WSOP: Greg Mueller Conquers $10K HORSE for Third Bracelet
Two more bracelet winners – one a first-time winner and another snagging his third – highlighted Friday’s schedule the 2019 World Series of Poker.
Jared Koppel Leads Final Six in $2,620 Marathon
The Marathon has hit the home stretch and Jared Koppel is out in front by quite a large margin. Koppel finished Day 5 with 11,700,000, more than double that of the next closest competitor, and nearly 41% of the chips in play with just five players remaining.
China’s Dong Sheng Peng sits second with 5,800,000. Roman Korenev, of Russia, started Day 5 with the chip lead and managed to bag up the fourth biggest stack at 3,310,000.
The day started with 16 players and stopped with just six remaining.
Final table action begins at Noon on Saturday.
Final Table Chip Counts
- Jared Koppel – 11,700,000
- Dong Sheng Peng – 5,800,000
- Francis Anderson – 3,695,000
- Roman Korenev – 3,310,000
- Joseph Liberta – 2,540,000
- Joe Curcio – 1,540,000
Greg Mueller Wins $10K HORSE for Bracelet #3
Greg Mueller roared back from a middle-of-the-pack stack to win the $10,000 HORSE Championship for $425,347 and the third bracelet of his career and first since winning two in 2009.
Mueller beat Daniel Ospina heads-up after navigating his way through all five games against a final table that also included Matthew Gonzales, Scott Clements, and start-of-day chip leader Dario Sammartino. Over the past few months, Mueller began to wonder if he could still hang with the players playing a full schedule year round.
“I just haven’t played that many tournaments in a long time and I had the bug to play a little bit again. I was working hard in the offseason to get fit. I wanted to know if I could still play the game,” Mueller said. “I just felt like, ‘Do I still have it? Has the game passed me by?’ That type of thing.”
Final Table Payouts
- Greg Mueller – $425,347
- Daniel Ospina – $262,882
- Dario Sammartino – $184,854
- Scott Clements – $132,288
- Craig Chait – $96,378
- Mikhail Semin – $71,505
- Matthew Gonzales – $54,043
- Phil Galfond – $41,625
$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (Event #30)
A record-setting field in the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event made it impossible for the event to play down to a champion in the originally scheduled three days. That means Luis Zedan will have to wait until Saturday to use his chip lead to try and win himself a bracelet.
Zedan sits atop the final five players with 15,670,000 – more than the other four players combined. Thida Lin has the second biggest stack with 6,140,000.
53 players were sent to the rail on Friday including Joe Beevers, Martijn Gerrits, and the player who started the day with the chip lead, Gary Bolden.
The event drew 1,526 entries this year, 536 more than last year and 233 more than the previous largest (1,293 in 2015).
The final five will resume play at Noon PT.
Final Table Chip Counts
- Luis Zedan – 15,670,000
- Thida Lin – 6,140,000
- Ryan Robinson – 4,675,000
- Ryan Goindoo – 2,985,000
- Samad Razavi – 1,050,000
Thomas Cazayous Wins $3K Six Max No Limit Hold’em
Draped in the tricolor flag of his native France, Thomas Cazayous was basking in the glory of winning his first WSOP bracelet Friday night. The 24-year-old, who now calls London home, beat Nicholas Howard heads-up to win the $3,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event for $414,766.
“I don’t want to say I think I was the best. I was pretty sure what I had to do and people didn’t put me to tough decisions,” he said.
Cazayous began the day sitting third with 20 players remaining and worked his way through the likes of Rafael Moraes, Jonathan Proudfoot, Josh Weiss, Kyle Cartwright, Angel Guillen and Upeshka De Silva before finding himself heads up with Howard.
Howard earned $256,314 for his runner-up finish while De Silva, who has bracelet wins in 2015 and 2017, took home $172,658 for third.
Final Table Payouts
- Thomas Cazayous – $414,766
- Nicholas Howard – $256,314
- Upeshka De Silva – $172,658
- Wojciech Barzantny – $118,421
- Angel Guillen – $82,726
- Raul Martinez – $58,881
Seniors No-Limit Hold’em (Event #32)
The $1,000 Seniors Event is down to just 252 players from a starting field of 5,917 and only Howard Mash has accumulated more than 2,000,000 chips. Mash, from Coconut Creek, FL, finished Day 2 with 2,065,000.
His closest competitor is Anthony Martin, who bagged up 1,759,000 after completing another 10 levels of play. Victor Ramdin rounds out the top three with 1,688,000.
Ramdin isn’t the only notable still in. Both Layne Flack and Barry Greenstein bagged chips on Friday to advance to Day 3.
Allyn Shulman, who won this event in 2012, busted in 283rd place for $3,279.
The Day 3 schedule calls for players to resume play at 11 AM PT and play down until just six players remain.
Top Chip Counts
Howard Mash – 2,065,000
Anthony Martin – 1,759,000
Victor Ramdin – 1,688,000
Thomas Loya – 1,493,000
Ron Fetsch – 1,493,000
Mark Kroon – 1,430,000
Brad Desaye – 1,268,000
Todd Keikoan – 1,190,000
Mansour Alipourfard – 1,115,000
Clifford Pappas – 1,105,000
Hanh Tran Hoping To Go Back to Back in $1,500 Triple Draw
Last summer, Hanh Tran topped a 356-player field to win his first bracelet in the $1,500 Triple Draw event. On Friday he took a huge step towards repeating in the event, bagging up the chip lead with just 17 of 467 entries still in. Tran finished Day 2 with 457,000, which puts him 8,000 ahead of Jared Bleznick and 21,000 ahead of Frankie O’Dell.
Daniel Strelitz, Benny Glaser, and David Bach are also still in contention for the $144,027 first place prize.
The day started with 139 players still alive and saw the money bubble burst after 68 eliminations. Some of the players who finished in the money but ultimately busted include Mark Gregorich, Max Kruse, Phil Hellmuth, Jon Turner, James Obst, Brian Hastings, Brock Parker, and Valentin Vornicu.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Hanh Tran – 457,000
- Jared Bleznick – 449,000
- Frankie O’Dell – 436,000
- David Bach – 415,000
- Kyle Miaso – 385,000
- Jesse Hampton – 377,000
- Hope Williams – 374,000
- Benny Glaser – 332,000
- Aron Dermer – 260,000
- Steven Tabb – 258,000
Ari Engel Bags Top 10 Stack After Day 1 of $1,000 Double Stack
Another lower buy-in No Limit Hold’em event, another massive Day 1 field. The $1,000 Double Stack drew 2,944 players for Day 1A on Friday with 1,096 of moving on to Day 2. That puts it on pace to scream past the 5,700-player field in this event from last summer.
Juan M. Esirviez was the only player to turn his starting stack of 40,000 into 500,000 or more. The Argentinian bagged up 530,000 while his closest competitor, Sunny Chattha, finished with 478,000.
Former #1-ranked PocketFiver, Ari Engel, ended up with 399,800 for the seventh biggest stack. Other notables moving on to Day 2 include Steven van Zadelhoff, Jason Wheeler, Bertrand Grospellier, Ismael Bojang, Troy Quenneville, Joseph Cheong, and Christian Harder.
Day 1B starts at 11 AM.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Juan M. Esirviez – 530,000
- Sunny Chattha – 478,000
- Imran Mukati – 432,300
- Arianna Son – 424,500
- Andrew Rubin – 422,200
- Gabriel Sack – 416,000
- Ari Engel – 399,800
- Joseph Walters – 390,700
- Brendan Shiller – 363,100
- John Hayes – 344,500
$10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed (Event #35)
The $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship top 10 reads like a who’s who of mixed game experts. Jeffrey Lisandro, Shaun Deeb, Phillip Hui, Matt Glantz, Chris Klodnicki, Frank Kassela, all found themselves one of the 44 players who managed to survive Day 1.
Lisandro, with 347,900, holds the tiniest of leads over Shaun Deeb. The former #1-ranked PocketFiver finished with 344,400. Not far behind him is Phillip Hui with 331,400. Those three were the only ones to end up north of 300,000 at the end of the day.
The event attracted 115 entrants on Day 1 with registration still open until the start of Day 2. Even if no new players enter on Saturday, the 2019 field is still four players ahead of the 2018 field.
Other notables moving on to Day 2: Adam Owen, Ryan Hughes, Nick Schulman, Marco Johnson, Phil Galfond, Patrick Leonard, Prahlad Friedman, and Michael Mizrachi.
Day 2 begins at 2 p.m. PT.
Top Chip Counts
- Jeff Lisandro – 347,900
- Shaun Deeb – 344,400
- Phillip Hui – 331,400
- Xunen Zheng – 282,000
- Matt Glantz – 275,700
- Denis Strebkob – 252,700
- Chris Klodnicki – 245,800
- Frank Kassela – 242,200
- Joao Vieira – 226,200
- Michael Ross – 223,700
Dan Zack Still Leads POY, Scott Clements Closing In
Dan Zack continues to pick up WSOP Player of the Year points. A 69th place finish in the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha event added 104.1 points to his total, but he’ll need to do more than that if he hopes to hold off Scott Clements. Days after winning his third career bracelet, Clements finished fourth in the $10,000 HORSE Championship and added 424.8 points to his total to move past Stephen Song into second place.
| 1 | Daniel Zack | 1,968.99 |
| 2 | Scott Clements | 1,642.02 |
| 3 | Stephen Song | 1,503.76 |
| 4 | John Gorsuch | $1,432 |
| 5 | Daniel Strelitz | 1,408.47 |
Saturday’s WSOP Schedule
