WSOP 2017: Bryan Hollis Takes Down Casino Employees Event; Team Negreanu Leads Final 6 Survivors in Tag Team Championship, Aditya Agarwal Makes Day 2 in Shootout Event

Now on its second day, the WSOP excitement is building higher, as each event unfolds and players are scrambling to Las Vegas from all over the globe to make it to the mammoth tournament.In our earlier update, we brought you news of the two events that kicked off the mega series.

Today we cover news of the first bracelet winner at WSOP 2017 with Bryan Hollis taking down Event 1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em for $68,817.

The Tag Team Championship Event is now down to just six teams with Team Negreanu leading the survivors. Team Agarwal started off the day at ninth place among 51 survivors today but exited just short of the money.

The second day of the series also marked the start of Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout and Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal kept up the momentum by making it to Day 2 in the event.

The first Omaha event at the series also got underway with Event 4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better attracting 905 entries and the end of days play 254 players advanced to Day 2.

Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em

The opening event at this year’s WSOP is now in the books with 651 entries coming in to form a prize pool of $325,500 and the top 98 places were paid. The bubble burst just before the dinner break on Day 1, and eliminations came quickly thereafter.

Day 2 began with just 11 players with Chris Gallagher leading the way with 519,000 in chips and Nathan Bolinger was the first player to exit. The unofficial final table of ten then came together, and play resumed to crown the first bracelet winner at WSOP 2017.

Final Table Recap

Haviv Bahar finished in 10th place after moving allin with pocket jacks and came up short against Victor Kim’s pocket queens.

Kim incidentally was the next player to hit the rail; he had a roller coaster journey all day but it all ended when he couldn’t win a flip with his against Adem Arbuckle’s pocket tens and exited in ninth place.

Vincent Russell was the next one to bust in eighth place followed by start of the day chip leader Chris Gallagher in seventh place. Gallagher couldn’t hold on to his lead and eventually became the short stack at the table. He eventually shoved holding and got one caller in Bryan Hollis who tabled . Hollis hit a queen on the flop to send Gallagher packing.

Quietly biding his time without risking much was Adem Arbuckle but the blinds eventually caught up with him. On his final hand of the event, he called a shove from Chris Solomon and found himself behind, settling for sixth place.

Alex Cordova was taken out just two hands later followed by short stacked Jermel Stephens when he ran his top pair into Josh Clanton‘s set of jacks to bow out in fourth place.

When the final three players took their seats, it was sure to be a battle and as expected chips were passed back and forth before Clanton was railed in third place by Hollis.

Heads-up battle was a 25-hand affair before Bryan Hollis finally lured Chris Solomon into bluffing his ten high into his flopped top pair to take down his first WSOP bracelet.

Final Table Results

1. Bryan Hollis – $68,817

2. Chris Solomon – $42,508

3. Josh Clanton – $29,372

4. Jermel Stephens – $20,629

5. Alex Cordova – $14,731

6. Adem Arbuckle – $10,698

7. Chris Gallagher – $7,903

8. Vincent Russell – $5,941

9. Victor Kim – $4,547

Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team Championship

A total of 102 teams took to the felt for the second bracelet event of the series i.e. Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team Championship taking the prize pool to $958,800 and exactly half the field survived the opening day.

Team Agarwal comprising of Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal, Team PokerMet pro Shuchi Chamaria Agarwal, Jim Collopy and Chris Dombrowski started off the day with 178,400 chips in ninth place among the 51 survivors but chipped down considerably to come down to 85,000 by Level 13. They managed to make it to the final three tables with 60,000 in chips and busted in the next level just a few places shy of the money.

The Team of Sergi Reixach and Pablo Fernandez ended up bubbling the event and six teams bagged chips by the end of play top 17 p remaining and when the dust settled for the day it was the team captained by 6 times WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu which consists of Eric Wasserson, David Benyamine and Mark Gregorich ended up leading the 6 surviving teams with 1,498,000.

Day 2 Chip Counts –

1. Daniel Negreanu, Eric Wasserson, David Benyamine and Mark Gregorich – 1,498,000
2. Anthony Ajlouny, David Fong and Mike McClain – 932,000
3. Liv Boeree, Igor Kurganov – 929,000
4. Ankush Mandavia and Joe Kuether – 800,000
5. Martin Jacobson, Mark Radoja – 632,000
6. Javier Gomez, Lander Lijo – 287,000

Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em SHOOTOUT

The first shootout tournament of the series i.e. $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em SHOOTOUT event also kicked off today where each player advances to the next round after topping his/her particular table.

The plan for the day was to play down till each table had a winner and all surviving players would make Day 2 with the assurance of min cashing for $6,407.

India`s poker superstar Aditya Agarwal was once again in the thick of action and managed to advance to Day 2 with 104,200 in chips.

Agarwal shared his tournament journey in a few tweets –

Playing the 3k shootout, 22k at 75-150(25) #wsop2017

— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int) June 1, 2017

3 handed in shootout with 22k at 250-500(50), Team Chamaria hanging tight in the tag team event with 155k (40ish left) #wsop2017

— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int) June 1, 2017

His last tweet read –

Wohooo was a grind but won my table, day 2 tomorrow. Unfortunately team Chamaria bust out before the money in tag team event #wsop2017

— Aditya Agarwal (@AdiAgarwal_int) June 2, 2017

World Series of Poker Hall of Famer Barry Greenstein booked the last spot on Day 2 after he defeated Jim McCrink in the heads-up battle. Other notable players to advance to Day 2 include Andre Akkari, Taylor Paur, Linglin Zeng, Dominik Nitsche, Jean-Robert Bellande and Matt Glantz.

Top 10 Chip Stacks at the End of Day 1

1. Mel Wiener – 118,700
2.Blake Bohn – 118,600
3. Chris Johnson – 118,500
4. Baz Karam – 118,500
5. Jan Schwippert – 118,400
6. Waikiat Lee – 118,300
7. Matt Glantz – 118,100
8. Upeshka De Silva – 118,100
9. Taylor Paur – 118,100
10. Jean Gaspard – 118,100

Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better

The first Omaha event for the series attracted 905 runners and after 10 hours of grueling action only 254 players made it through to Day 2. In total, the prize pool for this event ballooned to $1,357,500 with the champion set to take home $238,620 in prize money. The top 136 places will be paid in the event with the min cash being $2,253.

A few notable eliminations of the day include Jason Mercier, Mike Sexton, Shaun Deeb, Scotty Nguyen, Todd Brunson, Andy Frankenberger, Jeff Madsen and David Benyamine.

WSOP Circuit Ring winner Rex Clinkscales managed to bag the largest stack of 96,200 chips after cruising through most of the day unnoticed.

Plenty of big names are still in contention including last year’s champion Benny Glaser (19,400 chips), Allen Kessler (8,700), Dan Heimiller (15,000), Hani Awad (23,700), Jeffrey Lisandro (26,000), and Paul Tedeschi (32,700) and Aaron Steury (64,100) among others.

Top 10 Chip Stacks at the End of Day 1

1. Rex Clinkscales – 96,200
2. James Chen – 92,400
3. Aaron Steury – 64,100
4. Ben Ludlow – 56,100
5. Richard Bai – 51,900
6. Paul Tedeschi – 32,700
7. Jeffrey Lisandro – 26,000
8. Hani Awad – 23,700
9. Victor Ramdin – 20,000
10. Benny Glaser – 19,400

Keep following the latest updates from WSOP 2017 right here on PokerGuru!