Ivey and Hellmuth Challenging for WSOP Event #32 Bracelet

Superstars Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey are well in contention to add more gold bracelets to their respective collections from event #32 at the World Series of Poker.

Day 2 of the $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament saw the 136 Day 1 survivors – from a 178-entry field that created a $1,673,200 prize pool – cut back to just the 15 who will return today in the Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Wisconsin’s Hellmuth – who collected his 12th bracelet with victory in this summer’s $2,500 buy-in Seven-Card Razz event #18 for $182,793 – is mighty close to making it lucky 13 after finishing the 10 levels of Day 2 in fourth place on 571,000 chips, while eight-time bracelet winner Ivey will begin Day 3 in 13th place on 122,000.

However, they will, along with 12 others, be chasing California’s John Monnette (825,000) in the race to collect the $451,779 top prize.

John Monnette Eyeing Up Second 2012 Win

Hellmuth is not the only 2012 winner in the final 15, though, as Monnette took down the $5,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud event #10 for $190,826. If either of these two can secure this event’s bracelet, they will be the first doubles winners at the 43rd staging of the annual poker festival.

Additionally, Monnette and Hellmuth are sit in third and ninth places respectively in the WSOP Player of the Year competition so would certainly help their standings with a victory.

Monnette is joined at the top of the chips leaderboard by Georgia’s David Bach (645,000) and Michigan’s David ‘Bakes’ Baker (574,000), while Matt Waxman is sixth on 458,000 and fellow Florida pro Abe Mosseri sits in seventh spot on 384,000.

David Bach Profits From Daniel Negreanu

Bach – who won the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event #49 in 2009 for $1,276,806 –moved past the half-million chip mark just ahead of dinner, before taking down a huge pot against Daniel Negreanu in level 11, when both players completed flushes and lows. But Bach’s ace-high flush and a seventy-five low took the whole pot.

The money bubble burst during level 17 – after 11 hours of play – when Pennsylvania’s Eric Wasserson was eliminated in 25th place as the bubble boy.

Wasserson’s chip stack had dwindled down to 12,000 when Vegas-based Ivey bust him during a hand of Stud. Ivey started with split eights and found a third on fourth street, while Wasserson could only make a pair of jacks to allow Ukrainian Alex Dovzhenko to become the first casher in 24th place for $16,246.

Mike Sexton Misses Out on Cashing

However, Wasserson wasn’t the only player who failed to make the money, with the likes of Michael Chow, Mike Sexton, Shaun Deeb, Michael Binger, Alexander Kuzmin, Robert Mizrachi, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Allen Bari and Jason Mercier joining the bubble boy at the rail.

There were also some notable players who made the money but failed to make it into Day 3, and they were Frenchman Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (16th for $19,542), Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov (17th for $16,246), Vegas-based Joe Tehan (18th for $16,246), California’s Owais Ahmed (19th for $16,246), New Yorker Nick Schulman (20th for $16,246), Serbian Ognjen Sekularac (21st for $16,246), New Jersey’s John D’Agostino (22nd for $16,246) and Vegas’ Steve Zolotow (23rd for $16,246).

Jonathan Duhamel Falls On Day 1

As always, plenty of big-name pros failed to make it past Day 1 as the field was cut down from 178 to 136, and the exits included Luke Schwartz, Jonathan Duhamel, Annie Duke, Brendan Taylor, Barry Greenstein, Vladimir Shchmelev, David Benyamine, Shannon Shorr, Xuan Liu, Eli Elezra, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, Tristan Clemencon, Andrey Zaichenko, Jon Turner, Viacheslav Zhukov, Yuval Bronshtein and Zimnan Ziyard.

WSOP Event #32 Final 15

1. John Monnette (USA) – 825,000

2. David Bach (USA) – 645,000

3. David ‘Bakes’ Baker (USA) – 574,000

4. Phil Hellmuth (USA) – 571,000

5. Brandon Shack-Harris (USA) – 500,000

6. Matt Waxman (USA) – 458,000

7. Abe Mosseri (USA) – 384,000

8. John Hennigan (USA) – 344,000

9. Dan Kelly (USA) – 243,000

10. Scott Clements (USA) – 229,000

11. Mori Eskandani (USA) – 170,000

12. Paul Sokoloff (Canada) – 157,000

13. Phil Ivey (USA) – 122,000

14. Andrew Brown (USA) – 79,000

15. Ralph Perry (USA) – 41,000