WSOP 2014 Event #46 - Mercier Leads Poker Players Championship

On the first two days of Event #46 $50,000 Poker Players Championship, a total of 102 players registered, accumulating a prize pool of $4,896,000. With the top 14 finishes paying, the winner takes home a handsome $1,517,767.

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Phil Hellmuth

The first day saw the elimination of Sergii Baranov, Dan Shak, Michael Glick and Phil Galfond, while the second that of even more seasoned pros. For instance, Phil Hellmuth called all-in in a PLO hand on David Steicke’s shove on the 2 Q 6 flop. They were both called by Michael Mizrachi from a larger stack.

Steicke: A A Q 2
Hellmuth: A A T 8
Mizrachi: 6 9 5 8

Turn: 3
River: J

Steicke won with two pairs and Hellmuth grudgingly left the room.

Next, Chris Klodnicki eliminated George Danzer before David "ODB" Baker sent Dan Kelly to the rail. Also eliminated were John Racener, Daniel Negreanu and last year’s champion of this very event, Matthew Ashton.

On Level 9, Scotty Nguyen lost his chips in a Stud hand, running with sevens into Frank Kassela’s kings, which the latter got by the sixth street. Jonathan Duhamel moved a bit later to rail Gus Hansen, and then Poker Players Championship 2010 and 2012 winner Mizrachi also got out, raising John Juanda in a Razz hand. Juanda 3-bet, Mizrachi shoved and they tabled their cards:

Juanda: 3-4 / A-5-Q-3 / 2
Mizrachi: 5-3 / 7-6-7-7 / 4

Juanda won with a straight and Mizrachi was out.

David Singer, Jeff Lisandro, 2011 even champion Brian Rast and Paul Volpe were eliminated afterwards, followed by Joe Hachem in one of the last hands of the day. On the 9 3 A 7 board of a NLHE hand, he shoved with Brian Hastings.

Hastings: 7 3
Hachem: A Q

River: T

Hastings won with 7-3 two pair and 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Hachem was out a mere 10 minutes before the end of the day.

55 players survived with Jason Mercier in the lead. Quite a selection of seasoned pros and stars accompany him, including Duhamel, Shaun Deeb, Scott Seiver and Matt Glantz in the Top 10, in addition to the legendary likes of Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson.

Jason Mercier

Top 10:

1st: Jason Mercier – 802,600
2nd: Jonathan Duhamel – 783,000
3rd: Shaun Deeb – 724,400
4th: David Steicke – 711,100
5th: Gary Benson – 534,700
6th: Scott Seiver – 529,700
7th: Matt Glantz – 522,800
8th: David Oppenheim – 425,000
9th: Roland Israelashvili – 404,700
10th: Eli Elezra – 397,300

More chip counts of interest:

11th:: Frank Kassela – 390,200
14th: David "ODB" Baker – 356,200
18th: Mike Leah – 325,200
19th: David Benyamine – 306,900
20th: Robert Mizrachi – 298,400
21st: Brian Hastings – 296,900
23rd: John Juanda – 269,600
29th: Richard Ashby – 218,000
30th: Stephen Chidwick – 215,900
31st: Calvin Anderson – 215,100
33rd: Bertrand Grospellier – 212,100
43rd: Ola Amundsgard – 165,000
44th: Phil Ivey – 158,000
47th: Todd Brunson – 138,600
50th: Andy Bloch – 75,800
55th: Doyle Brunson – 11,000

Prizes:

1st: $1,517,767
2nd: $937,975
3rd: $594,570
4th: $402,696
5th: $286,122
6th: $212,829
7th: $165,435
8th: $134,101
9-11th: $115,447
12-14th: $99,388