After nearly six weeks of waiting, the 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event began on Saturday with almost 800 players showing up to play Day 1A. That wasn’t the only event on the docket on Saturday though. Five other events were also in action, two of which played down to a winner.

Morten Mortensen Conquers Main Event Day 1A Field

795 players showed up at the Rio on Saturday with the same dream; win the 2017 WSOP Main Event. At the end of five two-hour levels of play there were just 576 players who managed to still have chips and are moving on to Day 2.

Denmark’s Morten Mortensen ended the day with the biggest chip stack with 276,000. That’s almost 20% more than any other player in the field. Sam Grafton bagged up 231,600 for the second biggest stack while Jonathan Little finished with 211,300 for the fourth largest stack.

Other notables who put themselves in a good position on Day 1A include Barny Boatman (150,000), Bryan Piccioli (145,100), Alex Foxen (141,500), Faraz Jaka (119,800), Austin Buchanan (117,800), Jon Turner (103,900) and Patrick Leonard (103,500).

Reigning champ Qui Nguyen spent his entire day on an ESPN featured table and managed to finish with 96,700.

Some of the players who were eliminated include Sorel Mizzi, Blake Bohn, Leon Tsoukernik, Matt Savage, Jerry Yang, Rafe Furst and Brock Parker.

Day 1B gets underway at 11 AM PT with action streaming live on PokerGO and later on ESPN2.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Morten Mortensen – 276,000
2. Sam Grafton – 231,600
3. Griffin Abel – 226,000
4. Jonathan Little – 211,300
5. David Eldridge – 207,000
6. Nachman Berlin – 205,000
7. Frank Crivello – 192,000
8. Michael Ravn – 188,800
9. Rahul Byrraju – 186,100
10. Ronnie Brown – 181,100

$365 Giant Down to 27 Players; John Hutchinson On Top

Day 2 of the $365 Giant saw the 882 players who started the day whittled down to just 27 players. Leading the way after Day 2 is John Hutchinson out of San Clemente, CA. He finished the day with 21,200,00.

He’ll need to work his way through 20 other players on Sunday if he hopes to win the bracelet and $291,240 first place prize money. Some of the players he’ll have to outlast on Sunday include Ravi Raghavan and Eric Baldwin.

Action resumes at 2 PM PT on Sunday and will play down to a winner.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. John Hutchinson – 21,200,000
2. Hrair Yapoudjian – 18,875,000
3. Ravi Raghavan – 12,900,000
4. Michael Guzzardi – 11,450,000
5. Tremayne Jernigan – 9,800,000
6. Akin Tuna – 9,400,000
7. Dieter Dechant – 8,775,000
8. Eric Baldwin – 8,075,000
9. Andrew Crookston – 7,800,000
10. Martin Zamani – 7,375,000

Harrison Gimbel Completes Triple Crown with $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Win

Just over a week after Mohsin Charania won his first WSOP bracelet to complete the live poker version of the Triple Crown, Harrison Gimbel did the same, beating Chance Kornuth to win the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

The $645,922 first place prize is the second largest score of Gimbel’s live career.

Gimbel, who won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event in 2010 and the World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder Main Event in 2016, now has a win on all three tours.

Kornuth walked away with $399,132 for his runner-up finish.

There were 37 players in the field at the start of Day 3. Matt Salsberg, Eric Froehlich, Kevin Saul, Daniel Negreanu and Ryan Laplante were just a handful of the players who were eliminated on Saturday.

Nevada online poker grinder Ian Steinman finished 37th for his fifth cash of the 2017 WSOP.

Final Table Payouts

1. Harrison Gimbel – $645,922
2. Chance Kornuth – $399,132
3. Ryan Van Sanford – $285,148
4. John Griffin – $206,119
5. Christopher Farmer – $150,772
6. Enio Bozzano – $111,619
7. Vinicius Teixeira Alves – $83,644
8. Kristofer Homerding – $63,457
9. James Gilbert – $48,745

Jason Gola Beats David ‘ODB’ Baker Heads Up for $1,500 Razz Title

All eyes were on Phil Hellmuth on Saturday as he entered the final day of the $1,500 Razz event with a chance at winning his 15th bracelet, but after ‘The Poker Brat’ was eliminated in sixth place, the attention shifted to David ‘ODB’ Baker.

Baker started the day with the chip lead and eventually found himself heads-up against Jason Gola for a shot at the second bracelet of his career. The pair went back and forth with the lead before Gola finished Baker off. The win was the first for Gola and afterwards he spoke about how some of his good friends helped him come through.

“The winner’s bracelet for me is bringing in (the influence of) Brandon Shack-Harris. He’s a really good friend of mine and I’ve watched and sweated him in tournaments,’ said Gola. “I don’t know if anyone can bring back a small stack back better than Brandon. He’s got to be one of the best in the world at it; I’ve watched him do it on a number of occasions – to win a bracelet and go deep in tournaments — and he inspired me. You don’t give up even when you have just a few chips.”

Along with the bracelet Gola took hom $132,957 for the win while Baker added $82,174 to his bankroll.

Final Table Payouts

1. Jason Gola – $132,957
2. David ‘ODB’ Baker – $82,174
3. Brad Ruben – $55,958
4. Wendy Freedman – $38,847
5. Benny Glaser – $27,503
6. Phil Hellmuth – $19,865
7. Gerard Rechnitzer – $14,645
8. James Schaaf $11,024

Five Remain in Ladies Championship Event

Just five players are left in the Ladies Championship event with Heidi May holding more than double the chips of any other player. The Australian grinder, who has already cashed in four big field NLHE events this summer, finished with 1,752,000 chips while Deborah Worley-Roberts has 861,000.

Among the 80 players eliminated on Saturday were Julie Cornelius, Vanessa Selbst, Lynn Gilmartin and Amanda Baker.

The final five players will play down to a winner beginning at 2 PM PT.

Final 5 Chip Counts

1. Heidi May – 1,752,000
2. Deborah Worley-Roberts – 861,000
3. Julie Dang – 458,000
4. Jana de la Cerra – 280,000
5. Katherine Ansorge – 250,000

Perry Friedman Leads $10K Seven Card Stud Championship

It’s been 15 years since Perry Friedman won his only career WSOP bracelet but on Saturday he took massive strides towards changing that. Friedman rose to the top of the chip counts at the end of Day 2 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship and now has just six other players in his way.

Friedman finished with 1,737,000 which gives him more than double any other player. Chris Ferguson ended Day 2 with 853,000. The final seven also include Mike Wattel, Bryce Yockey, John Monnette and Shaun Deeb.

The event has massive WSOP Player of the Year implications as well. Both Ferguson and Monnette could take a stranglehold on the race with a win in this event. Monnette is currently third in the standings, one spot ahead of Ferguson.

Todd Brunson, Dan Zack, Jason Mercier, Randy Ohel and David Benyamine all busted after the bubble burst on Saturday.

The restart is scheduled for 2 PM PT.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Perry Friedman – 1,737,000
2. Chris Ferguson – 853,000
3. Sean Mirrasouli – 580,000
4. Mike Wattel – 511,000
5. Bryce Yockey – 392,000
6. John Monnette – 289,000
7. Shaun Deeb – 39,000