WSOPE has been keeping the poker world on the edge of its seat in the last two weeks with some of the game’s biggest names duelling for jewellery over in Rozvadov. The Player of the Year race has been tight, Phil Hellmuth almost claimed number 16, Phil Ivey got involved and final tabled and now we have a double bracelet winner to add to the mix of stories.
Kahle Burns picks up second bracelet of the series
Australian pro Kahle Burns had been waiting six years for his first career bracelet, having first recorded cashes in the WSOP back in 2013. He appears to have stepped up his bracelet campaign in 2019 though, notching 8 cashes in the course of the year. If he had gone one step further in the $10K 6-Handed Championship in the summer, he would now be part of an elite few players who have ever won three in a year. As it is, we’re sure he’ll be perfectly happy with the two he picked up in this year’s WSOPE. Burns’ first bracelet came just 4 days ago in event 8 – the €25,500 Platinum High Roller. Having pocketed €596,883 (US$662,316) for that win, he turned his attentions to event 13 – the €2,500 Short-Deck.
The smaller of the two Short-Deck events on the schedule cost €2,500 (US$2,774) to enter and attracted a total field size of 179. This created a prize pool of €391,115 (US$433,991), with over €100,000 up top and 28 players getting paid. The final table saw notable names such as Manig Loeser, Pierre Neuville and Kahle Burns contesting the title. But with the early elimination of Neuville, and a growing stack in front of Burns all eyes were on the Australian as he attempted to bag his second bracelet in the space of a week.
Finally, with Felix Schulze hitting the rail, just Loeser and Burns remained. Burns began with a 2.5 to 1 chip lead and took just two hands to finish the job, with Loeser shoving 
and Burns calling with 
. The board ran out cleanly to give Kahle Burns his second bracelet and another big score.
The final payouts are as follows:
1st – Kahle Burns (Australia) – €101,834 (US$112,835)
2nd – Manig Loeser (Germany) – €62,929
3rd – Felix Schulze (Germany) – €42,233
4th – Federico Anselmi (Italy) – €29,027
5th – Vladimir Peck (United States) – €20,444
6th – Oshri Lahmani (Israel) – €14,764
7th – Pierre Neuville (Belgium) – €10,939
Alex Foxen flying as Main Event enters day 3
The Main Event is a fascinating spectacle at any WSOP festival, and at this year’s WSOPE there is added suspense. It seems likely that the Main Event will decide the Player of the Year title, with only the €550 (US$610) Colossus left to play afterwards. Not only that, but a host of stellar names will be fighting to get their hands on a seven-figure payday and a prestigious bracelet. The €10,350 (US$11,485) Main Event brought together a field of 541 players, which is a slight increase on the 534 runners from last year. This created a total prize pool of €5,139,500 (US$5,702,918).
Day 1a was responsible for 194 of those runners, with GPI number 2 ranked player Alex Foxen topping the counts at the end of the day with 537,200. Day 1b saw in form Australian star Kahle Burns bag the chiplead in a field of 252 players after winning his second bracelet in the previous event. With the field combined for day 2, the eliminations flowed heavily throughout the day, with Daniel Negreanu, Viktor Blom, Kahle Burns, Robert Campbell, Phil Hellmuth and James Chen all hitting the rail during day 2.
At the start of day 3, Alex Foxen (813,000), Dario Sammartino (687,000) and, David “ODB” Baker (720,000) were looking very strong, with Quan Zhou (501,000), Anthony Zinno (430,000), Bertrand Grospellier (323,000) and defending champion Jack Sinclair (272,000) all still in contention. Leading the way was Lithuania’s Paulius Vaitiekunas with 1,221,000 while Player of the Year contender Shaun Deeb was clinging on with 118,000. At the time of writing, day 3 is underway, with the Nethlands’ Daan Mulders having seized the chiplead in the early levels, vaulting up to 1,650,000.
Article by Craig Bradshaw
