No other number, throughout the course of the poker year, is more anticipated than the total number of participants in the main event at the World Series of Poker. The final day one of the 2007 edition brought the final group of contestants into the Amazon room at the Rio, and that swelled the field to 6,583 players. This meant that the first-place prize would be a robust $8.25 million. The final five players will all walk away with at least a cool million, while every player at the final table will make over half a million for their time. Not a bad paycheck for 10 days' work.
It is true that this number is less than last year. Many had tried to predict the effect the UIGEA would have on the final number and now the answer is concrete. No more prognosticating for the prognosticators, no more pessimistic undercutting, nor optimistic overinflation, just a number. The sky didn't fall, the professionals still came, the fans still flocked, and the cameras still rolled. Yes, it's less than last year, but $8.25 million is still the most impressive payday in sports for the year 2007.
Trying to capture that $8.25 million prize on day 1D were some of the best and brightest in the game. Defending champion Jamie Gold took a seat at the beginning of the day, as did Freddy Deeb, Ted Forrest, Erick Lindgren, Chip Reese, Daniel Negreanu, and 2007 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Barbara Enright. She is the first woman to be enshrined in the hall, partly because of her three WSOP gold bracelets, and partly because she is the only woman to ever make a main event final table. Her journey towards a second began today. Phil Hellmuth was not in his seat when day 1D began, which came as no surprise, due to his infamous disregard for the rules of punctuality. For once he had an excuse, though; Hellmuth had crashed a race car in the parking lot of his hotel yesterday, when he ran into the concrete base of a light pole. The car was totaled. Hellmuth su fferedwhiplash, but he showed up to fight the good fight on day 1D. In total, over 1,700 players took their seats on day 1D and the race for the bracelet commenced once again.
Gold and Hellmuth began their day, at their respective times, at the two ESPN featured tables of the tournament. Chief Wiggum, Krusty the Clown, Apu, and a host of other Simpsons characters were seated in the tournament, in the vocal chords of Hank Azaria at another table. The toughest table of the early hours shaped up when Cyndy Violette joined Isaac Haxton and David Benyamine. Two other formidable opponents fought it out for the early chip lead at another table. Layne Flack held $42,000, while Michael Craig held $35,000. These two stacks would lose luster by midday though, when Dario Minieri jumped out to an absurd chip lead with $104,000.
Minieri fell back to earth a while later when he touched down with $64,000, and was caught up to at the top by Paul "X-22" Magriel, who held $71,000. The remaining players then went to dinner break and returned, all but one of them. In what has become a sad side theme at the 2007 WSOP, Vinnie Vinh did not return from the dinner break and his stack was blinded off for the remainder of the day. The post-dinner period was a fork in the road for many professional players. Some were eliminated, including Jamie Gold, which ensured a new champion for 2007. Reese, Tuan Le, Benyamine, Lindgren, Dutch Boyd, Young Phan, Antonio Esfandiari, and Deeb joined him on the rail as the night played into tomorrow. Others established their hold on the day with massive chips stacks. Chip Jett, Ted Forrest, and Sorel Mizzi (who had to come back from an extremely short stack to accomplish the feat) all gained membership in the $100,000 club by the end of the night. Thor Hansen snuck into this exclusive club on one of the last hands of the night. He made a full house to end the day with $114,000. Despite his absence, Vinh's stack managed to limp in to day 2B with $3,300. Another player who advanced to day 2B was Jack Ury, who at 94 years is the oldest player in the tournament. Ury has been a magnet of goodwill and friendship throughout the day, and he has been a magnet for chips as well. Late in the day, he picked up a large pot with a flush. Even though his $10,000 bet on the river was not called on the hand, the win was met by cheers and applause from the rail. Josh Evans was the chip leader at the end of the night and the top 10 were as follows:
1 - Josh Evans: $240,000
2 - Mickey Mills: $180,000
3 - Cindy Longoria: $166,000
4 - John Tabatabai: $161,500
5 - Ben Lamb: $160,000
6 - Matt Keikoan: $155,000
7 - Daniel Heimiller: $153,000
8 - Ted Forrest: $150,000
9 - Mike Laing: $145,000
10 - Anthony Reategui: 140,000
Six hundred fifty players survived day 1D and they will join the survivors of day 1C on Wednesday, July 11. The remaining players from days 1A and 1B will meet up for day 2A competition tomorrow (Tuesday).
Check back at CardPlayer.com as day 2A action begins at noon.
