WSOP Day 30 Update - Gavin Smith Wins First Bracelet, Year of the Kessler

Day 30 of the 2010 World Series of Poker is nearly in the books. Another $1,000 NL Holdem Event kicked off today as well as the $2,500 Mixed Game. The $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo is playing to the money, but not likely the final table. The same applies to the $1,500 NL in Day 2 play. Finally, we have a new bracelet winner, and all I can say is that it is about time.

Gavin Smith Wins his First Bracelet

Gavin Smith has finally gotten the monkey off of his back. He has taken down Event #44, Mixed Holdem. Smith entered the final table slightly 2nd in chips and battled to get the chip lead going into heads-up play against Danny Hannawa. Hannawa tried to make a run during heads-up play, but Smith ultimately ground him down and then out of the event.

Earlier in the week, I posted a picture from the heads-up event that had him looking kinda like one of the blues brothers. I even captioned it that “He’s on a mission from God.” Tonight he sported a similar look, and he takes his first bracelet. Mission completed.

Year of the Kessler

Unless he has a monumental collapse, Allen Kessler is about to cash for the 7th time at this year’s World Series of Poker. What!?!? I about fell out my chair when I realized this, but it is true. Kathy Liebert made a tweet saying this was the “Year of the Kessler and Heimiller.” Heimiller has three WSOP final tables so far this year.



Another funny bit is that a new phrase is being passed around. (Or at least new to me.) It is called the Kessler Zone. It means that you basically have enough chips in your stack to where you could blind off to a min-cash.

What are the Odds?

Daniel Negreanu stated that a weird question was raised during the $2,500 Mixed Game tonight. His table wanted to know what the odds were in Seven Card Stud of all eight players at the table starting rolled up. He said that Bill Chen told him its about 1 followed by 20 zeros.



That sounds about the same odds of Annie Duke ever going out on a date with Daniel.

Yes, I said it.

That'€™s all for tonight. Not much else is going on exciting at the moment, so I will return tomorrow with more from the Rio and the World Series of Poker WSOP.

The Tournament of Champions kicks off tomorrow and the featured table is going to have Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Doyle Brunson, and Howard Lederer sitting together. This should be fun.