WSOP 2014: Poker Players Championship

9 years ago
WSOP 2014: Poker Players Championship
07:12
24 Jun

Day 2 of the Event #46, Poker Players Championship, is drawing to a conclusion. With $50,000 buy-in and the mix of 8 different games, this tournament has become the battlefield of the biggest names in poker – like their own smaller Main Event.

Registration for the tournament closed couple hours ago and final list of players was made so this is a great time to take a look and see who’s there and who’s not and what they are all fighting for.

First of all, the field this year was significantly smaller in relation to the last year. While 132 players took their seats in 2013, this year only 102 of them put up $50,000 needed to participate. This doesn’t take anything from the quality of the event, of course, but smaller numbers naturally result in a smaller prize pool. This year, cashing players will get to distribute “only” $4,896,000, and winner will take home $1,517,000.

Last year’s winner and defending champion, Matthew Asthon, earned $1,774,000 for his first place finish, but we now know for certain that he will not be defending his title. He lost several big Pot Limit Omaha pots and last of his chips went to John Monnette who made sure that the Championship will not have a repeat winner.

Several big names hit the rail during today’s play, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Justin Bonomo and Gus Hansen, who actually made the this year's WSOP debut with this tournament. He was only there for couple levels, unfortunately, and hopefully it’s not the last we will see of the Great Dane in this Series.

Jason Mercier, on the other hand, has done pretty well for himself as play approaches the stop for the night, but knowing how things can quickly change in poker, nothing is set in stone. Keeping him company near the top are Matt Glantz, Shaun Deeb and Jonathan Duhamel.

It would be a bit pointless to try and name every known pro that took part in this tournament, as most of them are here. And as this tournament is scheduled as a five-day event, we will have to wait a bit more for the final table, but it can be presumed with great certainty that this one will be the most star studded final table of the entire series.

Although we will not mention every big name in the field, there is one out there that certainly deserves a mention. Godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson, decided to register for the play today and he is still fighting. Although Doyle mentioned that the long hours don’t seat with him the best anymore, he still found enough stamina to get in the mix with some of the best poker players in the world.

The game is well underway and in couple days time, we will know who will get to take home one of the two most coveted WSOP bracelets!


Articles 569

Ivan Potocki is the editor in chief and one of the lead news writers for PokerTube. His natural flair and enthusiasm for journalism combined with a deep poker knowledge make him an exciting contributor for PokerTube.The experience garnered playing poker professionally for several years and the knowl...Read more

Comments

You need to be logged in to post a new comment

No Comments found.