including the United States, Netherlands, Ireland, Greece, Canada, England, Costa Rica, Russia and Germany.
Action resumes at 2 pm PT with the final table set to stream on PokerGO later in the evening.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Chino Rheem – 952,000
- Luis Calvo – 914,000
- Daniel Reijmer – 776,000
- Mark Reilly – 675,000
- Alberto Fonseca – 611,000
- Aleksei Altshuller – 593,000
- Rudolph Sawa – 584,000
- Gerhard Schleicher – 574,000
- James St Hilaire – 559,000
- Roussos Koliakoudakis – 553,000
Will Berry Leads $1,500 NLHE Bounty Event
The Bounty events at the WSOP are proving to be pretty popular. On Monday, 1,927 players showed up to play the $1,500 NLHE Bounty event with each elimination worth $500. At the end of 10 levels of play Will Berry was just ahead of Brandon Cantu at the top of the chip counts. Berry finished with 219,700 while Cantu bagged up 216,500.
Harrison Gimbel and Jacob Bazeley also managed to build up a top 10 stack. Just 264 survived the opening day with the money bubble bursting late in the day. Other notables moving on to Day 2 include Joseph Cheong, Vinny Pahuja, Sam Grafton, Chris Bjorin, Maria Ho, Mike Leah and Diego Ventura.
Action resumes at Noon PT.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Will Berry – 219,700
- Brandon Cantu – 216,500
- Fred Berger – 197,800
- Chen Yu Hung – 189,600
- Harrison Gimbel – 188,800
- Damon Sandor – 172,200
- Jacob Bazeley – 159,500
- Jorge Corral – 156,800
- Ronald Sewell – 147,800
- Michael Comisso – 146,200
$10,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better Draws Huge Field
So far this summer the $10,000 Championship-level events have drawn either small increases or, for the most part, a downturn in attendance. Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better has been played at the WSOP before but 2017 marked its debut in the $10K Championship rotation and if Monday’s turnout is any indication, it won’t be going away any time soon.
207 players showed up to play on Monday, making it just the second $10K event to draw more than 200 players so far this summer, joining the Six Max NLHE event in that category. At the end of Day 1 just 116 players managed to move on to Day 2 with Italy’s Dario Sammartino sitting on top of the field with 294,300.
The current WSOP Player of the Year leader, Ray Henson, managed to finish with a top 10 stack. As did Josh Arieh, David ‘ODB’ Baker and Scott Clements. Other notables moving on included John Monnette, Phil Hui, Calvin Anderson, Mike Leah, Marco Johnson, Shaun Deeb, Brian Rast and Ben Yu.
The 116 survivors unbag at 2 pm PT and will play another 10 levels.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Dario Sammartino – 294,300
- Ryan Miller – 228,700
- Sean Remz – 224,700
- Josh Arieh – 212,500
- Tommy Chen – 209,200
- Joe Tehan – 200,300
- Scott Clements – 193,600
- Ray Henson – 169,200
- Tyler Groth – 169,000
- David ‘ODB’ Baker – 167,500
