WSOP: De Silva, Zamani Grab Bracelets, Grospellier Leads One Drop
Weekends at the World Series of Poker are always busy, and the first Saturday of the 2017 WSOP was no exception with six events running at once, including two flights of Colossus and the first of three online events on the schedule. Before the day wrapped up, three players walked away with bracelets including a former WPT Player of the Year, and Bertrand Grospellier bluffed 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth to get himself to the top of the chip counts in the One Drop High Roller.
Upeshka De Silva Wins Second Bracelet in Event #3 ($3,000 NLHE Shootout)
The final 10 players returned to Event #3 ($3,000 NLHE Shootout) on Saturday to play down to a winner and after little more than eight hours of play, Upeshka De Silva walked away with the second WSOP bracelet of his career.
De Silva beat Louis Helm heads-up to walk away with the win and $229,923. Helm earned $142,115. De Silva’s first bracelet came in 2015 when he won a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event for $424,577.
“(Helm) played very well. He played a lot better than I anticipated. He played a limp / re-raise-all-in strategy. I kept trying to isolate his weak hands and he kept going all in. He stayed alive for quite a while,” said De Silva. “I felt like my end game was a little bit better. I thought I’d take a lower-variance style and grind him down. He gets a double-up and it’s anybody’s game.”
Jan Schwippert finished fourth at his second final table of the 2017 WSOP. He was part of the team that finished ninth in Event #2 ($10,000 Tag Team Championship) earlier in the week. Olivier Busquet wound up fifth.
Taylor Paur, one of 39 former #1-ranked players on PocketFives that we’re tracking all summer long, was the first player eliminated from the final table.
Final Table Payouts
- Upeshka De Silva – $229,923
- Louis Helm – $142,115
- Linglin Zeng – $103,449
- Jan Schwippert – $76,018
- Olivier Busquet – $56,397
- Casey Carroll – $42,246
- John Richards – $31,955
- Mark McMillin – $24,410
- Jean Gaspard – $18,832
- Taylor Paur – $14,675
Reigning WPT POY Can Also Play Non-Hold’em Games Well, Too
Fresh off of winning World Poker Tour Player of the Year, Benjamin Zamani added “two-time WSOP bracelet winner” to his growing list of accomplishments. Zamani beat out 904 other players to win Event #4 ($1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or better) and the second bracelet of his career. He also earned $238,620.
Zamani’s final opponent was Jared Hemingway. The pair only played heads-up for a little over an hour after having played for almost 11.5 hours to get to that point. There were 29 players at the start of Day 3 with Christopher Logue leading the way. Logue eventually busted just shy of the final table, in 11th place.
Final Table Payouts
- Benjamin Zamani – $238,620
- Jared Hemingway – $147,428
- Alex Ferrari – $103,471
- Ryan Paluf – $73,647
- Gary Vick – $53,171
- Forrest Auel – $38,946
- Scott Buller – $28,948
- Martin Corpuz – $21,839
- Dustin Sitar – $16,726
Irish Players Top Flight C and D Chip Counts; Field Size Struggling
The second day of Colossus saw a combined 5,426 players enter, bringing the two-day total to 10,828 with just two starting flights left to go on Sunday. There’s a familiar face near the top of the chip counts though.
Cord Garcia, who won the inaugural Colossus in 2015, bagged up the second biggest chip stack in Flight D, with 415,000. He’s just 35,000 behind Toby Joyce, the #1-ranked online poker player out of Ireland.
Gavin O’Rourke, another Irish player, finished Flight C with 374,000, good enough for the biggest stack from that flight.
Unless flights E and F average 5,000 players or more, this will be the smallest Colossus field in the three-year run of the event. In 2015, 22,374 players entered with that number dropping to 21,613 last year. The event is currently 10,785 short of the 2016 field size.
Day 1C Top 5 Chip Counts
- Gavin O’Rourke – 374,000
- Mark Johnson Jr. – 368,000
- Alexander Borteh – 365,000
- Matt Holtzman – 356,000
- Haixia Zhang – 330,000
Day 1D Top 5 Chip Counts
- Toby Joyce – 440,000
- Cord Garcia – 415,000
- Dan Healey – 341,000
- Asher Conniff – 314,000
- James Manganaro – 310,000
Grospellier Bluffs Hellmuth to Take Chip Lead into Day 3
To the surprise of nobody, big names continue to populate the One Drop High Roller chip counts through Day 2. Scott Seiver, Dan Colman, Antonio Esfandiari, Doug Polk and Rainer Kempe are just a handful of the players in the top 10 with just 23 left, but after Day 2 action, most people were talking about two players in particular; Bertrand Grospellier and 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth.
Grospellier ended Day 2 on top of the chip counts with 7,040,000 and Hellmuth ended up with the 10th largest stack at 2,870,000 but the two clashed on Saturday in a hand that could have seen Hellmuth end up as chip leader and Grospellier on the outside looking in.
With blinds of 30,000/60,000 (10,000 ante), Hellmuth raised to 135,000 from the cutoff and Grospellier defended his big blind. Grospellier then checked after the 
flop, Hellmuth bet 100,000, Grospellier raised to 215,000 and Hellmuth responded with another raise, this time to 470,000. Grospellier called and then check-raised again after the 
turn, this time to 1,200,000. Hellmuth, left with 2,930,000, decided to fold his 
while Elky showed the 
for an incomplete straight draw. Grospellier ended the hand with more than 9,000,000.
Day 3 action will begin with play almost on the bubble. Just 20 of the 23 remaining players will cash. Other notables still in the field include Phil Galfond, Igor Kurganov, Connor Drinan and Charlie Carrel.
The three shortest stacks at the start of Day 3 belong to Salman Behbehani (835,000), Nick Petrangelo (800,000) and Moritz Dietrich (710,000).
Action resumes at 2 pm PT and will be streamed on the PokerGo app.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Bertrand Grospellier – 7,040,000
- Dario Sammartino – 6,080,000
- Scott Seiver – 4,920,000
- Chris Moore – 4,315,000
- Dan Colman – 4,100,000
- Andrew Robl – 4,080,000
- Rainer Kempe – 3,950,000
- Martin Jacobson – 3,805,000
- Doug Polk – 3,500,000
- Phil Hellmuth – 2,870,000
Sampo Ryynanen On Top of $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw
It might not be the most popular game on the WSOP schedule, but Event #7 ($2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball) attracted some of that variations best players on Saturday. Leading the way after the 10 levels of Day 1 is Finland’s Sampo Ryynanen.
Ryynanen was the only player to turn their 7,500 chip starting stack into a six-figure stack. Ryynanen bagged up 102,200 while his next closest competitor, Wes Self, finished with 97,000. Jared Bleznick finished third with 91,300.
Just 57 of the 225-player field advanced to Day 2. Among the notables to move on were Martin Staszko (70,800), Brandon Shack-Harris (68,800), James Obst (48,000), Paul Volpe (46,000), Jason Mercier (36,000), David ‘ODB’ Baker (34,600 and Jon Turner (26,600).
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Sampo Ryynanen – 102,200
- Wes Self – 97,000
- Jared Bleznick – 91,300
- Joe Wagner – 85,300
- Joseph Wagganer – 85,300
- James Kwon – 81,400
- Matt Schrieber – 79,000
- Eric Wasserson – 78,000
- Yosuke Sekiya – 75,200
- Jason Gola – 72,800
Joseph Mitchell Wins First Online Bracelet Event of 2017
The first online event on the 2017 WSOP schedule, Event #8 ($333 Online NLHE) drew 1,780 players and wrapped up in just a single day. At the end it was Joseph ’ul_gg’ Mitchell coming out on top to win the bracelet and $122,323.
Runner-up Mark ‘PLODonkey17’ Scacewater ended up with $73,538.79, but might feel a tad sore after suffering a disconnect during heads-up play that saw most of his chips sent to his opponent.
The only non-American to make the final table was Michael ‘ooookillthem’ Addamo, who finished third for just over $54,000.
Final Table Payouts
- Joseph ‘ul_gg’ Mitchell – $122,313.75
- Mark ‘PLODonkey17’ Scacewater – $73,538.79
- Michael ‘ooookillthem’ Addamo – $54,043.86
- Hao ‘Sandongcpa’ Sun – $39,592.02
- Bobby ‘bcmclawh’ McLawhorn – $29,204.76
- Michael ‘TonyPerkis1’ Jacoby – $21,828.30
- Kevin ‘SEQUENCE’ Sheetz – $16,559
- Casey ‘rhin0’ Long – $12,645
- William ‘nomoneyloser’ Pan – $9,710
