WSOP Day 18 recap: Farha denies Dempsey 2nd bracelet in 2010

There wasn’t too much action yesterday at the WSOP thanks to Sunday’s schedule which saw ZERO tournaments get underway, but what little action there was yesterday didn’t disappoint! We had a stacked final table in the $10k Omaha 8 Championship with a WSOP all-time favorite coming out on top; 150 players remain in the 6-Max No Limit tourney including a number of huge names; and the ‘King of Stud’ Jeffrey Lisandro got off to quick start in the 7-Stud hi/lo tournament.

Event #24: $1,000 No Limit Holdem

Of the 3,289 players that entered the $1K NLHE tournament only 30 remained at the end of play on Day 2. Not many big-names remain in the field, but the final 30 definitely show the globalization of poker, with eight different countries represented.

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha 8 or better World Championship

Another World Championship and another stacked final table!  There were a number of storylines that could have played out in this tournament including: Rich Zhu making the final table in the event in back-to-back years; and Michael Chow and James Dempsey looking to become the first multiple bracelet winners in 2010.

But in the end it was Sammy Farha he stole the headlines, capturing his 3^rd WSOP bracelet. Farha weaved his way through the aforementioned Chow (6^th place), Zhu (3^rd place), Dempsey (2^nd place), as well as top Poker Pros Abe Mosseri (8^th place) and Eugene Katchalov (7^th place).

In typical Farha fashion, Sammy provided one of the quotes of the tournament when he was asked what winning the same event twice was like: “In a way, it’s like I won it two years in a row. I did not play this event in 2007, 08, or 09.”

Event #26: $2,500 6-Max No Limit Holdem

An impressive field of 1,245 players turned out for the $2,500 tournament, and at the end of Day 1 we were left with but 156 hopefuls. The players remaining represent a cross section of poker, with a number of live pros, online pros, amateurs, and even a celebrity (Tim Begley who is currently in 3^rd place) still in the hunt!

A look at the leader-board produces the following names:

• Andrew Robl - 13^th place
• Jeff Shulman - 14^th place
• Chris Moorman - 17^th place
• Jerry Yang - 19^th place
• David Benefield - 23^rd place
• Ryan ‘Fees’ Fee - 25^th place
• Justin ‘boosted J’ Smith - 30^th place

Further down the leader-board are some top notch players as well: Amnon Fillipi, Sorel Mizzi, Marco Traniello, Annette Obrestad, Daniel Negreanu, Tom Franklin, Dusty Schmidt, Taylor Caby, Matt Vengrin, and Leo Margets.

Event #27: $1,500 Seven Card Stud hi/lo

Another strong turnout for a Stud event; a total of 644 players showed up to take part in Event #27!

Among the 208 players returning to action today are:

• Jeffrey Lisandro — 7^th place. Lisandro won 3 Stud bracelets in 2009 including hi/lo.
• Blair Rodman -14^th place. I think Rodman has made it to day 2 of every tournament this year, or it at least seems that way!
• Dutch Boyd - currently in 22^nd place and fresh off a WSOP bracelet win in the 6-Max Limit tournament.

Also in the hunt are Marcel Luske , Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu, Matt Savage, David Sklansky, Karina Jett, Robert Varkonyi, John Juanda, Vince Burgio, John D’agostino, Mike Mizrachi, Tom Dwan, John Cernuto, Phil Ivey, Mark Gregorich and Thor Hanson.

 Results courtesy of WSOP.com