Bryan Emory Leads Final Five Players Of Bounty Event #50 into Extra Day
Day 3 of 2017 World Series of Poker Event #50: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Bounty saw 29 hopefuls out of a 1,927-entry field return to the tables and the lion's share of the $2,601,450 prize pool, including the elusive gold bracelet and a payday of $266,646 to the winner. The tournament was scheduled to award the gold bracelet tonight, however, that is postponed until Thursday, June 29th.
After ten full hours of play, only five players remain in contention and Bryan Emory holds a sizable lead at the top of the counts after bagging up 6,130,000. Second in chips is James Gilbert with 3,300,000 followed by a trio of almost identical stacks: Chris Bolek (1,700,000), Zhaoxing Wang (1,675,000) and Tobias Peters (1,650,000). When the action resumes, there will be thirty minutes left in level 31 and blinds of 60,000/120,000 with a running ante of 20,000.
Seat Assignments for the Final Five in Event #50:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bryan Emory | United States | 6,130,000 | 51 |
| 2 | Zhaoxing Wang | United States | 1,675,000 | 14 |
| 3 | Chris Bolek | United States | 1,700,000 | 14 |
| 4 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 1,650,000 | 14 |
| 5 | James Gilbert | United States | 3,300,000 | 28 |
Early Action on Day 3
Among those returning with a big stack was Tom Hall, but the British poker pro saw his hopes destroyed early on and his stack vanished within two hands. First Sammy Lafleur spiked two pair with king-ten suited on an all-clubs flop to crack the pocket aces of Hall, who bowed out soon after with pocket queens versus pocket jacks. Govert Metaal flopped a jack and rivered a four-card flush to send Hall out in a disappointing 27th place.
Patrick Popowski lost a big flip with pocket threes against the ace-king of Jacob Bazeley and the roller coaster rides of Duy Ho and Zachary Gruneberg ended in 21th respectively 20th place. Marc Foggin saw his stack shrink consistently after running bad in all in showdowns and he followed right after to set up the last two tables.
Eli Loewenthal had a kicker problem with ace-four against the ace-jack of Chris Bolek and never filled up to take 18th place. The elimination of Ryan Lincks was far more brutal when his pocket aces got cracked by Dan Sindelar's ace-king. Sindelar spiked a fourth diamond on the river to improve to a flush.
Jiri Horak's pocket queens looked like a winner until the turn, but Sammy Lafleur's ace-king got there when a king hit on the river and Horak had to settle for 15th place. The next player to join the rail was Harrison Gimbel, who first lost a big portion of his stack with pocket aces versus pocket tens before his ace-jack was no match to the pocket jacks of Zhaoxing Wang.
Uri Reichenstein's ace-ten ended up second-best to the pocket queens of Thomas Lutz and the latter held a comfortable lead over the rest of the field with 14 players remaining. Next up, Jeff Gigante's kicker problem with ace-ten versus ace-jack ended up crucial and he became the next casualty before Jacob Bazeley had to settle for 12th place. Bazeley lost the vast majority of his stack holding ace-king against Mike Linster with ace-jack and the final hand saw him all in and at risk with three big blinds and eight-nine suited. Lutz called with ace-deuce and flopped trips aces, then turned quads for good measure.
French-Canadian Sammy Lafleur, who failed to get there with king-queen versus ace-queen, ended up in 11th place and that set up the following unofficial final table.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bryan Emory | United States | 1,935,000 | 48 |
| 2 | Zhaoxing Wang | United States | 1,075,000 | 27 |
| 3 | Chris Bolek | United States | 460,000 | 12 |
| 4 | Dan Sindelar | United States | 975,000 | 24 |
| 5 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 2,475,000 | 62 |
| 6 | Mike Linster | United States | 1,195,000 | 30 |
| 7 | Thomas Lutz | United States | 2,000,000 | 50 |
| 8 | James Gilbert | United States | 1,950,000 | 49 |
| 9 | Richard Dubini | Argentina | 470,000 | 12 |
| 10 | Govert Metaal | Netherlands | 1,650,000 | 41 |
Final Table Action
Mike Linster missed out on the official final table when he three-bet shoved with ace-jack and Tobias Peters called with pocket sixes to remain ahead on a queen-high board.
It took 54 hands to lose another player and Dan Sindelar saw his pair of nines dominated by the pocket queens of Govert Metaal. The board came king-high and both players missed straight draws to keep the queens in the lead. The penultimate level of the night saw the departure of Richard Dubini in hand #95 when the Argentinian shoved for 12 big blinds with pocket jacks. Bryan Emory reshoved from two seats over with pocket queens and there was no help for Dubini.
An additional half level was played and another two players would run out of chips. Thomas Lutz got it in ahead with ace-king suited against the ace-eight of Tobias Peters, only to see an eight appear right in the window. Last but not least, Govert Metaal got his short stack in from the button with queen-four and Bryan Emory called in the small blind with king-seven suited. A king on the flop all but sealed it. Chris Bolek doubled through Peters just before bagging and tagging to make it five returning for Day 4.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $266,646 | ||
| 2 | $164,735 | ||
| 3 | $119,479 | ||
| 4 | $87,516 | ||
| 5 | $64,746 | ||
| 6 | Govert Metaal | Netherlands | $48,386 |
| 7 | Thomas Lutz | United States | $36,530 |
| 8 | Richard Dubini | Argentina | $27,865 |
| 9 | Dan Sindelar | United States | $21,477 |
Play resumes Thursday at 1 PM local time, where a winner will be crowned. The PokerNews live reporting team will be providing hand-for-hand updates until a winner is crowned, so make sure to tune back and find out who emerges victorious.