WSOP: Shaun Deeb, Kristen Bicknell Each Win Second Bracelet
Just two bracelets were awarded on Thursday at the 2016 World Series of Poker and for both winners it was there second time winning one. Shaun Deeb beat a stacked final table to win the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event just one year after winning his first bracelet. Kristen Bicknell, the 2013 Ladies Champion, won her second career bracelet by coming out on top of the $1,500 Bounty event.
While Deeb and Bicknell were winning their second career bracelets, Jason Mercier was a man on mission trying to win his third bracelet of the summer. Mercier played three events simultaneously in an attempt to advance a stack in all three events.
Hopped in 1500 triple Omaha 8/b while 3k NL goes on last break. Leaving that stack to blind into day 2
First time this summer I’m #3tabling
— Jason Mercier (@JasonMercier) July 1, 2016
It didn’t quite work out though as Mercier busted the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship and the $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo event and made Day 2 of the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event with a short stack.
Event #46: Kristen Bicknell Wins $1,500 Bounty NLHE Event
Just three players came back for Day 4 of the $1,500 Bounty event and Kristen Bicknell made the most of her chip lead, beating John Myung and Norbert Szecsi in a little less than 90 minutes to win her second career bracelet and the first by a Canadian player in 2016.
“It all feels so surreal. But it almost doesn’t feel true. It’s the dream you always had,” said Bicknell. “When you bust from a tournament, you feel so bad. But when you win it’s such a weird feeling.”
Bicknell’s first win came in the 2013 Ladies Championship and she admitted that getting the second was important to her.
“I beat out a lot of good players, in both the tournaments I won,” said Bicknell, who earned $290,768 for the victory. “Yes, this is still a validation, but there are a lot of great female poker players, too. There’s lots of them.”
The tournament, which had a field of 2,158 players, took an extra day to finish after the final three players were unable to finish things off after playing 10 levels on Wednesday night.
Final Table Payouts
- Kristen Bicknell – $290,768
- Norbert Szecsi – $179,625
- John Myung – $130,588
- Ryan Leng – $95,857
- Will Failla – $71,049
- Sebastien Comel – $53,181
- Steve Gee – $40,203
- Fadi Hamad – $30,697
- Jason Singleton – $23,678
Event #49: Shaun Deeb Wins $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Shaun Deeb joined Paul Volpe as the former PocketFives #1-ranked players to win a bracelet in 2016. Deeb beat out a final table that included six former braclet winners and ten total bracelets.
“I was just happy to have some chips going into Day Three and it obviously was a super tough final table with a lot of great players who have been playing for over a decade,” Deeb said. “There’s a lot of run good in Stud and I had seen all the updates, I had all the big hands and all the three-way pots and I ran one big bluff and it got through and with the time it just had value so it was really easy to play. I didn’t really have to outplay anyone. Anyone would’ve won with my cards in that tournament.”
Deeb started Day 3 trailing only Eugene Katchalov and then eliminated five players on his way to the win. He sent Corey Zeidman, Yaniv Birman, Katchalov, Max Pescatori and eventually Adam Friedman to win the event and the $111,101 first place prize money. At some point he got some advice from another great player that paid off.
Got a great pep talk from @ToddBrunson it worked victory
— shaun deeb (@shaundeeb) July 1, 2016
Deeb’s first bracelet came last year when he won the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championhip.
Final Table Payouts
- Shaun Deeb – $111,101
- Adam Friedman – $68,666
- Max Pescatori- $46,312
- Katherine Fleck – $31,899
- Eugene Katchalov – $22,448
- Yaniv Birman – $16,147
- John Monnette – $11,878
- Cory Zeidman – $8,941
Event #50: Vanessa Selbst Highlights 12 Players Left in $1,500 Shootout
Day 2 of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event saw 120 players return to play 12 10-handed tables with the winner of each moving on to the final day. The group of 12 who won their tables to advance includes Sam Greenwood and Niall Farrell but the real headliner is Vanessa Selbst.
The remaining 12 players will start play with two six-handed tables on Friday and play down to a winner beginning at Noon.
Final 12 Chip Counts
- Safiya Umerova – 654,000
- Damian Salas – 654,000
- Sam Greenwood – 653,000
- Niall Farrell – 651,000
- Erkut Yilmaz – 651,000
- Alexander Lakhov – 646,000
- Daniel McAulay – 641,000
- Daniel Tang – 640,000
- Vanessa Selbst – 639,000
- Michael Mixer – 635,000
- Yuliyan Kolev – 631,000
- Raymond Ho – 630,500
Event #51: Tommy Lee Leads $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship
Day 2 of the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship saw just 28 players of the 159 who started the day move on to Day 3. Leading the pack is Tommy Lee with 2,100,000. He’s the ony player to finish with more than 2,000,000.
The group behind Le includes Brandon Shack-Harris (1,630,000), James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst (1,552,000), recent bracelet winner Loren Klein (760,000) and Max Silver (726,000).
With the top 60 players all making the money in this event, there were 32 players eliminated on Thursday that managed to make a profit in the event including Erik Seidel ($15,113), Mike Matusow ($17,113), Taylor Paur ($17,113), Mike Watson ($18,925) and Jason Mercier ($18,925).
The final 28 players return to play at 2 PM on Friday to play down to a winner or another 10 levels.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Tommy Le – 2,100,000
- Brandon Shack-Harris – 1,630,000
- James Obst – 1,552,000
- Melad Marji – 1,300,000
- Junayed Khan – 1,122,000
- Travis Pearson – 1,108,000
- Harley Stoffmaker – 1,050,000
- Dominique Mosley – 817,000
- Loren Klein – 760,000
- Benjamin Reinhart – 739,000
Event #52: Erhan Iscan Leads $3,000 No Limit Hold’em
Erhan Iscan has just one previous tournament cash to his credit – a 32nd place finish in a $120 buy-in tournament in 2009. On Thursday he took a gigantic step towards his second cash, this time with a much bigger payout available.
Iscan leads after Day 1 of the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event with 281,000. He is one of 286 survivors from Day 1 action.
Former PocketFives #1-ranked player Jordan Young finished with 177,000, good enough for a top five stack. Just two days after finishing runner-up to Ankush Mandavia in the $5,000 Turbo, Daniel Strelitz finished with a top 10 stack, after amassing 163,600 on Day 1.
The event drew 1,125 players to create a $3,071,250 prizepool with the eventual champion walking away with $569,158.
Some of the other notables to move on to Day 2 include Kevin Saul, Jay Farber, Stephen Chidwick, Joe Cada, Bryn Kenney and 888poker pro Sofia Lovgren.
This is the only event of the day that Mercier managed to advance in. He’ll have his work cut out for him on Friday however as he bagged up just 21,800 chips – the 251st biggest stack.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Erhan Iscan – 281,800
- Oliver Bosch – 201,600
- Keith Lehr – 188,200
- Jordan Young – 177,000
- Michael Kane – 174,000
- Dorian Rios – 167,700
- Christopher Kruk – 164,500
- Daniel Strelitz – 163,600
- Ivan Freitez – 156,900
- Roman Valerstein – 142,800
Event #53: John Monnette Leads $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo After Day 1
One of the new events on the 2016 WSOP schedule this year, the $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo event rotates between Omaha Hi-Lo, Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo and Big O (five card Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo). To the surprise of few, a player that has vast experience playing all three variations of the game in Las Vegas cash games made his way to the top of the chip counts after Day 1.
John Monnette, who has already cashed six times this summer, finished with 87,650 and the Day 1 chip lead. Right behind him is Yuval Bronshtein with 81,725. Former $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner David Bach sits third with 75,050.
Other former braclet winners to advance to Day 2 include Michael Mizrachi, Eli Elezra, Mike Leah, Jason Somerville, Barry Greenstein, Allen Cunningham and Andrey Zaichenko.
The event brought out 668 players with 207 moving on to Day 2.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- John Monnette – 87,650
- Yuval Bronshtein – 81,725
- David Bach – 75,050
- Cody Crouch – 74,400
- Randy Schatz – 70,200
- Michael Mizrachi – 67,325
- Mark Johns – 65,050
- Viliyan Petleshkov – 64,000
- James Alexander – 63,100
- Woody Deck – 61,325
