The action continues to heat up at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino as the 49th Annual World Series of Poker saw a plethora of events spread throughout the convention area. Two bracelets were awarded, the final table of the Colossus was established and the start of the prestigious $10,000 Heads-Up NL Championship got underway.

Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know from Wednesday (June 6).

Paul Volpe Wins Third Bracelet

Event #9: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship came to a finish as Paul Volpe finished off popular poker TV mainstay Eli Elezra in route to his third career bracelet.

“I just ran really good,” Volpe said after taking home the win. “I think a lot of people with the same cards as me would’ve won the tournament. I was playing solid in the beginning, and with Omaha, as there gets to be less people, you get more aggressive.”

After having lost the first three players of the final table on Tuesday, the final six returned to play out the remainder of the tournament in an added day four. Elezra, who is a three-time bracelet winner himself, would settle for the $258,297 payday as the runner-up, Volpe takes home $417,921 as the winner.

Event #9 Final Table Payouts

1. Paul Volpe – $417,921
2. Eli Elezra – $258,297
3. Adam Coats – $181,374
4. Kyle Miaso – $129,648
5. Viacheslav Zhukov – $94,730
6. Dustin Dirksen – $69,971
7. Robert Mizrachi – $52,866
8. Daniel Zack – $40,715
9. Per Hildebrand – $31,977

Jeremy Harkin Takes Down $1,500 Dealer’s Choice

Event #12: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice wrapped up with Jeremy Harkin taking the first place prize of $129,882 and his very first WSOP gold bracelet.

“I basically gave up on the dream of ever winning a bracelet last year,” Harkin said. “Everything seemed to click for the last few days.”

Harkin, who entered the final day as the chip leader, bested the field of 406 entires and navigated a tough final day that included a number of high-profile players. Despite he effort needed to close it out, Harkin stood resolved.

“This is a chance to play and see how I stack up against these guys. I just kinda visualized it. I thought I was playing well. If it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out.”

It did work out for Harkin and now his dream of being a gold bracelet winner has finally come true.

Players who made the final day but busted before the final table include John Hennigan ($11,930), Chris Klodnicki ($8,815), Mike Leah ($8,815), Jeff Lisandro ($6,698), Chris Bolek ($6,698) and Chris Vitch ($5,238) all of whom have earned at least one WSOP victory in the past.

Event #12 Final Table Payouts

1. Jeremy Harkin – $129,882
2. Frankie O’Dell – $80,256
3. George Trigeorgis – $52,130
4. Anthony Arvidson – $34,700
5. James Woods – $23,686
6. Scott Abrams – $16,589

Nine Left In Colossus

From a field of over 13,000, only nine players remain in Event #7: $565 Colossus.

Headlining the Colossus final table is former November Niner and bracelet winner John Racener. Sang Liu will hold a sizable chip lead to start the day, as he and Scott Margereson are the only two players with over 10,000,000 in chips.

The pay jumps are huge in this contest as the winner of this event will be taking home a cool $1 million while the runner-up taking home half of that. The next player to bust will walk with just over $57,000. That said, there’s a lot at stake when this table reconvenes on Thursday. All of the action being broadcast on PokerCentral’s Twitch channel beginning at 3:00 PM PT.

Colossus Final Table Stacks

1. Sang Liu – 18,205,000
2. Scott Margereson – 13,855,000
3. Joel Wurtzel – 8,375,000
4. Gunter Dumsky – 6,535,000
5. Song Choe – 5,835,000
6. Roberly Felicio – 4,750,000
7. John Racener – 3,540,000
8. Timothy Miles – 2,810,000
9. Steven Jones – 1,300,000

Dutch Boyd Leads The Way Into Day 3 of Event #13

Event #13: $1,500 Big Blind Antes NLHE started the day with just 224 of the original 1,306 players left in the field. At the end of the day, there were but 29 left with three-time gold bracelet winner Dutch Boyd holding the overnight chip lead.

Other notable names to advance to day 3 include Day 2 chip leader Stephen Song, Justin Young, Ankush Mandavia, Daniel Strelitz, and Shaun Deeb.

With 196 players making the money there were plenty of players who earned a payday but did not survive the day. Dylan Wilkerson, Jeff Madsen, Chance Kornuth, Nick Schulman, Calvin Anderson, Jeff Gross, Dominik Nitsche as well as former WSOP Main Event Champions Qui Nguyen and Jonathan Duhamel all earned at least the minimum payday of $2,456 in this one.

Day 3 resumes at 12:00 noon PT as players will chase the over $315,000 first place prize and the coveted gold bracelet.

Top 10 Day 3 Chip Stacks

1. Dutch Boyd – 748,000
2. Stefan Vidojkovic – 744,000
3. Steven Snyder – 497,000
4. Tony Ruberto – 488,000
5. Mark Barrett – 485,000
6. Stephen Song – 455,000
7. Yiannis Liperis – 431,000
8. Romain Lewis – 420,000
9. Jan Christoph Von Halle – 409,000

Three Left In $1,500 NL Lowball Draw

There are only three players remaining to compete for the Event #14: $1,500 No Limit Lowball Draw title. One of them is chip leader Daniel Ospina, who holds a commanding chip lead. But the story here is that another one of them is Shaun Deeb. The same Shaun Deeb who survived into Day 3 of Event #13.

Deeb was live multi-tabling, rushing back and forth between tournaments and maintain a stack in both and now he’ll be entering Thursday for a chance to win two bracelets in the same day.

Of the 206 runners who started the tournament, only 55 returned for Day 2 with 39 promised a payday. Mike Wattel ($24,920), Michael Gathy ($9,263), Ray Henson ($5,420), Maria Ho ($3,522), David Prociak ($3,522), Ian Steinman ($3,522), Owais Ahmed ($2,959), Jesse Martin ($2,557) and last year’s champion Frank Kassela ($1,138) all found their way into the money, but ultimately fell on Day 2.

The final table plays to a conclusion starting at 2 pm PT.

Final three chip counts

1. Daniel Ospina – 1,144,000
2. Shaun Deeb – 477,500
3. Timothy Mcdermott – 429,500

Damjan Radanov Holds Chip Lead In H.O.R.S.E.

Day 1 of Event #15: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. saw 731 runners take their seats and at the end of a long day, 256 survived to return for Day 2. The prize pool swelled to just under $1 million with a first place prize of over $200,000 to the eventual winner.

The man in the best position right now is Damjan Radanov who bagged the overnight chip lead. However, there are plenty of notable names who survived the day and will be gunning to run deep. Matt Grapenthien, Chris Bell, Matt Woodward, Ryan Laplante, Brian Hastings, Mark Gregorich, Scott Clements, Brock Parker, James Obst, Fabrice Soulier, Chris Tryba, Barry Greenstein, Brandon Shack-Harris, Mike Leah and 14-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth are amongst those still in the hunt.

Top 10 Day 2 Chip Stack For Event $15

1. Damjan Radarnov – 98,600
2. Walter Treccarichi – 77,800
3. Manelic Minaya – 72,300
4. Thomas Chung – 64,700
5. Connor Berkowitz – 63,800
6. Aron Dermer – 63,000
7. Matthew Schultz – 59,000
8. Derek Raymond – 56,800
9. Alexander Kuzmin – 55,800
10. Sandeep Vasudevan – 52,300

It’s The Sweet 16 In The $10K Heads-Up Championship

A total of 114 of some of the world’s best players posted their $10,000 to take part in the 2018 WSOP Heads-Up Championship. Of those 114, 14 received a bye to the Round of 64 while the other 100 effectively had a play-in round (and they each received half their buy-in back).

By the end of the day, three rounds had been played and only 16 players remained. Players who made it through to the sweet 16 include 2018 Super High Roller Bowl Champion Justin Bonomo, Galen Hall, Niall Farrell, Kan Kalas, Kahle Burns, Jason Mo and Scott Seiver.

Players return at 12:00 noon PT on Thursday to play down to 8 where they will reach the money. Streaming coverage of the event begins at 1:00 pm PT on PokerGo.

Upcoming Action (June 7):

Another pair of events will begin on Thursday. The first will be Event #17: $1,500 NLHE 6-Handed which begins at 11:00 AM PT.

Then, an event that is likely to bring out the biggest names in poker, Event #18: $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed. Professionals of every discipline, with 19 total games to choose from, will be looking to force their best game on the table and push their edge to a major payday.

Defending champion John Racener will be focused on the final table of Colossus while analysts will be looking to see if the field will best last year’s turnout of 102 runners.

Professionals in every discipline will be looking to force their best game on the table and push their edge to a major payday.