WSOP Day 19 recap: Poker pros continue to shine at the 2010 WSOP

If you thought the pros had a good showing during the 2009 World Series of Poker, wait until you get a load of their results in 2010! With 24 bracelets awarded thus far professional players have won 19 of the 24! Players capturing wins include Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Matt Matros, Yan R. Chen, Steve Gee, Carter Phillips, Jason DeWitt, Eric Buchman, David Baker, Richard Ashby, Dutch Boyd, Sammy Farha, Frank Kasella and Tex Barch. Amazingly only four of these players have previously won a WSOP bracelet: Men Nguyen (7), Praz Bansi (2), Dutch Boyd (2), and Sammy Farha (3).

Event #24: $1,000 No Limit Holdem

The final table is finally set for the third $1k tournament in 2010. The nine final table members are all looking for their first WSOP bracelet, and will add their name to the group of five amateurs that have won a bracelet in 2010.

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

In stark contrast to Event #24, Event #26 has a bevy of top professional poker players still in the hunt. Most notably among the 15 remaining players are Justin “boosted J” Smith, Erik Cajelais, and Eddie Scharf.

Busting late in the day were Dusty Schmidt, David Benefield, Sorel Mizzi, and Daniel Negreanu -the last player eliminated on Day 2.

Event #27: $1,500 Seven Card Stud 8 or better

I’m still shocked at the 644 entrants this tournament attracted! Heading into the final day of the tournament just 23 of those 644 players will return to the Rio to crown a champion. And as is usually the case in Stud 8 tournaments, a number of recognizable names are among the final competitors: David Levi, Karina Jett, Kevin MacPhee, Blair Rodman, and Brandon Cantu.

Rodman is quietly amassing an impressive WSOP resume: The longtime poker pro now has 37 cashes and over $1.5 million in WSOP career earnings to go along with his one bracelet. A win in this event would really cement his place as one of the most prolific tournament players today.

Event #28: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha

Two events got underway yesterday, the first one being the $2,500 PLO tournament, which attracted a fairly strong turnout of 596 players. In typical PLO fashion the knockouts came fast and furious, and by the end of day 1 only 105 players were left standing.

Near the top of the leader-board, currently sitting in 3^rd place is Richard Ashby who won his first WSOP bracelet just days ago. Another first-time bracelet winner from 2010 who had a strong first day was Tex Barch, currently sitting in 17^th place. We’ll see if either of these two can become the first multiple bracelet winners of 2010 -In 2009 Phil Ivey, Jeff Lisandro, Greg Mueller, and Brock Parker all won 2 bracelets, with Lisandro winning three.

Event #29: $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship

Is Limit Holdem dying? With only 171 entrants the Limit Holdem World Championship had less entrants than the Omaha 8 Championship (212) and barely surpassed the registration numbers of the Seven Card Stud 8 or better Championship (170).

With any $10,000 buy-in that isn’t the Main Event the majority of entrants are the best players in the world, and the leader-board definitely reflects this:

Jeffrey Lisandro, Hoyt Corkins, Vladimir Schmelev, Shaun Deeb, Nick Schulman, Todd Brunson and David Chiu all in the top 20 -Lisandro is the current Chip-leader of the event with 107 players remaining.

 Results courtesy of WSOP.com