It was quite a day in Event #18: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em . When the day started there were 163 players already well into the money, and the remaining players were looking up at the top prize of $340,260. After 10 levels of play, only 14 players advanced to Day 3, and Taylor Paur was leading the way with a commanding chip lead.
Paur grabbed the lead late in the night and will take 1,318,000 into the final day. Two of his closest competitors are Alex Barlow (792,000) and DJ MacKinnon (557,000). WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Idema is still in the mix with 400,000.
The big story, however, was the emergence of Phil Ivey. After securing his first cash of the series in this event, Ivey will try to earn his 10th bracelet when play resumes on Tuesday. Ivey will go into Day 3 with a below-average stack of 285,000, but the world's best player is always a favorite regardless of where he stands on the leaderboard. If he were to win the event, it would mark his first WSOP title in a hold'em tournament.
Players who did not have as much success on Day 2 were Nick Binger (113th), Men Nguyen (85th), Matt Affleck (66th), Luke Graham (28th), and Dominik Nitsche (16th).
Play will resume Tuesday at 1 p.m. PST and the remaining 14 will play until a winner is determined. PokerNews looks forward to providing continuing coverage of the Event #18, and make sure you tune in to see if Ivey or any other of the top pros can take down the $340,260 top prize.
Samer Al-Shurieki has finished in 15th place; his stack is now in the possession of Alex Barlow, who climbed to the top of the chip counts.
Robert Deppe opened to 26,000 on the button, Al-Shurieki three-bet from the small blind and Barlow shoved from the big blind. Deppe folded but Al-Shurieki called.
Al-Shurieki:
Barlow:
Al-Shurieki's tournament life hung in the balance as the dealer spread the flop. Barlow's friends on the rails pleaded with the dealer for an ace to help their friend out but the landed on the turn instead. Shouts for an ace were joined by chants for a king on the river as the latter would gift Barlow a straight. The Poker Gods answered the rail's prayers and the landed, sending Al-Shurieki to the rail.
Ivey raised from middle position to 20,000 and Daniel Idema reraised to about 56,000 from the button. Joseph Dibiasi went all in from the small blind and Taylor Paur, the big blind, and Ivey folded. Idema called with and Dibiasi had .
The board fell and Idema's jacks held, eliminating Dibiasi in 17th place.
Jason Everett was short stacked since the cooler hand against Phillip Hui a bit earlier this evening. He shoved his remaining 50,000 with and ran into the of Kyle Cartwright. Cartwright's queens held, eliminating Everett in 18th place.
Phil Ivey raised to 16,000 from the hijack and action folded to Dash Dudley in the small blind. He bumped it up to 43,500 and Ivey answered with an all in bet of 189,000, which Dudley called.
Ivey:
Dudley:
The board ran out , giving Ivey a set on the river to vault him near the top of the leaderboard.
Gibert Diaz has just doubled through the dangerous Taylor Paur and seems rather delighted with that fact.
Shannon Shorr opened to 12,000 and next to act was Paur. He peeked at his cards before three-betting to what looked like 31,000 but before we had time to double check the amount Gilbert Diaz had moved all in, Shorr mucked and Paur called to put Diaz at risk of elimination.
Paur:
Diaz:
Diaz was in bad shape because his hand was dominated by that of Paur. Neither player improved on the flop, but Diaz was catapulted into the lead when the landed on the turn.
"OUI!" bellowed Diaz as he took the lead in the hand.
The river completed the hand and with that Diaz doubled to 160,000.
Once the hand was over, Diaz raised his hand and apologised for his over enthusiastic celebration.
Phil Ivey opened to 4,000 from the cutoff and the small blind made it 11,000. Ivey thought for half a minute, and then decided to call. on the flop and the small blind bet 11,000 with 45,000 behind. Ivey thought for a long time, constantly staring at his opponent. The small blind got more and more uncomfortable and he looked like he wanted to check if he had diamonds but didn't dare to. He bit his lip, wiggled on his chair and looked not at ease at all.
He was released of all that pressure when Phil Ivey quietly whispered "All In". The dealer tossed out the all in button and the small blind checked his cards one more time before releasing them with a big sigh.
We missed the precise action but Jose "Nacho" Barbero told us that Kyle Cartwright had opened preflop and Andy Bloch had called from the big blind. Bloch had check-shoved on and had received a call. Bloch had a spade or queen to hit with his as Cartwright tabled . The on the turn and on the river didn't help Bloch who was already on his way to the exit as we approached table 443.
That table is still incredibly tough with, amongst other, Kyle Cartwright (seat 1), Adam Sanders (seat 2), Phil Ivey (seat 3), Nacho Barbero (seat 8) and Darryll Fish (seat 9).