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May
31
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2012 WSOP Day 3: Brent Hanks Wins First Bracelet of the Year |
Things are in full swing at the Rio, so let’s get right down to business and let you know what went down on day 3.
The first bracelet of the year (aside from the casino employees’ event) was awarded to Brent Hanks, who bested a tough 15 player field that returned yesterday and walked away with the $517,725 prize and his first WSOP bracelet, though he had visited the final table on three occasions before this and is something of a WSOP veteran, with 5 cashes last year alone and his first coming in 2008. Vanessa Selbst, JP Kelly and Andrew Badecker all had their shot with Badecker going deepest with a third place finish. Chip leader going into the day Jacob Bazeley was Hanks’ heads-up victim.
The $3,000 mixed heads up NLHE/PLO player down to 8 from 64 today. Starting out, all players were in the money and by the end of the day the remaining few are just 3 matches away from a WSOP bracelet.
Among those to make the last 16 were John Racener, David ‘Raptor’ Benefield, Annette Obrestad, David Williams, Mike Sexton, and Josh Arieh, but all managed to avoid each other. Annette crushed Sebastion Sarrari and was one of the first through to the last 8 and she is joined by just Benefield from the above list. Former bracelet winner Any Frankenberger is also in the mix along with Jason Koon (who will play Obrestad) and the rather uncouth looking Leif Force.
The $1,500 stud hi/lo had 198 remaining after day 1 with ‘The Grinder’ Michael Mizrachi sitting at the top of the chip leader-board. After 10 levels today, the field has shrunk to 23 with Xuan Liu (@xxl23) now the chip leader on 330,500 with a 10,000 big bet. Mirzrachi had a slow day and currently sits on 110,000 but is still in the hunt.
Almost all of the other name pros bit the dust today, including Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen and Barry Greenstein. Mike Sexton however is managed to survive thanks to some multi-tabling skills that saw him running between events. Notably, of the 23 remaining, 4 are women. This one plays down to a winner tomorrow from 2 pm.
In event 5, the $1,500 pot limit holdem, Antonio Esfandiari ran his stack up to a chip-leading 112,600. Daniel Negreanu is close behind on 94,000. 639 sat down for this one and it was whittled down to 71 today, with all remaining players in the money. It comes back at 1 pm tomorrow and will probably hit the final table at some point during play.
The action doesn’t let up with two new events starting tomorrow, the $5,000 Mixed-Max which sees the first day played as full-ring, the second day as 6-max and the third day as heads up. Later on, a $1,500 seven card stud event gets underway. We’ll have updates from all five tournaments that see action for you tomorrow.
Author Profile: Rob O’Connor+
