WSOP 2014: Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

With nearly one third of World Series of Poker behind us, it is time to stop and see what has happened so far. What players are hot, and who is not having such a great time so far? Most of them have come with some plans for the summer, but how is that working out for them?

The Hot List

Vanessa Selbst is clearly hot. She came, saw and conquered, as she managed to bink her bracelet in the very first open event, $25,000 Mixed-Max event. Although she hasn’t really done much since, there is plenty time left, and Vanessa will certainly be doing her best to make the most of it.

Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu is definitely hot, maybe just not hot enough. He has already accumulated two runner-up finishes during the series, but bracelet still eludes him. Ted Forrest and Paul Volpe have denied him his #7.

Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer, the 2004 Main Event Champion, would certainly love to add another bracelet to his collection. WSOP hasn’t really given that much love to Raymer after his Main Event victory, but perhaps this series could change that. He managed to final table Omaha Hi-Low event just yesterday, but couldn’t quite make it all the way.

Justin Bonomo has acquired his first golden bracelet couple days ago in a nearly 2,000 people field, and this could be a great indicator of very good summer for him. He is definitely very hot at the moment, and maybe we will see him go after No. 2 real soon.

Jason Mercier is #BraceletHunting and he has one third place finish from the $10k 2-7 No Limit Draw Championship in the books. Although things haven’t really panned out for him after that, he is playing a lot of tournaments and it is almost certain that we will see him on couple more final tables before the last card of the Series is dealt.

Ted Forrest has seized his sixth WSOP bracelet after beating Daniel Negreanu in the Seven-Card Razz event, and this is his first bracelet since 2004. This alone earns him the place on the list, as Forrest is proving that he’s still got the game.

The Other List

Phil Ivey is always the one everybody is wondering about. So far, this hasn’t been a great series for Ivey. He had a couple deeper runs, but hasn’t made any final tables or seriously threatened to win a bracelet. There is no doubt that Tiger Woods of poker can bounce back and it can easily be in the very next event he plays, but so far things are not looking peachy.

Barry Greenstein – if you have been following his Twitter, you've probably noticed it is filled with ‘I’m out – again’ type of statements. Barry has definitely not been running hot for the first third of the series. If his luck changes for better, Greenstein definitely has what it takes to get into ‘The Hot List’, but cards have very cruel nature sometimes.

The Godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson, has played couple tournaments himself. We weren’t sure how much, if any, of Dolly we would see this summer, but he still got it in him to come down and play for long hours. And while his results so far were not that hot, his determination and willpower certainly put him on the top of the ‘True Poker Player’ list!