Last Brit Standing, Sam Holden – Recap of Day 5 2012 WSOP Main Event
The 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event was packed with action and Day 5 was no exception. It was an eventful day as the number of players decreased to 97 from a large 282. Leading the group at the end of the day with over 6,900,000 chips was Kyle Keranen. His earnings were well-deserved as he had to fight for every last one of them against noteworthy players such as Elisabeth Hille, Robert Salaburu and Paul Volpe.
Sam Holden, Last Brit of 2012 WSOP
For the second consecutive year, Sam Holden, at the end of Day 5, was the last English poker player to participate in the event. In last year’s WSOP, the player had entered the final table. This year, Holden was playing brilliantly until pocket aces were ran into by his jacks which left him with more than 9 big blinds. As play concluded for the day, he had redeemed himself with 20,000/40,000 blinds and over 700,000.
Kevin Pollak Eliminates Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu was one of the crowd favorites in the 2012 WSOP. Although several celebrities crashed out of the main event, Kevin Pollak managed to stay abreast of the competition with his knowledge of the game obtained through hosting the first season of Celebrity Poker Showdown.
After bobbing up and down during the event, Negreanu got extremely short-stacked. Pollak opted to move-in from the top of the cutoff after Negreanu moved from early position to all-in. Pollak was at the fore with A-Q and Negreanu was holding K-Q. The latter was eliminated after the board bricked. This year Negreanu has vastly improved his rankings from 2011 which was 211 to 160.
Joseph Cheong, Former Niner, Eliminated
Joseph Cheong, who was part of the final table in 2010 WSOP, appeared for Day 5 of a WSOP Main Event for the third time. At one point, he was well on to his way of securing a place on Day 6 of 2012 WSOP with chips close to 3 million. But it was not to be as on a rather grueling level, he was eliminated against a hand of Paul Volpe’s A-K when he placed all his chips in the middle with 10-10. Volpe obtained a lead in the hand when the flop fell and paired with the King. Cheong was eliminated from 2012 WSOP on a ranking of 116.
Kyle Keranen Ends Day with Huge Win
During the later half of the day, Keranen succeeded in winning a huge stack of chips on a play against Luke Brereton. The latter, from the cutoff, raised 45,000 chips to preflop. A fourth bet of 245,000 was put by Brereton after Keranen opted on a three-bet of 105,000 and blinded folded. Brereton announced a huge preflop all-in after calling off more than 1 million chips and Keranen declaring an all-in.
Keranen had a queen high with Q-9 against Brereton’s J-J. But Brereton fell behind when the flop revealed Q-7-4. Keranen, with that one hand, earned more than 4,500,000 in chips.
Day seven of the main event was full of excitement. Click here for a recap of day 7.