Viktor Blom Leads Poker Players Championship with 26 Left

The third day of Event #45, the five-day $50,000 Poker Players Championship, ended late last night with Viktor "Isildur1" Blom sitting atop the chip counts with 26 players left. Blom ended the night bagging 1.262 million chips, but is closely followed by a host of other top pros including David Oppenheim, Daniel Alaei, David "ODB" Baker, John Hennigan, and Bill Chen.

A total of 108 players entered the prestigious event, together creating a whopping prize pool of $5,184,000. Only the top 16 finishers will be making the money, with $91,549 guaranteed to those who survive the cash bubble bursting later today and a cool $1,451,521 going to the player who prevails to win the bracelet and the David "Chip" Reese Memorial Trophy.

The Poker Players Championship is played as a rotation of eight different games -- limit hold'em, Omaha/8, razz, stud, stud/8, no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, and 2-7 triple draw -- with games changing every eight hands.

Day 1 of the event saw only a single player eliminated -- David Singer -- during the five 100-minute levels. Late registration extended extended through the beginning of Day 2, and among the stories when registration finally closed was the fact that not a single woman entered the event. The 108-player field marks a dip from last year when Brian Rast topped a field of 128 to win the event, although was still larger than the field of 95 who played the event in 2009 (when it was played as H.O.R.S.E. only).

Day 2 saw Justin Bonomo, Scott Seiver, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, and Mike Sexton among the early eliminations, with a host of other familiar names in this star-studded field following them to the rail as the day progressed. Daniel Negreanu and Jonathan Duhamel were among the last eliminated before play ended on Tuesday.

However, most of the focus during that last level of play on Day 2 revolved around a controversial PLO hand primarily involving Shaun Deeb, Nikolai Yakovenko, and Abe Mosseri. The hand began with four players limping, the small blind completing, then the Yakovenko in the big blind raising and the first three limpers calling. That's when Deeb reraised all in from the button, his remaining chips not being enough to reraise the entire pot.

It folded to Yakovenko who reraised again from the big blind, chasing the other limpers except Mosseri. Yakovenko's reraise was apparently accompanied by an indication that he was all in, although in truth a pot-sized reraise would've meant he still had chips behind. In any case, after a long time in the tank Mosseri called, and the three players all tabled their hands as if it were an all in situation.

Deeb held Jh-Js-10c-7c, Yakovenko Kc-Ks-3d-3c, and Mosseri Ac-As-Jc-5c. All five community cards were then dealt, with the Qs-Jd-2d-10s-8s board meaning Deeb had survived with a flush and Mosseri won the side pot.

That's when Yakovenko spoke up to say Mosseri had only said call and that his own reraise was only a pot-sized reraise, not an all in. At issue was the amount Yakovenko owed Mosseri in the side pot. Then came an initial ruling by the floor that since there was still action to be completed post-flop, the turn and river would have to be redealt.

Deeb, of course, wasn't too happy about that suggestion, given that he had survived his all-in but now faced having to sweat a new turn and river. Eventually that first ruling was overturned and a new ruling let the hand stand while also forcing Yakovenko to pay off Mosseri as if it had been an all-in situation since the players had all essentially played the hand as if it were (i.e., the "accepted action" of the hand was that Mosseri was indeed all in). Yakovenko soon busted with his short stack, and Day 2 concluded shortly thereafter.

When play began on Wednesday it was Andy Bloch, winner of Event #7 ($1,500 seven-card stud), leading the group of 62 who had made it through the first two days of play. Bloch sits just outside the top 10 for the start of Day 4, although many others weren't so lucky and failed to make it through Wednesday, including Dan Kelly, Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier, Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius, Deeb, and Mosseri. Last year's winner Brian Rast also failed to make it through Day 3.

Blom secured the chip lead near the end of the night on Day 3 after winning a huge, dramatic PLO hand against Joe Cassidy, winner of this year's Event #24 ($5,000 Omaha/8).

That one saw Blom all in on the turn with the board showing 10s-9h-5c-Ad and Blom holding Ah-9d-9s-2h (a set of nines). Meanwhile Cassidy had As-Qd-10c-10d (a set of tens), meaning only a single card -- the 9c -- could save Blom.

Sure enough, the 9c fell, and the swingy Swede not only survived but catapulted to the top of the counts. Meanwhile Cassidy was knocked back down under 100,000 on the hand, but managed to survive the night 24th of 26. And returning to just 26,000 in 26th is Phil Hellmuth.

Here's how the top 10 look heading into today's action in Event #45:

1. Viktor Blom -- 1,262,000
2. David Oppenheim -- 1,165,000
3. Daniel Alaei -- 1,058,000
4. David "ODB" Baker -- 1,025,000
5. John Hennigan -- 992,000
6. Bill Chen -- 984,000
7. Stephen Chidwick -- 874,000
8. Mike Wattel -- 870,000
9. Bruno Fitoussi -- 861,000
10. Chris Klodnicki -- 858,000

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