WSOP Report Day #34: David 'ODB' Baker Leads Final Six in Limit Hold'em & Ryan Leng Flying High in Crazy Eight

Five WSOP events played close to a final table without handing out any gold on Monday night, as David ‘ODB’ Baker built a final table lead, Ryan Leng began his assault on another leaderboard and Eli Elezra and Mike Matusow dominated another event in incredible fashion.

BAKER BULLYING THE FIELD IN LIMIT HOLD’EM

David ‘ODB’ Baker remains in charge of the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event with just six players left battling it out for the bracelet. With 541 entries, the event has been extremely popular, as have many of the mixed game events this summer at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Baker is just one day’s play away from his second career WSOP bracelet.

Although Baker will be favorite to claim the$272,504 top prize, others still covet it, albeit from slightly further away in terms of chipstacks. Baker’s stack of 2,493,000 looks down from some height on Ruiko Mamiya (1,551,000) and Brian Kim, who sits in third place chip-wise with 1,106,000. There’s then the first of two big gaps to bridge. Dominzo Love has 620,000, but then Chris Ferguson (246,000) and Chicong Nguyen (152,000) will both have to improve their stacks quickly if they are to gain any momentum other than the climbing of a ladder. Ferguson has 10 big blinds, while Nguyen has even less, with just six bigs to his name.

PANCHENKO POWERS THROUGH DAY 2 CRAZY EIGHTS LEAD

The Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em event, costing just $888 to enter, whittled an immense Day 2 field of 1,223 players down to just 91 as the overall field of 10,185 was but a long-forgotten memory. With Natalia Panchecnko (11,870,000) leading the way from WSOP bracelet winners Scott Davies (11,855,000) and Ryan Leng (11,765,000), there is everything to play for on Day 3.

As you can imagine, plenty of big names departed in the 1,000+ players to bust, with British big-stacks heading into play Ian Simpson, Sam Razavi and William Kassouf all biting the Rio dust. Bracelet bettor Alex Foxen, former WSOP Main Event champion form 2004 Greg Raymer and ‘Mr. Consistent’ of this WSOP series, Ben Yu, all made their departures on Day 2 also.

ELEZRA AND MATUSOW FACE OFF IN SEVEN CARD STUD

Two previous WSOP bracelet winners in Eli Elezra and Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow face off with the two biggest stacks in the $10,000-entry Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship as both big names bagged over a million chips on a Day 2 that brought big drama here in Las Vegas.

Having already won a WSOP bracelet this summer, taking down the $1,500 Stud event for $93,766, Elezra is in imposing form ahead of Day 3, which will feature just 16 players. Bagging up 1,362,000, Elezra is followed in the chipcounts by Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, who totalled 1,005,000 at the close of play. They will have some esteemed company in players such as Andrey Zhigalov (968,000), Anthony Zinno (738,000) and Steven Wolansky (733,000), who all round out the top five.

OTHER EVENTS IN ACTION AT THE RIO

The $1,000-entry Mini Main Event saw Lula Taylor (2,695,000) take the chip lead into the overnight pause to the phenomenal event, as 5,521 entries saw the tournament take over the Rio. Others who bagged huge stacks include Liran Betito (2,625,000), Heidi Orloff (1,935,000) and Alexis Urli (1,925,000) who all look down on some stars of the felt. Martin Finger (1,070,000), Barry Greenstein (765,000) and Chris Ferguson (725,000) – yes, that man again, bagging up in two separate live events, and David Peters (325,000) will all have hope of running deep in the prestigious event that has a $628,654 top prize.

In the $5,000-entry NLHE event, Barry Hutter was the big hitter as he led the counts with an impressive 400,000, well clear of players such as four-time WPT champion Darren Elias (257,500), Tamer Kamel (236,500) Roberto Romanello (218,100) and Leon Tsoukernik (203,200) all in with a great chance of success in the event as 750 entries became just 212 survivors. Others to make the Day 2 cut included David Yan (156,200), Marc MacDonnell (131,900), Faraz Jaka (124,300), Ryan Laplante (102,000), Dietrich Fast (97,000), Niall Farrell (92,000) and Ben Heath (59,400). Some players were less fortunate, as Liv Boeree, Martin Jacobson, Jason Mercier, Cary Katz, Ali Imsirovic, Patrick Leonard and Talal Shakerchi all busted before the money bubble.

Who’ll become the latest player to win a WSOP gold bracelet at the 2019 World Series of Poker? You can watch the action unfold live today on PokerGO and CBS All Access as more coverage of the 2019 WSOP bracelet events takes place. Selected bracelet events will be streamed exclusively on CBS All Access in the United States.