Frank Kassela raised and called three-bets from Rep Porter. Kassela drew two and Porter drew one. Kassela check-called a bet from Porter and both players drew one.
Kassela bet and Porter called all in for slightly less. Both players patted and Porter doubled with an besting Kassela's eighty-seven.
Scott Seiver raised and Nicholas Seiken called. Seiver drew two and Seiken swapped one. Seiver check-called and drew two once more while Seiken stood pat.
Seiver check-called again and improved to draw one while Seiken remained pat. Two checks saw Seiken take it down with a ten-eight.
Scott Seiver committed his last 4,300 and Nicholas Seiken raised, and everyone folded.
Seiver stood pat, and Seiken drew one. On the second draw, Seiver stood pat again, and Seiken stood pat.
On the final draw, Seiver drew one and Seiken stood pat.
Seiver:
Seiken:
Seiver flashed his discard - the - and when he peeled his final card, he paired when he found the , and was consequently eliminated from the tournament.
The final installment of 2-7 at the 2018 World Series of Poker kicked off on Thursday afternoon with Day 1 of Event #44: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship. The prestigious event attracted a total of 100 entries with just 41 moving on to Day 2. Sitting atop the counts after the first ten levels of play was Michael Noori.
Noori took to the top of the counts early on and maintained a top spot for the rest of play. The chipleader will come back to 335,000 on Friday. Professional soccer player Max Kruse from Germany, who has been a staple in the 2-7 events the last few years finished second best after bagging 282,000.
Christopher Kruk (247,500), Luke Schwartz (200,000), Lawrence Berg (171,000), and Andrey Zhigalov (170,500) round out the top of the leaderboard.
Poker superstar Daniel Negreanu wasn't able to find any traction on Day 1. After busting the $25,000 PLO event, Negreanu late registered but wasn't able to keep his stack going in the right direction. Negreanu eventually got it in against Frank Kassela and ran an eighty-six into Kassela's number two. Kassela found a bag by night's end and will return with 34,500.
The field lost some other talented players over the course of the night with the likes of John Hennigan, Michael Mizrachi, Stephen Chidwick, John Monnette, Jean Robert-Bellande, James Obst, and David "ODB" Baker failing to outdraw their opponents.
Just days ago, Hanh Tran, captured the $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw title for his first WSOP gold bracelet. Tran has lots of work to do on Day 2 but the dream for a Triple Draw sweep is still alive with 72,000 in the bag.
Notables also returning with a deep run in their sights include Chris Vitch (159,500), Benny Glaser (156,000), Eli Elezra (155,500), Mike Matusow (136,500), Vanessa Selbst (120,000), Cary Katz (114,000), and Jesse Martin (88,500).
Fortunately, for any player who was unable to take a seat before the end of play on Day 1, registration remains open until the start of Day 2. Day 2 will see cards get back in the air at 2 p.m. local time with blinds at 1,500/3,000.
Stay tuned to the blog as PokerNews will be on the floor providing live coverage until the last card comes off the deck and the latest WSOP champion is crowned.