Doug Polk and Jesse Martin both took home World Series of Poker bracelets on Monday with Polk winning the $111,111 One Drop High Roller and Martin showing off his Triple Draw skills. Monday also saw another busy day in Colossus III and a completely unknown storming to the top of the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event after Day 1.

Colossus III Inches Closer to a Champion

Just 41 players remain out of the 18,054 that entered Colossus III, with Raul Martinez Requena enjoying the view from the top of the chip counts after Day 2. Requena put 5,270,000 in the bag, which put him barely ahead of Erkut Yilmaz, who wound up with 5,150,000. They were the only two players to bag more than 5,000,000 at the end of the day.

Other notables still in the field include Matt Affleck, WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown winner Tony Sinishtaj, Luke Vrabel, Ralph Massey and Alex Masek.

Day 3 begins at 2 pm PT Tuesday.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Raul Martinez Requena – 5,270,000
2. Erkut Yilmaz – 5,150,000
3. Pojana Jenne – 4,700,000
4. Christopher Mitts – 4,680,000
5. Taylor Black – 4,275,000
6. Thomas Pomponio – 4,265,000
7. Hugo Perez – 3,935,000
8. Ardavan Yazdi – 3,735,000
9. Gavin O’Rourke – 3,000,040
10. Matt Affleck – 2,890,000

Doug Polk Outduels Bertrand Grospellier for One Drop High Roller

Bertrand Grospellier entered the final table of the $111,111 One Drop High Roller with the chip lead and his eyes clearly set on the $3,686,865 first place prize money. Doug Polk had other ideas. Starting the day with just the sixth biggest stack, Polk worked his way through a final table that included Andrew Robl, Rainer Kempe, Martin Jacobson, Dario Sammartino and Grospellier to win the third bracelet of his career.

Last summer Polk and Upswing Poker business partner Ryan Fee teamed up to win the $1,000 Tag Team NLHE event. In 2014, Polk won the $1,000 Turbo NLHE event. This one was a little bit different though.

“In those events, the money was really not a very big deal,” said Polk. “Whereas this is huge for me. This is a lot of money. Just the fact that it’s… I’m sorry, I’m struggling for words right now. It’s surreal. To win that much more money against tough people in a real, world-class event. It’s way different.”

At one point during play, Polk and others at the table stopped play over concerns the cards they were playing with were marked.

We are taking a break in the One Drop, I looked down at my cards and discovered there were white dots at different patterns for each card

— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) June 6, 2017

The cards at this final table are marked, we are not going to continue until we have a real deck

— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) June 6, 2017

The cards were eventually replaced and play continued without issue.

Final Table Payouts

1. Doug Polk – $3,686,865
2. Bertrand Grospellier – $2,278,657
3. Dario Sammartino – $1,608,295
4. Haralabos Voulgaris – $1,158,883
5. Chris Moore – $852,885
6. Martin Jacobson – $641,382
7. Rainer Kempe – $493,089
8. Andrew Robl – $387,732
9. Michael Kamran – $312,006

Jesse Martin Wins $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Bracelet

Being able to play three different variations of Triple Draw at a high level is a pretty good indication of a talented player. Jesse Martin is clearly that. Martin won Event #7 ($2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball) for the second WSOP bracelet of his career and $130,948. Martin beat James Obst heads-up for the win, marking the second time in two years that Obst has finished runner-up in a bracelet event. Last year he finished second to Jason Mercier in the $10,000 HORSE Championship.

Martin’s first bracelet came in 2013 when he won the $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven event. Martin credited his experience in closing out a Triple Draw event as one of the reasons for his win.

“It’s nice to be heads-up in these games, because these are games that I’ve already been heads-up in a little bit. I might get heads-up in Stud or in Omaha-8. There’s certain games you don’t get to play heads-up a lot, like ring games, but in these games I’ve thought a lot about what to do in certain situations,” said Martin. “I felt very comfortable and I definitely got the better cards.”

The final table also included Chris Bjorin (3rd – $52,761), Brant Hale (4th – $35,349) and Jared Bleznick (5th – $24,356).

Final Table Payouts

1. Jesse Martin – $130,948
2. James Obst – $80,922
3. Chris Bjorin – $52,761
4. Brant Hale – $35,349
5. Jared Bleznick – $24,356
6. Terry Jennings – $17,272

Abe Mosseri Crusing Through $10K Omaha Hi-Lo Eight or Better Championship

Abe Mosseri is considered by some to be one of the most under-appreciated players of his generation. Doyle Brunson has gone as far as saying he’s worthy of the Poker Hall of Fame. On Monday he went to work on adding a second bracelet to his resume, finishing atop the final 17 players in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-better Championship event.

Mosseri finished with 1,855,000, which puts him well ahead of the rest of the field. The next biggest stack belongs to Yarron Bendor with 1,195,000. No other player managed to finish with more than 1,000,000 chips.

That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of talented players left in the event. David ‘ODB’ Baker, Daniel Negreanu, Anthony Zinno and John Monnette all bagged up chips and will return for Day 3 beginning at 2 pm PT.

After Chris Bell was eliminated on the bubble, seven other players were eliminated in the money including Randy Ohel (20th – $14,809), Gary Benson (19th – $14,809) and Chris George (18th – $16,958)

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Abe Mosseri – 1,855,000
2. Yarron Bendor – 1,195,000
3. Christopher Vitch – 676,000
4. David ‘ODB’ Baker – 564,000
5. Ilya Dyment – 528,000
6. Daniel Negreanu – 514,000
7. Philip Long – 476,000
8. Anthony Zinno – 420,000
9. John Monnette – 372,000
10. Matt Woodward – 268,000

Tag Team Back Again; Hulett and Sing Lead After Day 1

The second Tag Team event of the 2017 WSOP kicked off Monday afternoon with 843 different teams entering. After the first day, the two-person team of John Hulett and Deepinder Singh finished on top with 146,000 chips. Just 94 teams survived.

Brian Yoon and New Jersey online grinder Michael Gagliano finished the day second in chips with 130,400, although it appears that Gagliano is letting Yoon do most of the heavy lifting.

So @byoon just told me i’m apparently in the money in the tag team event. First cash of summer comes as a result of playing 5 hands total

— Gags30 (@Gags30poker) June 6, 2017

Defending champs Doug Polk and Ryan Fee still managed to find some time to play the event even though Polk was busy winning a bracelet on his own. While they were unable to defend their title on Monday, they did put up a min-cash in the event.

From the “You’ve Got to Be F****** Kidding Me” department, Andy Bloch teamed with Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer on one team. The trio finished the day with 23,000 chips.

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. John Hulett – Deepinder Singh – 146,000
2. Brian Yoon – Michael Gagliano – 130,400
3. Kiryl Radzivonau – Mikhail Semin – 116,600
4. Ben Yu – Jacob Wilson – 115,600
5. Allyn Shulman – Jessica Horan – Barry Shulman – 109,000
6. Team Dees – 102,000
7. Team Green – 90,000
8. Team Mariz – 80,000
9. Timothy Rhoda – Errol Massey – 79,900
10. Brian Pinkus – Michael Pinkus – 71,600

Troy Evans On Top of Dealers Choice Event

Giving players their choice of 19 different games to play means only the best all-around players should rise to the top as the $1,500 Dealers Choice event advances. It seems Troy Evans either didn’t know this or is the best-kept secret in poker. Evans, who apparently has no previous tournament results at all, bagged up the biggest stack at the end of Day 1, finishing with 76,200.

There are fewer surprises in the other 90 players who survived from an original 364. Justin Bonomo is second in chips, defending champ Lawrence Berg is fourth, Marco Johnson is fifth. Others still in contention include Chip Jett, Jeff Madsen, Mark Gregorich, Jon Turner, David Benyamine, Robert Mizrachi, Brandon Cantu, John Racener and Justin Young.

The 91 players get back at it 2 pm PT on Tuesday

Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Troy Evans – 76,200
2. Justin Bonomo – 70,900
3. Raol Encinas – 68,000
4. Lawrence Berg – 63,300
5. Marco Johnson – 61,300
6. Chip Jett – 59,500
7. Kyle Bowker – 55,400
8. Jeff Madsen – 49,600
9. Alan Richardson – 49,500
10. Mark Gregorich – 49,000