The first of four events that we look at today is the $10,000 No Limit Holdem Heads Up event that was down to four players. Today in the semi-finals, Brian Hastings played Tommy Chen and Jason Mo played Brock Parker. Hastings easily dispensed with Chan and Mo saw off Parker. Hastings got off to a great start forcing Mo to use both his rebuys, but Mo fought back to take the chip lead. In the end, Hastings crippled Mo in an all-in pre-flop encounter and wasn’t long taking the rest of his chips. The first bracelet for the Cardrunners Pro and Isildur crusher netted him $371,498.

Moving to the Shootout event (#14), we started the day with 120 players and some notable names including Phil Ivey; he didn’t last long however and was the 3rd elimination of the day. The 12 remaining players include Jeff Madsen and Layne Flack and they’ll play down to a winner tomorrow, starting with two tables of six.

The $5,000 7-Card Stud hi/lo played down to 19 players today and it’s shaping up to be a really exciting event. Commentator Norman Chad spent the day tweeting about how bad and hopeless he was and sure enough he went out four off the money bubble in 28th place. Still in however are Phil Ivey, who has managed to turn things around after a bad start to this WSOP, Phil Hellmuth, Byrn Kenney, Todd Brunson, and Eli Elezra. All eyes will be on the Phil’s when this one comes back at 2 pm tomorrow.

Lastly today action got underway in the online players’ favorite event, the $1,500 Shorthanded tourney and 1604 lined out for it when play kicked off at 12 pm. Again this is significantly down from the 1900+ runners of last year and doesn’t bode well for the numbers as a whole. 11 levels were booked today and Nick Maimone is the man to catch on 175,900. Amazingly the event got all the way past the bubble on Day 1 and just 137 players remain. Among the notables remaining are James Akenhead, Chino Rheem, Kathy Liebert, and Mike Matusow, in a day that wasn’t kind to the big name pros. Viktor Blom however got another feather for his poker cap, earning his first WSOP cash; a tidy $2,706 for finishing 151st.

Tomorrow at 12 pm, the Pot Limit Holdem $10,000 Championship event gets going and it’ll be interesting to see how the numbers fare. 249 players entered this one in 2011. Later in the day at 5 pm, the punishment for those who get knocked out of the $10k in the early going is to play the $2,500 Razz event.

Author Profile: Rob O’Connor+

written by Rob \\ tags: Brian Hastings, Heads Up Poker, Isildur, Norman Chad, Poker, Viktor Blom, World Series of Poker, WSOP