2017 WSOP Fantasy Poker "Steve Ball challenge".. Staker game

[MintTrav]

Event 26: $10,000 Razz Championship

Winner	James Obst
Runners	97
Paid	15
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
James Obst	1	25
Brandon Shack-Harris	6	8
Stephen Chidwick	11	1
Roland Israelashvili	15	1

Selector	Points
Barrie	34
English Tom	26
Jo	26
Simon B	26
Adam	25
Debbie	25
Simon L	25
Craig	8
John	8
Carl	1
Chris H	1
Gareth	1
Karen	1
Luca	1
Paul H	1
Paul R	1
Richard	1
Stephen	1
Vince	1

Yeah, Obst won the $10k Razz, to add to his 2nd and 8th positions (plus two other cashes) this year.

Obst and Shack-Harris (along with Barry Greenstein and Esther Taylor-Brady) are amongst the players whose names I keep seeing near the top of the chip-counts, cashing in everything.

Barrie is the only selector to have both Obst and Shack-Harrris, extending his lead at the top. And he also has Israelashvili, just to show off.

[MintTrav]

Points Leaders:

Selector	Points
Barrie	143
Jo	129
Adam	115
Craig	106

Player	Points	Wins	FT	Cashes
James Obst	46	1	2	5
Daniel Negreanu	35	0	2	4
John Racener	29	1	1	5
John Monnette	29	1	2	4
Fabrice Soulier	28	0	2	3
Igor Kurganov	26	1	1	2
Adrian Mateos	25	1	1	1

[MintTrav]

Exciting times overnight. Online beast Chris Moorman has a big lead heads-up against fellow online beast Bernardo Dias in #27, in which Max Silver finished 6th.

Negreanu is chip-leader in #30 with 17 left. Mercier, Rast and Shack-Harris are all still in that, so super-points are possible.

[MintTrav]

Event 27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em (6-handed)

Winner	Chris Moorman
Runners	959
Paid	144
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Chris Moorman	1	25
Max Silver	6	8
Joao Vieira	25	1
Tom Middleton	39	1
Vanessa Selbst	56	1
Igor Kurganov	100	1
Chris Ferguson	117	1

Selector	Points
Chris B	26
Leigh	9
Paul H	9
Debbie	8
Simon B	8
Irish Tom	1
Scottish Tom	1

It's a great day for the British, winning the tournament, having two players on the final table and seven cashing in total.



It might be a surprise to some that this is Moorman's first bracelet. He might have been expected to have won a few before now, but remember this is a player who has bravely pursued a live poker career, despite having to overcome the handicap of looking like a 1940s movie gangster.

Silver had a huge lead for most of the tournament and began the final day with twice as many as the second-placed player. He lost some hands, but should have recovered with KK against Michael Gagliano's QQ, but another Q on the Flop ended his tournament surprisingly early from the position he was in.

A couple of key hands went Moorman's way. He was all-in pre-flop at the start of the final table against Steve Sung's JJ and caught an A on the River to stay alive. I wasn't sad about that as I carry a personal grudge against Sung for sucking out on me something horrible two years ago. Moorman then vaulted into a massive lead when the two biggest stacks got all-in against each other, chip-leader Gagliano having top two with QT on a QTx Flop, but losing to second-placed Moorman's QQ.

It looked like it would finish quickly. Three-handed, Morman held a 12m-1m-1m lead and it was still 10m-4m when Heads-up began on Hand 39 of the final table against Bernardo Dias. Sunday Millions winner bedias knows a bit about poker, though, and it took four hours before the game finally finished on Hand 132.

Crispy got most of the points, but he was bottom, so at least this lifts him a couple of places.


British calmness under pressure wins the day

[MintTrav]

Event 28: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball

Winner	Brian Brubaker
Runners	325
Paid	49
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Robert Mizrachi	7	1
Ian Johns	17	1
Shaun Deeb	20	1
Chris Bjorin	31	1
Rep Porter	36	1
Daniel Negreanu	42	1
Max Pescatori	45	1

Selector	Points
Vince	3
Adam	2
Craig	2
English Tom	2
Glenn	2
John	2
Luca	2
Paul R	2
Paxo	2
Richard	2
Barrie	1
Carl	1
Chris H	1
Debbie	1
Del	1
Gareth	1
Ian	1
Irish Tom	1
Jo	1
Karen	1
Leigh	1
Scottish Tom	1
Simon B	1
Simon L	1
Stephen	1

[Jokha]

Hey John, Negreanu and Pescatori also cashed in #28.  Great updates btw

[MintTrav]

Hey John, Negreanu and Pescatori also cashed in #28.  Great updates btw

So they did, ta. Fixed now.

[MintTrav]

Event 23: $2,620 The Marathon No-Limit Hold'em

Winner	Joseph Di Rosa
Runners	1759
Paid	264
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Adrian Mateos	52	1
Maria Ho	58	1
Jason Mercier	143	1
Niall Farrell	187	1
Mike Leah	227	1

Selector	Points
Craig	2
Gareth	2
Glenn	2
Ian	2
Irish Tom	2
Jo	2
Karen	2
Richard	2
Adam	1
Barrie	1
Carl	1
Chris H	1
Debbie	1
Del	1
English Tom	1
John	1
Leigh	1
Luca	1
Paul H	1
Paul R	1
Paxo	1
Scottish Tom	1
Simon B	1
Stephen	1
Vince	1

The Marathon has finally finished after five days.

We didn't have many scorers, Mercier being the one that a few had, but only gaining one point and being beaten by his wife.

The winner is Venezuela's first bracelet-winner, but he doesn't want to make a big thing about it.

[MintTrav]

Looking forward to a big day today.

Negreanu is in good shape in the $10k HORSE with 1.2m, a lead of 500k over second. Rast and Mercier are among the 15 players remaining, as are Scott Bohlman, on his sixth cash this year, Mack Lee and David Bach, winner of #11 the Dealer's Choice. Also two players I chose last year but dropped this time, Don Zewin and Anthony Zinno (doh!). Big names Brandon Shack-Harris, Esther Taylor and Stephen Chidwick were amongst those who cashed but have recently been eliminated.


Mack Lee - currently 11th of 15


694 players are coming back from the 5,389 entrants in the Seniors. Brendan Byrne and his brother Sean have played this event for the last few years, being quite old. Brendan has a cash in it, but Sean has specialised in this tournament, finishing in the top 60 for the last three years in succession. Yesterday, Brendan went down valiantly but, incredibly, Sean has again done well, going through in 207th position. We'll be keeping an eye on his progess as he attacks the later stages of this once again.

[MintTrav]

He's only gone and done it. The Seniors tournament #31 is down to 67 players and, incredibly, Sean Byrne is one of them, going through in joint 27th position. On Day 3 he will have chip-leader (and 2014 winner of this event) Dan Heimiller three seats to his right.

#29 reached heads-up too quickly, like Moorman's tournament the night before, leaving the two players very deep. James Calvo and Gaurav Raina played nearly 80 hands in two hours but, when they packed it in for the night, they were still 96BB and 40 BB deep. For some reason, there don't seem to have been many big names in this one.

#32 $1.5k Omaha Hi-Lo ended with 29 players, topped by UK's Howard Smith. We still have Allen Kessler annd John Racener in the lower reaches of this. APAT player Paresh Doshi achieved 71st place for his second cash.

[MintTrav]

Event 30: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship

Winner	David Bach
Runners	150
Paid	23
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Jason Mercier	5	10
Daniel Negreanu	6	8
Brian Rast	11	1
Brandon Shack-Harris	16	1
Stephen Chidwick	21	1

Selector	Points
English Tom	20
Paul R	20
Barrie	19
Craig	19
Gareth	19
Glenn	19
Jo	19
Karen	19
Luca	19
Paxo	19
Richard	19
Simon B	19
Stephen	19
Vince	19
Adam	18
Debbie	18
Carl	11
John	11
Del	10
Irish Tom	10
Chris H	9
Leigh	8
Scottish Tom	8
Ian	1
Paul H	1

There are loaded final tables, and there is this, another level again.

Last year's winner, Mercier, came close to a back-to-back and Negreanu was on his third FT, chasing Player of the Year points. Jerry Wong had a decent year in 2016 - six cashes and $1.1m for reaching the November Nine. This FT was his third cash so far this year.

Don Zewin finished third for the fourth time, one of them in this event two years ago. He has also had a second spot. Andrew Brown, Eric Rodawig and Yuebin Guo have all played several WSOP FTs. Guo has previously been third in HORSE and sixth in 8-Game, but Brown and Rodawig both have a bracelet at home.

The win could have gone in any direction, with most of them taking a turn to hold a big lead a some point of the final.

And then there was David Bach, who won his second bracelet in a week, having already won the Dealer's Choice. He also won the $50k HORSE a few years ago. Bach is an all-rounder - as well previous wins in SCOOP and Aussie HORSE events, he has won the Sunday Millions.

Great poker achievements, but the guy is an updater's nightmare, piling his chips all around randomly and having a liking for putting them in piles of 16.

[MintTrav]

Scores so far:

Selector	Points
Barrie	164
Jo	150
Adam	136
Craig	128
Debbie	123
Simon B	121
English Tom	116
Luca	112
Paul R	103
Richard	102
Vince	97
Stephen	95
Carl	88
Glenn	87
Chris H	77
Paxo	77
Simon L	76
John	76
Gareth	76
Karen	76
Scottish Tom	75
Leigh	69
Ian	61
Irish Tom	48
Chris B	41
Del	39
Paul H	31

[MintTrav]

Event 29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Winner	Gaurav Raina
Runners	1086
Paid	163
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
John Monnette	79	1
Ismael Bojang	85	1
Chris Ferguson	118	1
Adrian Mateos	149	1

Selector	Points
Barrie	1
Carl	1
Craig	1
Irish Tom	1
Jo	1
John	1
Karen	1
Paul R	1
Richard	1
Stephen	1

#29 has finally been put out of its misery.This event was pro-light, and it showed. There was some dubious play on the final table before it got to heads-up but, once it reached that stage, the standard of play collapsed. This was one of the weakest heads-up it has been my misfortune to follow, made all the worse when contrasted with the stellar play by both players in the Moorman-Dias heads-up the day before. Either of those would have eaten either of these guys in no time. The less-worse of the two, Raina, deservedly won out in the end.

[MintTrav]

Meanwhile, the Seniors is down to three tables. 24 players left and our man is still there, though he seems to have nodded off.

[MintTrav]

Quote from the updates of the Super-Seniors, for players aged 65+. "Each time we have returned from break, at least one of the players has lost their seat. The floor calls out asking if anyone recognizes the player and a silence falls over the crowd until someone pipes up with their location."