In the most exciting few days of the WSOP so far, five more champions have been decided, while three further events are reaching their climax
The biggest news to come out of the Rio this weekend has to be the fourth bracelet for old-school pro Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow. Matusow, who up until January hadn’t won a tournament in almost three years, burst back onto the scene at the start of the year after winning the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship against Phil Hellmuth. In what’s proving to be a great year for him the Mouth took down event 13, the $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better for $266,503. But it wasn’t about just the money for Matusow who has had his well documented struggles in the past. Following an emotional outburst when he won, it looks like one of the games best known stars is back to his best.
The other big news this weekend was a third WSOP win for Tom Schneider in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. Schneider showed why he is one of the games most respected players after defeating a very tough field of 862 players en route to the win worth $258,960.
Elsewhere Lev Rofman defeated ex Full Tilt pro Allen Cunningham heads-up to win the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event for $166,136. American Jonathan Taylor came out on top in event number 14, a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, for $454,424.
The final bracelet of the weekend went to Canadian Mark Radoja, who defeated Don Nguyen in the final match-up of the $10,000 heads-up event which was good for $336,190. Featuring 162 players, it looked like Phil Hellmuth was on course for bracelet 14 until he was knocked out in the semi-finals. Justin Bonomo, Ben Sulsky and Phil Galfond all put in strong performances too, but in the end they had to settle for top ten finishes.
Meanwhile event 17 is down to the final 15 from an initial 2,105 entrants. David “Bakes” Baker, currently leads the way in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event with a cool $518,755 waiting for the eventual winner.
Event 18 which had a slightly smaller buy-in and similar turn-out has only 163 players left with Phil Ivey sitting eighth in chips. Event 19, the $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em, has 77 of the original 195 remaining. Dimitar Danchev is currently sitting top of the leaderboard.
