James Moore went back-to-back in the Super Seniors event (WSOP photo)

It’s not uncommon to have a player win World Series of Poker bracelets in back-to-back years, but what James Moore pulled off on Monday is really rare. Moore took down the Super Seniors event on Tuesday for the second consecutive year. Moore’s win was historic, but a lot of people were talking about other events happening at the Rio on Tuesday including a classic Phil Hellmuth outburst.

James Moore Books Back-to-Back Super Seniors Wins

James Moore is a 66-year-old retiree from New Hope, Pennsylvania and has been eligible for the Super Seniors event at the WSOP for the last two years. He’s now won it both times after he battled heads-up with Kerry Goldberg on Tuesday to eventually win his second straight bracelet.

Moore walked away with $259,230 for the win – a $28,604 bump over his 2016 score. Afterwards, Moore gave his final opponent credit for making it difficult.

“I’ll tell you, starting out heads-up, I tried to stay positive, but it was very tough and I had so few chips. That was a lucky, lucky run,” Moore said.

The last time a player won the same event in consecutive years was 2015 when Tuan Le won the $10,000 Triple Draw Deuce to Seven event for the second time.

Final Table Payouts

  1. James Moore – $259,230
  2. Kerry Goldberg – $160,12
  3. John Isler – $115,357
  4. Veronica Daly – $84,005
  5. Ken Aldridge – $61,842
  6. Darrell Ticehurst – $46,029
  7. David Smith – $34,641
  8. Daniel Favreau – $26,365
  9. Jerry Stuhldreher – $20,296

Faraz Jaka Leads $5,000 Six Max Final Table

The $5,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event always draws out some of the best NLHE players and 2017 is certainly no exception. Day 3 started with 18 players remaining and finished with just a final table of six and Faraz Jaka on top.

Jaka bagged up 3,150,000 to put himself just ahead of 2016 November Niner, Kenny Hallaert (2,960,000) and Nadar Kakhamazov (2,925,000). Sam Soverel finished with 2,200,000 while former #1-ranked PocketFiver Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen finished with 1,860,000. Christian Rudolph made it to the final table with the shortest stack at 1,305,000.

This is Jaka’s second final table of the 2017 WSOP following his sixth place finish in the $2,620 Marathon earlier this week.

James Obst bubbled the final table for his six cash of the summer. Along with his win in the $10,000 Razz Championship, Obst has finished second, eighth, 26th and now seventh. He now leads the race for 2017 WSOP Player of the Year.

Also eliminated on Tuesday were Garrett Greer, Jonathan Jaffe and Mike Leah.

Action resumes at Noon PT with the final table streaming on PokerGO.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Faraz Jaka – 3,150,000
  2. Kenny Hallaert – 2,960,000
  3. Nadar Kakhmazov – 2,925,000
  4. Sam Soverel – 2,200,000
  5. Chris Hunichen – 1,860,000
  6. Christian Rudolph – 1,305,000

Chris Johnson On Top of Final 20 in $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Two days in to the first open $1,000 No Limit Hold’em of the summer and just 20 players remain and Chris Johnson is the only player working with a seven-figure stack.

Johnson, who began the day with the 13th biggest stack, ended up with 1,242,000 chips as 218 of the 238 players to start the day were eliminated on Tuesday. The next closest stack to Johnson belongs to Vlad Darie, with 902,000.

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy bagged up a top 10 stack as did the player who started the day with the lead, Chad Eveslage.

Of the 218 Day 2 bustouts were Anthony Spinella, Kevin Saul, Mike Leah, Ryan Laplante, Dylan Linde, Barry Greenstein and Jordan Young.

Action resumes at Noon PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Chris Johnson – 1,242,000
  2. Vlad Darie – 902,000
  3. Joep Raemaekers – 890,000
  4. Eric Blair – 825,000
  5. Chad Layne – 755,000
  6. Thomas Reynolds – 739,000
  7. Michael Gathy – 672,000
  8. Chad Eveslage – 564,000
  9. Shaun Davis – 535,000
  10. Daniel Deveau – 458,000

$10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship Features Classic Phil Hellmuth

Just 15 players remain in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship with JC Tran on top, but the Day 2 story from this event might have been about the 16th place finisher.

Phil Hellmuth was in classic Poker Brat mode after a big hand against Terrence Chan.

For Chan, it was worth almost as much a min-cash to get to be a victim of a Hellmuth rant.

Hellmuth eventually busted in 16th place while Chan finished with the second biggest stack.

The remaining field is full of big names. Sorel Mizzi, Ben Yu, Daniel Negreanu, Jon Turner, Shaun Deeb and defending champion Ian Johns will all be unbagging chips on Wednesday .

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. JC Tran – 1,150,000
  2. Terrence Chan – 831,000
  3. Sorel Mizzi – 641,000
  4. Ray Henson – 640,000
  5. Ben Yu – 446,000
  6. Daniel Negreanu – 425,000
  7. Jared Talarico – 366,000
  8. Tom McCormick – 321,000
  9. Aaron Sacks – 300,000
  10. Robert Campbell – 276,000

Rifat Palevic Tops $1,000 Super Turbo Bounty Event

It took just one day for Rifat Palevic to add his name to the list of WSOP bracelet winners (WSOP photo)

One of the new events on the WSOP schedule this year turned out to be a massive success. The $1,000 buy-in Super Turbo Bounty featured 20-minute levels and a $300 bounty for every player eliminated and a whopping 1,867-player field.

It took just one day to get down to a winner and after just over 14 hours of action, Sweden’s Rifat Palevic was the last player standing with the bracelet in hand in $183,903 in his pockets. It wasn’t even in Palevic’s plans to play the event.

“I actually wasn’t even planning on playing this, but I met one guy from Houston, Texas and we played heads-up for a long session in London and he told me that it was not good cash games. And he said ‘Let’s play this. It’s a good tournament.’ So, my friends also told me it was a good tournament. I went into it and everything was good. I’m very happy to get a bracelet,” said Palevic.

One of the other 279 players to cash in the event was Mike Leah. This gave Leah the rare distinction of being one of the few players in WSOP history to cash in three different events in one day.

Final Table Payouts

  1. Rifat Palevic – $183,903
  2. Ryan Olisar – $113,581
  3. Dean Blatt – $82,227
  4. Robert Heioorn – $60,132
  5. Rick Hollman – $44,424
  6. Joseph Monahan – $33,160
  7. Gavin O’Rourke – $25,010
  8. George Dolofan – $19,063
  9. Victor Kim – $14,685

Jeff Madsen Leads $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better After Day 1

While a good percentage of the early events on the schedule this year saw a year-over-year decrease in attendance, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo event apparently didn’t get the memo.

The event drew 595 players, 74 more than 2016, with 176 making it through Day 1. This is the largest turnout for this event in five years. Leading the way is Jeff Madsen with 79,000, barely ahead of Jeffrey Mitseff (78,100) and Cole Jackson (76,800).

Other notables who made it through Day include Chris Ferguson, Randy Ohel, Phil Hui, Justin Bonomo, Brandon Shack Harris and Frank Kassela.

Day 2 begins at 2 pm PT.

Top 10 Chip Counts

  1. Jeff Madsen – 79,900
  2. Jeffrey Mitseff – 78,100
  3. Cole Jackson – 76,800
  4. Chris Ferguson – 70,800
  5. Ryan Hughes – 69,100
  6. Tim Finne – 66,300
  7. Randy Ohel – 64,600
  8. John Cernuto – 62,400
  9. Kevin Song – 61,800
  10. Dimitrios Magdalinos – 60,700