June 16 2012, Samuel Cosby

Four tournaments played out at the World Series of Poker on Friday. Only three players remain in Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E, with the winner to be determined Saturday. In Event #28: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Four Handed, players burst the money bubble and are down to just two tables. Event #29: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship started off with a bang and created the biggest field of the World Series of Poker so far. Finally, Event #30: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball started Friday with 285 players, and Michael Mizrachi will return Saturday leading the final 66.

Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E.

Eighteen players returned on Day 3 of Event #27. The plan was to play down to a winner, but with action going late into the night, the final three decided to bag it up and come back on Ssaturday. Ylon Schwartz returned Friday with the chip lead and was able to carry it down to the final three players. He will be retuning with David Chiu and Stephen Chidwick to play down to a champion.

Several big names returned Friday still in contention. Hitting the rail short of the final table were Cliff Josephy, Bryce Yockey and Allen Cunningham. Cunningham came into the day in the middle of the pack with an above average stack, but he was done in late in the day by Elior Sion during the razz round. He was eliminated just two spots short of the final table in 10th place for $17,150.

The final table bubble boy was Sanjay Pandya. He was eliminated during the stud hi-low round by Schwartz. Pandya completed with the . Schwartz raised with the and Pandya moved it all-in. Pandya’s board ran out // for a pair of eights. Ylon Schwartz didn’t even have to squeeze his last card as his board rolled out // (x) for two pair. Pandya hit the rail in ninth and collected $17,150 for his efforts.

Robby Rasmussen looked like he would steamroll the field as he was the near the top of the chip counts for most of the day, but with just four players left, he started bleeding chips. He was eventually eliminated in fourth placed during the razz round. Rasmussen completed with the showing and Chiu called with a showing, as well. Fourth street was a for both players, and Rasmussen bet, and Chiu called. Fifth street was a for Rasmussen, and a for Chiu and Rasmussen bet again only to have Chiu call. Chiu took the lead on sixth street with a and bet. Rasmussen called off his last 105,000 when the hit him.

Chiu held //(x) for an eight low, and Rasmussen was already drawing dead with //(x). With that, Rasmussen was off to the cashier to collect his $78,021, and Chiu moved up to 690,000 chips. From there, Chiu went on a massive heater and collected 1,920,000 before the end of the night.

Action will resume at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) Saturday and won’t stop until a champion is crowned. Play will start in the hold’em round for one hand and then move to Omaha.

To see action from the rest of the final table, or to make sure you don’t miss any of Saturday’s action, make sure you check out the live reporting blog.

Event #28: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Four Handed

Day 2 started with 86 players in Event #28 with players just six spots away from the money bubble. At the end of the day, only eight players remained standing, and Brendon Rubie was leading the pack with 1,682,000.

Plenty of notables hit the rail including Anette Obrestad, Isac Haxton, Brian Rast, Gavin Smith, Lex Veldhuis, Jake Cody, Humberto Brenes, Tony Dunst and Josh Brikis. Nick Schulman, the bubble boy, five-bet shoved preflop and Mustapha Kanit snapped him off with pocket kings. Schulman’s needed help, but the board ran dry and he was eliminated in 81st place.

Sam Stein was another player who didn’t make it through the day. Stein was riding a healthy stack for most of play but was eventually crippled by Eric Froehlich late in the day on a critical hand. Tony Dunst opened to 5,000 and Stein three-bet to 12,500. Froehlich then looked at his cards and four-bet to 27,000. Dunst folded and Stein five-bet, and Froehlich six-bet all in. Stein snap called with and Froehlich turned over . The flop was good to Stein as it fell but it wasn’t over yet as Froehlich picked up two extra outs to a . The turn was the leaving Froehlich one card from hitting the rail, but the river was the . Froehlich rivered a straight, and Stein was knocked down to just 32,000. Stein was eliminated later in 16th place for $12,745; Froehlich didn’t make it through the day either as he was eliminated in 15th place for $12,745.

The final eight players will return Saturday and play down to a winner. Action will resume at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) in the Amazon Room.

Final Eight Chip Counts:

Make sure you don’t miss any of the four handed action packed final table. Keep the PokerNews live reporting blog open all day!

Event #29: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship

Records were broken at the World Series of Poker Friday thanks to Event #29. Over 4,000 players showed up to play in the Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship, making it the single largest Day 1 start ever. The field was limited to players over the age of 50, proving that at its core, poker is still an old man’s game. It took six hours to condense the field into one room, but by the end of the night, only 462 players remained.

Several notables in Friday’s field included Sam Grizzle, Eli Elezra, Chad Brown, and James Woods, all of whom hit the rail. Also in the field was James Hess, last year’s champion, who didn’t make it through the day. Hess was eliminated on a board when his opponent made a pair of queens against his ace high.

Leading the way Saturday will be Radwan Khuri with 112,600, but also still alive in the field are Dennis Phillips, Marcel Luske, Humberto Brenes and Hal Lubarsky. Players ended the day just 39 spots away from the money and should make it down to the pay quickly Saturday morning. Action will begin at 1100 PDT (1900 BST).

To see who walks away with cash, and who doesn’t, make sure you check out the live reporting blog.

Event #30: $1,500 2-7 Lowball

The second event that began Friday was Event #30. A small field of 285 players gathered to create a $384,750 prize pool. Leading the way at the end of Day 1 was Michael Mizrachi, who bagged up 86,025 chips when play concluded. Following close behind was Andrew Lichtenberger with 61,150 chips. Among the casualties were Vincent van der Fluit, Leo Margets, Dan Smith, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Andy Frankenberger, and Phil Ivey.

Also in the field today was PokerNews‘ Live Reporting Global Manager Donnie Peters. Peters almost made it through day one, but was eliminated in the last level of the night by Andrew Lichtenberger. One player opened to 800, Peters shoved all-in for 4,650, and Lichtenberger rejammed all-in only to have the original raiser call. Each player took one card. The original raiser made a king low, Peters made a queen low, but Lichtenberger made an eight-six low and eliminated both players.

Mizrachi, seemingly on fire, was able to amass a monster stack. In one hand, Matt Woodward shoved all-in, and Mizrachi called. Mizrachi held and Woodward held . Woodward drew a but Mizrachi drew a and his nine-six low was enough to take Woodward out.

The final 66 players will return Saturday with money in mind as they play down past the money bubble. Just about half of the remaining field will walk away empty-handed, though, and those who make it through will attempt to play down to the final table of seven. Action will resume at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) in the Amazon Room.

To make sure you don’t miss a single draw, keep your eyes on our live reporting blog.

On Tap

On Saturday, Event #27: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. and Event #28: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Four Handed will both play down to a winner. Event #29: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship will play down from 462 players past the money bubble. Event #30: $1,500 2-7 Lowball will go from 66 players and into the money as well. Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. will both start Saturday.

For all the action from every tournament, make sure you keep refreshing the live reporting blog.

Video of the Day

In the video of the day, Kristy Arnett talks with Lex Veldhuis about Event #28: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Four Handed, getting some sun and tennis.

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March 07 2012, Brett Collson

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event saw 222 players hit the felts, creating a combined field of 364 between the two Day 1 starting flights. The number was notably smaller than last year’s field of 415 but still created a hefty prize pool of nearly $3.5 million, of which $960,900 will go to the winner.

Part of the draw of the $10,000 buy-in Bay 101 Shooting Star event is its bounty-focused format. Every starting table on Day 1 begins with a designated “Shooting Star,” and anyone who eliminates that player will receive a $5,000 bounty, as well as an autographed t-shirt.

After only five of the 19 Shooting Stars survived Day 1a, the bounties had much more success on Day 1b. The second flight had 28 Shooting Stars, and half advanced to Day 2 after 10 levels of play. Two-time WPT champ Michael Mizrachi had the best day out of the 28 Shooting Stars. “The Grinder” doubled his stack early on by eliminating Dan Kelly to take the chip lead and finished among the leaders with 129,900 chips when the day concluded.

Other Shooting Stars moving on to Day 2 are Allen Cunningham (122,200), JC Tran (114,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (87,200), Men Nguyen (80,600), Fabrice Soulier (78,300), Linda Johnson (76,000), David Williams (61,200), Scott Seiver (56,500), Nam Le (54,800), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (46,100), Chau Giang (41,000), Antonio Esfandiari (35,300) and Jason Mercier (20,300).

While half the Shooting Stars pressed forward, the other half handed over their autographed tee along with a $5,000 check to their bounty hunter. Eugene Katchalov, Erick Lindgren, Chris Moorman, Jennifer Harman, Todd Brunson, Ben Lamb, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen and defending champ Alan Sternberg were all sent to the rail on Day 1a. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Katchalov and Brunson were both eliminated by Michael Wywrot, who was the only player to eliminate two Shooting Stars during the day.

Of the 95 players who survived Day 1b, Chris Summers finished on top with a stack of 188,000 to earn the $10,000 bonus given to the chip leader at the end of each day. He’s followed closely by former WPT champ Taylor von Kriegenberg, who lost the last hand of the night to fall short of claiming the bonus. He’ll take 181,300 chips into Day 2, while Max Silver (155,000), Scott Baumstein (133,600) and Kent Washington (131,000) rounded out the top five on the Day 1b leaderboard.

When the field merges on Wednesday, everyone will be chasing Day 1a chip leader Bryce Yockey, who takes 245,300 chips into Day 2. Play will begin at 1045 PST (1845 GMT) on Tuesday, and the 149 remaining players will attempt to play through the money bubble (36 players will cash) and down to the final 18.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into Day 2:

Check back in to PokerNews.com for daily recaps from Bay 101.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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