WSOP 2019: Phil Hui Wins $50K Player’s Championship, Negreanu, Seidel and Ivey go close

This week has been a fascinating one at the Rio, with the $50K Player’s Championship concluding, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan getting involved in the action, and star names going deep in events too.

There may not be too many $10K events left, but the biggest one of all is now not far away. With 89 events on the schedule this year, we still have plenty of action to bring you over the coming days, including the 2019 WSOP Main Event.

Event 58: Phil Hui dismantles stellar field to win the $50K Player’s Championship

Of all the events that take place this summer, only a handful get the top players truly excited. If you can’t win the Main, winning the $50K Player’s Championship isn’t far away in terms of prestige. The field for this event is always littered with great players, and this year was no different, with 74 of the world’s best paying the $50,000 buy in, generating a prize pool of $3,552,000. Daniel Negreanu, Brian Rast, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Dwan and Justin Bonomo are just a few of the renowned players who fell during the first two days. Dwan was making his first appearance at the WSOP for a number of years.

Just bought in to my first tournament at the wsop in quite a long time.

Gonna try and win 🤑

— Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) June 26, 2019

The big story of day 2 however, was Phil Ivey’s name at the summit of the chip counts.The same man stole the headlines for the same reasons on day 3. Ivey seemed in complete command, with almost double the chips of the third biggest stack in the room. Brian Hastings, Phil Galfond, Jason Mercier, John Hennigan and Ike Haxton all busted on the third day. The fourth day of play saw the unthinkable happen, with Phil Ivey’s big stack dissolving to send the ten-time bracelet winner to the rail in 8th place.

With his 8th-place finish in the 2019 @WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship, @philivey now has four cashes in the event for a total of $1,013,457. Only one of those four cashes was a final table appearance. #WSOP50

— Donnie Peters (@Donnie_Peters) June 28, 2019

The final table was set shortly after, with Dan Cates and Shaun Deeb in the hunt, and Josh Arieh leading the way. Having slipped under the radar in the middle of the pack for most of this event, Phil Hui picked the perfect time to start making big strides up the chip counts, just as Dan Cates and Shaun Deeb exited the tournament in 6th and 5th respectively. Soon it was down to Phil Hui and Josh Arieh contesting the Chip Reese trophy, gold bracelet and seven-figure payout, with Hui continuing his good form, grinding down Arieh and taking the title, five years after his winning first career bracelet.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Phil Hui – $1,099,311
2nd – Josh Arieh – $679,246
3rd – John Esposito – $466,407
4th – Bryce Yockey – $325,989
5th – Shaun Deeb – $232,058
6th – Dan Cates – $168,305

Event 62: Victory for Scott Seiver as Negreanu and Ferguson falter

Event 62, the $10K Razz saw 116 hopefuls pay $10,000 to take their shot at gold and glory. The event was attended by many big names, with Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu and Scott Seiver all making it to the final table. The first two days had seen James Obst, Brian Hastings, Luke Schwartz, Yingui Li, Todd Brunson, James Chen, Eli Elezra and Jason Mercier all bust out.

With one 2nd place already this year in event 41, Daniel Negreanu was no doubt hopeful that he could make more of this opportunity, with eleven years having now passed since his last bracelet win. Once more though, he could not find any momentum and fell in 5th place. Chris Ferguson fared a little better, but eventually bowed out in 3rd, leaving Scott Seiver heads up with Andrey Zhigalov. Seiver quickly whittled his opponents stack down before finishing the job to pick up his third career bracelet.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Scott Seiver – $301,421
2nd – Andrey Zhigalov – $186,293
3rd – Chris Ferguson – $131,194
4th – Dan Zack – $94,305
5th – Daniel Negreanu – $69,223
6th – Andre Akkari – $51,911
7th – David Bach – $39,788
8th – George Alexander – $31,185

Event 60: Anthony Zinno takes second career bracelet in the $1,500 PL Omaha hi/lo

Event number 60 saw 1,117 entrants take to the felt for this PL Omaha hi/lo tournament. The prize pool grew to $1,507,950 with $279,920 set aside for the champion. Despite the large field, several familiar faces were still in contention as the final table approached. Ari Engel, who has already won a bracelet this year, was the final table bubbler in this event, with 9-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel displeasing the fans by following him in 9th place.

Connor Drinan would go on to take 7th, with Jon Turner adding another strong WSOP cash to his collection by taking 4th. Former bracelet winner Anthony Zinno was the only notable name still in contention from that point, and he did not waver, grinding out the win with a faultless display.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Anthony Zinno – $279,920
2nd – Rodney Burt – $172,932
3rd – Thomas Schropfer – $122,555
4th – Jon Turner – $87,967
5th – Scott Abrams – $63,961
6th – Jordan Spurlin – $47,118
7th – Connor Drinan – $35,173
8th – Kyle Miaso – $26,611
9th – Erik Seidel – $20,410

Event 52: Dash Dudley wins the $10,000 PLO 8-handed, Australia’s Joel Feldman 3rd

This $10,000 buy in 8 handed PLO tournament drew a field of 512 players, bringing the final prize pool figure up to $4,869,200. Numerous top players were scattered around the room, and once the field was down to 25 players, Shaun Deeb, Ka Kwan Lau, Luke Schwartz Sylvain Loosli and Australia’s Joel Feldman were all still in contention. Deeb, Schwartz and Lau did not last much longer however, and had departed the tournament well before the final table was set. French pro Loosli also did not make it to the final table, but Feldman not only got there, but was among the more comfortable stacks when the final table got underway. Under the bright lights, Feldman continued to build his stack, eventually finding himself three-handed. Unfortunately for Australian fans, this proved to be Feldman’s stumbling block and he eventually had to settle for a third-place finish. Dudley took the bracelet after a heads-up duel with James Park and picked up $1,086,967 in prize money.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Dash Dudley – $1,086,967
2nd – James Park – $671,802
3rd – Joel Feldman – $463,814
4th – Jeremy Ausmus – $325,693
5th – Kyle Montgomery – $232,680
6th – Eoghan O’Dea – $169,173
7th – Andrey Razov – $125,215
8th – Will Jaffe – $94,380

Other Winners

Event 50 – Monster Stack $1,500 NLH
Prize pool: $8,147,250
Entries: 6,035
Winner: Kainalu McCue-Unciano – $1,008,850

Event 51 – $2,500 Mixed Omaha hi/lo 8 or better, Seven Card Stud hi/lo 8 or better
Prize pool: $902,250
Entries: 401
Winner: Yuri Dzivielevski – $213,750

Event 53 – $800 NLH Deepstack
Prize pool: $2,676,408
Entries: 3,759
Winner: Santiago Soriano – $371,203

Event 54 – $1,500 Razz
Prize pool: $490,050
Entries: 363
Winner: Kevin Gerhart – $119,054

Event 55 – $1,000 ONLINE NLH Double Stack
Prize pool: $1,266,350
Entries: 922
Winner: Jason “TheBigGift” Gooch – $241,492

Event 56 – $1,500 NLH Super Turbo Bounty
Prize pool: $1,586,950
Entries: 1,867
Winner: Jonas Lauck – $260,335

Event 57 – $1,000 Tag Team NLH
Prize pool: $878,400
Entries: 976
Winners: Ohad Geiger/Daniel Dayan/Barak Wisbrod – $168,395 total prize

Event 59 – $600 NLH Deepstack Championship
Prize pool: $3,223,500
Entries: 6,140
Winner: Joe Foresman – $397,903

Article by Craig Bradshaw