Monday, June 1, 2015 12:50 AM Local Time
Final Table of Event #6: $1,000 Hyper Hold'em Starts at 1 P.M. Local Time
In this year of exciting additions to the World Series of Poker schedule, a new twist on the turbo format known as Hyper Hold'em kicked off on Sunday, and the tournament quickly lived up to it's name.
A total of 1,436 players showed up to try their hand at this new variant, which reduces the standard 60-minute level time in WSOP events to only 20 minutes - even faster than the Turbo events on the schedule last year. Starting with 5,000 chips, players were forced to mix it up early and often, or face the ignominy of having their stacks eroded away by the unrelenting waves of blind bets and antes. And mix it up they did.
The massive field played down to a final table of nine in less than 12 hours of action, and at times the rate of bustouts became absolutely dizzying. Three-way and even four-way all-in confrontations were not uncommon, and one-time chip leaders were culled from the field without warning.
In the end, Harrison Beach emerged as the overwhelming chip leader, with his 2.28 million surpassing the closest competitor in Ryan Julius (930,000) by more than a million chips. Beach sent two players to the rail to end Day 1, setting the final table lineup in fine fashion by pairing his kicker to best two big slicks. Before that, Beach was all in with ace-jack against both ace-king and queens, and in his own words "drawing dead," but the board ran out perfectly to give Beach a jack-high straight - and a chip lead he's held on to since. To see where the rest of the final table stands heading into this climactic Day 2, check out the "Chip Counts" tab above.
Play will begin with just minutes remaining in Level 27, and Level 28 jumps the stakes to 25,000/50,000 blinds with a 5,000 chip ante. The average stack heading into the final table 797,778 - good for just 16 big blinds - which is actually relative deep considering 10 big blind stacks were the average during much of Day 1.
The Hyper Hold'em champion will take home $252,068 for the win, along with that elusive gold bracelet every poker player has their sights set on. Everyone at the final table is guaranteed to earn $18,041, and you can find a full list of the money ladder by clicking on the "Prize Pool" tab above.
The action begins at 1 p.m. local time, and considering the hyperactive play that defined the first ever Hyper Hold'em event, it's probably a good idea to follow along right from the get go.