WSOP: James Calderaro Wins $25K PLO; Nipun Java Wins $1K Online
The final day of play at the 2017 World Series of Poker before the Main Event begins was one of the busiest of the summer with eight different bracelet events in action. As the night drew to a close though, just two bracelets had been awarded while another one of those “best-without-a-bracelet” players was forced to wait one more day to see if he could finally capture WSOP gold.
$1,500 No Limit Hold’em Down to Two; Chris Klodnicki Close
Many people who know Chris Klodnicki well are astonished that he has yet to win a WSOP bracelet. He’s already had one close call this summer, a third place finish in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice event, and now finds himself heads-up for a bracelet and heading to an extra day of play.
Klodnick and Emile Schiff are the last two players standing after 10 levels of play Friday in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event, having outlasted 21 other players who busted on Day 3. They’ll return to the Rio at Noon PT on Saturday to play it out. When they do, Klodnicki will have to erase a nearly 2-1 chip deficit if he hopes to win a bracelet.
Heads up for a bracelet. Outchipped 3-1.
Fourth time’s a charm?— Chris Klodnicki (@SLOPPYKLOD) July 8, 2017
Among the players who did’t make it through Day 3 were Vojtech Ruzicka, Brian Hastings, Kenny Hallaert, Darren Elias and Ben Zamani.
Heads Up Chip Counts
- Emile Schiff – 9,760,000
- Chris Klodnicki – 4,910,000
James Calderaro Wins $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller
Prior to Friday, James Calderaro had 46 career cashes and not a single one of them came in anything but Hold’em. That all changed though when Calderaro beat a final table that included Ben Tollerene, Martin Kozlov, Dan Smith, Dario Sammartino, Bryce Yockey, Esther Taylor and Alexey Rybin to win the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for $1,289,074.
Rybin finished runner-up for $796,706.
Taylor busted in third place for her eighth cash and fourth final table of the 2017 WSOP.
Final Table Payouts
- James Calderaro – $1,289,074
- Alexey Rybin – $796,706
- Esther Taylor – $543,713
- Artem Babakhanyan – $379,128
- Bryce Yockey – $270,242
- Dario Sammartino – $197,007
- Dan Smith – $146,961
- Ben Tollerene – $112,239
Chance Kornuth Leads $3,000 NLHE After Day 2
Just 37 players remain after two days of play in the $3,000 NLHE event with Chance Kornuth standing on top of the chip counts with 1,467,000. Kornuth is one of just four players to finish the day with a seven-figure stack.
Right behind Kornuth and his 1,467,000 chips are Konstantinos Nanos (1,327,000), James Gilbert (1,174,000) and Ryan Van Sanford (1,007,000).
Other notables still chasing the $645,922 first place prize money are Ryan Van Sanford, Matt Salsberg, Kevin Saul, Daniel Negreanu, Ryan Laplante and Harrison Gimbel.
Action resumes at Noon PT and is scheduled to play down to a winner.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Chance Kornuth – 1,467,000
- Konstantinos Nanos – 1,327,000
- James Gilbert – 1,174,000
- Ryan Van Sanford – 1,007,000
- Armin Mette – 912,000
- Krzysztof Stybaniewicz – 862,000
- Jeremiah Fitzpatrick – 825,000
- Traian Bostan – 824,000
- Simon Appleby – 814,000
- Scott Margereson – 705,000
David ‘ODB’ Baker Leads $1,500 Razz; Phil Hellmuth Looking for #15
Just 10 players remain in the $1,500 Razz event and while David ‘ODB’ Baker finished Day 2 with the chip lead, the attention of the poker world is on the shortest remaining stack. Phil Hellmuth, who has won this event twice in his career, ended Day 2 116,000 chips, just 1/5 of what Baker did, but his chance at a 15th bracelet overshadows the rest of the field.
Right behind Baker, who ended the day with 614,000, is Wendy Freedman with 596,000. Benny Glaser also managed to make it to Day 3 with 324,000 – the fourth biggest stack.
The second day of play started with 102 players still in the field, but 10 levels of play narrowed that down to just 10. Some of the 53 players who busted Day 2 in the money include Tom Schneider, Brandon Shack-Harris, Mike Matusow, James Obst, Jason Mercier and Mike Ross.
The final 10 will be back in action at 2 pm PT.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- David ‘ODB’ Baker – 614,000
- Wendy Freedman – 596,000
- Brad Ruben – 426,000
- Benny Glaser – 324,000
- Jason Gola – 312,000
- James Schaaf – 231,000
- Gerard Rechnitzer – 221,000
- Grzegorz Wyraz – 177,000
- Yordan Petrov – 119,000
- Phil Hellmuth – 116,000
85 Players Return to Ladies Championship Day 2
Friday saw 718 players take their seats in the Ladies Championship but only 85 managed to survive Day 1 action. Leading the way heading into Day 2 is Parm Mehmi with 120,000. There are four other women who managed to bag up six-figure stacks but right behind that group is none other than Vanessa Selbst with 94,800.
Other noteworthy names heading into Day 2 include World Poker Tour anchor Lynn Gilmartin, Julie Cornelius and Lauren Kling.
There were 23 players who managed to survive past the bubble but were unable to move on to Day 2 including 888poker Ambassador Natalie Hof. She finished 95th for $1,545.
There was one male player who decided to enter the field and pay the $10,000 entry fee as opposed to the $1,000 price tag for women; National Hockey League defenseman Simon Depres. He did not make it through Day 1.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Parm Mehmi – 120,000
- Deborah Worleyroberts – 114,900
- Katherine Ansorge – 114,800
- Amanda Sizemore – 107,500
- Kristen Deardorff – 104,300
- Vanessa Selbst – 94,800
- Thi Bui – 92,700
- Jana Delacerra – 92,000
- Diana Svensk – 77,800
- Heidi May – 74,400
Nipun Java Double Dips with Online Bracelet Event Victory
Nipun Java joined David Bach as the only double-bracelet winners at the 2017 WSOP after winning the $1,000 Online Bracelet event for $237,688. Java, who was half of the winning team in the $1,000 Tag Team event earlier this summer, beat Jason ‘jadedjason’ James heads-up to win the bracelet and $237,688.
The event drew a field of 1,312 – a slight increase over the 1,247 players who entered last year – to create a $1,246,400 prizepool.
Final Table Payouts
- Nipun ‘Javatinii’ Java – $237,688
- Jason ‘jadedjason’ James – $146,202
- Richard ‘jklolz’ Tuhrin – $103,326
- Evan ‘YUDUUUUUUUUU’ Jarvis – $73,911
- Vinny ‘Mr_Sinister’ Pahuja – $53,595
- Jeffrey ‘jeffrey27rj’ Turton – $39,510
- Sean ‘Hurricane 27’ Legendre – $29,415
- Steven ‘meditations’ Enstine – $22,185
- Stanley ‘stanman420’ Lee – $17,075
John Monnette Leads $10K Seven Card Stud Championship After Day 1
Before the 2017 WSOP began, some so-called experts picked John Monnette to win WSOP Player of the Year. That prediction was largely based on the previous scoring systems. Despite changes to the system that reward min-cashes and smaller buy-in events at a higher levels than previous years, John Monnette is still in contention for the award and after Day 1 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, finds himself in good position to move into top spot heading into the Main Event.
Monnette was one of 29 players that survived Day 1 and sits on top of the chip counts with 371,000. He’s just ahead of Perry Friedman (363,000) and Shaun Deeb (343,000).
Some of the other notable names moving on to Day 2 include Andre Akkari, Eric Wasserson, Chris Ferguson, David Benyamine, David Bach, Jason Mercier and Cliff Josephy.
The event drew 88 players, one more than last year, for a $827,200 prize pool. The eventual champ is going to walk away with $245,451.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- John Monnette – 371,000
- Perry Friedman – 363,000
- Shaun Deeb – 343,000
- Chris Tryba – 285,500
- Christopher Vitch – 257,000
- Andre Akkari – 245,500
- Eric Wasserson – 201,000
- Amir Mirrasouli – 191,500
- Chris Ferguson – 189,000
- Randy Ohel – 180,000
Final Flight of $365 Giant Sees Field top 10,000
There’s really no surprise to see that the final flight of the $365 buy-in Giant event drew the largest field. A total of 3,969 players showed up Friday night to take their chance at building a stack and heading on to Day 2. That put the total number of entries over the five starting flights at 10,015.
Of those 10,015 entries, just 882 managed to bag a stack to move on to Day 2. The remaining players from all five flights now combine into one on Saturday for Day 2, hoping to play down to a champion on Sunday.
