Bari, Griffin Crushing, Big Numbers for First Re-Entry Event

Day 7 at the 2012 World Series of Poker was a whirlwind with Andy Bloch winning his first bracelet and Joe Cheong making the final four in the $5k Mixed Max so we’re here to catch everything that might have fallen through the cracks.

Read on for the rundown on the final 20 in the $1,500 O-8 plus a star-studded crowd in the first re-entry No-Limit Hold’em event.

Big Names Abound in Final 20 of $1,500 Omaha-8

The story of this WSOP so far has been big names making final tables and it looks like Event 8, $1,500 Omaha-8, will follow that trend.

With 967 players this was the biggest Omaha-8 tournament in live poker history. Over the last two days that number has been chopped down to the final 20.

Tyler Schwecke is in the lead with 452,000 but he’s got plenty of talent just a few steps behind.

Allen Bari is looking for his second WSOP bracelet.

 

2011 WSOP bracelet winner Allen Bari is in the number two spot with 417,000 while Triple Crown winner Gavin Griffin is in third with 346,000.

Also in the running for the eighth bracelet of this year’s Series are John Racener (264,000), Can Kim Hua (203,000), Dutch Boyd (149,000) and Raymond Davis (105,000).

Each of the 20 players still in is guaranteed at least $7,989 but they’re all chasing the $264,400 waiting for first place, not to mention that piece of coveted WSOP hardware.

The schedule calls for a winner to be decided tonight but with 20 players, there’s a moderate chance it will be extended to a Day 4.

Rast, Duhamel Flying High on Day 1A of First Re-Entry Event

Event 9 is a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry tournament, the first of its kind at the 2012 WSOP, and a host of big names have survived the first flight to secure a top spot on the Day 2 leaderboard.

1,696 bought in for Day 1A and only 254 survived the evening. Everyone who busted, and anyone who didn’t play Day 1A, will be eligible to enter today so we can expect the total field size to get much bigger.

Leading the Day 1A survivors is Georgio Medici with 106,500, narrowly edging out David Miscikowski who finished with 105,100.

Also near the top of the board is French young-gun Tristan Clemencon (88,800), two-time 2011 bracelet winner Brian Rast (70,000), 2010 world champion of poker Jon Duhamel (65,700), poker player turned MMA fighter Terrence Chan (65,100) and EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee (63,700).

Day 1B action kicks off at 12pm and numbers are expected  to get close to what we saw on Day 1A.

For all the action from Las Vegas click through to our WSOP 2012 Live Coverage section.