Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck Championship is On Deck
Outside of the Main Event title, there's no bracelet more coveted than one that comes in a $10k Championship event. Today's Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck Championship marks the first chance to score a Championship bracelet from the GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online series.
Short Deck is a new variant of no limit hold'em that reduces the size of the deck by removing all cards from deuce to five. That leaves just 36 cards to play with, and changes the odds and hands substantially. For example, the "wheel straight" in Short Deck is 
, and because it's easier to hit a full house than five suited cards, your boat won't float against the villain's flush.
Last year during the live event in Las Vegas, the $10,000 Short Deck Championship drew 114 entries, and built a prize pool of over $1 million. It came down to a heads up match between two Americans, where Oakland, CA's Alex Epstein took down Thai Ha from Factoryville, PA for the bracelet. Epstein bagged nearly $300k for the win, while Ha won $183,081 for second.
With just under three hours to go till cards are in the air, there are 11 players currently registered for the event, and it's no surprise the field of full of familiar names including Pete Chen, Danny Tang, Martin "FuTimReilly" Zamani, and Boon Heng "CowBaby" Siong. They'll all start the game with 300,000 in chips, and play 30 minute levels. Once play reaches the final table, they'll stop the timer, and play 60 hands per level until a champion is decided.
Action gets underway at 6 p.m. GMT today, 2 p.m. Eastern, and PokerNews will be there to bring you the details throughout the day's action. Even with fewer cards in the deck, there will still be plenty of action as they compete for the first Championship bracelet to be awarded in the GGPoker WSOP Online series.
flop. Watson shoved for 267,450, and Brewe called for slightly less.
flop, Cortes bet 2,000, and Ramos and Lo both called. Lo fired 21,000 on the 
turn.
river. Cortes bet 63,000 and "ThePomo" called.
flop, and Vieira called Zamani's 120,000 bet on the 
turn. On the 
river, Zamani check-called Vieira's shove for 399,600.
and that's when the action started. Davies bet 28,000 and Ramos raised to 85,120. Davies three-bet shoved for 307,600 and Ramos called it off with the bigger stack.
