Phil Hellmuth Doubles Up Phil Ivey On Day 1 Of The World Series Of Poker Main Event

If you are a person who makes at least part of your income from playing poker you expect your day 1 table(s) in the main event to be pretty low-key, offering a good chance to accumulate some chips with little risk.

However, there was one table at the Rio yesterday during day 1c of the 2015 World Series of Poker main event that could have been the toughest in the post-Moneymaker era of main events during which field sizes exploded. This year’s field was 6,420.

Seated at the table were 14-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 10-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey and two-time bracelet winner Keith Lehr. Poker pro Melanie Weisner was eventually there too.

Amazingly, Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul was seated at the very same table earlier in the day, but he busted to Lehr before either Hellmuth of Ivey arrived.

“I was surprised to see Ivey and Keith Lehr at my day 1 table,” Hellmuth told Card Player. “Sometimes I don’t recognize a single person in my whole section, never mind my table. But I was lucky to be there then as I made a lot of hands and tripled up.”

Not all the pots were great for Hellmuth. He actually managed to double up Ivey at one point.

According to Hellmuth, at 200-400 blinds the UTG player raised to 1,110, and Hellmuth called in the highjack with the A Q. Ivey called from the small blind with the K J.

The flop fell K 10 2.

Action was checked around, and Ivey, sitting with 6,225 in chips, decieded to shove on a 4 turn. Despite his short stack, it was a big over-bet and Hellmuth was skeptical.

Hellmuth, who was sitting on a healthy stack of more than 80,000, decided to call with his nut-flush draw and gutshot straight draw.

Ivey was at risk for his tournament life and was off the hook when the 4 hit the river. Ivey ended up surviving the day with 22,350, while Hellmuth ended day 1c with 79,725. Both will be in action on Thursday for day 2c, but will be at different tables thanks to their stacked table breaking before play ended for the night.

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2015 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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