Welcome to Day 2 of Event #36: $3,000 Shootout where a field of 313 players has been whittled down to just 40, and there is more whittling to do as this tournament plays down to a final table today.
Play will be situated around ten four-handed tables here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, with the winner of each advancing to a ten-handed final table and in with a chance of winning $207,193.
Notables in the field of 40 include three-time bracelet winner Justin Bonomo who took down the $10,000 Heads-up Championship and the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop last year.
Others including Byron Kaverman, Taylor Paur, Alexandru Papazian, Andrew Lichtenberger, Kristen Bicknell, James Obst, Eric Froehlich, and Jeremy Wien all made it through to today.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for continued updates from the latest bracelet event here at the 50th annual WSOP.
Justin Bonomo took a healthy chip lead into the heads-up battle with Ryan Leng. While Leng put up some fight, the hill was too much to climb. Leng found himself all in for around 50,000 with and was called by Bonomo's .
The flop fell and Leng was all but out of the match. The on the turn sealed the deal and the on the river was just a formality. Bonomo will now bring his 591,000 chips into the final table that resumes tomorrow.
Taylor Paur shoved all in for his last 67,000 and his opponent Alexandru Papazian called.
Taylor Paur:
Alexandru Papazian:
"I like that flop," said Papazian as it came giving him a flush draw. Paur improved to two pair on the turn but the river gave Papazian his flush and sent Paur to the rail.
Jeremy Wien was seen standing up from his seat and Andrew Lichtenberger relayed what just transpired. Lichtenberger raised to 13,000 on the button and Wien three-bet to 41,000. Lichtenberger called and the flop came .
Wien shipped all in for around 120,000 and Lichtenberger made the call. Wien turned over pocket deuces and Lichtenberger was ahead with pocket sevens. The board ran out and Lichtenberger held on to eliminate Wien and advance to the final table.
Jan Lakota opened to 16,000 and James Obst three-bet all in for 86,000. Lakota called.
Jan Lakota:
James Obst:
There was a king on the flop and Obst was dead on the turn. The river was the and Obst was eliminated.
Lakota celebrated wildly with the two women on his rail before turning to shake Obst's hand. "Really good match," he said. He bags up 623,000 ahead of tomorrow's final table.
Dario Sammartino doubled for 85,000 through Ben Farrell when the Italian's held against the of his opponent.
However, the pair got it in on the very next hand with Farrell holding the pocket pair this time. His held against Sammartino's on a runout to cap a remarkable comeback from the Brit who was down to three big blinds at one stage.
There were just 40 players that returned to the felt for Day 2 of Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. They made up ten four-handed tables and the winner of each table would advance to the final table on Day 3 with a shot at a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
The final table will have plenty of familiar names on it and the highlight, of course, will be three-time bracelet winner Justin Bonomo. Coming off a record-breaking year in 2018, Bonomo is showing no signs of slowing down. Coming into the final table, Bonomo will bring a stack of 591,000 chips, right in the middle of the pack.
He made quick work of his table today, wrapping it up before the players even hit the first break. Bonomo picked up most of his chips by winning an early flip against Mateusz Rypulak for a 150 big blind pot. Bonomo flopped quads and Rypulak was already drawing dead. Going into a heads-up battle with Ryan Leng, Bonomo held a comfortable chip lead and never looked back. With Leng all in for around 13 big blinds, Bonomo made the call with ace-ten and flopped trip aces to secure his berth among the final 10.
While the money is hardly an issue anymore for a man who has over $44 million in career tournament earnings, Bonomo is still at the top of his game in search of more titles. However, he still finds time to have a little fun at the tables and even enjoyed some small cash games on the Las Vegas strip a couple of days ago. Rest assured, Bonomo will have his game face on tomorrow when he looks to capture his fourth WSOP gold bracelet.
Update to my previous Tweet about busting 5 tournaments in a day
— Bonologic (@JustinBonomo)
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat
Name
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Ben Farrell
United Kingdom
621,000
62
2
Jan Lakota
Slovenia
623,000
62
3
David Lambard
United States
621,000
62
4
Johan Guilbert
France
599,000
60
5
Andrew Lichtenberger
United States
614,000
61
6
Martin Zamani
United States
601,000
60
7
Justin Bonomo
United States
591,000
59
8
Weiyi Zhang
China
599,000
60
9
Adrien Delmas
France
609,000
61
10
Alexandru Papazian
Romania
609,000
61
Another quick finisher on the day was Martin Zamani who will bring 601,000 chips with him to the final table. Zamani eliminated all three players at his table, starting with Ludovic Riehl, then onto Arthur Conan. His toughest competitor he saved for last as he battled with Kristen Bicknell heads-up. Zamani held a big lead throughout and ended the battle with a full house against Bicknell's overpair to the board.
Andrew Lichtenberger (614,000) and Alexandru Papazian (609,000) will be the other players at the table in search of multiple bracelets. Each of them already has one to their name but adding a second in a field full of big names would be a nice accomplishment. Lichtenberger dominated his table and defeated Jeremy Wien in order to advance while Papazian had a rougher go at things. Papazian needed a big double up against Taylor Paur in order to grab the chip lead and he finished the job about an hour later.
While all the players will bring a stack ranging between 59 and 63 big blinds to the final table, it is Jan Lakota who will have the largest of them all by a slight amount. This is Lakota's first WSOP final table and he is mostly known as a heads-up specialist. The only other WSOP event Lakota has played was the $10,000 Heads-Up tournament earlier this month.
Each of the final tablists have already locked up a score of $12,937 but there will be crucial pay jumps with each elimination. The stacks will be short to start off so the all-ins could be fast and furious at a full 10-handed table. Here is what they will all be playing for:
Final Table Payouts
Place
Prize
1st
$207,193
2nd
128,042
3rd
$92,625
4th
$67,706
5th
$50,016
6th
$37,341
7th
$28,182
8th
$21,501
9th
$16,586
10th
$12,937
The final table will get underway at 12 p.m. local time on the Feature Table with the live stream commencing once the final six is reached. The blinds will resume at 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante. The levels will be 40-minutes in length with a 15-minute break after every three levels. Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team to find out who will claim the title.