There are now only 20 players left in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event after two days of intensive play. Carl Westcott, a recipient of the Horatio Alger Award in 2003, will lead the remaining players into Day 3 with 1,066,000 in chips.
The 2014 WSOP's Main Event kicked off this weekend on Saturday. There were 771 players that sat down at the tables at the Rio for Day 1A of this year's $10,000,000 1st place guarantee event. No other than the legendary 2005 main event winner Joe Hachem kicked off the event by announcing the classic "Shuffle up and Deal".
Day 1A gathered some famous poker faces. No less than 5 previous gold bracelet winners were among the participants: Tom McEvoy, Johnny Chan, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Merson, and Ryan Riess.
Once Day 1A concluded, the chip leader was Sweden's Martin Jacobson who bagged 200,100 chips for round 2. The young Swede has earned a total of $1,204,983 in WSOP winnings where the major part comes from finishing on 6th place in 2013's Event #47: One Drop High Rollers No-Limit Hold'em where he won $807,427.
On Monday, Vanessa Selbst, the winner of the 2013 PCA High Roller, had an incredible chance to defend her title as she had the chip lead with only 14 players remaining in the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller ($25,000 buy-in, 247 entries).
Things went really well at first, and after she had sent Mustapha Kanit packing in 4th place with pocket aces against pocket jacks (all-in preflop) things looked even better as she had about 5.5 million chips - slightly behind the chip leader, Jake Schindler, and well ahead of Greg Merson, the winner of the 2012 WSOP Main Event.
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst is running extremly good as of late. Just about a week ago she finished 3rd in the PCA Super High Roller for $760k, then she finished in 42nd place in the Main Event for $32k this weekend, and now she's the chip leader in the $25k High Roller!
The third day of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event came to a close a few moments ago. There are 666 player remaining with the top 648 places making the money, so it shouldn't take more than a few hours tomorrow before the money bubble bursts. Now, the chip leader is Maxx Coleman from Derby, Kansas. Coleman will bring 1,071,500 chips to Day 4 of the tournament - the only player with over a million chips!
Doyle Brunson (left) and Greg Merson (right), two former champions of this event, are still in the tournament! The Godfather of Poker (10-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and two-time WSOP Main Event Champion) made it through Day 3 with 626,000 in chips, and Greg Merson, who won last year's Main Event, will bring 390,500 chips to the fourth day of the tournament!
Apart from Merson and Brunson, there are many familiar faces (Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestead, Marvin Rettenmaier - just to mention three with decent stacks) among the remaining squad of players. Day 4 will kick off at 12:00 p.m. Las Vegas time. Another five levels of poker are on the schedule and the money bubble will burst. It's set to be a thrilling day of poker!
Two of three Day 2 flights are in the books now and about 800 players are through to Day 3 of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event. The chip leader (at the moment - Day 2C still to be played) is Nick Schwarmann (413,600 chips) who overtook the lead from Jason DeWitt (ranked 2nd with 382,900) during the last level of Day 2. Schwarmann, from Orlando, Fla. has more than $400,000 in tournament earnings, including a 2nd place finish at this year's WSOP (Event #38: $2,500 NLH Four-Handed).
Now, two of the biggest names to make it through Day 2 with plenty of chips were former main event champions Doyle Brunson and Greg Merson. Brunson (two-time main event winner) started Day 2 with 81,025 chips and finished the day with 224,000! Merson, the winner of the 2012 Main Event, started with 81,650 in chips and finished with 275,000 after a fantastic day at the tables. It will be interesting to follow Brunson and Merson during Day 3!
We will be back with another WSOP Main Event update tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Russ Fox, a tax consult based in Las Vegas, has in the past few years been calculating how much the WSOP Main Event finalists will get to keep after paying taxes. This year $10,028,396 of the $27,258,025 final table prize pool should be taxed. The biggest tax bite will be taken from the winner Gregory Merson...
Yesterday Greg Merson won the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event after a very exciting final table that lasted 18 hours. The 24-year-old poker pro from Laurel, Maryland overcame a field of 6,598 players to collect the first place prize of $8,531,853 and, of course, the coveted WSOP Main Event bracelet. Below is a video clip of the final hand and also a clip of a very emotional Greg Merson being interviewed and congratulated by Kara Scott after the win.
It's over. After 13 hours of play and 399 hands, the American poker pro Greg Merson, 24, was crowned the champion of the 43rd Annual World Series of Poker Main Event! Merson sat down at the final table two days ago with the third largest stack. After about seven and a half hours of play, only three players had chips left and Merson had 88.35 million chips - about 26 million more than his closest opponent, Jesse Sylvia.
After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
Greg Merson, who was ranked third when the final table kicked off, had an amazing winning streak during Day 8. When Day 9 begins tonight, he will bring a massive 88.35 million stack to the table - about 26 million more than Jesse Sylvia, who had the lead when the final table kicked off yesterday. Balsiger, who eliminated Russel Thomas in 4th place and put an end to Day 8, will bring 46.8 million chips to the final table when play resumes. Day 9 is scheduled to kick off tonight at 5:45 PM local time. Until then, check out the interviews below (taken from WSOP's website).
Greg Merson's road to this year's main event final table has probably been the toughest of all 9 finalists. About 5 years ago he finally managed to put an end to his drug addiction, and ever since he has been very open about his addicition in interviews.
For example: In a recent interview with ESPN, Merson said that he financed his addiction by playing poker in the beginning of his career and that he stopped caring about school and other things in life. However, he managed to quit drugs after getting professional help and then started taking poker more seriously. The kick he got from playing poker drug-free helped him fill the gap after he stopped with, for example, cocaine.
The 2012 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,598 players and became the fifth-largest Main Event in history. Nearly 2 weeks and more than half a million hands after that the $10,000 buy-in event kicked off, only 9 players remain with the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet that comes along with the $8.5 million first prize! Here you can read about 4 of the finalists (ranked according to stack size).
There are now only 20 players left in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event after two days of intensive play. Carl Westcott, a recipient of the 
The 2014 WSOP's Main Event kicked off this weekend on Saturday. There were 771 players that sat down at the tables at the Rio for Day 1A of this year's $10,000,000 1st place guarantee event. No other than the legendary 2005 main event winner Joe Hachem kicked off the event by announcing the classic "Shuffle up and Deal".
After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
