Remko on the Rail: World Champs Collide for Third WSOP Bracelet

Being back at the World Series of Poker feels like a high school reunion, but the question “What have you been up to lately?” is replaced with, “What tournament are you playing?”

Yesterday I made my first walk down the long hallway to check out the Amazon room, and after fending off the phone charger salesmen and the magnetic energy balance bracelet guy, I was pleased to see that every room is still bursting at the seams with poker action and the almost Zen-inducing sound of chips being shuffled.

As I made my rounds to scout out the biggest storylines, there was one clear favorite with the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout lending itself perfectly for a stacked final table, followed by a clash of GTO wizards and a huge four-card split-pot frenzy that has the potential of going an extra day. This is Remko on the Rail, your daily update from the 2018 World Series of Poker including everything you need to know about the world’s greatest poker event.

McKeehen vs Cada

Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event is poker’s pinnacle; a guarantee to bank millions of dollars and see your name among some of the game’s most iconic characters such as Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Moss. Winning the Main Event, however, does not guarantee longevity in the game, prolonged success or repeat wins at the World Series of Poker.

Today, two former champs look to increase their legacy as Joe Cada and Joe McKeehen square off to win their third gold bracelet. In the post-Moneymaker era only one of the champs, Jonathan Duhamel, has managed to add two bracelets after winning the Main Event and Greg Merson was the only one to win a bracelet before winning the Main Event. There’s a lot at stake today, and you can watch it all live on PokerGO.

Other notables standing between Cada or McKeehen winning their third WSOP bracelet are former EPT Barcelona winner Sam Phillips and EPT Barcelona High Roller winner Ihar Soika. The action gets underway at 12:00 pm local time, and the PokerGO live stream with commentary provided by Ali Nejad and Maria Ho kicks off at 1:00 pm PT (4:00 pm ET/10:00 pm CET)

Super High Rollers Want Bracelets Too

Do they though? Do they really care about the prestige? The German GTO wizards might deny it being a draw, the American high rollers might brush it off as just another tournament, but at the end of the day we’ll see the pride in their eyes as one of them will raise their arms in victory after four grueling days of play.

The $100,000 High Roller got underway on Friday and drew 96 total entries of which 49 players managed to make it to the next day. In this single re-entry format, we saw Daniel Negreanu bust both his bullets on Day 1 while the winner of the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty, Elio Fox, bagged the overnight chip lead after winning a huge pot versus Italy’s Dario Sammartino.

With registration still open until the first break of Day 2, this event will likely see substantial growth and might hit still hit the 130-player entry mark, which was the field size of the High Roller for One Drop won by Doug Polk last year for $3.8 million. Relive that entire final table on PokerGO right here.

36 Hopefuls Look to Scoop O-8 Bracelet

Nothing says, “final day” like 36 players returning in a split pot format. The changes to the structure in the $1,500 Omaha Eight-or-Better Split tournament might prove to add another day of play to this event.

1st day 3 of the summer @WSOP
36 players left, I have 5 big bets to spin up to ?avg stack is under 10 big bets. $1500 Omaha8

— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) June 2, 2018

Mike Leah, or “MTM” for Multi-Tabling Mike, promised to slow his roll this year and focus on one event at a time, is off to a strong start with this new approach. Together with Jason Lester, Mike Wattel, and Chris Bjorin, Leah is one of the four bracelet winners remaining in this event along with Matt Woodward, Jeff Shulman, and former Aussie Millions winner James Chen as notables in this event.

Brandon Ageloff leads the way with live streaming of this tournament on Twitch today when the final table is reached. The commentary is provided by Jeff Platt and Jeff Gross.

GIANT gonna GIANT

A Rio Deepstack, or Venetian if you will, buy-in level with a World Series of Poker feel, is guaranteed to bring out all the grinders and poker fans to take a shot. The first of five nights of GIANT action kicked off last night as 1,289 entries boiled down to just 80 players as Danny Nguyen bagged up a million to lead the way. Notables that made it to the second day, which will be played on June 30^th, include AJ Kelsall, Matt Affleck, and Ray Henson. Last year this event had 10,015 total entries with Dieter Dechant taking it down for $291,906.

In Case You Missed It

Poker Central and Barstool Sports have teamed up in Daniel Negreanu’s $25,000 WSOP Fantasy League! Read all about our team, the picks, and the charity we’re playing for right here. The 2018 Poker Masters schedule has been announced, go check it out right now. Justin Bonomo told us the story of his epic last six months, and we looked at his merits for Hall of Fame induction.

New to PokerGO? This is the perfect time to Get in the Game. Watch all WSOP streams live and on-demand starting tomorrow until the epic conclusion of the Big One for One Drop on July 17. The PokerGO WSOP Sweepstakes is still open! Sign up now for a chance to win your way into the 2018 WSOP Main Event and $1,500 towards your travel. Registration closes on June 15th. Questions, requests or suggestions for Remko on the Rail? Reach out on Twitter or via [email protected].