WSOP 2019: Japan’s near miss, O’Dell’s trio, Ivey arrives and Ezra’s quadruple

The third week of this years World Series of Poker is now in full flow as is the tournament action and the headlines which inevitably follow it. Our latest update sees a desperately close call for Japan’s fans, former bracelet winners increasing their tally, Phil Ivey gracing the series with his presence, and much more.

Event 19: Kazuki Ikeuchi misses the million as John Gorsuch strikes gold

Japanese fans have had a rollercoaster day in Las Vegas, as Kazuki Ikeuchi sent hopes of a Japanese bracelet skyrocketing, before they came crashing back to earth with his runner-up finish. The near miss came in event 19, the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, which attracted 8,809 entries. This created a prize pool of $11,892,150 for this event, which took five days to play down to a winner. The final table saw John Gorsuch steadily moving up the chip counts despite having been down to two big blinds with seven players left.

The big story from Asia’s perspective was Japan’s Kazuki Ikeuchi building himself an imposing stack which was good enough for the chiplead by the time he and Gorsuch got heads-up.

A huge pot quickly developed when Ikeuchi found top pair and a flush draw against top set, and Gorsuch scored a large double up to claim a chiplead he would never relinquish. Ikeuchi was slowly rebuilding when another huge pot developed, this time AA against a turned two pair, and in the blink of an eye, Ikeuchi’s chance of a bracelet had evaporated.

A crazy final table ends with cracked aces! 🚀💥🏁 @gorsuch00 wins $1,344,930 and @WSOP gold in the Millionaire Maker. https://t.co/6DynX5eOQM #WSOP50 pic.twitter.com/QW6EhksNc0

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 12, 2019

A few Asian notables also made a deep runs in this event. China’s Dianlei Zhang finished 27th for $47,820 and both Terry Fan(50th -$25,511) and HKPPA Sparrow Cheung (56th- $20,999) made it to the Top 100.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – John Gorsuch – $1,344,930

2nd – Kazuki Ikeuchi – $830,783

3rd – Lokesh Garg – $619,017

4th – Vincas Tamasauskas – $464,375

5th – Josh Thibodaux – $350,758

6th – Cory Albertson – $266,771

7th – Bob Shao – $204,306

8th – Fabian Gumz – $157,565

9th – Josh Reichard – $122,375

Event 18: Frankie O’Dell Wins his third WSOP bracelet – all in Omaha hi/lo

Frankie O’Dell has moved to the top of the pile when it comes to the most Omaha hi/lo bracelets as he added his third in the $10K Omaha hi/lo event. The bracelet was the third of his career, further cementing his place as one of the best Omaha hi/lo tournament players around. The field size of 183 generated a prize pool of $1,720,200 and as ever, this event brought some of the game’s great mixed game players to the table. When the action got down to the final nine, O’Dell still had to get through Shaun Deeb, David Benyamine, Robert Mizrachi and Owais Ahmed. Deeb and Benyamine exited the table quite early on, but the other two experienced bracelet holders ran O’Dell close. Eventually though, the US pro was able to close out the event after Mizrachi hit the rail in 3rd and Ahmed was unable to stop the charge of O’Dell.

Despite the bracelet winning display by O’Dell he didn’t take all the headlines in this event. The presence of poker legend Phil Ivey in this tournament drew swarms of reporters and cameras to the table. Ivey also played the $10K HORSE this series and is yet to make his first cash of the year.

How would you feel if you’re @OnTheRail15 sandwiched between @phil_hellmuth and @philivey at the @WSOP? #WSOP50 pic.twitter.com/My5EzA3Nv4

— Donnie Peters (@Donnie_Peters) June 7, 2019

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Frankie O’Dell – $443,641

2nd – Owais Ahmed – $274,192

3rd – Robert Mizrachi – $194,850

4th – Nick Guagenti – $140,522

5th – Robert Campbell – $102,868

6th – Jake Schwartz – $76,456

7th – David Benyamine – $57,709

8th – Ed Vartughian – $44,245

9th – Shaun Deeb – $34,467

Event 20: Eli Elezra bags bracelet number four

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud brought 285 hopefuls together to take their shot at this bracelet, with the prize pool rising to $384,750. As you would expect, many big names pulled up a chair, in a tournament room which was littered with former bracelet winners. Going into the final table, Anthony Zinno and Eli Elezra were almost even, leading the way in the chip counts. As the final handful of players were ground down to two, the key facts remained much the same. Elezra and Zinno were soon the only ones left standing, and while Zinno threatened to take control of the match for a short while, Elezra fought back well, and was able to wrap up his fourth bracelet, with three of them coming in Seven Card Stud.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Eli Elezra – $93,766

2nd – Anthony Zinno – $57,951

3rd – Valentin Vornicu – $39,830

4th – Phongthep Thiptinnakon – $27,993

5th – Rep Porter – $19,996

6th – David Singer – $14,619

7th – Joshua Mountain – $10,920

8th – Scott Seiver – $8,337

Other Winners

Event 21 – $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship

Prize pool: $855,400

Entries: 91

Winner: Jim Bechtel – $253,817

Event 22 – $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em

Prize pool: $2,927,700

Entries: 3,253

Winner: Jorden Fox – $420,693

Event – 23: $1,500 Eight Game Mix

Prize pool: $826,200

Entries: 612

Winner: Rami Boukai – $177,294

Event – 24: $600 WSOP.com ONLINE Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed

Prize pool: $656,640

Entries: 652

Winner: Josh ‘loofa’ Pollock – $139,470

Event – 25: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

Prize pool: $1,352,925

Entries: 2,577

Winner: Andrew Donabedian – $205,605