Valentin Vornicu carries lead into Day 3 of WSOP Main Event
Valentin Vornicu of San Diego will have the overall lead when action resumes Thursday in the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship.
Brazil’s Gustavo Lopes topped the chip counts at the end of Day 2C early Thursday and opens in second place, followed by Italy’s Raffaele Castro. The Main Event continues at noon at the Rio Convention Center as the remaining 2,186 players are combined into one field.
The top 1,011 finishers earn a minimum cash of $15,000, while the top prize is $8 million. The Main Event drew 6,737 entrants, the most since 2011.
Vornicu, an eight-time winner on the WSOP Circuit, begins Day 3 with 838,600 chips and is the only player to surpass the 700,000-chip mark, let alone 800,000. Lopes, who has never cashed in a WSOP event, is sitting on 630,700 chips.
Castro (587,000) won a massive pot late Wednesday to jump up the chip counts. He finished eighth in the recent $1,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em event won by Tony Dunst.
Jamie Shaevel of Santa Monica, California, currently is fourth in chips with (586,000), while Alvaro Lopez of Tucson, Arizona, sits in fifth place (573,200).
Three-time bracelet winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi is lurking in ninth place, while Chad Power of Pittsburgh, who finished 26th in last year’s Main Event, rounds out the top 10.
A handful of former Main Event champions remain alive, including defending champion Joe McKeehen (183,900), Johnny Chan (154,300), Phil Hellmuth (82,300), Greg Raymer (179,800) and Ryan Reiss (349,000).
Other notables in the top 100 include: Steve O’Dwyer (441,600), Maria Ho (435,000), Olé Schemion (438,400), Dan Heimiller (402,000), Dunst (388,500), Kristen Bicknell (381,500) and Sorel Mizzi (369,800).
There were several high-profile bust-outs Wednesday during play on Day 2C led by Phil Ivey, Chris Moneymaker and Daniel Negreanu.
GOOD FOLD? — Imagine sitting at a poker table and being dealt pocket sevens. The board runs out K-9-7-7-J, with the king, nine and jack suited in spades, and there’s an all-in bet. Instantly call with quad sevens, right?
Not if you’re Kyle Bowker.
According to the official WSOP updates, Bowker, a professional poker player who won the $3,000 buy-in Pot-limit Omaha Hi-Low/8 or Better event on Saturday, faced that scenario Wednesday.
With his Main Event life at stake, Bowker tanked for several minutes. And as a tournament supervisor counted down his time to make a decision, he reportedly folded — FACE UP! — quad sevens.
It was either the biggest “nit” move of the tournament, or a brilliant lay down by Bowker, who clearly believed his opponent was holding the queen and 10 of spades for a superior straight flush. His opponent didn’t show, so we’ll never know.
The debate over Bowker’s fold continued throughout the day and even had poker pro Jared Hamby pondering “are we now confirmed living in a simulation?”
CHIP COUNTS (entering Day 3)
1. Valentin Vornicu (San Diego) 838,600
2. Gustavo Lopez (Brasilia, Brazil) 630,700
3. Raffaele Castro (Lugano, Italy) 587,000
4. Jamie Shaevel (Santa Monica, Calif.) 586,000
5. Alvaro Lopez (Tucson, Ariz.) 573,000
6. Rafael Moraes (Sao Paulo) 571,900
7. Albert Daher (Lebanon) 570,200
8. Ramin Hajiyev (Baku, Azerbaijan) 558,000
9. Michael Mizrachi (Hollywood, Florida) 549,400
10. Chad Power (Pittsburgh) 546,800
