2015 Colossus champ Cord Garcia was among the 5,000 entries on Thursday.

While the 2016 World Series of Poker officially got underway Wednesday with the start of the Casino Employees event, things really started on Thursday with the opening of the first open event, the $565 buy-in Colossus II. After drawing a record field last year, the 2016 version of the event was expected to be even bigger and while neither the Day 1A or Day 1B flight sold out, over 5,000 players, including defending champion Cord Garcia, made their way into the event, with just over 200 surviving.

Employees Event Winner CJ Sand Dedicates Win to His Mom

CJ Sand made his second-ever WSOP cash with a win in the Employees Event. (WSOP photo)

The first WSOP bracelet of 2016 went to CJ Sand, a sportsbook employee from Caesars Palace. Sand beat out Hippodrome Head of Poker, Kerryjane Craigie heads up for the title to win the bracelet and $75,157.

Day 2 began with 23 players still in contention for the bracelet and it tookjust six hours to reach the final table. Once there Sand had the second biggest stack behind Kerryjane Craigie, setting up the eventual heads up battle between the two.

Spencer Bennett, who began the day as chip leader, was active early, busting Robert Ostler in ninth and Tom Ratanakul in sixth after Craigie busted Tiankang Xing in eighth and Michael Coombs sent Nicholas Sliwinski out in seventh. But with five players remaining, Sand became the story, eliminating the remaining four players for the victory.

The hand that propelled him to the top of the chip counts for good came with just five players remaining. From under the gun, Brian Mikesh opened to 80,000 and Sand defended his big blind. The flop came JdTd8d and Sand check-called Mikesh’s bet of 60,000. The turn was the 9h and Sand checked again. Mikesh bet 135,000 and Sand raised to 310,000. Mikesh responds by moving all in and Sand called immediately. Mikesh tabled KdQd for a flopped king-high flush but Sand tabled 9d7d for a flopped straight flush. The river was the 6c and Mikesh was eliminated in fifth while Sand’s stack grew to 2,150,000 – well over half of the chips in play.

Sand then eliminated Bennett and Michael Coombs to reach heads-up with Craigie. Sand held a nearly 3.5-1 chip lead when heads-up play began and needed just 40 minutes to eliminate Craigie. After the win Sand reflected on the person that introduced him to the game of poker – his mom.

“My mom first taught me how to play poker when I was 13 years old, so this is 30 years in the making,” said Sand, 45. “Poker is one of the best memories I have of her. Poker is in my veins and now I have this — all because of her.”

Both Sand and Craigie each had only one previous WSOP cash to their credit and both came from the 2015 WSOP when they both finished in the money in Colossus.

Final Table Payouts

  1. CJ Sand $75,157
  2. Kerryjane Craigie $46,420
  3. Michael Coombs $32,249
  4. Spencer Bennett $22,753
  5. Brian Mikesh $16,308
  6. Tom Ratanakul $11,877
  7. Nicholas Sliwinski $8,792
  8. Tiankang Xing $6,616
  9. Robert Ostler $5,063

Colossus II Opens Up With Two Flights, Over 5,000 Players

The first open event of the summer began Thursday with two opening flights of Colossus II. Last summer the $565 buy-in event drew a record 22,374 players. Thanks to the popularity of the 2015 event, the WSOP added another starting day and two more starting flights to this year’s schedule.

The first flight got under way at 10 AM PT and once registration closed there were 3,249 players in the field. Finishing the flight on top of the chip counts was David Polop with 513,000.

Only 108 players survived the 18 levels. Justin Zakin, Max Silver and Alex ‘lynskey99’ Lynskey all finished with top ten stacks. Dan O’Brien, Maria Ho, Rep Porter and former WPT500 winner Craig Varnell also advanced to Day 2 from Day 1A.

O’Brien was happy with the changes to the Colossus structure, which included shortening levels on Day 1 and having some players cash on Day 1.


Top 10 Day 1A Chip Counts

  1. David Polop – 513,000
  2. Hector Rodriguez – 450,000
  3. Seville Hale – 320,000
  4. Justin Zaki – 290,000
  5. Max Silver – 281,000
  6. Michael Guzzardi – 276,000
  7. Neil Wertheim – 273,000
  8. Dylan Thomassie – 273,000
  9. Alexander Lynskey – 267,000
  10. Paul Manley – 267,000

The second starting flight wasn’t nearly as busy with just 2,153 players in the field but that didn’t matter to Jason James. The Canadian poker pro bagged up the biggest Flight 1B stack with 407,000. Right behind him is longtime PocketFiver Tom ‘hitthehole’ Middleton with 379,000. Only 70 players advanced from Flight 1B including Manig Loeser, Justin Schwarz, Bryan Piccioli, Scott Clements and Matt Stout.

While Dan O’Brien was singing the praises of the structure changes earlier, former WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer had an entirely different take.


Top 10 Day 1B Chip Counts

Jason James – 407,000
Tom Middleton – 379,000
Eric Bunch – 344,000
Patrick Truong – 320,000
Alejandro Duque – 303,000
Harrison Gimbel – 254,000
Steven Baez – 253,000
Rafael Reis – 252,000
Brayden Fritzshall – 250,000
Thomas Cotxet – 239,000

Daniel Negreanu Owns Shaun Deeb Without Playing a Single Hand

Daniel Negreanu, who won’t be making his first WSOP appearance until the $10,000 Seven card Stud Championship event on Saturday, apparently had some time on his hands Thursday afternoon and told his 403,000 Twitter followers that they could ask him anything they wanted. Shaun Deeb saw an opportunity to get a not-so-subtle dig in at the poker hall of famer – but Negreanu wasn’t having it.


More Colossus Starting Flights on Friday

Call it poker’s version of Groundhog Day as Friday will feel an awful lot like Thursday at the WSOP. Two more Colossus II starting flights are the only events on the schedule and as the weekend draws closer the field sizes are only expected to increase.