WSOP: Keith Tilston, Jerry Odeen Join Bracelet Winner Fraternity
Saturday might have been an off day for the final nine players in the 2019 World Series of Poker, but there was plenty of other action including Daniel Negreanu getting heads-up for a bracelet for the second time this summer and a longtime PocketFiver winning his first piece of WSOP hardware.
Jerry Odeen Wins $1,500 Mixed NLHE/PLO
He might only be 24 years old, but Sweden’s Jerry Odeen has been dreaming about winning a WSOP bracelet for nearly a decade. Odeen, who has been as high as #12 in the PocketFives Rankings, made his dream come true on Saturday by winning the $1,500 Mixed No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha event.
“This is something I always wanted since I started playing poker. I started watching poker when I was like 15 years old now I’m here like nine, ten years later. I got the bracelet, it feels pretty surreal actually,” Odeen said. “I always said I’m not going to quit before I get a bracelet. I had one close call before, I got fourth. It’s achievable but obviously, need a lot of luck. I don’t think I lost a single all in. It’s tough to lose then if you don’t lose all ins.”
Odeen beat England’s Peter Linton heads up for the bracelet and added $304,793 to his lifetime earnings. Linton had to settle for $188,368 as the runner-up. Adam Demersseman finished third for $135,093.
Final Table Payouts
- Jerry Odeen – $304,793
- Peter Linton – $188,368
- Adam Demersseman – $135,093
- Lucas Greenwood – $98,027
- Ayaz Mahmood ($71,979)
- Eddie Blumenthal – $53,490
- Jeremy Kottler – $40,236
- Gary Bolden – $30,640
- Rania Nasreddine – $23,625
Keith Tilston Denies Daniel Negreanu $100K High Roller Victory
Keith Tilston might have been the least known player at the final table of the $100,000 High Roller, but that didn’t stop him from emerging victorious and in the process prevented Daniel Negreanu from winning his seventh bracelet and taking over the WSOP Player of the Year lead.
Tilston beat Negreanu heads-up to secure the bracelet and a $2,792,406 payday. His career earnings are now just over $6.4 million, but for Tilston, the win was as much about proving that he has the mettle to play the big buy-in events as much as it was about the money.
“I do play a lot of high roller events and I feel good to know I can at least hang with these guys. Obviously, there’s a lot of luck in each individual tournament and you gotta run well,” Tilston said. “I certainly don’t claim to be as good as a lot of these guys, but it feels good I can at least hang with them.”
Negreanu now has two runner-up finishes this summer. The first came in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event. This second-place finish added 630.2 POY points to Negreanu’s total and moved him to fifth place, 333.04 points behind current leader Robert Campbell. Had Negreanu won, he would have been ahead of the rest of the field by 297.46 points.
Nick Schulman finished third for $1,187,802, the biggest WSOP cash of his career.
Final Table Payouts
- Keith Tilston – $2,792,406
- Daniel Negreanu – $1,725,838
- Nick Schulman – $1,187,802
- Igor Kurganov – $840,183
- Brandon Adams – $611,258
- Dominik Nitsche – $457,772
- Sergi Reixach – $353,202
- Christoph Vogelsang – $281,025
Shaun Deeb Cruises To Day 1B Lead of The Closer
The hunt for a second straight WSOP POY title continued on Saturday for Shaun Deeb. The former #1-ranked PocketFiver finished Day 1B of the $1,500 The Closer event with 1,172,000 and the chip lead.
The only other player to finish with more than 1,000,000 was Denis Gnidash with 1,058,000. Jeff Gross ended up with the third biggest stack at 813,000.
Just 45 of the 724 Day 1B entrants survived the day including Rex Clinkscales, Mukul Pahuja, Mike Leah, Kane Kalas, and defending champion Joe Cada.
Day 1C begins Sunday at 11 AM PT.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Shaun Deeb – 1,172,000
- Denis Gnidash – 1,058,000
- Jeff Gross – 813,000
- Andrew Ostapchenko – 783,000
- Abhinav Iyer – 782,000
- Daniel Johnson – 730,000
- Devin Looney – 628,000
- Robert Lipkin – 627,000
- Rex Clinkscales – 599,000
- Toshiyuki Onda – 597,000
John Richards Leads $3,000 Six Max Pot Limit Omaha
Day 2 of the $3,000 Six Max Pot Limit Omaha event saw the field dwindle from 173 down to 24 and John Richards stands atop the chip counts with nearly 2 million.
Richards finished with 1,949,000 and now holds a healthy lead over the rest of the field. The second biggest stack belongs to Abraham Faroni with 1,226,000. Right behind him is Michael Kuney with 1,123,000.
Two players who picked up the first bracelet of their career also bagged big stacks. Juha Helppi, with 1,085,000, is fourth while Joseph Cheong, with 1,039,000 is sixth.
Other notables who made it to Day 3 include Nacho Barbero, Brandon Shack-Harris, Joao Vieira, and Noah Schwartz.
Action resumes at 2 PM and will play down to a final six players before stopping for the night.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- John Richards – 1,949,000
- Abraham Faroni – 1,226,000
- Michael Kuney – 1,123,000
- Juha Helppi – 1,085,000
- Alan Sternberg – 1,082,000
- Joseph Cheong – 1,039,000
- Florian Strasser – 1,021,000
- Nacho Barbero – 971,000
- Brandon Shack-Harris – 902,000
- Veerachai Vongxaiburana – 769,000
Felix Bleiker Leads $10K Six Max NLHE After Day 1
Swiss poker pro Felix Bleiker didn’t seem to mind that the Day 1 field for the $10,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event had just 248 entries. Bleiker finished play Saturday with 425,400 and leads the remaining 113 survivors.
Almost 100,000 behind Bleiker is Pennsylvania poker pro John Andress and former #1-ranked PocketFiver Yuri Dzivielevski with 329,000 each.
Registration remains open until the start of Day 2 which should help push the total field size closer to the 355 that entered last year when Shaun Deeb beat Paul Volpe heads-up for the title.
Other notables moving on to Day 2 include David Peters, Joao Simao, John Hennigan, David ‘ODB’ Baker, Dominik Nitsche, Mike Watson, Alex Foxen, and Andras Nemeth.
Action resumes at 2 PM PT.
Top 10 Chip Counts
- Felix Bleiker – 425,400
- John Andress – 329,000
- Yuri Dzivielevski – 329,000
- Andrey Pateychuk – 320,300
- Mustapha Kanit – 285,600
- Sergi Reixach – 278,000
- Ramin Hajiyev – 263,300
- Stefan Schillhabel – 258,600
- Eric Kurtzman – 246,000
- George Wolff – 235,400
