Harman Leads Final 36, Juanda Next in Line
The first day of Event #13: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship has come to a close! Certain to be the most intimate field of the 2014 WSOP, this event drew a total of just 87 entries. By the day's end, it was none other than two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jen Harman who bagged up the chip lead with 133,800 in chips. Hot on Harman's heels is 2011 WSOP $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball champion John Juanda with 124,300.
Harman late registered for this event, showing up a few levels into play. From there she steadily climbed the chip counts and truly blossomed in the final two levels of the day. Juanda also maintained a consistent upward trend throughout the day. As mentioned earlier Juanda won his fifth WSOP bracelet in this event in 2011, defeating Phil Hellmuth heads up and denying him his (at the time) 11th bracelet win. In fact, including his 2011 win, Juanda has final tabled this event four times (a fourth place in 2009, fourth in 2010, first in 2011, and sixth in 2012.).
Also advancing to Day 2 is 2012 $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball champion Larry Wright. Wright won his first bracelet in this game and then proceeded to cash in the $10,000 event a couple of weeks later. Wright wracked up a second consecutive cash in the championship in 2013 where he finished 13th. Can he make it three cashes in a row? Coming in at fourth in chips with 121,300, Wright is certainly a favorite to do so.
The field remains stacked with those to advance onto Day 2. Players to eclipse the 100K-mark on Day 1 include Shawn Sheikhan (122,400), Galen Hall (120,000), Ashton Griffin (119,000), Brian Rast (111,700), Paul Volpe (103,200), and Mike Watson (102,800).
Some other notable names to return to the felt include Greg Mueller (90,200), Daniel Negreanu (89,600), Jean-Robert Bellande (85,700), 2010 $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball champion and last year's runner-up David "Bakes" Baker (83,000), Jason Mercier (57,900), Shaun Deeb (55,500), Phil Hellmuth (52,100), Frank Kassela (32,700), Barry Greenstein (32,200), and two-time No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball champion Nick Schulman (14,200).
While these players all moved on to the second day, a majority of the field was not as fortunate. Some of the players to go bust before the day's end include Mike Matusow, Billy Baxter, reigning champion Jesse Martin, Scott Seiver, Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, David Williams, Mike Wattel, Eli Elezra, Brandon Cantu, Dan Smith, Erik Seidel, Prahlad Friedman, Greg Raymer, and many more.
Play resumes on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Tan section of the Amazon room. Be sure to return to PokerNews as this prestigious event plays down to a final table!