Highlights from day 10 of the 2012 WSOP (June 5)
John Monnette, a 30-year-old professional poker player from Palmdale, California, won his second WSOP gold bracelet tonight, making his victory in one of the world’s premier poker tournaments look far too easy.
He won the $5000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud World Championship, collecting USD $190,826 in prize money. Monnette (pictured left) accounted for a stacked field with nearly half the total list of entrants former gold bracelet holders. In fact, half of the players who cashed – eight of 16 – were former titleholders.
But Monnette wasn’t fazed, obliterating a final table line-up that included five-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro (also the 2009 WSOP Player of the Year, who marked his 40th career cash at the WSOP) and another former champion with a strong pedigree, Perry Friedman.
However, Monnette’s toughest adversary proved to be relative unknown Huu Vinh, from Huntington Beach, CA who made his second final table appearance in a stud event this year at the WSOP. He finished fifth in the $1500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud tournament, which ended three days earlier.
In addition to the three finalists, Monnette, Friedman, and Lisandro, five other former gold bracelet winners cracked the money ranks – including Eugene Katchalov, Cyndy Violette, Max Pescatori, Mike Sexton and Nick Schulman.
• Terrance Chan, arguably the best Limit Hold’em player in the world never to win a gold bracelet, is on a pace to surpass Nikolay Evdakov’s high mark for most cashes at a single series. The Russian, who sadly passed away earlier this year, cashed a whopping 10 times at the 2008 WSOP.
Chan, from Vancouver, Canada, has entered four gold bracelet tournaments, to date and has cashed in all four. Chan’s chances of making a serious run at the record are strong, since his best poker games – particularly Limit Hold’em – are now approaching on the WSOP schedule.
• Two more bracelet events are nearing conclusion. Ryan Olisar leads the final nine players chasing the $1500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Re-entry title. Brian Rast, Amanda Musumeci and Greg Mueller also remain in contention. The winner will collect a whopping USD $781,398.
Event #11, the $1500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament also continues with nine players remaining. Charles Tonne is the big stack with Alex Dozhenko, Calvin Anderson, and Tristan Wade also still in the hunt for the USD $265,211 first prize and WSOP gold bracelet.
• Event #12, the $10,000 buy-in Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em World Championship, played from 152 starters down to 32 survivors. A highlight from the first round included recent WSOP gold bracelet winner Andy Bloch’s early match against Swedish online poker marvel Viktor Isildur1 Blom.
Bloch proved to be no match for Blom, who was playing in his first WSOP tournament on US soil (he played previously at WSOP Europe). However, Blom had a tougher go in the next round, losing to Tommy Chen.
• Other action at the Rio today includes day two of Event #13 ($1500 Limit Hold’em), with 222 players remaining. Event #14, the $1500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Shootout (capped at 2000 players) and Event #15, the $5000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament, also start today.
• Additional reporting, Nolan Dalla, WSOP.com
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