2010 World Series of Poker Day 25: Ivey Adds to his Legendary Status, Mahmood Wins Heads-Up World Championship, and More
Phil Ivey is already an icon and, if it's possible, he took his legendary status up another notch by winning bracelet number eight Monday night. Ivey bested one of the toughest final tables the poker world could dream up to take home his first bracelet of 2010. Ayaz Mahmood twice made WSOP history in Event #35. First the would-be winner and runner-up Ernst Schmejkal played a 6-hour and 20-minute heads-up match in the first of a best-of-three series, clocking the third longest heads-up match in WSOP history. Mahmood then went on to win the second match for the title and became the first Bangladesh-born player to capture gold in 41 years of WSOP history.
Event #35: $10,000 Heads-up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship
Ayaz Mahmood is the newest king of heads-up play. The Bangladesh-born player won nine heads-up matches in a row to earn his first career WSOP victory and over $600,000 in tournament prize money. Mahmood's bracelet will count for the United States as he now resides in Sugarland, Texas, but he became the first Bangladesh-born player to win gold in the WSOP's 41 year history.
Mahmood swept through his matches until the finals when he was up against Ernst Schmejkal. The two played for the top prize in a best-of-three format with the first match lasting a whopping 6 hours and 20 minutes, making it the third-longest heads-up match in WSOP history. The second match went much faster; Mahmood did not give Schmejkal the opportunity to play a third match.
See how it all went down at our WSOP Live Reporting pages.
Event #36: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
While every player is gunning for a field-winning finish in any tournament, sometimes busting before that happens isn't all that bad. Shawn Buchanan did not last through Day 2 of Event #36, but he picked up his sixth 2010 WSOP cash when he busted in 195th, tying him with Pat Pezzin for the most cashes of the summer so far. Tad Jurgens busted in 205th, which was good enough for his fifth cash of the series and tied him with Christian Harder and Michael Glasser for the second-most cashes yet.
When the 38 players who still have a shot at winning the tournament return Tuesday, they will be chasing chip leaders John Clancy (774,000), Josh Goldstein (511,000) and Mick Carlson (423,000). But with 38 players left, the winner could be anyone.
The players will return Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. and play until one of them holds all the chips, follow along here.
Event #37: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.
It would be hard to find a final table tougher than the one that shaped up for Event #37. Seated around the felt to play the final table of the tournament was Phil Ivey, Jeffrey Lisandro, John Juanda, Bill Chen, Kenneth Aldridge, Chad Brown, David Baker, Albert Hahn and Ryan Hughes: between them there were 18 WSOP gold bracelets and over $14 million in WSOP and circuit winnings.
In the end, the tournament belonged to Ivey, who added to his legendary status and upped his bracelets to eight. But winning that particular final table wasn't easy even for a player of as high caliber as Ivey. Throughout the final table, the bracelet looked like it could go to any of the nine players, and it wasn't until the heads-up match with Chen that Ivey really took over.
With eight bracelets to his name, Ivey is now tied with Erik Seidel in fourth place for the most wrist bling in WSOP history, just behind poker icon Johnny Moss who won nine during his lifetime.
Miss any of the action last night? Our WSOP Live Reporting Team didn't.
Event #38: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship
Peter Jetten leads the narrow field of just 26 players in Event #28 and stands to take home more than $600,000 if he can maintain his lead for one more day.
Tom Marchese and Sam Stein are also at the top of the field and the play between the two should be interesting: they battled each other heads-up during the North American Poker Tour Venetian Main Event last February.
There are still plenty of players in the field who could steal the chips and eliminate the leaders. Marco Traniello, Noah Boeken, Sandra Naujoks, Amnon Fillipi and Amit Makhija will be back for Day 3 too.
The race to the winner will begin at 3 p.m. Tuesday, check our WSOP live reporting pages to see what happens.
Event #39: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
Exactly 1,400 players were seated around 140 tables when the day began and because this is a shootout tournament, only 140 would make Day 2. Those players, Terrence Chan, Victor Ramdin, Isabelle Mercier, Annette Obrestad and Adam Levy among them, will have to win a second table in a row if they want to make Day 3.
It took ten hours of play for the final winner of the final table of the night to be declared in Event #39. The final spot for players who will return Tuesday for another round of shoot-out play went to Mark Shmid when his pocket threes bested his opponent's jack-eight.
The players will be back Tuesday for more shootout action. Follow what happens play-by-play at PokerNews.
Event #40: $2,500 Seven-Card Razz
It has been said before that they play razz in hell, but for the 365 players who sat down for Event #40, the madness of the game was a self-inflicted hot rush.
A few unlucky players got a glimpse of what it means to play at what our live update crew affectionately refer to as a "table of death." One table that would cause even the most seasoned of razz players to sweat held Steve Zolotow, Shawn Buchanan, Eli Elezra, Tom Schneider and Erick Lindgren, another was home to Max Pescatori, David Levi, Hasan Habib, Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.
One hundred and sixty players will return to play another day of the game so many love to hate at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Follow our WSOP live updates to see who burns out and who doesn't.
On Tap
Event #41: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better will begin at 12 p.m. Tuesday.
Our WSOP Live Reporting Team will be there bringing you all the action.
Video of the Day
Kristy Arnett caught up with Dennis Phillips to talk about his World Series of Poker and why he missed the first two weeks.
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