WSOP awards Chad Brown with a special bracelet
In today's Daily Rewind we honour Chad Brown and report on an infectious outbreak at the WSOP.
Brown's honorary bracelet
Chad Brown may not be enjoying the 2014 WSOP he'd have hoped for (he was recently admitted to a hospice in New York), but in an effort to recognise his poker achievements he was awarded with an honorary bracelet on Saturday.
During an emotional speech Jack Effel recounted some of Chad's poker highlights before announcing that he will no longer be playing at the WSOP or any live poker tournaments.
Jack went on to say that with "a third and two second place finishes on the résumé, it was only going to be a matter of time" before Chad won a WSOP title, so as a sign of respect they wanted to give him a special title.
After wishing Chad good luck in his fight, the Rio erupted into a round of applause for arguably the most emotional bracelet ceremony of 2014.
Virus outbreak at the WSOP
 |
| Players urged to wash |
According to Las Vegas doctors it's not just an epidemic of bad beats that's been knocking down players at this year's WSOP.
Following a series of sneezing and coughing fits inside the Rio (possibly because of the overactive air conditioning system), 24 Hour Vegas Doctor was forced to alert players to an infectious outbreak.
Although not quite on the scale of virus outbreaks seen in films such as 28 Days Later, the chest and sinus infections are proving problematic for some players.
Indeed, with players sneezing on their chips before throwing them into the pot, the medic's advice is to practice "good hand washing" techniques in an effort to combat the spread of any illnesses.
Smith tops Bellagio $100k
 |
| Successful Mr. Smith |
While the WSOP has dominated the poker action in Vegas this summer, the Bellagio managed to wrestle some pros away from the Rio this weekend for a round of high stakes action.
Staging its annual $100,000 Summer Super High Roller, the Bellagio's event welcomed 66 world-class players (+21 re-entries).
Amongst the runners taking a break from the WSOP was a host of luminaries, including: Jason Mercier, Doug Polk and Dan Smith.
With a prizepool topping $8 million, the group of well-bankrolled pros gradually whittled themselves down to four before a deal was struck.
Having seen off the likes of Gabe Kaplan and Polk on the final table, Dan Smith, Jason Mercier, Tom Marchese and Jason Somerville all agreed to a chop.
After banking more than $1.3 million each, the final group of players eventually gave way to Smith who took the title and a top prize of $2,044,766.
Question of the Day
"How cautious are you when handling poker chips in a live event?"
 |
In amongst Phil Ivey grabbing the latest WSOP headlines there were three more success stories inside the Rio this weekend.
First to collect a gold bracelet and $303,909 was David Olson in Event #52 after he outlasted 121 players in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em event.
Also climbing atop of the winners' rostrum in the last 48 hours was Haixia Zhang ($153,470) and Florian '' Langmann ($297,650) after they came out top in Event #53 and Event #54 respectively
Daily Signoff
For today's Signoff we relive this classic hand that left Chad Brown and the entire poker community speechless.
Friday's Daily Rewind: 888Poker terminate sponsorship deal with Luis Suárez
 Daniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here.
Follow Daniel Smyth on Twitter l Follow Daniel Smyth on Google+ |
