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Event 24 - the $1 500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em has also reached a conclusion, with an initial field of 2 506 reduced rather quickly to a final table led by Andy 'BKiCe' Seth on a chip count of 2 290 000, followed by Alan Jaffray (1 946 000), Glenn McCaffrey (1 500 000), Dean Hamrick (1 473 000), Brian Fitzpatrick (989 000), Michael Greco (896 000), Ernst Hermans (859 000), Panayote Vilandos (702 000), Ronnie Kevin (507 000) and David Lerman (276 000).
Many of the pros who turned out for the event in anticipation of ample 'donk' opportunities failed to make the final table, among them: Kathy Liebert, Humberto Brenes, Adam Junglen, Dennis Phillips, Phil Hellmuth, T.J. Cloutier, Hevad Khan, Jason Mercier, Jimmy Fricke, J.J. Liu, Lee Watkinson, and Ivan Demidov.
And Liv Boeree, Jeff Madsen, Shane Schleger, and Surinder Sunar were among the first several hundred to go to the rail in the first few hours of the first day's frenetic action that saw over 300 contestants busted out.
UK player Michael Greco's $248 855 third place exit from the final table gave space for the Vilandos vs. Seth heads up battle, with Seth holding a 530 000 lead over his gutsy opponent, who nevertheless took only ten minutes to turn things around and claim victory in the game in a thrilling display of aggression and talent.
Panayote "Pete" Vilandos collected a check for $607 256 and his first WSOP gold bracelet, leaving Andy Seth with a second placing payday of $372 855.
As we went to press the match to watch was the $2 500 buy-in Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better, where top ace Phil Ivey and Ming Lee were engaged in a thriller of a heads up that started with Ivey in the lead by a million chips. More on that one later.
