WSOP Day 38 recap: Final bracelets awarded as Main Event nears

Fourth of July weekend at the Rio was spent wrapping up any preliminary events that were underway so the Pavilion can be made ready for the real World Series of Poker to begin; the Main Event! The preliminary events didn’t just go softly into the night on Sunday, we not only had a player win his 3^rd WSOP bracelet in the $10k PLO Championship, but we saw a former Main Event Champion take down the Tournament of Champions, and we still have two NLHE tournaments that will finish up today.

Event #54: $1,000 No Limit Holdem

The final table is set and should the remaining 9 players have any aspirations to play in the Main Event it won’t be on Day 1a -fortunately they still have 3 other days to choose from. The final table for the tournament has an international feel to it with 2 Norwegians, a Brit, and a Dutchman competing along with 5 players from the US.

Event #55: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship

The PLO Championship stole the show yesterday as one poker pro pretty much cemented himself among the best in the game. 25 year-old Daniel Alaei, who plays in the biggest cash games in the world, picked up his 3^rd WSOP bracelet in his short career, and topped the $5 million mark in career earnings with the win -keep in mind Alaei has only been competing in tournaments for 5 years!

Alaei denied Canadian Miguel Proulx his second bracelet of 2010, which became a theme for the 2010 World Series of Poker as Proulx joined James Dempsey, Men Nguyen and Richard Ashby as players who won a bracelet in 2010 and finished second in a subsequent event.

Event $56: $2,500 No Limit Holdem

Similar to the $1k NLHE tournament that is still in progress, the $2,500 NLHE also has a number of contenders representing different countries: This time it’s Italy with two representatives, and 1 each for Russia and Taiwan.

Tournament of Champions

After a long battle that saw the chip-lead switch hands numerous times, 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Huck Seed captured the Tournament of Champions title, as well as the $500k for 1^st place. Seed was locked in a three way duel with Johnny Chan (who finished in 3^rd place), and Howard Lederer (who finished in 2^nd place) that will play out very nicely when the tournament airs on ESPN.

Seed has seen a resurgence in his career lately, especially in Heads-Up No Limit Holdem where he seems to excel, and is one of the few Main Event Champions from before the Internet age of poker to make a smooth transition -another example would be Carlos Mortensen.

 Results courtesy of WSOP.com