WSOP Main Event Thins, Yu Wins WPT500

WSOP Main Event Heads toward Money

When the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event started, there were less than 1,000 players at the tables, but three starting days brought the final number of players to 6,683. The $62,820,200 prize pool made it the fifth largest Main Event in the game’s 45-year history and guaranteed the top 693 finishers some cash.

By the time Thursday arrived, the field had been reduced enough to bring all of the remaining players together. With 817 from Day 2A/B and 1,047 from Day 2C, a total of 1,864 took to the tables on the one and only Day 3.

At the time, Phil Ivey was the chip leader and Timothy Stansifer was not far behind.

One of the first players eliminated on Day 3 was Humberto Brenes, and actor Kevin Pollak also departed early. Previous Main Event winners Johnny Chan and Robert Varkonyi were also eliminated, as was reigning champion Ryan Riess and, later, Chris Moneymaker. That left Huck Seed as the only former Main Event champion still in the tournament.

The dinner break showed about 1,100 players still in the tournament and Isaac Baron as the new chip leader. Raul Mestre maintained his second place spot on the leaderboard, and Steve Tripp climbed to third. Day 1A chip leader Martin Jacobson was also in the top 10.

Sean Yu Wins WPT500 Aria

At the Aria Resort & Casino, the World Poker Tour had hosted its WPT500 tournament, a $565 NLHE buy-in reentry tournament with a $1 million guarantee. Over the course of six starting days, the last of which was a turbo, the field was set at 3,599 entries and a $1,799,500 prize pool.

What started on July 4 was finished by the morning of July 10. On Wednesday, all of the Day 1 survivors gathered together in the early afternoon and played down to the final table. Moving forward, players like Scott Clements and Christian Harder pursued the WPT title, but it was Sean Yu who did what it took to capture it. He won a WPT trophy and Aria trophy, prize packages to the WPT500 in the UK and next year’s Aria WPT500, and a substantial amount of cash.

The final table results were:

1^st place: Sean Yu ($260,000)

2^nd place: Kareem Marshall ($180,000)

3^rd place: Scott Clements ($120,500)

4^th place: Christian Harder ($90,000)

5^th place: Jeffrey Ray ($70,000)

6^th place: Luis Nargentino ($55,000)

7^th place: Brian Benhamou ($45,000)

8^th place: Terry Fleischer ($35,000)

9^th place: Messadek Soufiane ($26,000)