Very little is known about 24-year-old James Park other than the fact that he's from Birmingham, England and got his start playing poker by playing online. He'll obviously be getting some live experience here today!
2013 World Series of Poker
Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2013 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$1,378,350
Entries
1,021
Level
26
Blinds
15,000 / 30,000
Ante
0
Unlike many of the other finalist, 27-year-old Eric Shanks is not a professional poker player. He is actually an options trader from Santa Monica, California, though he originally hails from Syracuse, New York. Despite not making poker his full-time profession, Shanks is far from an inexperienced amateur. On the contrary, he he's been cashing at the World Series of Poker for the past five years.
The first of his three cashes came back in 2008 when he took 15th in Event #3 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em for $9,732. Three years later, he took 27th for $21,933 in Event #36 $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Then, a little over a week ago, he got his third cash after finishing 47th in Event #12 $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em for $2,795. Needless to say, Shanks will notch the biggest cash of his career here today as long as he isn't the first person eliminated from the final table. Chances are that won't happen as he begins the final table fifth in chips.
Josh Pollock has been coming to the World Series of Poker since 2007, which is when he notched his first cash by placing 49th in Event #12 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed for $4,188. Since then, Pollock has added six more cashes to his WSOP r��sum��, with his best result being a 303rd-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Main Event for $35,492. This event marks Pollock's second cash of the summer after he previously finished 113th in Event #6 $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No-Limit Hold'em for $7,278.
This may be the 29 year old's first final table here at the WSOP, but that's not to say he's inexperienced playing against top professionals for a lot of money. Back in August 2011, Pollock had his biggest career score when he made the final table of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker $3,500 Main Event, which included the likes of Will "The Thrill" Failla and WSOP bracelet winners Ken Aldridge and Owais Ahmed. Pollock finished fourth in that event for $128,500.
If Pollock, who begins the day fourth in chips, can finish in either first or second here today, he will enjoy an even larger payday and quite possibly his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Born September 9, 1985, Nicholas Blumenthal, who goes by Eddie, is no stranger to the World Series of Poker. The professional poker player from Stoughton, Wisconsin notched his first cash back at the 2009 WSOP when he took 123rd in Event #32 $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $3,908, but it wasn't until two years later that he really made his presence known in the poker world.
That's because Blumenthal managed four cashes and two final tables at the 2011 WSOP. That included a fourth-place finish in Event #4 $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $255,028 and second to Geffrey Klein in Event #10 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed for $334,756, his largest score to date.
The 2013 WSOP is shaping up to be just as successful for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse graduate as he has already locked up his third cash of the summer. His other two came from a 440th-place finish in Event #6 $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No-Limit Hold'em for $3,510 and seventh in last week's Event #15 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. for $28,778. If Blumenthal, who starts the day third in chips, can place seventh or better, he'll earn himself his biggest payout of the summer thus far.
It took just over 18 levels of play for 1,021 players to reduce themselves down to the final nine in the 2013 World Series of Poker's Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. To put that in perspective, most tournaments play ten levels each on the first two days and still don't make a final table. That's a testament to the fast-pace nature and big-pot reputation of PLO, perhaps poker's most popular game behind Texas hold'em.
On Thursday, one man stood out from the rest in Noah Schwartz, who pulled out to a monster chip lead with 28 player left. It began when he won a monster pot against Christopher Brammer, and then eliminated the Brit, along with Tue Phan, a short time later. That gave Schwartz over 20% of the chips in play, and he maintained a significant chip lead all the way to the final table.
He'll begin today with 1.162 million, which is over 300,000 more than his next closest competitor. Needless to say, Schwartz is today's favorite to take down the gold bracelet and accompanying $279,175 first-place prize, especially if he can play and run as well as he did on Day 2.
While he may hold the chip lead, Schwartz won't have an easy time capturing his first bracelet. That's because the final table is composed of some pretty stiff competition like Eddie Blumenthal, who is at his fifth WSOP final table including a seventh-place finish in Event #15 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. one week ago, and Josh Pollock, who went deep in Event #6 $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No-Limit Hold'em when he finished in 113th place for $7,278. Blumenthal and Pollock begin the final table third and fourth in chips respectively.
The final table will play out at 13:00 PST, which is a couple hours from now. Of course we'll have timely updates from Event #22 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha then, but before then we'll also post final table bios on the remaining nine players, so stay tuned for those.
While you wait, be sure to check out Lynn Gilmartin's June 14 update:
Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Day 3 Started