WSOP Day 12 recap: Stud 8 Champ declared, FT set for $1k poker tourney

After a flurry of newsworthy stories the past week, the 2010World Series of Poker had a fairly slow news cycle on Tuesday, with the Stud 8 World Championship dominating the news cycle. Featuring a final table with four former bracelet winners, along with Russian banker Vladimir Schmelev who has pwned the WSOP Championship events so far in 2010, the obscure poker variant took center stage yesterday.

Event #13: $1k No Limit Holdem

With 3 days of poker in the books, the second $1k NLHE tournament in 2010 is down to the final 9 players. The relatively unknown field will return today where a first-time WSOP Champion will be crowned.

Event #15: Seven Card Stud hi/lo World Championship

In what may go down as one of the strongest final tables in World Series of Poker history it was a semi-pro poker player, Frank Kassela, who will be taking home the gold bracelet and the $447,000 in prize-money.

Kassela had to get by some of the biggest names in poker including runner-up Allen Kessler (also seeking his first WSOP bracelet); 3^rd place finisher Jennifer Harman; 4^th place finisher Steve Zolotow; 5^th place finisher John Juanda; 7^th place finisher Vladimir Schmelev (who was making his 3^rd final table appearance at the 2010 WSOP); and 8^th place finisher Dario Minieri!

Harman became the second female to finish 3^rd his year (JJ Liu finished 3^rd in the Limit Holdem Event) narrowly missing out on her third WSOP bracelet.

Zolotow, also known as Stevie Z, was also looking for his 3^rd WSOP bracelet, but can take solace in the fact that his 4^th place prize-money pushed his WSOP career earnings over the $1 million mark.

Juanda made his second final table of the 2010 WSOP (he finished 4^th in the $50k Players Championship) and would have won his 5^th bracelet.

Schmelev has made all three final tables for Championships events in 2010: Finishing 2^nd in the $50k Players Championship; 7^th in the Seven Card Stud World Championship; and 7^th in the Seven Card Stud hi/lo World Championship!

Minieri was hoping to win his second WSOP bracelet, but the young Italian pro was fortunate to reach the final table having nursed a short-stack from the get-go yesterday.

Event #16: $1,500 6-Handed No Limit Holdem

The huge field of 1,663 players has dwindled to just 16 with one more day of play remaining. Once again the huge field has produced a relatively unknown group of finalists who will be looking to capture their first WSOP bracelet, and more importantly for most of these players, the near $500k in first-place prize-money.

Event #17:  $5,000 No Limit Holdem

The only event to beginning on Tuesday was the $5k NLHE tournament, which attracted 792 players. When play concluded only 225 players remained in the hunt.

Among the chip leaders at the end of day 1 were Chino Rheem (3^rd place with 185,800); James Dempsey (6^th place with 165,800); Antonio Esfandiari (12^th place with 128,000); Brian Rast (24^th place with 104,000); Tony G (30^th place with 98,500); and Joe Sebok (33^rd place with 88,100).

results courtesy of WSOP.com