Defending Champion Hellmuth Advances to Final Day of $5,000 Turbo
After 608 entries made it the biggest $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo event in World Series of Poker history, just 44 players are left, all in with a shot of winning a bracelet in the last event of the summer.
Headlining Day 2 will undoubtedly be defending champion and winner of a record 15 WSOP bracelets Phil Hellmuth. After securing a 193rd place finish in the Closer for $3,500 earlier in the day, Hellmuth balanced his presenting duties on the ESPN Main Event final table broadcast with playing in the event he won 12 months ago.
This is Hellmuth's 12 cash of the summer, with the Poker Brat and the rest of the field already having guaranteed themselves $10,382, but all will be eyeing the $606,562 first prize that awaits the winner tomorrow.
The chip leader is Liran Twito with 1,452,000 and looks to be the only player over a million. Another big stack is Lars Kamphues (960,000), while Kristen Bicknell has 882,000 after eliminating Ludovic Geilich with only a couple of hands left in the day.
Other big stacks include Tony Dunst (747,000), Luke Graham (700,000), Carl Shaw (699,000) and 2019 bracelet winner David "ODB" Baker, who bagged 643,000 and also advanced to Day 2.
| Year | Field | Winner | First Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 608 | TBD | $606,562 |
| 2018 | 452 | Phil Hellmuth | $485,082 |
| 2017 | 505 | Christopher Brammer | $527,555 |
| 2016 | 524 | Ankush Mandavia | $548,139 |
| 2015 | 454 | Kevin MacPhee | $490,800 |
Day 1 Recap
The pace of eliminations was fast throughout Day 1 with the fast structure incentivising players to jump in early. Players seated for the 'shuffle up and deal' included 2019 bracelet winners Stephen Chidwick, Juha Helppi, David "ODB" Baker and Anatolii Zyrin.
The money bubble was reached in Level 18, with Kevin Eyster and Loni Harwood both doubling on the bubble. The unfortunate bubble boy was Ray Qartomy who got it in good with pocket aces against pocket nines, but two nines on the flop gave Kolev quads and Qartomy was eliminated.
Notable eliminations in the money included David Peters (92nd - $7,396), Yueqi Zhu (84th - $7,396), Lauren Roberts (78th - $7,798), Danny Tang (77th - $7,798), Tom Franklin (74th - $7,798), Brian Yoon (62nd - $9,243), Christoph Vogelsang (55th - $9,243) and Juha Helppi (53rd - $10,382)
Day 2 resumes at noon on July 16th with the tournament playing down to a winner on the final day of the 2019 World Series of Poker. Join PokerNews as we crown the final bracelet winner of the year!