Humberto Brenes Showing Off His Shark Ring (Seen Here Playing in Event #57)
Costa Rican poker pro Humberto Brenes has always been one of the more friendly figures in the game, both on the felt and off, and today "The Shark" has been feasting on the fishes.
When we heard the familiar call of "Amigo!" while passing by Brenes' table, we stopped by to hear him happily report that he has moved to the 43,000 mark to begin the second level of play.
We noticed Phil Laak down to 14,075 in chips and while we didn't see how he last half his starting stack, we did catch him as his opponent paid off his set of sevens and added some chips back into his stack.
With players still filtering in to find their seats, we've found a few more notable names here in the Brasilia Room, including one pro who has already chipped up to begin the day.
Loni Harwood won her first career bracelet yesterday in Event #60
During the first break, the Brasilia Room hosted the last bracelet ceremony of the summer. Of the winners who received her prize was Loni Harwood, who finished first in Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Harwood is the second woman to win an open event at the 2013 WSOP (after Dana Castaneda in Event #54). She made two final tables earlier in the summer, and now has six total cashes. Her victory yesterday catapulted her to third place on the Player of the Year leader board, ahead of David “Bakes” Baker, Marco Johnson, and Tom Schneider, all of whom have produced stellar results in their own right over the past six weeks. Harwood currently sits with 23,500 in chips, and with a deep run in the Main Event, she has the potential to move even higher in the POY rankings.
In this day and age making the November Nine more than once seems impossible. No one has done it yet, but that's not to say players don't have multiple final table appearances. Perhaps the most notable man to do it was Dan Harrington, who took sixth in 1987 before winning in 1995. Then, in 2003 and 2004, he made headlines by making back-to-back final tables and finishing in third and fourth place respectively.
Harrington advanced from the Day 1b field with 60,675 and is looking to make his first final table in nine years.
Here's a look at all the players who've made multiple WSOP Main Event final tables:
We're just one level into Day 1c, but already it's shaping up to be a heck of a day. The gigantic field, which is currently spread out across the Amazon, Brasilia and Pavilion Rooms, are chalk full of big-name pros including former Main Event champs Huck Seed (1996), Carlos Mortensen (2001), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Joe Hachem (2005), Jamie Gold (2006) and Jonathan Duhamel (2009). We also expect 1989 WSOP Main Event champ Phil Hellmuth to make his patented late entrance later today. Whether or not he has an over-the-top arrival planned remains to be seen.
On the flip side, three-time bracelet winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who is known to play very aggressively, jumped out to an early chip lead by amassing a stack of 85,000. That's nearly three times the starting stack! Needless to say, Mizrachi is off to a good start and looks to make a run at another WSOP Main Event final table after finishing fifth in the 2010 Main Event for $2,332,992.
We've found a few more notable names here in the Brasilia Room, including the Master himself, Johnny Chan, the summer's second female bracelet winner Loni Harwood, and online sicko Ben Tollerene.
