2015 WSOP Day 6: John Reading Wins Hyper; Mike Leah Deep in Colossus

Momentum is building as Day 6 of the 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP) included the first razz event of the series, Event #9: $1,500 Razz, as well as the business end of the first-ever hyper-speed tournament held at the WSOP, Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold'em, along with Day 1 of Event #8: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em. In addition, Event #5: The Colossus $565 No-Limit Hold'em got down from its truly stunning starting size to under 40 players left, and a final table was decided in Event #7: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship.

Colossus Closes In on Final Table

From a history-making 22,374 entries in the various starting flights, Event #5: The Colossus $565 No-Limit Hold'em is now down to a mere 39 players. With a prize pool of well over $11 million, first place will be getting $638,880. The money bubble was burst on Day 2, so everyone playing in Monday's Day 3 either bagged chips or went home with some cash in their pockets.

Three Canadians are still in the running for the first-ever Colossus bracelet. Canada's top hope, Mike Leah, already has one bracelet to his name after winning the WSOP Asia-Pacific Event #10: High Roller No-Limit Hold'em last year. He bagged up 2,225,000 chips for 22nd place in the chip counts. Two other Canadians also made it through with smaller stacks. Timothy Vukson finished the day with 1,695,000 while Richard Robertson ended play with 1,240,000.

At the top of the chip counts are three American players. Raymond Henson is well out in front with 7,420,000 with Aditya Prasetyo in second at 6,880,000. David Farber rounds out the top three with 5,625,000.

Just over 500 people came back to the felt for Day 3, meaning that a lot of people went home with some cash. Here are the Canadians who earned a payout on Monday:

A few other notables cashed Monday as well, listed below.

Play resumes on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for Day 4, and we should be down to a final table by the end of the day.

John Reading Wins First-Ever Hyper-Speed Event at WSOP

Usually, when you buy into an event at the Rio, you expect (or hope at least) to be busy for at least three days, and perhaps as long as four or even five. In Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold'em however, the whole event was done and dusted in just over 30 hours. There were 1,436 players who sat down to the felt at 11 a.m. on Sunday, and by just after 5 p.m. on Monday, a new bracelet winner was crowned.

Most of the action happened on Day 1, and you can read about that in our recap from yesterday. The final nine players returned to the felt Monday to determine the winner, with the final table draw as below.

Short-stacked Wayne Boyd was the first to exit in ninth for $18,041. Next out was Ryan Julius who came to the final table with the second-biggest stack, but lost a huge chunk when he doubled up Kenneth Johnson on the first hand of the final table. That left him with about five big blinds, which he open-shoved from middle position a few hands later with . Matt Woodward isolated from the cutoff with a reshove, making it 555,000 to go with . The button and blinds folded, and when the was out, the pot went to Johnson with a pair of aces. Julius won $23,133 for eighth place.

Johnson wasn't able to hold those chips for long. Just a few hands later, action folded to him in the small blind, and he decided to try a steal, shoving his last 745,000 (about 12 big blinds) with . Unfortunately for Johnson, John Reading in the big blind peeled back a pair of kings. No miracle came for Johnson on the board, and he collected $30,048 for seventh place.

Finishing sixth was Robert Suer who shoved his final 10 big blinds with a pair of sixes. He ran into chip leader Harrison Beach with a pair of tens however, and won $39,547 for his efforts. Matt Woodward would be the first player to collect more than $50,000 when his couldn't hold against Alexsandr Gofman's dominated . Woodward earned $52,807 for fifth.

Gofman wouldn't keep those chips for long, however, opting to come over top of Marc MacDonnell's open-raise from the button. Gofman shoved 975,000 with from the small blind. John Reading in the big blind looked down at and opted to reshove, forcing Macdonnell to fold. The board was no help to Gofman who pocketed $71,586 for fourth.

The chip leader to start the day, Harrison Beach, could only manage third place in the end, winning $98,623. Heads-up play came down to a battle between two of the three shortest stacks to start the day. While Boyd was by far the shortest stack, John Reading was second-smallest and Marc MacDonnell was third-smallest.

When they got heads up, it was Reading with the massive chip lead — 5,275,000 to 1,920,000. The two battled for about 45 minutes before MacDonnel open-shoved his last 10 big blinds with and Reading called with . Reading's ace held up, eliminating Macdonnell in second for $155,876. Reading's win gave him $252,068 in addition to the bracelet.

$10K Lowball Championship Sets Final Table Featuring Tuan Le in Chip Lead

The final table for Event #7: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship is set, and it's a star-studded affair. Tuan Le leads the chip counts, but will face stiff competition from the likes of Phil Galfond, Rep Porter, Calvin Anderson, and James Obst.

There were 56 people who returned to the Rio on Monday to compete for a piece of the $1,024,600 prizepool. With only 12 spots getting paid, a lot of players would go home empty-handed on Day 2. Big names like Scott Seiver, Phil Hellmuth, Billy Baxter, Layne Flack, and Robert Mizrachi were eliminated without any money.

Before the final table was established, five people cashed, including Canada's Greg Mueller who managed ninth place for $27,971. The full list of cashes is below.

Heading into Tuesday's final day, Tuan Le leads the way with nearly twice as many chips as his next rival, Calvin Anderson at 552,000. The seat draw for the final table follows.

Cards are in the air at 2 p.m. local Las Vegas time on Tuesday for the final-table action.

Jonathan Duhamel Bounces Back in Pot-Limit Hold'em

For those who like to limit their bets to pot-size, Event #8: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em kicked off with another chance for players to earn a bracelet. There were 639 people who bought a starting stack and took a seat in the game, but only 108 of those survived the day.

Michael Rocco concluded the day with the most chips by a substantial margin, counting out 123,300 in his stack. He is one of four players to pass into six-digit territory, with Hillery Kerby (109,700), Ryan Franklin (105,600), and Michael Leibgorin (102,000) joining the 100,000 club.

Rocco's advantage kicked off when he won a huge pot from our only Canadian WSOP Main Event Champion, Jonathan Duhamel. They got it all in preflop along with another short stack, but Duhamel's was no good to Rocco's on the board, and Rocco began his ascent to the top of the leaderboard. Duhamel was left crippled after that hand with just 4,200 chips, yet he rose from the ashes and managed to bag 78,900 at the end of the night — good for 12th in the counts.

Aside from Duhamel, the only other Canadian who will return for Day 2 is Rock Cloutier with 51,000 chips. Some of the other noteworthy players in the field include Antonio Esfandiari (94,600), Oleksii Khoroshenin (80,700), Hiren Patel (66,100), Eric Baldwin (60,200), Jesse Sylvia (59,300), Felix Stephensen (50,800), Joe Cada (48,200), and Chris Moorman (26,900).

Day 2 on Tuesday begins at 1 p.m. and is only 36 players from the money, so the bubble will approach early in the day.

First Razz of 2015 Series Kicks Off with 462 Entries

Event #9: $1,500 Razz marks the first stud variant in the 2015 WSOP. We saw 462 people come out for the game Canadian poker author Ken Lo describes as "the most frustrating poker game there is," building a prize pool of $623,700. That puts $155,947 up top for first place.

When play concluded for the night, 169 players remained and Alexander Kuzmin bagged the most with 56,500 chips. It's a tight leaderboard, though, with only 15,000 chips separating the top stack from the 10th-best. Right behind the Russian chip leader is American Jason Schwartz with 55,400, and Brazilian Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari completes the top three with 52,200.

There were seven Canadians who survived Day 1 of this challenging event, and they're some of the best players in the country. The top-ranked Canadian is Steven Cage with 25,600. WSOP Circuit grinder and 2014 WSOP final-tablist Paul Sokoloff will return with 24,800. Two-time bracelet winner Dan Idema will be back with 21,500 and Mike Watson counted out 16,600 chips at the end of the day. Daniel Negreanu will also be back for Day 2, though he'll only have 12,600 when play resumes. Michael Ma and Stephen Reid will return as well, though they bagged just 9,200 and 6,300, respectively.

Our Canadians will have to navigate a tough field on Tuesday, as David Baker, Max Pescatori, Dutch Boyd, John Hennigan, Eli Elezra, Jimmy Fricke, and Eugene Katchalov are just some of the notable players with better-than-average stacks.

The 169 survivors will be back at 2 p.m. for Day 2 and will play down to a final table or through 10 levels, whichever comes first.

_{Details and photo courtesy of the WSOP Live Blog.}

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