Long-time pro Jesse Martin outlasted an elite final table in the $10k 2-7 championship for his first WSOP gold while Hungarian Norbert Szesci outlasted a huge field in the latest $1k No-Limit Hold'em event for his.
Mercier, meanwhile, with plenty of money on the line in bracelet bets, made his first Day 3 of the series in $3k Hold'em while Brit Moorman tore out to the chip lead in the Ante Only event.
Martin, Szecsi Join Bracelet Club
The highly anticipated $10k 2-7 Lowball final table played out last night with a stacked final seven that included Layne Flack, David "Bakes" Baker, John Hennigan, Jon Turner, Konstantin Puchkov and Jeff Lisandro.
Despite all of that bracelet power at the table the surprising winner was Martin, who topped Baker heads-up. Martin's 31st career WSOP cash is also his biggest at $253,524.
Szecsi, a Hungarian with limited live tournament cashes so far in his career, outmaneuvered a field of 2,100 for his first gold bracelet in Event 42, $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Szecsi pocketed $345,037 for the win - by far his biggest ever score. Full results and payouts from both final tables below:
Event 42, $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #43, $10k 2-7 Lowball Championship
1. Jesse Martin $253,524 2. David "Bakes" Baker $156,674 3. Konstantin Puchkov $99,313 4. Jeff Lisandro $67,264 5. Jon Turner $47,792 6. Layne Flack $35,549 7. John Hennigan $27,644Mercier Finally Gets Deep, Moorman Gets Going
Two names everyone is familiar with seeing at the top of the chip counts made their first surge for bracelet runs yesterday.
PokerStars pro Jason Mercier, who's bet heavily on winning a bracelet this year, finally crossed the Day 3 barrier in Event #44, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Mercier even bagged a top 10 stack of 566,000 to help his cause, although he'll trail chip leader Niall Farrell with 792,000 to start.
Mercier's by far the biggest name remaining in the final 22 but he might have to double dip as he's expected to play the $111,111 One Drop event that starts at noon.
On the other side of the Rio the $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em event got underway and while the blind-free structure threw some for a loop it played to Chris Moorman's advantage.
The online superstar dominated all day to run up a massive 143,900 stack - well above the rest of the field.
The remaining 71 players will hit the felt again at 1 pm as will the final 22 in Event #44. The top 10 in chips:
Event #44, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Event #45, $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em
1. Chris Moorman 143,900 2. Sam Panzica 118,000 3. Aaron Massey 99,200 4. Ben Volpe 99,200 5. Artur Koren 91,200 6. Gabriel Nassif 89,500 7. Carter King 89,300 8. Jason Manager 83,700 9. Allen Cunningham 83,400 10. Frank Rusnak 79,800Woodward Leads $3k Pot-Limit Omaha Split
One other event got underway yesterday at the Rio with 435 hopefuls throwing in $3k for a shot at another bracelet.
Matt Woodward soared to the Day 1 lead, bagging up just under 100k to end the night.
Paul Tedeschi, Ari Engel, Thomas Keller and Gavin Smith also got off to good starts. The top 10 in chips:
1. Matt Woodward 98,700 2. Cai Zhen 95,300 3. Richard Sklar 87,700 4. Michael Sanders 79,500 5. Joseph Silverman 78,300 6. Rodrigo Caprioli 72,600 7. Paul Tedeschi 70,800 8. Ari Engel 64,200 9. Nicholas Verkaik 62,300 10. Thomas Keller 60,600Tune in to our WSOP Live Updates page for Follow the Chips coverage from the exciting $111,111 buy-in One Drop event starting at noon!
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