Another chance for Brown and Somerville
June 28th, 2011 | by Jessica Teakle |Could this be the day Jason Somerville and Chad Brown have been waiting for?
Players have often mentioned that the most painful part of playing at the WSOP is making a very deep run and falling just short. Let’s take a look at Somerville’s story first.
Somerville knows the close-but-no-cigar feeling all too well in recent WSOP history. Since his first cash at the WSOP in 2008, Somerville has 11 (now 12) WSOP cashes. In 2008, he cashed three times in low buy-in no-limit hold ‘em events, with a top finish of 61st. In 2009, he cashed three times once again, with second- and fifth-place finishes to his name. Last year he managed to make two more final tables and finished fourth in both. His paydays were impressive — over $600,000 — and in just three short years, he was approaching the $1 million WSOP earnings mark.
Entering 2011, Somerville had four top-five finishes over the past two years, and last week he almost made another final table in the $10,000 pot-limit hold ‘em event, finishing 14th. Away from the WSOP, Somerville has found success across the world as well as online, where he is the owner of a SCOOP title as well as numerous other accomplishments.
Entering Day 3 of Event 20, $1,000 no-limit hold ‘em, Somerville will bring in the chip lead and has a great shot at making another final table. Nothing against the other players who remain, but typically the fields in these events are much weaker, which could allow remaining players like Somerville, Tim West (second), Valdemar Kwaysser (11th) or Lex Veldhuis (22nd) to take advantage.
Play will resume in this event at 5:30 p.m. ET and action will last for 10 levels or until a winner is determined. Given the quicker blind structure (Somerville will start the day with only 62 big blinds), it wouldn’t be surprising to see someone grab the first-place payday of $493,091 early Wednesday morning.
Now on to Downtown Chad Brown. Brown has been one of the most prominent and consistent players at the WSOP for the past decade, and he’ll have another shot at a bracelet on Tuesday in Event 21, the $10,000 buy-in seven-card stud world championship.
There are 14 players remaining in the event and Steve Landfish leads a very tough field that remains. Brown, who is currently battling cancer and recovering from the removal of a 10-pound tumor, will enter play fifth in chips. Despite all the distractions that surround him, he said he’s focused when I spoke to him earlier in the series.
Although Somerville’s close calls have come in the past few years, Brown has eight WSOP final tables since 2002, including three second-place finishes. He already has over $1.1 million in WSOP earnings through 31 cashes and hopes to add $331,639 in the next 24 hours. When it comes to seven-card stud events, Brown has three cashes in the discipline, with one of the runner-up finishes coming in a stud event in 2004.
Those joining Brown on Day 3 include Jason Mercier, Men Nguyen (who is going for his eighth WSOP bracelet), John Hennigan, Ville Wahlbeck, Bertrand Grospellier, Sorel Mizzi, Nick Schulman, Alexander Kostritsyn and Chris Tryba.
Here’s a look at the other events in progress:
Event 18: $1,500 no-limit hold ‘em
With a starting field of 3,157 players, it’s no shock that four days would be required for this WSOP-scheduled three-day event. After 10 levels of play on Day 2, Foster Hays emerged with a slight chip lead over Casey Kelton and by slight I mean two big blinds. When the players return, the blinds will be at Level 31, 60,000/120,000 with a 15,000 ante. The turnout has been discussed before, but it seems the WSOP didn’t even plan on it as the structure sheet for the event only lists up until Level 33 (100,000/200,000 with a 30,000 ante).
According to Bluff, eliminations occurred quickly to reach the final table shortly after the dinner break. At that point, the action slowed, with nearly four hours going by until the next elimination. During that time there were 12 occasions where players were all-in and doubled up to survive.
Jordan “Jymaster11″ Young was the unfortunate nine-place casualty. This was his second career WSOP cash, but the online whiz kid seems to be just getting started. He’s earned over $2.5 million online and has been ranked as one of the top online players in the world over the past year. This experience resonated with him; he stated on Twitter shortly after his elimination, “Thanks for the amazing rail everyone never had more fun playing poker in my life”.
After Philippe Vert’s eighth-place elimination, Tristan Wade hit the rail. Wade now has 11 career WSOP cashes, but this was his first of the summer and best finish at the Rio. Wade, like Young, has had great success online, and the elimination of the duo left six players who are all looking for their breakout moment.
Here are the chip counts:
Foster Hays (3.6 million in chips) Casey Kelton (3.3 million) Jeffrey Lavelle (2.1 million) Robert Koss (2.0 million) Stanley Tavanese (1.7 million) Allan Le (1.3 million)
Event 22: $1,500 Pot-limit Omaha
Another $1,500 event and another 1,000-player field. The aggressive nature of Omaha resulted in an elimination-filled Day 1, with 117 players surviving into the money out of the starting 1,071. The WSOP, which has continued to laugh in the face of Black Friday turnout concerns since Day 1, received an additional 186 players in this event compared to a year ago.
Juha Vilkke has the chip lead entering Day 2, but blocking his way to a WSOP bracelet are the Binger brothers, Melanie Weisner, Tommy Vedes, David “Bakes” Baker, Ryan D’Angelo and many more circuit regulars. The winner of this event will earn $292,825.
Event 23: $2,500 eight-game mix
I mentioned yesterday that I was excited to see this event take shape, and it did in a big way — 489 players bought in and nearly half of them survived Day 1.
Doug Booth leads the early action with Nikolay Evdakov and Brandon Cantu on his heels. Play will continue for 10 levels on Day 2.
The WSOP did another smart thing with the scheduling of this event, as those who are eliminated from Event 23 will most likely stick around until Thursday to play in Event 29, the 10-game mix. If the mixed-game players are in attendance, why not satisfy their cravings with two events?
The Big Picture
Since Black Friday, I’ve been saying that this WSOP would tell a significant story regarding the condition of the industry. So far, it looks like smooth sailing with turnouts exceeding 2010 with ease, and according to the WSOP, cash game action is up over 11 percent, as well. Whether players are capitalizing on the opportunity to play (many might not have had the opportunity recently), or whether the attraction of the WSOP has gotten even bigger, things are headed in the right direction. I’ll reserve my judgment on the main event, but even with a smaller main event field, the WSOP staff will be pleased with all the positive trends thus far in 2011.
Small blinds: FS+G announced on Tuesday that it has purchased the Heartland Poker Tour. “HPT is one of the great success stories in the poker industry,” said Jeffrey Pollack, chairman of Federated Sports + Gaming. “In a relatively short period of time, the Heartland Poker Tour has firmly established itself as an important national brand with a passionate, loyal player base. We are committed to poker entertainment in the broadest sense and to serving players and fans across the spectrum. The addition of HPT to the FS+G family fits perfectly with our approach.” I’m not sure what exactly the two will do together, but time will tell. Chat with me today and every day at 4 p.m. ET. Three of the largest WSOP events in history have been played in 2011. The two-day $1,000 event is the ninth-largest WSOP tournament overall and third-largest non-main event. The Las Vegas Sun reported that Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed AB 258 into law, which allows the Nevada Gaming Commission to adopt online poker regulations if the federal government legalizes it.
Tags: Somerville