Benjamin Sage Tops Day 1 of Spicy WSOP Event #39

New York’s Benjamin Sage tops the Day 2 starters in the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event #39 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

Just 88 players remain in contention for the $661,000 top prize at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino after the starting field of 293 – who created a prize pool of $2,754,200 – was cut back by 205. Brooklyn’s Sage will start Day 2 with 358,400 chips for a small lead over second placed Joseph Kushner (352,500), of Washington, DC.

Kushner certainly benefited from an incredible five-player all-in hand at one point that involved John Juanda, Brian Hastings and two other opponents. Kushner’s aces hole cards looked good on a 4♣ 3♣ 3♥ board, while the 3♦ turn handed him a full house that no other player could match for a gigantic pot.

Quads Trouble for Mike Cameron

However, that hand was nothing compared to the two Mike Cameron lost. The unfortunate Cameron was left baffled – and more than a little annoyed – after twice losing out to quads!

The first saw Cameron turn quad fours, but Mohsin Charania incredibly rivered quad eights, while the second saw Cameron make tens full of fives from a 6♦ 5♥ 5♣ 10♥ K♣ board, only for Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla to flop quad fives. Poor old Cameron never quite recovered from those two tough-to-take losses and was later eliminated.

The leading 36 players will be assured of making at least $16,801, but they will all be chasing the top prize, of course, as well as the gold bracelet that comes with a WSOP victory.

Joe Cada Still in Contention

Certainly, Sage and Kushner will be well aware that several top-class pros are still in contention, including 2009 main event champ Joe Cada (66th on 50,600), Sam Stein (62nd on 52,600), Shawn Buchanan (60th on 53,400), Failla (46th on 79,600), Huck Seed (41st on 90,600), David ‘Bakes’ Baker (34th on 106,400), Robert Williamson III (29th on 124,700), Bryn Kenney (24th on 131,200), Michael Binger (21st on 143,000), Matt Stout (20th on 146,900), Adam Kornuth (19th on 147,700), Nikolai Yakovenko (17th on 157,800), Chris DeMaci (15th on 159,300), Jason Mercier (10th on 187,100), John Riordan (ninth on 188,900), Andrew Brown (fifth on 202,100), Jerome Bradpiece (fourth on 228,800) and Jan-Peter Jachtmann (third on 250,000).

Phil Ivey is an Early Casualty

Phil Ivey was among the earliest casualties, although plenty of big-name pros followed him out of the door, including Hastings, Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, Justin Bonomo, Tom Marchese, Martin Staszko, Joseph Cheong, Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, Nick Binger, Oleksii Kovalchuk, Roland Israelashvili, Sam Trickett, Rami Boukai, Dermot Blain, Stephane Albertini, Cary Katz, Brian Rast, Martin Staszko, Sam Chartier, Dan Shak, Ludovic Lacay and Andrew Lichtenberger.

Today will involve 10 more levels of play, unless the final table is reached – which will see the action ended earlier.

WSOP 2012 Event #39 Day 1 Top 10

1. Benjamin Sage (USA) – 358,400
2. Joseph Kushner (USA) – 352,500
3. Jan-Peter Jachtmann (Germany) – 250,000
4. Jerome Bradpiece (UK) – 228,800
5. Andrew Brown (USA) – 202,100
6. Nestor Martinez (USA) – 193,800
7. Loren Klein (USA) – 193,400
8. Bahram Zohri (Germany) – 193,100
9. John Riordan (USA) – 188,900
10. Jason Mercier (USA) – 187,100