Matt Glantz Leads $50K Poker Players' Championship as Five Players Fall
On Sunday, the 2014 World Series of Poker continued with the start of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, which has been one of the most prestigious events on the calendar for the past nine years. Day 1 attracted 85 runners, but registration is open for two hours on Day 2 so that number will surely increase.
The star-studded field played five 100-minute levels of play, and no one did better during that time than Matt Glantz, who has made the final table of this event twice in the past. Glantz bagged up more than any other player with a healthy 324,700.
During that time five players also hit the rail. The first to go was Vanessa Selbst, who fell to Glantz in Level 4 in a hand of no-limit hold’em. It happened when Glantz raised to 1,700 from the hijack and Selbst three-bet from the button to 4,800. The action folded back to Glantz who four-bet to 13,700 and Selbst tanked for a while before making the call.
The flop brought 
and Glantz bet 11,500, Selbst made the call. On the 
turn Glantz checked and Selbst moved all in for about 55,000 chips. Glantz immediately pushed a stack of chips forward and Selbst shook her head in frustration. Selbst showed 
against Glantz's 
and she was drawing dead headed to the river, which was the meaningless 
. No woman has even cashed in the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, and Selbst’s exit left Melissa Burr as the last woman standing, so unless another lady enters on Day 2, she is the last hope of making it happen.
From there, 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event runner-up Sergii Baranov, who qualified for the tournament via a satellite, fell to Ismael Bojang in a hand of pot-limit Omaha, and then Dan Shak became the day’s third elimination after falling to Ola "Odd_Oddsen" Amundsgard in the same game.
As for the final two eliminations, one would be Atlantic City cash-game player Michael Glick, who was crippled in a big PLO hand early on and then exited in one of the last hands of the night. The other was Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who also fell late in a stud hi-low hand to Paul Volpe.
Going back to Amundsgard, he was just one of a handful of online pros that opted to test their skills in the eight-game rotation. Others in the field included Chun Lei “samrostan” Zhou, Alexandre “Alexonmoon” Luneau, and Elior “Crazy Elior” Scion, all of who survived the night.
Others returning to action on Day 2 are two-time winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi; two-time finalists Andy Bloch, Bruno Fitoussi, and David Singer; and the defending champ Matthew Ashton (the first non-American to win the title). They will be joined by the likes of Dylan Linde (303,700), Richard Ashby (300,000), Shaun Deeb (282,600), Ismael Bojang (271,400), David Benyamine (246,300), Joe Hachem (208,500), Phil Hellmuth (116,800), Daniel Negreanu (108,500), and Phil Ivey (68,000).
The field is comprised of the best of the best, and the stacks are deep, so it’s still anyone’s game.
Day 2 is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. local time on Monday, and the plan is to play five more levels. Rumor has it that Gus Hansen an Doyle Brunson may make an appearance, so you’ll have to check back then to see if that proves true. In the meantime, check out this interview with the legendary Phil Ivey for this year’s $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship.