The highly analytical poker pro and cash game specialist Brian Rast is this year’s champion in the World Series of Poker event 15, earning his biggest pay day yet in the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em competition.
The young Las Vegas pro led the last ten survivors of a star-studded 765 entry field going into the third and last day of the event Sunday. Facing him across the felt were players like Allan Kessler, John Gordon, Ali Eslami and Ted Lawson.
The final table was of relatively short duration – around six hours – and ended in a heads up confrontation between Allan Kessler and Rast, who continued to hold the lead. Despite the duo exchanging the chip lead on several occasions as the match progressed it was Rast who prevailed to claim his first bracelet and the main prize of $227 232 – his biggest win yet.
Rast’s career winnings now top a million dollars, with almost half of them coming from internet poker competitions, where he plays under the ‘handle’ tsarrast.
Kessler – once again denied his maiden WSOP bracelet – had the consolation of a $140 309 runner up prize.
Approaching midnight Vegas time Sunday night it was down to the wire at level 29 in event 17, the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. with three players left in the hunt for the bracelet: Aaron Steury (2,400,000); Michael Chow (1,400,000) and Adam Friedman (500 000).
The third day of the event saw 17 survivors from day 2 returning to the felt Sunday with Friedman holding the lead and the field still carrying significant opposition in players such as David Chiu, Allen Bari, Svetlana Gromenkova, Ryan Hughes, Cyndy Violette, Max Pescatori, Brett Jungblut, and Todd Brunson.
The original field of 963 in this event created a prize pool worth $1.3 million.
Event 18 is a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em contest which produced a field of 3 157 (up by over a thousand on the same event last year) that included respected players like David Vamplew, Zach Gruneberg, Scott Montgomery, Jerry Yang, Jason Mercier, Kathy Liebert, Victor Ramdin, Jeff Madsen, Eric Baldwin, David Benyamine, Scott Clements, Kara Scott, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Mizrachi, Faraz Jaka, Humberto Brenes, Jon Turner, Erick Lindgren and Valdemar Kwaysser when it kicked off on Saturday.
By Sunday, when the players returned for the second day, the field was down to 490 with Kenny Nguyen and Jon Lane leading and the money bubble calling at position 324.
Just on midnight Sunday night the second day’s play had reached level 18 and there were still 74 players in contention, led by John Hewitt.
The $2,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Six Handed (Event 19) also launched on Saturday, drawing a field of 354 players that included pros like Dutch Boyd, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Richard Brodie, Brock Parker, Matt Hawrilenko, Bill Chen, David Benyamine, and Phil Laak.
The first day was bloody, with two thirds of the field heading for the rail, leaving just 130 survivors going into the second day on Sunday afternoon. Leading the way was Samuel Golbuff with 63,900 in chips, followed closely by Mark Gryglik?s 57,000, but Shannon Shorr, Shawn Buchanan, Greg Mueller, David Benyamine, David Chiu, Daniel Alaei, and Marco Traniello were all in the top ten.
By midnight Sunday Vegas time the money bubble had popped at position 32, and the field was down to 18 players at level 17
In event 20, the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em, 3 175 contestants registered Sunday, creating a prize pool of $2.86 million as the event launched. There were too many pro players to name as the Amazon Room filled up with players taking their seats, and virtually every big name in the game spotted among the crowds of hopefuls thronging the venue.
The action on the first day was hectic to say the least, with only 390 players still at the tables at level 9 around midnight Sunday Vegas time.
Top ten chip counts were led by Doug Lang and included Justin Sloan, Lex Veldhuis, Brett Shaffer, Amnon Filippi, Austin Held, Yuval Bronshtein, Cherish Andrews, John Phan and Chris Dombrowski.
Sunday also saw the start of the much-anticipated event 21: the $10,000 buy-in Seven Card Stud Championship, which pulled in 126 entrants (down from last year’s field of 150) and generated a prize pool of $1.18 million.
A snapshot of some of the entrants gives an indication of the quality of this field, including George Lind, Bill Chen, Erik Cajelais, Pat Pezzin, Nikolay Evdakov, Daniel Negreanu, Cyndy Violette, Mike Sexton, Jeff Lisandro Phil Laak, Jerry Buss, Frank Kassela, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, Alex Kravchenko and Allen Kessler.
Just after midnight Vegas time the first day action had reached level 8 with 98 players still active and the chip lead held by Scott Clements, with the following all in the top ten: Jennifer Harman, Tom Dwan, Men Nguyen, Sebastien Sabic, Steve Zolotow, Alexander Kostritsyn, Pat Pezzin, Chad Brown and Al Barbieri.
This one is shaping up as an epic, even in World Series of Poker terms!