Klodnicki Leads as Bevy of Pros Advance to Day 2
One of the summer’s most prestigious tournament—Event #29 $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.—took place at the 2013 World Series of Poker today, and 261 of the game’s best turned out to create a prize pool of $1,226,700. That will be distributed to the top 32 players, with $318,955 reserved for first. The man best positioned to capture that cash, along with a gold bracelet, is Chris Klodnicki, who led the surviving 151 players with 65,100 in chips. Not far behind with 62,600 is Tom Schneider, who won his third gold bracelet just last week.
This was a limit event, so action wasn’t as intense as it is in either no-limit hold’em or pot-limit Omaha. Still, the tournament saw its fair share of eliminations including Yuval Bronshtein, Jason Mercier, Scotty Nguyem, John Hennigan, Mike Wattel, Eric Crain, Frank Kassela, Shannon Shorr, Stephen Chidwick, Scott Seiver, Dan Shak, defending champ David “Bakes” Baker and the legendary Phil Ivey.
Ivey was crippled in Level 7 in a big hand against David Williams, who seemed to be among the chip leaders most of the day. It happened in Stud with the following cards showing:
Phil Ivey: 
/ 
/
David Singer: / 
Fold
David Williams: / 
/
Ivey had the bring in with the . Singer completed with the , Williams called and Ivey came along to fourth. It appeared Singer, who caught an ace, led out and received calls from both Williams and Ivey. Singer then checked fifth, Williams bet and only Ivey called. Ivey then called a bet on sixth before folding to one on seventh. Ivey left himself with just 1,300 while Williams chipped up to 57,500. Not long after, Ivey would hit the rail in the same hand as Seiver.
While many fell, there are still plenty of stars in the field including the 2011 champ Fabrice Soulier (61,100); bracelet winner Adam Friedman (61,000); former November Niner Eric Buchman (50,100); South American sensation Nacho Barbero (48,000); current Player of the Year leader Daniel Negreanu (45,000); eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel (41,100); Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (29,500); thirteen-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (29,500); and Dan Kelly (24,000), who has already cashed seven times at the 2013 WSOP!
Day 2 is set to kick off at 14:00 PST in the Tan Section of the Amazon Room. Join us then as we look to make the money on our way down to the final table. Until then, check out the interview Sarah Grant did with Justin "Boosted J" Smith during a break in today's H.O.R.S.E. event.