Day One at the Caesars Palace Classic

The 2007 Caesars Palace Classic got under way today at the world-famous casino and hotel in Las Vegas, and 287 players flooded the tournament poker room, which is tucked away in the depths of the massive Mecca of gambling. This attendance created a prize pool of $2,278,222, and Caesars kicked in the last $126,967 to ensure the guaranteed $1 million first-place prize. A stacked field was present and accounted for in the first $10,000 buy-in event to take place in Las Vegas since the World Series of Poker main event in July.

Anna Wroblewski was among the first of the big names to make an exit early in the day when her pocket jacks fell to a pair of kings on the last hand before the first break. Other early eliminations included Bill Edler, Brandon Adams, and Freddy Deeb. The most noise before the dinner break, both at the felt and in the tournament room, was a direct result of Mike Matusow getting moved to Steve Buckner's table. Upon the discovery they would be seated together, the two promised to be friendly and keep things calmed down. Matusow and Buckner have a bit of a history, which started with a fight at the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup III. Since then, however, the two have become friends - very loud friends.

This worked out well for a while, until Buckner's final hand of the day. The flop was Q 8 5, and Buckner was all in for his last $8,150 in a pot of $9,200. Nathan Douvney thought for a bit before calling, and J.C. Tran folded. Buckner showed the exact two cards that Matusow had predicted - two red fives. Douvney turned over A Q and was way behind. Matusow started laughing, because he felt that it was a terrible call with top pair, top kicker. Douvney responded, "I still have a backdoor-flush draw." The turn was the 2 and Buckner started screaming, "No spade, no spade!" Matusow was laughing uncontrollably at this point and he got even louder when the 4 hit on the river. Buckner then began screaming about the injustices of poker while Douvney dragged down the pot with a look of embarrassment. Buckner stormed out of the tournament room, telling everyone he passed about the beat on his way.

After that burst of excitement, things settled back down to business as usual. Action continued and a number of notable players were free for the evening when the dinner break rolled around. David Pham, David Chiu, David Benyamine, David Williams, Isaac Haxton, Steve Sung, Amnon Filippi, and Danny Wong were all lost before the end of the fourth level. One player who was not free for the evening was Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who was the chip leader at dinner with $60,400.

The players returned from dinner break at 7:30 p.m. PT, and the assault on the professionals in the field continued. Tuan Le, Ted Lawson, Rafe Furst, Michael Gracz, J.C. Alvarado, Jared Hamby, Hasan Habib, Erik Cajelais, Eli Elezra, Burt Boutin, Carl Olson, Chris Bell, Daniel Alaei, David Levi, Phil Laak, and J.C. Tran were all out of the tournament before late-night play began. One player who came close to the brink but did not join his colleagues was Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi.

Mizzi was down to his final $25 chip, and then proceeded to build that up to $1,675, which he moved all in against Tony Cousineau. Mizzi showed down A J and Cousineau showed K 10. The board rolled out K 7 4 J 10 to split the pot. "Ship the antes," said Mizzi with a smile, "Such a sick spade." Seat No. 2 then threw out this gem, "He's like the guy in the horror movie that you shoot three times in the head and then he comes back to life with an axe to kill you," in regards to Mizzi.

A few hands later, Mizzi shipped it all in again for $2,400. Everyone folded around to Antonio Esfandiari, who said, "I was hoping they wouldn't leave it up to me." He peered at his cards and then quickly called. Both players kept their cards hidden (Mizzi kept a $25 chip on top of his cards as insurance) as the board rolled out 6 5 4 7 7. Esfandiari flipped up pocket queens and Mizzi showed down 10 7. "That's so sick," said Mizzi as he collected the pot. He was up to $5,500 a few hands after being down to his final $25.

Mizzi had made quite a comeback, and the rollercoaster ride didn't end there. He pushed almost all in again for $4,700 from the cutoff (this time leaving himself with just $300 behind). The small blind announced call, but he didn't realize that Mizzi was in the hand and only intended to call the big blind. A ruling was made, and much to the disappointment of Mizzi, the small blind had to call. The big blind mucked and both Mizzi and his opponent got the last $300 in on a flop of K 8 7. Mizzi showed down K 6 and his opponent had K 5. The turn and river came 2 and 8 and they ended up chopping the pot.

While the wild and crazy ride of Mizzi continued, the wild and crazy ride of the field raged on around him. Mizrachi remained near the top of the leader board with $88,800, but he was surpassed by the top five chip stacks at the end of play for the evening:

Scott Fischman - $133,700
Shawn Chaconas - $122,300
Alvin Zeidenfeld - $110,200
Kido Pham - $105,200
Ernie Scherer III - $91,400

Mizzi, for all of his efforts, ended the day with just $11,600, but the dream of his 'chip and a chair' comeback remains alive. Tune in tomorrow at noon PT on CardPlayer.com to see if Mizzi can continue his push to the final nine, while the 93 other players that remain do everything within their poker power to try and stop him. The tournament coverage team will bring you all of the action in live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos on the tournament tracker page.

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