Many of the professional players left in this year’s WSOP were eliminated on Day 7, but the remaining competitors are not short on talent. Hitting the felt on Day 7 were Sebastian Ruthenberg, JP Kelly, Erick Lindgren, Andrew Brokos, Tony Hachem, last-woman-standing Erika Moutinho, and Steve Brecher.
Eoghan O’Dea has quite a legacy to uphold– he’s the son of professional Irish poker player, 1998 bracelet winner, and former Olympic swimmer Donnacha O’Dea and grandson of actors Denis O’Dea and Siobhán McKenna– and he’s currently doing a good job of making quite a name for himself, as he sits in second place in chips with 19,050,000 after steadily climbing over the past few days of play. He made over 8 million of his chips in a single hand against Andrew Hinrichsen. The board ran out in all hearts and O’Dea held the Kh in his hand, while Hinrichsen’s AdKc was rendered useless, giving O’Dea the king-high flush and a big gain right in time for bagging.
Only one player is ahead of him– Anton Makievskyi holds the lead with 21,045,000 chips, many of which were gained in a single pot worth 20 million. He went head-to-head with Christopher Moore, who held trips, raising until all of Makievskyi’s money was in the middle; Makievskyi held a full house and took a large chunk of Moore’s money. Although Moore is still in the running for the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet, he’ll be starting Day 8 with only 3.04 million, the smallest stack remaining in the game. With Moore at the bottom of the list with stacks under 5 million are Sam Barnhart, winner of the WSOP circuit National Championship (4,935,000); Samuel Holden, the only Brit left in the tournament (4,740,000); Gionni Demers (4,655,000); Kenny Shih (4,530,000); Lars Bonding, who is on his fifth money finish at the WSOP this year and, until today, managed to stay near the lead (4,140,000); and Bounahra Badih (3,385,000).
Rounding out the top ten are Khoa Nguyen, Canada’s last hope for a WSOP Main Event bracelet this year, with 16.435 million chips; Russian Andrey Pateychuk, sitting strong with 16,245,000; Ben Lamb, who is currently in the lead for the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year race, having ousted Phil Hellmuth just two days earlier, with 14.69 million; Phil Collins, who is tired of being referred to as “not the guy from Genesis,” with 13,805,000; John Hewitt of Costa Rica, with 13.265 million chips; Day 6 leader Ryan Lenaghan, who has lost a couple million chips since yesterday and now rests with 10.415 million; Matt Giannetti, at 8.92 million; and Konstantinos Mamaliadis of South Africa, with 8.195 million.
Matt Giannetti was the topic of some talk early in Day 7 as he made considerable gains that would leave him in position 9 at the end of the day. Giannetti managed to take the chip lead at one point, thanks to Hilton Laborda, who allowed him a double up once, followed by a bust which gave Giannetti the rest of his chips. This isn’t the remarkable part, however. On both hands, Laborda held a decent hand– a flush. Both times, he was beaten by Giannetti, who managed to have a flush. Two hands that played out exactly the same way cost Laborda his spot and gave Giannetti some much-needed chips.
Once again, the chip leaders have changed drastically since the day previous. With only 22 players left in the running for the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet, the tables can’t turn too much more– but tune in tomorrow to see how the drama unfolds in Las Vegas.