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July 30th 2006
WSOP Championship Event: Day One (B)
One down, three to go, and that means another 6000+ players waiting to take their turn at the fabled felt of the World Series of Poker. As expected there were marginally more players than on Day One, with an extra 44 players contributing to a total of 2182 players beginning Day Two. That means we are well on course for a total of nearly 9000 players, and a first prize of over $12 million.
Sadly one player that won’t be competing for that bracelet is WhichPoker’s WSOP freeroll winner Tom Underwood, who was eliminated after dinner on Day One after suffering a horror beat. Raising all-in with pocket queens Tom was called by a player with pocket Jacks. As it always seems to in those situations, a jack fell on the board, spelling the end of Tom’s WSOP. Listen on the podcast for his side of how it went down.
That was Day One, and here on Day Two the field was once again littered with pros, and not a few celebrities either, including one Ron Jeremy of porn superstardom! The pros were spread pretty evenly across the room, with only a few tables containing more than one pro. Whether this was completely random or not I’m not sure, but it makes sense, rather like keeping the number one and two seed in tennis on opposite sides of the draw.
To begin with the attention of most bystanders was focused on the main stage, but not because of who was sat there, but for who wasn’t! Amazingly, given the $10,000 buy-in, there was an empty seat at the table. Soon however, all was revealed. It was of course allocated to Phil Hellmuth, who made his customary late entrance about two hours into play. No matter, it took him just one hour to recoup the chips he had lost in blinds, and to set about looking for more.
Elsewhere attention focused on Joe Seebok, the son of Barry Greenstein, who was busy collecting chips while dressed in a bear costume. He had come out on the wrong side of a prop bet with WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, and the costume was his punishment. Fortunately for Joe, Gavin busted out of the main-event, meaning can resume his normal costume.
Another player drawing plenty of attention was Jeff Madsen, the 21-year-old double-bracelet winning wunderkind, who heads the WSOP Player of the Year rankings. He was keeping up the good form and had doubled up his stack inside four hours!
There were a few big names who weren’t so successful. Doyle Brunson was one. He found himself shortstacked and was also on the end of a dealer miscalculation that cost him a number of chips. He lasted till after the diner break before he busted out, and was treated to not one, but two standing ovations from the audience and players.
Different player, different story. Phil Hellmuth may have gained the respect of his peers and observers with an excellent 2006 WSOP and a record-equalling tenth bracelet, but it hasn’t changed his status as the man everyone loves to hate. Of course, those in the know are aware this is just an image he has deliberately cultivated, but his exit was in stark contrast to Doyle’s. When his AQ didn’t improve against his opponents pocket sevens (the same hand he lost with last year) the loudspeaker announced his exit, and the room erupted with glee, with much laughing and clapping as a result.
As the day drew to a close at around 3am the remaining 900+ players were getting edgy and excited. One player bought a round of tequilas for the table – let’s hope it wasn’t premature celebration. A few minutes later a huge roar went up to greet the end of play. Just less than 900 players survived.
For Allen Cunningham it wasn’t so much survival as demolition. He spent the day winning huge pots to end the day with over $80,000 – putting him in the top five chip counts for the day. He already has one bracelet to his name so far this year, and four more from years gone by. The big one would be something a little special though.
Other pros to make it to the next stage were, in descending order of chip counts: David Williams ($50,000), Men “The Master” Nguyen ($33,200), Jeff Madsen, (31,450), Humberto Brenes ($30,000), Padraig Parkinson ($26,100), Annie Duke ($26,000), Mike Caro, Dave “the DevilFish” Ulliot, David Grey, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Ivey, John Juanda and Rob Hollink. Rob was shortstacked with around $5000, while Caro to Juanda had between $22k ad $11k in chips.
Phew! What a day. And there are another two of these to go – and that’s just for Day One!
Submitted: 30/07/2006 20:59:31
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