It’s a strange feeling at the WSOP right now as the last few events conclude and the Main Event, which begins on Saturday, is looming larger than ever.
Today in the WSOP 3-Bet we take a look at the giant ongoing $1k tournament, Ben Lamb buying up Main Event action and two final tables that went into extra innings.
You can throw us a suggestion for a future WSOP 3-Bet pieces in the comments section.
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1) Two Final Tables = No Bracelets
You might have noticed above that we said two final tables were scheduled for today but nothing about bracelets being awarded.
That’s because both Event 58 $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha-8 and Event 57 $10,000 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em went late and eventually had to be extended for another day.
The $10k 6-Max started with 27 players and they got all the way down to heads-up between Gregory Merson and Keith Lehr before finally surrendering around 2 a.m. and bagging up the chips to pay tomorrow.
$1.1 million is still on the line for first place in that event and action picks up again at 1 p.m.
Meanwhile the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha-8 event went even later and with four players left at 3 a.m. WSOP staff decided to call it a night. David "ODB" Baker just missed out on his second bracelet at this WSOP by finishing in fourth place. Roch Cousineau was the chip leader at the end of the night.
They're playing for a $330k first-place prize. Action in the $3k PLO-8 also resumes at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
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2) Event 59 Officially Biggest Tournament of 2012 WSOP
People love $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em events and Event 59 drove that point home today by drawing a total of 4,620 players to become the biggest tournament of the summer.
Today was Day 1b of the contest and players came out en masse with 2,880 paying the $1,000 entrance fee.
Andy Frankenberger, Faraz Jaka, Matt Stout, Tom Schneider, Mickey Petersen, Dutch Boyd, Chad Brown, Jeff Madsen, Matt Affleck, JC Tran and Ylon Schwartz were among the players to take a seat in the giant tournament.
The day ended with Jake Cody, Owen Crowe, Bjorn Li, Jeff Madsen and Ben Yu all near the top of the chip counts.
They’re all chasing a $654,797 first-place prize, which is a pretty decent return for a $1,000 investment.
Of course Event 59’s status as the biggest tournament of the 2012 WSOP will be short-lived as the Main Event, which begins on Saturday, is all but guaranteed to break 5,000 runners.
1) Ben Lamb Staking Almost Anyone in Main Event
Do you know Ben Lamb? Are you good at poker? Want to play the Main Event?
You should talk to Lamb.
Apparently the November Niner wants to stake a number of players in this year’s Main Event as evidenced by this Tweet:
Selling main event action, I know you, and don't suck at poker? Tweet or text me.
— Ben Lamb (@BenbaLamb) July 6, 2012Lamb later clarified he was buying action for the Main Event, not selling it. Lamb also joked he had eight missed calls from good buddy Jean-Robert Bellande since announcing he was buying action in this year’s Main Event.
It’s not unusual for poker pros to buy up a lot of action in the Main Event but it’s more common for them to do it privately.
Considering Lamb won over $5 million in last year’s WSOP he can certainly afford to pick a few horses in this year’s Main Event.
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