2007 World Series of Poker - Day 5 Recap

Day 5 of the 2007 World Series of Poker was played on Tuesday, and here’s a recap of some of the action:

EVENT #7 - $5,000 POT LIMIT OMAHA

Tuesday got started with 51 of the original 145 players still in the game. 18 players would be finishing in the money, with a total prize pool of over $2.8 million.

Early on, legends Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan were both eliminated. After the dinner break, they were joined by Brandon Adams, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Sexton, Chau Giang and Dustin Woolf. The action slowed down after the break, and the final table finally shaped up to look like this:

Seat 1 — Humberto Brenes — 275,000
Seat 2 — John Juanda — 220,000
Seat 3 — Larry Jonsson — 900,000
Seat 4 — Minh Ly — 240,000
Seat 5 — Burt Boutin — 460,000
Seat 6 — Robin Keston — 235,000
Seat 7 — Sirious Jamshidi — 865,000
Seat 8 — Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott — 1,300,000
Seat 9 — Erik Cajelais — 1,075,000

Action was meant to resume on Wednesday at 3pm, when the remaining players will compete for a WSOP bracelet and a first place prize of $825,956.

EVENT #8 - $1,000 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM (W/ REBUYS)

This event started at noon on Tuesday, and many high-rolling pros were attracted by the rebuy option. The field of 844 included such names as Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Kristy Gazes, Bill Chen and Rafe Furst.

When the rebuy phase was over, it was revealed that players opted for 1,814 rebuys to raise the prize pool to over $2.5 million. Cory Carroll led the pack with an amazing 19 rebuys.

Once players could no longer reload their chip stacks, the eliminations started coming at a blistering pace. Players such as Phil Hellmuth, Shannon Elizabeth, Mary Jones and Greg Mueller didn’t even make it to the dinner break. Post-dinner busts included Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey.

82 players remained at the end of the day, with all being guaranteed of finishing in the money. The top 10 chip leaders shaped up as follows:

Sorel 'Imper1um' Mizzi — 240,000
Michael Binger — 186,700
Amir Vahedi — 183,100
Gavin Griffin — 154,200
Alex Melnikow — 151,300
Marc Waacden — 136,400
Joe Simmons — 133,000
Michael Gracz — 130,100
Roger Teska — 121,800
David Strot — 110,300

EVENT #6 - $1,500 LIMIT HOLD’EM

Day Two of this event saw 90 players still surviving. Players were guaranteed to make at least $2,360, with the first place finisher walking away with $280,715.

Big name players like Minh Nguyen and David Chiu busted out early, and Tanya Lieu and Brandon Wong joined them later in the day. As the day concluded, the final table had been filled out.

Gary Styczynski — 817,000
James Gorham — 632,000
Hansu Chu — 389,000
Soheil Shamseddin — 303,000
James Holland — 163,000
Varouzhan Gumroyan — 148,000
Michael Banks — 135,000
Dariush Imani — 109,000
Peter O'Donnell — 55,000

EVENT #4 - $1,500 POT LIMIT HOLD’EM

The final table got underway for this event, with Marco Traniello being the first player eliminated. Gavin Smith was on fire throughout the day, personally eliminating several players and playing very aggressively.

It finally came down to Mike Spegal and Gavin Smith in heads-up play. After a dinner break, the blinds moved up to 20K/40K, and Spegal had a chip lead of $81,000.

On Hand 129, Smith raised from the button to 120K. Spegal re-raised to 240K and Gavin Smith went all-in. Spegal called and revealed his card to be an Ace and Ten of Spades. Smith, meanwhile, had pocket Fives.

The flop came Jack of Diamonds, Six of Spades and Three of Spades. No help for Smith and a possible Flush for Spegal. The turn brought a Queen of Spades and that was that. Mike Spegal was the new Pot Limit Hold’em champ with $252,290.

For more updates on the WSOP, see the following:

WSOP - Day 4 Recap

WSOP - Day 2 Recap

2007 World Series of Poker - Day 5 Recap