This was a day for players 50 and older to shine. In fact, they have the opportunity every day at the World Series of Poker, but the Seniors Championship is special. It gives those players a unique tournament for this crowd. And when it all finished, there was one emotional player holding a brand-new, shiny WSOP gold bracelet.
Seniors’ action is not yet over, though, as the Super Seniors starts this week for players 60 and older.
Event 47: $1K Seniors NLHE Championship
The final five players returned for a last day of play, Ben Sarnoff was the chipleader. Eric Smidinger was second in chips, followed by Kathy Liebert, and Biagio Morciano and Charles Mitchell were the shortest stacks.
Mitchell started aggressively and chipped up quickly. On the other side of the counts, Liebert lost ground quickly. She was eventually the first one to exit on the day in fifth place. Mitchell was the new short stack until he doubled through Morciano, and Smidinger then busted Morciano. Sarnoff then led the final three, but Smidinger doubled through him. Sarnoff did bust Mitchell in third place.
The initial lead belonged to Sarnoff without a doubt, but Smidinger chipped up until the tacks were nearly even. He took over the lead and then continued to dominate, ultimately winning the tournament.
An emotional Smidinger told PokerNews, “This is a dream. I love it. … This is, for sure, a bucket-list item.”
The day played from 68 players own to just seven. It came down to the end of the night when Patrick Choueiri busted in tenth place and Sean Shah in ninth. William Gian then busted in eighth place, the first to go from the official final table. The final seven stopped play and will return for one more day of action.
Event 51: Day 3 of 4
$400 buy-in
NLHE Colossus (1 RE/flight)
Total entries:
13,565
(13,109 in 2019, 9399 in 2021)
Players remaining:
7
Total prize pool:
$1,936,770
Players paid:
1,695
Minimum payout:
$700
Winner payout:
$414,490
Final table counts:
#1
Sam Laskowitz (USA) 206.5M
#2
Paul Hizer (UK) 132M
#3
Jordan Pelon (France) 68M
#4
Jeff Loiacono (USA) 56M
#5
Luong Quach (USA) 38.5M
#6
Anthony Ruttler (USA) 32M
#7
James Scott (UK) 13.5M
8th place:
William Gian (USA) $51,930
9th place:
Sean Shah (USA) $40,710
Event 54: $500 Salute to Warriors NLHE
This field played down from 498 to just 21 players on its second day. Matt Vaughn is among the top stacks in the remaining crowd.
Event 54: Day 1 of 3
$500 buy-in
NLHE Salute to Warriors Charity (1 RE)
Total entries:
3,209
(1723 in 2019, 1738 in 2021)
Players remaining:
21
Total prize pool:
$1,315,690
Players paid:
482
Minimum payout:
$800
Winner payout:
$161,256
Top chip counts:
#1
James Todd (USA) 20M
#2
Rigoberto Rodriguez (USA) 14.95M
#3
Todd Saffron (USA) 11.9M
#4
Nicholas Sena-Hopkins (USA) 10.305M
#5
Zyad Qasem (USA) 10M
Event 55: $1K Tag Team NLHE
From the 183 teams that started Day 2 of this event, only 20 made it through the night. Patrick Leonard, Jamie Kerstetter, and Esther Taylor are among those whose teams remain in contention.
Event 55: Day 1 of 3
$1K buy-in
Tag Team NLHE
Total entries:
913
(976 in 2019, 641 in 2021)
Players remaining:
20
Total prize pool:
$812,570
Players paid:
137
Minimum payout:
$1,611
Winner payout:
$148,067
Top chip counts:
#1
Kraemer/Schiller 1,715,000
#2
Russell/O'Grady 1,575,000
#3
Barnum/Buckley 1,505,000
#4
Yunis/Hernandez 1,350,000
#5
Spitale/Pochat 1,270,000
Event 56: $50K Poker Players Championship 6-Handed
The second day of this extended tournament set the field with 112 total entries and a prize pool of more than $5.3M. It is the largest field for this tournament since 2013. The night ended with just 41 players still in, and the controversial Bryn Kenney sits atop the leaderboard.
Event 56: Day 1 of 5
$50K buy-in
Poker Players Championship 6-Handed
Total entries:
112
(74 in 2019, 63 in 2021)
Players remaining:
41
Total prize pool:
$5,362,000
Players paid:
17
Minimum payout:
$83,738
Winner payout:
$1,449,103
Top chip counts:
#1
Bryn Kenney (USA) 2,064,000
#2
Michael Moncek (USA) 1,702,000
#3
Koray Aldemir (Germany) 1,427,000
#4
Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil) 1,405,000
#5
Scott Bohlman (USA) 1,379,000
Event 57: $600 NLHE Deepstack
Nearly 5K entries came into play for this iteration of the NLHE Deepstack. That put more than $2.5M in the prize pool. And when all was said and done, only 560 players remained, all of whom were in the money.
Event 57: Day 1 of 4
$600 buy-in
NLHE Deepstack (1 RE)
Total entries:
4,913
(3916 in 2021)
Players remaining:
560
Total prize pool:
$2,505,630
Players paid:
737
Minimum payout:
$961
Winner payout:
$299,464
Top chip counts:
#1
Bradley Miller (USA) 1,165,000
#2
Mark Olivo (USA) 1,052,000
#3
John Ypma (USA) 1,000,000
#4
Christopher Grim (USA) 980,000
#5
Yota Mitsui (Japan) 918,000
Event 58: $1,500 PLO-8
Another tournament crushed the numbers from the two previous years, PLO-8 players lined up to enter and reenter. The prize pool stood at more than $1.7M, and there were 203 players still in when play stopped.
Event 58: Day 1 of 3
$1,500 buy-in
PLO-8 (2 RE)
Total entries:
1,303
(1117 in 2019, 725 in 2021)
Players remaining:
203
Total prize pool:
$1,739,505
Players paid:
196
Minimum payout:
$2,404
Winner payout:
$1,739,505
Top chip counts:
#1
Justin Liberto (USA) 791,000
#2
Richard Crooks (USA) 675,000
#3
Jacob Ferro (USA) 639,000
#4
Peter Neff (USA) 568,000
#5
Michael Banducci (USA) 555,000
Today’s Poker Menu
Event 51 plays the Colossus final table.
Event 54 plays to a winner.
Event 55 brings Tag Team players back to play to a final table of five..
Event 56 continues the Poker Players Championship.
Event 57 continues its latest NHLE Deepstack.
Event 58 tries to find a PLO-8 final table.
Event 59 starts the $1K Super Seniors NLHE.
Event 60 kicks off a Short Deck event.
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