WSOP Day 7 recap: Hellmuth looks for #12, The Grinder Leads Stud tourney

Event #6: $5,000 No Limit Holdem Shootout

The final table of the $5k Shootout looked more like a World Team Poker event, with three American players and three British players. In the end it was a relatively unknown poker pro from Chicago, Josh Tieman, who was able to beat a seasoned poker pro from Britain, Neil Channing.

With the runner-up finish Channing continues to be on the short-list of the best poker players never to have won a WSOP bracelet.

For the win Tieman collected $441,692, and Channing will take $273,153 back to London.

Event #7: 2-7 Triple Draw

With its resurgence on the Internet, 2-7 Triple Draw has been making a comeback at the World Series of Poker, and this year attendance was up a further 16%, making this the largest 2-7 tournament in the history of poker.

Fittingly it was young online poker player from Hungary, Peter Gelencser who captured his 1st bracelet and pocketed $180,730 for the win. Gelenscer now has over $500,000 in career tournament winnings, in addition to his online poker winnings.

Gelencser is only the second Hungarian to win a WSOP bracelet –Peter Tarpley in 2009.

Event #8: $1,500 No limit Holdem

With 25 players remaining in the event, the only story coming out of the tournament is Phil Hellmuth is sitting in 5th place overall in the chip counts. Hellmuth is looking for his 12th gold bracelet –he already holds the record with 11—all of which have come in No Limit Holdem events.

Event #9: $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem

One of the two events that began yesterday, the Pot Limit event attracted the typical mix of top pros and European players, who preferred the Pot Limit format until the recent no limit explosion.

There are still 65 players remaining –650 players began the day—with a couple of female names near the top of the leaderboard: JJ Liu is currently in 4th place, and Mellissa Hayden is in 15th. This could be the tournament where the ladies break out at the 2010 WSOP. Liu, who is considered one of the best players in the world, has had modest success over the years at the WSOP. Hayden just missed winning a gold bracelet back in 2000 (finishing 2nd in the $5k NLHE event), and has made two final tables since.

Event #10: $10,000 7-Card-Stud World Championship

With 150 of the top players in the world taking part in the 7-Stud Championship the entry list looks a lot like the list from the $50k Players Championship; and so does the leader-board! After the first day of action the Players Championship winner, Mike Mizrachi, is leading the field, and the man who finished second to The Grinder, Vladimir Schmelev, is in………. 2nd place!

The event is set for three days, and 88 players will be returning for day 2 action, including last year’s champion Freddie Ellis, winner of 3 Stud bracelets last year Jeff Lisandro, and the elder Mizrachi Robert. Not to mention, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Jen Harman, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Men Nguyen, Eric Drache, Chris Ferguson, Todd Brunson, Tony G, and Scotty Nguyen.