The $3,000 Nine Game Mix pushes its players in all kinds of directions. Featuring games from limit to no-limit hold’em, stud to razz, triple draw to PLO and all manner of split-pot, hi-lo action, it rewards those whose skillsets are as wide as they are deep.
And it’s rewarded one man in particular: Robert Wells of the UK is the new World Series of Poker Nine Game Mix champion, having won his first bracelet and $228,115 in a late night session on Monday night.
It took three long days to get the field of 409 down to one, and the final day started with 18 players — a third of whom had won bracelets in the past. David Bach would be the last bracelet owner in contention, so when he went out in 6th we were guaranteed a new addition to the pantheon of WSOP bracelet winners.
The field continued to thin as the games rotated, until Wells found himself heads-up versus Canada’s Thomas Taylor. The latter took an early lead but the game still had almost two hours to go, the advantage swinging either way until Wells managed to grab a big lead during a round of stud hi-lo.
Then came the death blow: Playing no-limit 2-7 single draw, Wells put Taylor all-in with a 10-high, and stood pat. Taylor called off his stack and drew one to his 
, needing a 4, 5, 6 or 9 to win the pot and get himself back in contention. Instead it was a , and Wells sealed the deal.
Poker Players Championship is ready to rock
The $3,000 Nine Game Mix won by Wells is sometimes referred to as the ‘Mini PPC’, given the $50,000 Poker Players Championship (PPC) uses the same mix of nine games. The ‘mini’ part comes from the fact the buy-in is <10% that of the PPC, plus at 3 days’ long it’s a considerably shorter event than the 5-day PPC.
Should Wells wish to keep playing nine game mix, he won’t have long to wait; the PPC kicks off on Tuesday, and as always we’re expecting to see many of the games biggest and brightest players taking aim at one of the most prestigious titles on offer during this, or any, summer.
Perhaps second only to the Main Event in terms of importance, the PPC’s former winners include Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Michael Mizrachi and Brian Rast — all of whom have won it multiple times — as well as defending champion Daniel Negreanu.
We’ll be keeping close tabs on the PPC throughout all five days of action, so stay tuned.
The Battle rages on
From events that are just beginning, to those drawing to a close. The $1,000 Battle of the Ages saw two starting flights — one each for players over and under 50 — advance 461 players to Day 2. It always seemed ambitious to try and get the whole thing done in two days, and so it proved: 8 remaining players will be back to close it out on an unscheduled Day 3 on Tuesday.
Failure to play to a winner was not for lack of trying — Day 2 ran late, which may end up better suiting those younger players with more flexible body-clocks. That said, a glance across the final table suggests all these players may have come from the younger side of the draw (we’re far too polite to ask).
Joseph Roh, a bracelet winner in 2023, was chip leader at the end of Day 1 and still is heading into Day 3. Stacks are shallow — Roh has only 35 big blinds while three shortstacks have less than 10 — so don’t expect a full day’s play.
Elsewhere the $1,500 Millionaire Maker is down to 44, having shed numerous big names during Monday’s Day 3 including everyone we singled out in yesterday’s update (special apologies to Chris Moorman, Olga Iermolcheva and Matt Glantz). Kaifan Wang has the chip lead, but with at least two more days to go he’d be unwise to be counting that $1,255,180 top prize just yet.
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