On one of the first hands of the unofficial final table, Jess Dioquino opened for 36,000 under the gun and cleared the field all the way to Scott Yelton, who moved all in for about 128,000 from the big blind. Dioquino made a quick called with the and was racing against the of Yelton.
The flop was fairly interesting as it gave Dioquino a set but also delivered Yelton a flush draw. Unfortunately for the latter, neither the turn nor river helped him and became the tenth-place finish, just missing out on the official final table.
The 2013 World Series of Poker is only a week in, but the final table of Event #7 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em is making a strong early case for becoming the toughest final table of them all. Granted, we're technically not at the final table yet as 10 players of a 1,837-player field remain, but once we lose one more it'll be official. As long as that elimination isn't chip leader Amit Makhija, Matt Waxman, Brent Hanks, Jason Koon or Eric Baldwin, then the final table will be contain five superstars with a combined $4,027,878.88 in career WSOP winnings!
As mentioned, Makhija does hold the chip lead with 1.101 million. Jess Dioquino comes in second with 921,000, the Waxman sits in third with 829,000. The short stack of the final table is Scott Yelton with 167,000 in chips, but in poker anything can happen, so a double up and a few pots here or there will put Yelton right back into the swing of things.
Clearly, all eyes will be on Baldwin and Hanks. Both of these players are looking for their second piece of WSOP hardware. Hanks is riding a bit of a heater coming into the 2013 WSOP, having won the California State Championships Main Event in May.
Needless to say, everyone at the final table is excited to be there, but the level of competition is hard to ignore:
The winner of today's event will take home the seventh gold bracelet awarded this summer and the accompanying $305,952 first-place prize? Will someone have their dreams come true by winning their first WSOP gold bracelet, or will either Brent Hanks or Eric Baldwin be able to capture their second piece of gold? Join us at 1:00 p.m. PST as we bring you all the action on the way to the next winner.