WSOP Day 30 recap: Pros continue to roll as Gavin Smith wins 1st WSOP bracelet

This was the final weekend of tournaments before the Main Event kicks off next Monday -Next Saturday is the Ante Up for Africa tournament, followed by an off-day on Sunday-saw the action heat up once again as one poker pro tries to get off the World Series of Poker schnide, while the biggest names in poker gear up for the Tournament of Champions which begins today.

Event #44: $2,500 Mixed Holdem

The only bracelet awarded yesterday went to Gavin Smith in the Mixed Holdem Tournament. Smith now joins Mike Mizrachi in crossing his name off the list of best players who have never won a WSOP tournament -Mizrachi won the Players Championship earlier this year. A huge crowd of Gavin Smith supporters surged the stage after his win, showing just how well-liked Smith is in the poker world.

Perhaps Gavin’s biggest challenge came from Cardplayer POY candidate Dwyte Pilgrim, but Pilgrim could only manage an 8^th place finish in the tournament.

Event #45: $1,500 No Limit Holdem

The huge field of 3,097 players has been whittled down to just 35, with a few well known players sprinkled amongst the remaining players. In 6^th place is Dutch Boyd, who could become the second multiple bracelet winner of 2010 -joining Frank Kassela; in 14^th place is Paul Magriel, best known for his “Quack-Quack” and quirky behavior; in 15^th place is poker instructor Alex Outhred; and in 30^th place is Zachary Clark, the online phenom and Brunson 10 member better known as “CrazyZachary”.

The huge field produced a $4.1 million prize-pool, one of the biggest thus far at the 2010 WSOP. The winner of the event will walk away with nearly ¾ of a million dollars for the win; not to mention a WSOP bracelet.

Event #46: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better

With just 21 players remaining this is yet another tournament that is shaping up to have a monster final table. Two players that are having tremendous 2010 WSOP’s are not surprisingly doing well once again: Dan Heimiller and Allen Kessler.

Heimiller now has 6 cashes in 2010, including two final tables -one a runner-up finish-and is currently ranked 4^th in the POY race.

Kessler has an amazing 7 cashes so far at the 2010 WSOP, and like Heimiller has a runner-up finish.

Event #47: $1,000 No Limit Holdem

Alright, the $1k tourneys are dying a very slow death in 2010. A paltry 1,759 players registered on Day 1a, and it’s likely that after Day 1b’s registrants are tallied that the Rio could have handled the entire field on a single Day 1.

Amongst the chip-leaders yesterday were Antonio Esfandiari, JJ Liu, Matt Glantz, Scott Montgomery, and Lars Bonding.

Event #48: $2,500 8-Game Mix

453 players entered the 8-Game Mix tournament and by the end of play on Day 1 just 192 remained. How about this for a top 5: Jared Jaffe, Justin Smith, Steve Sung, Luca Pagano and Mike Mizrachi! Not to mention Brandon Cantu, Alex Kravchenko, Jennifer Harman, and Justin Bonomo all in the top 11.

Expect Event #48 to continue the trend of big name pros capturing WSOP bracelets.

 Results courtesy of WSOP.com