2013 WSOP Main Event Underway; Elezra, Harwood, Alaei Among Last Prelim Winners
This year the Main Event drew a total field of 6,352, down from the 6,596 who played in 2012 and the lowest turnout for the ME since 2005. The top 648 finishers will be dividing up a prize pool of $59,708,800, with $8,359,531 due the winner in November.
This week saw the last five preliminary event bracelets won at the 2013 World Series of Poker -- indeed, the last bracelets to be awarded in Las Vegas this summer -- and the start of this year's Main Event which has now played down from 6,352 players to just 666 (less than twenty shy of the cash).
Among the final winners at this year's WSOP was another U.K. player, Eli Elezra beating Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win an event, and a second woman winning an open-bracelet event.
Here are the results and a few highlights from the last five 2013 WSOP prelims:
Event No. 57: Perrins Earns Another Bracelet for Brits
The $5K no-limit hold'em event saw Manchester's Matt Perrins earn a third bracelet of the summer for the U.K. after he topped a field of 784 to take the title and $792,275 first prize.
For Perrins it marked his second career bracelet after winning a $1,500 2-7 NL Draw event in 2011. Philipp Gruissem (11th) and Olivier Busquet (12th) were among those just missing the final table.
2013 WSOP Event No. 57: $5,000 NLHE results
1st: Matt Perrins (United Kingdom) -- $792,275
2nd: Arthur Pro (United States) -- $489,451
3rd: Seth Berger (United States) -- $315,529
4th: Antonio Buonanno (Italy) -- $231,147
5th: Matt Berkey (United States) -- $171,822
6th: Thomas Muehloecker (Austria) -- $129,447
7th: Randal Flowers (United States) -- $98,715
8th: Joe Serock (United States) -- $76,164
9th: Kent Roed (Norway) -- $59,398
Event No. 58: A Boon for Yoon
Californian Brian Yoon won the "Little One for One Drop" no-limit hold'em tourney featuring a $1,111 buy-in and unlimited re-entries for the first four levels of play. There were 4,756 entries total in the event, and Yoon motored through the final table in just three hours to earn the victory, probably the quickest final table of the summer.
A couple of U.K. players came close to the final table in this one, with Gordon Huntly finishing 10th and Scott O'Reilly (16th).
2013 WSOP Event No. 58: $1,111 Little One for One Drop NLHE w/re-entries results
1st: Brian Yoon (United States) -- $663,727
2nd: Cuong Van Nguyen (United States) -- $408,264
3rd: Roland Israelashvili (United States) -- $295,433
4th: Justin Zali (United States) -- $218,771
5th: Henry Tran (Canada) -- $163,340
6th: Joseph Morneau (United States) -- $122,933
7th: Kevin O'Donnell (United States) -- $93,269
8th: Alexander Case (United States) -- $71,311
9th: Adriano Santa Ana (Brazil) -- $54,960
Event No. 59: Elezra Earns Second Bracelet
The star-studded $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw event saw lots of familiar faces participate and many make the final table, with no less than five of the six final tablists former being bracelet winners. In the end Eli Elezra won his second career WSOP bracelet after coming back and beating Daniel Negreanu heads-up for the title.
David "ODB" Baker finished fifth after taking third in the same event a year ago. Michael Mizrachi (9th), Mike Watson (10th), Konstantin Puchkov (14th), and Marco Johnson (16th) were among those also making deep runs in the event that drew 282 entrants.
2013 WSOP Event No. 59: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw results
1st: Eli Elezra (United States) -- $173,236
2nd: Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- $107,055
3rd: Brian Brubaker (United States) -- $70,743
4th: David Chiu (United States) -- $48,077
5th: David "ODB" Baker (United States) -- $33,399
6th: Scott Seiver (United States) -- $23,698
Event No. 60: Harwood Wins the Hardware
The last $1,500 no-limit hold'em event of the summer saw history made as Loni Harwood became the second woman to win an open event this summer, following Dana Casteneda's win in Event No. 54 ($1,000 NLHE). Harwood beat out a field of 2,541 to win the gold.
The tourney marked Harwood's third final table of the summer, as she took sixth in Event No. 31 ($1,500 PLO8) and fourth in Event No. 53 (another $1,500 NLHE). With six cashes overall in the 2013 WSOP, Harwood presently sits in third place in the WSOP Player of the Year race behind Matthew Ashton (first) and Daniel Negreanu (second).
2013 WSOP Event No. 60: $1,500 NLHE results
1st: Loni Harwood (United States) -- $609,017
2nd: Yongshuo Zheng (Canada) -- $378,607
3rd: Mika Maasonen (Finland) -- $267,978
4th: Yngve Steen (Norway) -- $193,265
5th: Asi Moshe (Canada) -- $141,124
6th: Daniel Cascado (United Kingdom) -- $104,282
7th: Cy Williams (United States) -- $78,006
8th: Bijon Notash (United States) -- $59,036
9th: Hiren Patel (United States) -- $45,212
Event No. 61: Alaei Captures Fourth
The last WSOP prelim concluded early Monday morning (around 4 a.m.) when Daniel Alaei won his fourth career bracelet after topping Jared Bleznick in the $10K pot-limit Omaha event after just a single heads-up hand for a huge $852,692 first prize. A total of 386 played, and 32 returned for the third and long final day of play, a group featuring players from a dozen different countries.
Oleksii Kovalchuk of the Ukraine (10th), Johannes Strassman of Germany (11th), and the American Tony Cousineau (12th) were among those just missing the final table, with U.S. players ultimately grabbing the top seven spots.
2013 WSOP Event No. 61: $10,000 PLO results
1st: Daniel Alaei (United States) -- $852,692
2nd: Jared Bleznick (United States) -- $526,625
3rd: James Wiese (United States) -- $380,836
4th: Tom Marchese (United States) -- $278,298
5th: Numit Agrawal (United States) -- $205,512
6th: Gjergj Sinishtaj (United States) -- $153,372
7th: Sean Dempsey (United States) -- $115,637
8th: Rory Rees Brennan (Ireland) -- $88,061
9th: Alex Kravchenko (Russia) -- $67,742
Event No. 62: 6,352 Play the Main
The 62nd and last event of the 2013 -- the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em Main Event -- drew a total field of 6,352, down from the 6,596 who played in 2012 and the lowest turnout for the ME since 2005.
The top 648 finishers will be dividing up a prize pool of $59,708,800, with $8,359,531 due the winner in November. As of this morning, the tourney had wound its way through Day 3 with just 666 players still alive and with hopes of winning.
Maxx Coleman takes the chip lead into today's Day 4 as the only player with more than 1 million chips, with Doyle Brunson also returning to a top 40 stack and 2012 Main Event champion Greg Merson also still in the hunt with above average chips.
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
