Statistics for the World Series of Poker Player of the Year leaderboard through event 33 were released by the organisers this week, showing that Phil Hellmuth, despite so far being denied his record-breaking twelfth bracelet, remains in the overall lead.
Thus far this year Hellmuth has accumulated 393.75 points in two event cashes, winning a total of $500,140.
His nearest challenger, Sam Stein, has 385.75 points from 3 cashes including a winner’s bracelet, earning him a total of $690,451.
John Juanda is third with 336 points from 2 cashes including a bracelet and earnings so far of $410,067.
Others in the top ten include Amir Lehavot, Sean Getswiller, Steve Landfish, Viacheslav Zhukov, Jake Cody, Eric Rodawig and Daniel Idema, who has 309.50 points from 2 cashes that include a bracelet and $384,738 in earnings.
Just missing the top ten cut are Bertrand Grospellier and Allen Bari.
Mark Schmid, a respected 31-year-old internet and live tourney poker pro and coach for the past five years, emerged triumphant Wednesday from a field that originally numbered 3,144, many of them top players on the international circuits.
Schmid will take home to Grand Rapids, Michigan his first WSOP bracelet and the first prize of $488,283 in event 34: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
The seasoned WSOP player (this was his sixth career WSOP cash) started the third day with 27 other survivors, playing down to a final table where he was the significant chip leader by a 2 to 1 margin on his nearest rival.
The departure of Andrew Rudnik set the scene for a heads up between Schmid and Australian player Jason Cohen, with the latter holding a 3 to 1 chip advantage. Schmid remained calm, however, playing skillful and disciplined poker to eventually overtake and then defeat his Antipodean opponent, who collected a runner prize of $302,031.
324 finishers cashed in the match, including four previous WSOP bracelet holders.
15 players, all that remained from an initial entry field of 507, returned to the tables for the third day of event 35: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed on Wednesday, led by Gregory Brooks, who appeared intent on augmenting the $1.6 million he won in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic last February.
David Chiu and Michael McDonald were hard on his heels, though, with talent like Chris Moorman, David Ulliott, Peter Jetten, Jason Mercier and Jared Bleznick still in the field.
The day featured plenty of fast moving action, with the field cut by half in the first two hours, and Jason Mercier boosting his chip stack dramatically in a double bust-out of Peter Jetten and David Ulliott.
With the elimination of Steven Merrifield in third position, the heads up between Mercier and Hans Winzeler was set – a two hour demonstration of aggression and pure poker talent that both pleased and excited the railbirds and ended in victory for Mercier just on midnight.
Mercier claimed his second WSOP bracelet and the main prize of $619,575, and Winzeler collected a runner-up check for $383,075.
Event 36: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em saw 291 players of the original 1,734 entrants returning for a second day of play, with the money bubble set to burst at position 171. Marvin Rettenmaier led the field, followed closely by Dan O’Brien and Sudhakara Kattamuri.
Still in contention were a slew of high calibre players such as Dwyte Pilgrim, Gavin Smith, Lars Bonding, Eddy Sabat, Steven Watts, Bryn Kenney, Eric Baldwin, David Pham, Tomer Berda, Tim Phan, J.C. Tran, Tom Marchese, Jimmy Tran, Terrence Chan, Randal Flowers, Leo Wolpert, Jon Van Fleet and Tommy Vedes.
By the early hours of Thursday morning the end of Day 2 play was in sight as level 20 started, with 52 players left and Randy Dorfman leading.
Generally regarded as one of the toughest events this year is number 37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship, which attracted an entry field of 240, with only 173 surviving into the second day, led by Ron Ware, pursued closely by Dustin Leary, Eugene Katchalov, Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein, and with plenty of star power still in the field.
Level 18 had been reached by the wee small hours of Thursday morning, with 30 players left, led by Fabrice Soulier heading a top ten that still includes name players like Michael Binger, Shawn Buchanan, John Monnette, Joe Cassidy and Chau Giang.
The first day of event 38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold?em ended in the early hours of Thursday morning after ten long levels of tough and competitive poker.
The action started at noon Wednesday with 2,192 entries, their eyes fixed on a main prize worth $540,136. Only 320 of them were destined to still be at the tables when the day was declared complete by officials.
Among them were defending WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, Melanie Weisner, Bernard Lee, Sam Trickett and Justin Smith, led by Jon Spinks in chips.
Not so lucky and busted out on the first day were David Williams, Faraz Jaka, Liv Boeree, Matt Affleck, Dennis Phillips, Tom Dwan, Jon Turner, Men Nguyen, Betrand Grospellier and Antonio Esfandiari.
The prize pool in this event is worth $2.95 million.
Officials also called it a day in event 39, the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold?em/Omaha tournament, which reached level 8 on its first day in the small hours of Thursday morning, with 103 players remaining from an original entry field of 606 (substantially up on last year’s 482) which generated a prize pool of $1.37 million.
David Williams currently enjoys a comfortable and sustained lead in an event which attracted a large number of professional players.
Eliminated on the first day were the likes of Andy Black, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Dwan, Eric Seidel, Galen Hall, Michael Mizrachi, Matt Affleck, Liv Boeree, Phil Laak, 2011 WSOP bracelet winners Jason Somerville and Sam Stein and Phil Hellmuth.
There are still many quality players in the running at this early stage, including Adam Junglen, Bill Chen, Shaun Deeb, Humberto Brenes, Ashkan Razavi and Mitch Schock.
63 players will cash in this event.