WSOP End-of-Week Update and Strassmann News

Here’s what happened at the World Series of Poker late Wednesday night and Thursday:

WSOP Event 46: Three Remain in PPC

The fifth and final day of the $50K Poker Players Championship was underway on Thursday. When it began, it had 102 players and a $4,896,000 prize pool.

Day 4 reduced the field from 22 players, and the money bubble burst to allow the final 14 to cash for at least $99,388. Robert Mizrachi took 14^th place, Jonathan Duhamel and Matt Glantz followed, and Todd Brunson and James Obst each took home $115,447 for their 11^th and tenth place finishes. Scott Seiver busted for ninth place money of $115,447.

The final eight players returned on Day 5 to play for the win with Brandon Shack-Harris in the chip lead. Allen Kessler was the first to exit in eighth place for $134,101, and Melissa Burr followed in seventh. Frank Kassela fell in sixth, Chun Lei Zhou in fifth, and Abe Mosseri in fourth.

At the dinner break, Brandon Shack-Harris was in the lead with 5.85 million chips, Jesse Martin in second with 4.87 million, and John Hennigan on the shortest stack of 4.58 million.

WSOP Event 48: Gold for Patterson

The $1,500 PLO-8 event started on Tuesday with 991 players and a $1,337,850 prize pool. Day 2 thinned the field from 152 players to 11, with Scott Clements in the chip lead.

Day 3 started with the eliminations of Brian Brubaker in 11^th and Philip Sternheimer in tenth, each winning $15,278. The final table then played out with Tom Schneider taking sixth and Jeff Madsen fourth.

Tyler Patterson took a slight chip lead into heads-up play against Scott Clements, but the two battled for more than 1.5 hours until Patterson finally took it down.

1^st place: Tyler Patterson ($270,992)

2^nd place: Scott Clements ($167,686)

3^rd place: Cody Crawford ($104,914)

4^th place: Jeff Madsen ($76,150)

5^th place: Gary Kosakowski ($56,216)

6^th place: Tom Schneider ($42,142)

7^th place: Derek Raymond ($32,054)

8^th place: J.R. Flournoy ($24,710)

9^th place: Dylan Wilkerson ($19,305)

WSOP Event 49: In the Money

The first of two events that started on Wednesday was the $5K NLHE, which attracted 696 players and a $3,271,200 prize pool. Day 1 whittled the field down to 204 players.

Day 2 was slow going but finally burst the money bubble after 9pm when Dan O’Brien exited in 73^rd place. Pierre Neuville was the first to cash for $9,224, and players like Taylor Paur, Eric Froehlich, and Ami Barer followed.

WSOP Event 50: In the Money before Dinner

The $1,500 Eight-Game Mix was a good offering and a new one for 2014. There were 486 participants, which created a $656,100 prize pool. Only 106 players made it through that first day, however.

Day 2 saw more than half of those players exit before the money bubble, and the top 49 were guaranteed at least $3,063. Names like Max Pescatori, Gabriel Nassif, and Greg Raymer were among the first to collect. Only 38 players remained at the dinner break with Phil Ivey as the chip leader.

WSOP Event 51: Monster of a Monster Stack

The first tournament to begin on Thursday was the $1,500 NLHE Monster Stack tournament. In the days preceding it, registration climbed so quickly that the executives declared it a dual-flight tournament. No reentries were allowed, but two flights with multiple waves in the latter one would take place on Thursday.

Action was crazy, with 4,020 players entering Flight A and more than 3,000 registered at the beginning of Flight B. Late entrants were being allowed to take their seats as late as 10:40pm, so the field and prize pool information wasn’t due until late into the night.

WSOP Event 52: LHE Championship

As the Monster Stack event eliminated some players, the WSOP staff found a place to put the 100 or so players who wanted to compete in the $10K Limit Hold’em Championship. No final numbers would be available until much later in the night.

Johannes Strassmann Missing in Slovenia

Players in the high stakes world of poker and on the European tournament scene are familiar with Johannes Strassmann. Whether playing online or live, he has been a force at the tables.

PokerNews reported that Strassmann went missing last Saturday in Slovenia when walking the streets with friends. He vanished down a side street and hasn’t been seen since. The police quickly became involved in the search for him.

The latest report notes that one of the focus areas of the search is now a heavily-wooded area outside of Slovenia’s capital. Another area of note is near the town’s sports university. Another source said a search was taking place in Nova Gorica near the Italian border.

The police noted that there is no evidence of a kidnapping at this time.