WSOP Report Day #29 - Phil Ivey Leads Final 12 in Poker Players Championship, Andre Akkari Dominating Razz

One of the busiest days of the 2019 World Series so far is in the can, and the players in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship are finally in the money, making it past the bubble in the final – added – level of play. But what else took place on Wednesday at the Rio? We can catch you up on all the gossip.

IVEY LEADS FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAY IN PPC

Phil Ivey finished a second straight day at the top of the leaderboard in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship as a dozen players were finally left in the money after an additional level was added until 13 became 12 in one of the most prestigious poker tournaments of the year.

Ivey, on the back of coming into play as chip leader, bagged up a massive 4,775,000 chips, and although his lead is a healthy 700,000 chips from Josh Arieh (4,029,000), Ivey will still be wary of the opposition he has yet to outlast as he bids to win his 11th WSOP, something that would put him out on his own as Phil Hellmuth’s closest challenger for all-time bracelet wins.

Other players who’ll be hopeful of progressing to the final table include 2018 WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb (2,450,000) and Bryce Yockey (2,386,000), but there are others who were thankful to escape a bubble that seemed to go on for a long time. Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates (319,000) and Andrew Brown (210,000) survived, but with just three and two big blinds each after Chris Klodnicki was the unfortunate ‘bubble boy’ with nothing to show for his $50,000 investment.

One of the most mouthwatering clashes on Day 4 will be one that also took up much of Day 3 – Phil Ivey and Shaun Deeb going at each other for a lot of the chips in play. The two men were right next to each other all day, with Deeb on Ivey’s direct left. Day 4 will see the roles reversed, Ivey two seats to the WSOP Player of the Year contender’s left. Stay tuned to PokerGO for all the action from the final two days of the PPC, with the action kicking off on Thursday, June 27th at 6:00 p.m (EDT) right here.

AKKARI THE ACTION MAN ON DAY 1 OF $10,000 RAZZ CHAMPIONSHIP

Brazilian professional player Andre Akkari leads the $10,000 Razz Championship field after the first day at the felt, with just 42 of the 96 players still holding chips at the close of play. Akkari stacked up 506,000, four times the average and nearly double the chips of David Bach in second place with 308,500.

The defending champion Calvin Anderson (248,500), Max Pescatori (241,000) and Dan Zack (240,500) all bagged up double the average, while ‘Kid Poker’ himself, Daniel Negreanu had 208,000 at the end of the day.  Not everyone fared so well, with Jason Mercier’s second tournament of the Series going not quite as well as his first, missing a Day 2 berth. John Racener, Jen Tilly and 2019 WSOP bracelet winner Eli Elezra also failed to progress.

O’DONNELL LEADS $1,500-ENTRY PLO OMAHA HI-LO 8 OR BETTER FIELD INTO DAY 3

Matt O’Donnell leads the way in the $1,500-entry Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event, with just 58 players still in with a chance of WSOP gold from the 417 who were in seats at the start of play. With 1,388,000 chips, O’Donnell leads from players such as WSOP event runner-up James Chen (1,227,000], David Prociak (1,030,000) and Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi who is going for bracelet #6 and his second this series, piling up 1,196,000 by the end of the action.

Others who survived Day 2 included recent bracelet winner and big stack from Day 1 Ari Engel (798,000),  2019 bracelet event winner Scott Clements (769,000), and WSOP legends Erik Seidel (497,000) and Mike Matusow (328,000).

TRINIDAD ONLY PLAYER TO TOP A MILLION IN FIRST COLOSSUS FLIGHT

Amador Trinidad stacked up just over a million chips when he finished Day 1 of The Colossus with 1,012,000 fun-discs in front of him. After over 13 hours of action, the money bubble was negotiated by 786 players from the 5,238 hopefuls who entered this phenomenal tournament for $400. Trinidad may be the early pace-setter, but he’s followed by plenty of players with only a little less than him, amongst them Marc Korner (937,000) and William Blais (930,000) as well as the 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer (850,000).

It took 18 levels to reach the money, but with one more Day 1 flight to come, players will still have a chance of winning a colossal return on their comparatively cheap buy-in amount. Last year’s Colossus winner, the Brazilian player Roberly Felicio, won a cool $1,000,000 for his $565 investment.

Who’ll become the latest player to win a WSOP gold bracelet at the 2019 World Series of Poker? You can watch the action unfold live today on PokerGO and CBS All Access as more coverage of the 2019 WSOP bracelet events takes place. Selected bracelet events will be streamed exclusively on CBS All Access in the United States.