Welcome back to the final day of Event #73: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold'em (30 minute levels) where a winner will walk away with that first-place prize of $199,586 and the gold WSOP bracelet tonight. 54 players will return at noon local time to battle it out among themselves.
Evan Lipschultz is in a prime position right with a huge chip lead as he bagged 952,000 last night. With 95 big blinds, it is expected that he won’t be afraid to let his big stack do the talking on the table. But it won’t be easy as he’s got players like 2012 November-niner Jake Balsiger (446,000), bracelet winner Konstantin Puchkov (112,000), WSOP Circuit Ring winner DJ MacKinnon (321,000), and Jesse Cohen (220,000) for example on his table too.
Second in the chip counts is Jason Johnson trailing by almost 40 big blinds with 532,000 which is still almost twice average. Johnson is no stranger to the WSOP Circuit with over 20 cashes already. A first place here wouldn’t be his personal best as he had a pretty amazing 2014 when he reached two final tables and finished in 51st place in the Main Event. Johnson is sharing table space with bracelet winner Thiago Nishijima who is standing in third place in the chip counts with 471,000. Matthew Berger is also on the table and sporting one of the top 5 stacks of today with 441,000.
Others to keep an eye on today include Leo Margets (340,000), Ben Yu (340,000), Vlad Darie (289,000), Justin Young (280,000), Alexander Greenblatt (162,000), Mikhail Semin (124,200), and Eli Loewenthal (116,000). All returning players are guaranteed at least $3,399 but will all be looking to ladder up.
Players will continue play at noon on Level 21 which features a small blind of 5,000, big blind of 10,000 and a running ante of 1,000. A 15-minute break is scheduled after every four levels with a dinner break to be determined.
As this is a brand-new event for the WSOP, make sure to come back to see who will go down in history as the first-ever winner of the $1,000 DOUBLE STACK. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the first ante that will be paid until the final pot has been pushed to the winner!
Tags:
Alexander GreenblattBen YuDJ MacKinnonEli LoewenthalJake BalsigerJason JohnsonJesse CohenJustin YoungKonstantin PuchkovLeo MargetsMikhail SeminThiago NishijimaVlad Darie
to give Greenblatt some hope when he hit a pair of fives on the flop but no further help arrived on the turn nor river and Greenblatt was eliminated during the first level of the day.
of Puchkov, and Cohen's ace played on a 
board to eliminate the Russian.
for Cohen to cheer when the river fell for his flush, failing to realize that Margets had already hit a full house on the flop. Cohen looked at Margets stack and saw he was covered and quickly left for the payout desk.
for Hightower's higher kicker to count for his double-up.
flop. The turn 
