On Tuesday, the final table of the $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship played out at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). PocketFives.com member David BakesBaker began the finale with the second largest chip stack and ultimately took sixth place for $272,000. You can catch Baker’s play when the tournament airs as part of ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP. In the end, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi banked $1.5 million and claimed his first WSOP bracelet. The final table was played entirely as No Limit Hold’em.
Baker began the final table by doubling up David Oppenheim, who moved all-in on a flop of K-10-5 with pocket aces. Baker made the call with a wired pair of sevens and the board ran out 9-4. Then, Baker doubled up “The Grinder” after shoving all-in with K-10 on a flop of Q-10-3. Mizrachi called for his tournament life holding Q-10 for top two pair. The turn and river were no help to Baker, who dropped down to 1.8 million in chips.
In his final hand, Baker moved in with A-J and received a call from “The Grinder,” who held A-K. Mizrachi flopped a king and never looked back, sending Baker out in sixth place. Here were the results from the $50,000 WSOP Player’s Championship:
1. Michael Mizrachi – $1,559,046
2. Vladimir Schmelev – $963,375
3. David Oppenheim – $603,348
4. John Juanda – $436,865
5. Robert Mizrachi – $341,429
6. David BakesBaker – $272,275
7. Daniel Alaei – $221,105
8. Mikael Thuritz – $182,463
Playing down to a final table on Tuesday was the first of six open $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournaments. Making the feature table and owning the sixth largest stack is Nick agriffrodMitchell (pictured at left), who hails from New York. Mitchell sent UB.com pro and fellow online poker player Eric basebaldy Baldwin out in 15th place. The two held the same chip stack pre-flop and were quickly all-in. Baldwin turned over K-Q and Mitchell held pocket jacks for a race. Mitchell flopped a set and never looked back; Baldwin pocketed $31,000.
Other members of the online poker community that finished in the top 100 of Event #3 included Jonathan FatalErrorAguiar (44th for $12,591), Clayton Clayton_27 Newman (55th for $8,329), Joe ender555Ebanks (83rd for $4,731), Matt ch0ppyKay (85th for $4,731), and Joe pokerjoe9Elpayaa (91st for $3,988). Here’s how the final table stacks up:
1. Aadam Daya – 2,855,000
2. Cory Brown – 2,315,000
3. Gabe Costner – 1,830,000
4. Dash Dudley – 1,355,000
5. Bart Davis – 1,355,000
6. Nick agriffrodMitchell – 1,280,000
7. Isaac Settle – 970,000
8. Rich Rice – 690,000
9. Deepak Bhatti – 400,000
When play paused, the action in Event #3 was in Level 25, when the blinds were 20,000/40,000 with an ante of 5,000. A top prize of $625,000 is up for grabs and every player remaining is guaranteed $51,000.
A total of 2,099 players entered the first $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event (#5) on the 2010 WSOP schedule. The field has been slashed all the way to 23 players and holding down the fort at fourth on the leaderboard is David Doc SandsSands (pictured at right). He sits at 20th in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings on the strength of the eighth largest Pro Poll tally and is a former #1 player. Sands owns a stack of 628,000 after two days of play, while chip leader Vincent Jacques has 1.5 million.
Sands dismissed Jesse Martin in 28th place with pocket queens against A-Q. He doubled up through Alexander Carr earlier in the day after his A-K bested pocket fours. The final board read Q-8-5-5-8 and Sands’ ace played, boosting him to 560,000 in chips. Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks in Event #5 entering Day 3:
1. Vincent Jacques – 1,498,000
2. Kyle Knecht – 971,000
3. Calvin Kordus – 876,000
4. David Doc Sands Sands – 628,000
5. Praz Bansi – 616,000
6. Hugh Bell – 504,000
7. Yuval Bronshtein – 498,000
8. Santiago Nadal – 496,000
9. John Sidoni – 389,000
10. Tyler Hamade – 328,000
Yuval Bronshtein is better known as yuvee04online. He’s a four-time Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) winner and took down back-to-back tournaments during FTOPS IX. Bronshtein and company will be vying for a first place prize of $515,000.
Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest WSOP coverage of online poker players.