WSOP: Hani Awad, Mike Gathy Win Gold, Summer Solstice Heads Up for Day 5
The dog days of June in the 2016 World Series of Poker saw Event 40 of 69 kickoff and the five-day march of the Summer Solstice came to a near end. There was also a Six Max event running for a Day 3, Day 2 and Day 1 on Thursday.
Koray Aldemir Leads Adrian Mateos to Day 5 of Summer Solstice
The massive field of 1,840 entrants returned 17 survivors to Day 4 of the $1,500 Summer Solstice and the event looked to finish a day early after reaching the final table. After 150 hands only Koray Aldemir and 2013 WSOPE Main Event champ Adrian Mateos remain at 7.515 million and 6.28 million chips respectively.
Mateos headlined a Day 4 field that included Kathy Liebert, Jason Wheeler and Chris Moorman. Mateos was a newcomer in 2013 and his Main Event win was his first WSOP cash. He’s in line for his fifth cash, but did advance to the Round of 16 in the Heads Up championship and made a deep run in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event earlier this Series.
Aldemir has eight WSOP cashes dating back to 2014 and has been on a hot streak dating back to 2015. His largest cash came in the Main Event and this year he’s cashed in the Colossus, Millionaire Maker and a $1,000 NLH event.
Cards will be in the air at noon where they’ll have the entire day to play for the bracelet.
Final Table Payouts
- TBD – $409,171
- TBD – $252,805
- Alessandro Borsa – $182,835
- Ralph Wong – $133,584
- Jon Turner – $98,617
- Jackson White – $73,563
- Ronald McGinnity – $55,455
- Stephen Ladowsky – $42,252
- David Tovar – $32,540
Michael Gathy Wins 3rd Bracelet in 2nd Final Table of 2016
Gathy had approximately 8.5 million to Allain’s 5 million on the final hand, they saw a three-bet flop of 
and Gathy bet 450,000. Allain called, the turn came 
and after Gathy checked Allain bet 800,000. Gathy called again, the river came 
, Gathy checked and Allain shoved. Gathy called holding 
for two pair and Allain tabled a busted flush draw to lose the match.
Final Table Payouts
- Michael Gathy – $560,843
- Adrien Allain – $346,632
- Manuel Nunez – $229,990
- Blake Eastman – $155,762
- Scott Margereson – $107,723
- Thi Nguyen – $76,112
Hani Awad Captures 1st Bracelet After Finishing Runner-Up in 2015 in Same Event
Awad began heads-up play with a 3-1 chiplead over Soulier and despite doubling up a couple times, Soulier couldn’t mount a comeback. After 50 years of living in Las Vegas and playing poker Awad said moments after winning, “This means everything. I don’t even care about the money. I just wanted to win the gold bracelet.”
“When I first moved here I lived in the same building as (Stu) Ungar – at the Regency,” he said. “I played with all the people you know – Ungar, Seymour (Leibowitz) – all of them. I have been gambling for over 50 years in Las Vegas, I still play all the action games.”
Final Table Payouts
- Hani Awad – $213,186
- Fabrice Soulier – $131,762
- Aditya Prasetyo – $89,409
- Denny Axel – $61,888
- Michael Chow – $43,717
- Gleb Kovtunov – $31,527
- Per Hildebrand – $23,222
- Timothy Burt – $17,479
Event 37: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
Day 2 of the event returned 128 players and after a full day of action 16 players remain advancing to Day 3. Tommy Le holds a huge lead over the field as the only player over a million with Jon Ho Christensen in second place with 699,000.
Jake Schwartz and Dylan Linde are the most accomplished players returning but sit in the second half of the counts – Linde as the shortest.
Matt Brady, Joe Serock and Daniel Negreanu all made the final four tables but were eliminated before the end of play. Natasha Barbour, Dan Sindelar, Tyler Patterson, Jordan Smith and Leif Force also cashed in the event.
All returning players are guaranteed $7,179 but after the first elimination they hit a pay jump. Then, a trip to the final table doubles what their guaranteed and the winner walks with $212,128 – which forecasts a deliberate pace of play.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Tommy Le – 1,040,000
- Jon Ho Christensen – 699,000
- Henri Koivisto – 597,000
- Arundel Robinson – 590,000
- Thibaut Klinghammer – 446,000
- Dieyar Kakel – 339,000
- Jiaqi Xu – 318,000
- Bryce Eckhart – 280,000
- Jake Schwartz – 218,000
- Patrick Salo – 218,000
Event 38: $3,000 Six Max Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of the$3,000 Six Max Limit Hold’em event had 64 survivors playing for the 37 spots that paid and after ten levels of action Limit Hold’em specialist Matt Matros leads the field one green chip short of a million chip stack.
2015 Main Event champ Joe McKeehen sits second in chips and along with Georgios Zisimopoulos the top three players hold a huge lead over the bottom five stacks.
Rep Porter,Chris Klodnicki, Jesse Martin and Jason Somerville finished in the final three tables as Terrence Chan, Jeffrey Lisandro and Jonathan Duhamel cashed further down the payouts.
Top Eight Chip Counts
- Matt Matros – 978,000
- Joe McKeehen – 825,000
- Georgios Zisimopoulos – 788,000
- Mikhail Semin – 302,000
- Alex Queen – 243,000
- Audrey Zhigalov – 195,000
- Brad Libson – 178,000
- Rafael Lebron – 167,000
Event 39: $10,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em Championship
The short-hand No Limit Hold’em Championship is one of the most action-packed events of the summer featuring the biggest names in the game. The event drew 294 players and 123 of them advance to Day 2 with Garbriel Andrade leading the field.
Robert Mizrachi andJustin Bonomo already logged significant time on the ESPN Thunderdome in 2016 and both bagged up in the top ten. Steve Gross, Timothy Adams, Galen Hall and Ankush Mandavia bagged up just outside the top ten. Simon Deadman, Tony Gregg, Jake Schindler,Vanessa Selbst and Jeff Gross bagged more modest stacks.
The field combined for a $2,763,600 prize pool to pay out the top 45 finishers. The min-cash comes in at $14,848 but the final table locks up at least $90,783 and the winner earns $665,709 for the championship win.
A Who’s Who in poker made up the field and not all of them survived the day – Jason Mercier, Antonio Esfandiari, Dominik Nitsche, Doug Polk, Erik Seidel and Fedor Holz all hit the rail on Thursday.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Gabriel Andrade – 443,000
- Brandon Steven – 397,700
- Daniel Strelitz – 324,200
- Eric Sfez – 296,600
- Rahul Byrraju – 252,000
- Robert Mizrachi – 250,100
- Justin Bonomo – 241,500
- Senh Ung – 228,000
- Assani Fisher – 205,500
- Nick Petrangelo – 200,000
Event 40: $2,500 Mix Triple Draw Lowball
The mix of Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, Ace to Five and Badugi is a new event for the 2016 schedule and the Lowball mix drew 236 entrants. Former “Crew” member Anthony Lazar leads the field with Christopher Vitch close behind.
2011 Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko is second in chips and Jason Mercier finds himself advancing to another Day 2. Jon Turner put in a full day in the Summer Solstice event with a fifth place finish but jumped in the event and bagged up in the top 20.
The field combined for a $536,900 prize pool for the final 36 players. Anyone making the final table has $18,336 locked up and the winner’s share is $136,854.
Top Ten Chip Counts
- Anthony Lazar – 161,300
- Christopher Vitch – 152,200
- Martin Staszko – 97,900
- Brandon Delnano – 93,600
- Jason Mercier – 93,100
- Tuan Le – 91,000
- Daniel Hirleman – 87,200
- Michael Noori – 86,700
- Alan Myerson – 84,00
- Timothy Burt – 81,400
The Monster Stack Arrives
Day 1A of the player-favorite Monster Stack kicks off at 10 am Friday as the first of two flights. Players must choose either Day 1A or Day 1B as only on entry is allowed. Players begin the event with a 15,000 starting stack with the standard $1,500 No Limit Hold’em structure. The 3 PMevent is the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout.
