from Betfair
It was a great night for Betfair Poker players at the World Series of Poker last night as two of our players made it deep into the money of Event #3 the £1,075 No-limit Hold'em Event and two even went as far as reaching the final table!
Over the course of three Day 1's, 582 players began with 3,000 chips and dreams of becoming a WSOP bracelet holder. By the time Day 2 had started only 80 of those had those dreams in tact and as I write this the huge field has been whittled down to the final table of nine.
Of the 80 who started the day only 56 were paid, the last not to receive any money was the unfortunate Song Lee. Some well-known names made it to the money including November Nine member Matthew Jarvis (40th place), Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler (38), Stephen "Stevie444" Chidwick (24) and Keith "The Camel" Hawkins (15).
As the field gradually shrunk, it looked as if the final table would be the home to four Betfair Poker qualifiers but eventually the luck ran out for two of them. Firstly, with blinds at 2,000/4,000 with a 500 running ante, James Tomlin decided to move all-in for his last 46,600 chips. Eventually Mehdi Senhaji made the call and showed a pair of black nines whilst Tomlin sheepishly turned over 8d3c. The flop of
-8h-2c gave Tomlin hope but the
turn and
river took it away and the man known as "jimmyfing" on the Betfair Poker tables headed to the rail in a respectable 19th place.
He was joined some time later by another of the Betfair Poker players, Stephen "step31" Broomfield. Kaveh Payman made it 14,500 to play and after finding the beautiful looking AdKd staring back at him Broomfield announced he was all-in. This would usually be enough to scoop the pot but JP Kelly woke up in the small blind with KsKh and re-shoved all-in, leaving him heads-up against Broomfield's Big Slick. The final board ran out
-2s-2c-9c-7d and with it Kelly won the hand and sent Broomfield to the rail in 12th place for £8,317. Ever so close to a WSOPE final table, congratulations "step31."
Once play had gone ten handed the players were put on a break and drawn on one unofficial final table. The very first hand after returning from the brief pause saw ten become the final nine with the elimination of Stephan Nitschke. The action folded around to Kaveh Payman in the small blind, who raised enough to put Nitschke all-in. He made the call and turned over KhJh in front but essentially flipping with the QsTd of Payman. The flop of
-Tc-5d hit both players but the
on the turn completely smashed into Payman's hand, giving him trip tens. The
on the river completed the hand and the final table of nine was set.
When play resumes at 1400 UK time today all eyes will be on the man who is currently third in chips, JP Kelly, as he has the chance to become the youngest-ever triple bracelet winner, a record he will win from Phil Ivey! He will also become only the fifth man in history to defend his title and win the same Hold'em event in back-to-back years, putting him alongside greats such as Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth.
That said, my eyes will be firmly on Paul Ian "paulpitch" Pitchford and Jeppe "MissilBis" Bisgaard who both qualified for this event through Betfair Poker and have made the final table. Pitchford comes in eighth in chips with a 77,000 stack whilst Bisgaard is in better shape with 171,000 chips, enough for fourth place currently.
Each player is guaranteed a £10,633 payday, with the winner taking home a piece of poker's most sought after jewellery and £133,857 in prize money.
Seating allocation for the final table:
Seat 1 - Karim Jomeem - 109,000
Seat 2 - Scott Shelley - 148,000
Seat 3 - Nicky Katz - 150,000
Seat 4 - Paul Ian Pitchford - 77,000Seat 5 - Jeppe Bisgaard - 171,000
Seat 6 - Mehdi Senhaji - 369,000
Seat 7 - Kaveh Payman - 434,000
Seat 8 - JP kelly - 242,000Seat 9 - Jack Lyman - 55,000
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