WSOP Day 29 recap: Richard Ashby denied 2nd WSOP bracelet by online poker pro

A surprising finish in the HORSE tournament was the talk of Day 29 at the 201 World Series of Poker. The final 10 Players in the $10k HORSE Championship included names such as Richard Ashby, Eugene Katchalov, Carlos Mortensen, Matt Glantz, Scott Fischman, Brian Townsend, Nick Schulman and Marco Traniello, but in the end it was online poker pro Ian Gordon who broke through with his first major victory.

Here’s how the day played out.

Event #42: $1,500 No Limit Holdem

Poker pro Dean Hamrick captured his 1^st WSOP bracelet yesterday and picked up over $600k in prize-money to boot. As is usually the case with the mega-field tournaments the final table lacked the star-power of some other events, and every player was competing for their first WSOP bracelet, and most topped their previous biggest cash. Perhaps the biggest name left in the field just missed the final table, finishing in 10^th place, but it wasn’t a poker player; MMA star Mike Swick picked up his second WSOP cash for his 10^th place finish.

Event #43: $10,000 HORSE World Championship

As I mentioned in the day’s summary, the HORSE tournament had a fairly surprising finish. Runner-up Richard Ashby became the third player in 2010 to win a bracelet and then finish as the bridesmaid in a subsequent tournament, joining Men “The Master” Nguyen and James Dempsey. Only Frank Kasella has been able to seal the dea twice at the 2010 WSOP.

Event #44: $2,500 Mixed Holdem

And then there were 9.  The final table for the tournament is set, and all eyes will be on Gavin Smith who will be attempting to eliminate his name from the discussion of who the best poker player without a WSOP bracelet is -Mike Mizrachi already took his name off that dubious list earlier this year. It will be interesting to see how many big names rail this final table, the more you see, the more side action the notorious prop-bettor Smith has.

Event #45: $1,500 No Limit Holdem

A massive turnout for the $1,500 tournament could seal the fate of the $1k tournaments at next year’s WSOP. Drawing roughly the same numbers of entrants on 1 starting day as the $1k’s have been drawing over two, shows how ineffectual multiple $1k events are -I’d expect ot see just a single $1k event at next year’s WSOP.

The action concluded on Day 1 with just 400 players making it through to Day 2, including chip-leader Will Failla.

Event $46: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better

Another PLO8 tournament got underway yesterday, and even with the increased buy-in the tourney still drew a respectable field of 284 entrants. Among the chip-leaders heading into Day 2 are Mike Matusow, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Toto Leonidas, John Cernuto, Barry Greenstein, Dan Heimiller, Scott Seiver, Mickey Appleman, Erik Seidel, Mark Gregorich, Kathy Liebert, Vladimir Schmelev, James Dempsey, Justin “boosted J” Smith, Erick Lindgren, Ross Boatman, and Alexander Kostritsyn, all of whom are in the top 25 with just 130 players remaining.

Results courtesy of WSOP.com