Max Silver, Chris Moorman Lead with 25 Left at WSOPE Main Event

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 19 October 2011 / Leave a Comment

Max Silver leads with 25 left at the 2011 WSOPE Main Event (Photo: PokerNews)

This year's field of 593 crushes the previous record (362) for entrants in a World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. That large field also ensures the winner an eye-popping first prize of €1,400,000.

An exciting Day 3 at Cannes saw the field for the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event trimmed to just 25 players. Two U.K. players sit atop the counts overnight, with Max Silver and Chris Moorman almost even in chips with 1.78 million and 1.769 million respectively. Amir Lehavot, Shawn Buchanan, and Dermot Blain round out the top five.

The day began with 116 of the original starting field of still with chips, with Constant Rijkenberg leading the pack followed closely by Hoyt Corkins. Jake Cody, Erik Seidel, and Shawn Buchanan also returned on Tuesday to top 10 stacks.

It took several hours -- right up until just before the dinner break -- before the cash bubble burst and the field had been cut down to the final 64. As it happened, three-time WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein was the unfortunate player to finish in 65th.

In his final hand, Greenstein shoved his short stack from the cutoff with Ac-Jc and got a call from Brian Roberts in the big blind with Kh-Jh. The board ended up bringing three hearts, giving Roberts a flush and sending Greenstein out down his €10,400 buy-in and another copy of Ace on the River (given to Roberts by the author).

Once back from dinner, the trips to the cashier began in earnest. Among those first heading railward were Pierre Neuville (64th), J.C. Alvarado (60th), Victor Ramdin (59th), and Salman Behbehani (57th), all of whom scored a near double-up of their buy-in with a €20,000 payday.

Included in the next group earning a tad more (€21,475) were Stephen Chidwick (52nd), Barny Boatman (51st), and start-of-day leader Rijkenberg in 49th. Corkins also tumbled down the leaderboard during the course of the day to land in 42nd place (€24,000), with Freddy Deeb (39th, €27,500), Liv Boeree (36th, €27,500), and Melanie Weisner (33rd, €27,500) soon following.

That left just Maria Ho -- highest female finisher at the 2007 WSOP in Vegas (where she finished 38th) -- as the last woman standing at the Hotel Majestic Barrière, still clinging to a short stack as the number of players remaining fell to just 30.

As night drew to a close Max Silver and Chris Moorman made their move toward the top of the counts. It was then one of the more dramatic hands of the night occurred, a hand primarily involving Matt Waxman and Buchanan.

After Waxman had raised and gotten three callers, the flop came 3s-Js-9c. Waxman pushed out a c-bet, and only Buchanan stuck around. The turn then brought the 3d and another half-pot sized bet from Waxman. Buchanan called once more. The river was the 5d and Waxman led once more with another half-pot sized bet. This time Buchanan reraised all in, leaving Waxman with a tough decision.

Waxman had 276,000 left, and to call and win would earn him another three-quarter million chips or so to push him up over 1 million. After much agonizing and an eventual calling of the clock by another player, Waxman at last made the call only to see Buchanan show 3h-3c for quads. Waxman mucked his hand, having ended the tourney in 30th place (€32,000). Meanwhile Buchanan stacked up close to 1.3 million total following that hand, ensuring he'd be among the leaders to end the day.

Soon after Ho would push her last chips in with 5c-5s and hoped to outlast Alexander Dovzhenko's Ad-9c. She was fine through the turn, but an ace binked on the river to send her out in 27th (€32,000).

Pavel Ivan followed Ho to the rail in 26th (€32,000), leaving just 25 players to return on Wednesday. Here's how the top 10 will look when play resumes:

1. Max Silver (United Kingdom) -- 1,780,000
2. Chris Moorman (United Kingdom) -- 1,769,000
3. Amir Lehavot (United States) -- 1,398,000
4. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) -- 1,267,000
5. Dermot Blain (Ireland) -- 1,200,000
6. Jeremy Kottler (United States) -- 943,000
7. Brian Roberts (United States) -- 901,000
8. Elio Fox (United States) -- 889,000
9. Andy Moseley (United Kingdom) -- 863,000
10. Giuseppe Sammartino (Italy) -- 838,000

Other notables still alive include Patrik Antonius (12th), Dovzhenko (13th), Cody (16th), John Duthie (19th), and Seidel (20th). Tony G is still there, too, in 22nd place, having made good on his bet on himself to cash.

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