Three Days and Nights Not Enough to Finish Event # 38, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
After thirty full levels of play spanning three days and nights, a champion has yet to be been crowned in Event #38, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. After starting the day with 23 surviving players, a final table of nine was reached in relatively short order. Notable players Hoai Pham (19th Place) and Melanie Weisner (14th Place) fell early on, as did the big stack of Jonathan Spinks (15th Place).
The final table action progressed at a brisk pace, with Day 2 chip leader Perry Lin (6th Place), succumbing to a brutal beat on the river. Paul Nash (5th Place) and his British buddies on the rail were dispatched shortly afterwards, and soon we were down to our last two competitors.
Michael Blanovsky and Arkadiy Tsinis then waged an epic battle in which the lead was exchanged multiple times, but by the end of the night, each man still had chips in front of him. Whereas in years past, this heads-up duel would have lasted until the sun was up and somebody was bankrupt, in 2011 the new ten-level rule means we will return tomorrow to settle the score.
Blanovsky will begin tomorrow's action with 2,765,000 chips and will have to make some moves to overcome Tsinis' and his big stack of 7,110,000.
Check back in with PokerNews tomorrow at 2:30 PDT to follow the stirring conclusion of this clash between two men seeking to secure their first WSOP bracelet.