Ray Dehkharghani Leads Final 37 in $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship
Welcome back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and the 2017 World Series of Poker for Day 2 of the Event #17: $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship!
Day 1 on Thursday saw 102 hopefuls take a seat in this second and last dealers choice tournament on the schedule, and although the numbers dropped slightly compared to the last two years, the field was still incredibly stacked with bracelet winners, tournament veterans and high stakes cash game giants all looking to become the next Dealers Choice Championship winner.
Recent Event #9 winner Abe Mosseri was one of the early casualties yesterday along with Erik Sagstrom, Konstantin Puchkov, Alex Luneau, Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb and Mike Leah. After winning Event #13, Frank Kassela jumped in the tournament but also found himself on the rail as big bet games saw chips fly across the table as fellow bracelet winners Randy Ohel, Phil Hellmuth, Nick Schulman, Brian Rast, Jeffrey Lisandro, Marco Johnson, David Bach, John Monnette and Jesse Martin were all eliminated. Reigning champion Jean Gaspard ran up a stack early, but his day would end early to mean a new champion will be crowned in 2017.
However the day belonged to Ray Dehkharghani who found himself the early chip leader and continually accumulated chips throughout the day. Although he dropped the chip lead on the penultimate hand of the night, Dehkharghani regained it on the final hand in a three-bet no-limit 2-7 single draw hand that saw him bag a healthy 265,000 in chips.
Right on Dehkharghani's heels is Russian Viacheslav Zhukov (258,400) and Zachary Freeman (257,200), while Schuyler Thornton (241,600), Dennis Eichhorn (230,000) and Jon Turner (212,100) are the only players who managed to surpass the 200,000-chip mark. But with 37 players remaining that include some of the best in the world, the rest of the leaderboard is still stacked with a plethora of bracelet-winners including 2015 winner of this event Quinn Do (94,500), 2014 $1,500 Dealers Choice winner Robert Mizrachi (80,000) and 2015 $1,500 Dealers Choice winner Carol Fuchs (61,000).
With 18 players guaranteed a piece of the prize pool and a $14,743 payday, it is expected that action will continue at its furious pace today as we first play down to the money, and then to the final table of six where a $273,962 first prize awaits whoever can top one of the most prestigious tournaments of the 2017 World Series of Poker!
Play is set to begin at 2:00 p.m. (PDT) with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing continuous live updates of all the Dealers Choice Championship action — so stay tuned right here!
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brasilia | 708 | 1 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 151,600 |
| Brasilia | 708 | 2 | Chris Klodnicki | United States | 110,100 |
| Brasilia | 708 | 3 | Matthew Kelly | United States | 83,700 |
| Brasilia | 708 | 4 | George Trigeorgis | United States | 166,400 |
| Brasilia | 708 | 5 | Tommy Hang | United States | 123,000 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 1 | Dennis Eichhorn | United States | 230,000 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 2 | Ray Dehkharghani | United States | 265,000 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 3 | James Obst | Australia | 185,600 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 4 | Joseph Couden | United States | 126,400 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 5 | Zachary Freeman | United States | 257,200 |
| Brasilia | 709 | 6 | Mikko Hirvonen | United Kingdom | 113,800 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 1 | Shawn Buchanan | Canada | 172,700 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 2 | Ben Yu | United States | 129,600 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 3 | Bryce Yockey | United States | 84,200 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 4 | Jake Abdalla | United States | 77,400 |
| Brasilia | 710 | 6 | David "ODB" Baker | United States | 76,000 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 1 | David Prociak | United States | 164,700 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 2 | Robert Mizrachi | United States | 80,000 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 4 | Viacheslav Zhukov | Russia | 258,400 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 5 | Ryan Hughes | United States | 94,800 |
| Brasilia | 711 | 6 | Todd Brunson | United States | 153,900 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 1 | Benjamin Lukas | United States | 53,600 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 2 | Daniel Zack | United States | 79,300 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 3 | Quinn Do | United States | 94,500 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 5 | Eric Crain | United States | 127,300 |
| Brasilia | 712 | 6 | Lars Gronning | United States | 91,000 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 1 | Lyle Berman | United States | 138,400 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 2 | Matt Glantz | United States | 84,700 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 3 | Schuyler Thornton | United States | 241,600 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 4 | Jon Turner | United States | 212,100 |
| Brasilia | 713 | 6 | Carol Fuchs | United States | 61,000 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 1 | Christopher Vitch | United States | 164,600 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 2 | Craig Chait | United States | 69,300 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 3 | Roland Israelashvili | United States | 143,700 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 4 | Jared Bleznick | United States | 119,000 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 5 | John Racener | United States | 128,400 |
| Brasilia | 714 | 6 | Mike Matusow | United States | 179,200 |