Day 1B of the WPT Doyle Brunson ClassicPhil Ivey Takes the Overall Chip Lead |
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The second and final starting day of the World Poker Tour's Doyle Brunson Classic kicked off, and it became evident early on that today's field would be much larger than yesterday's. One hundred and ten players larger, in fact, which brought the total number of entrants to 664 in this $15,000 event.
The two largest prize pool tournaments of each year (by a long shot) are the Word Series of Poker main event and the WPT World Championship. Nothing even approaches those two tournaments in terms of prize pool. If you remove those two events from consideration, this tournament's prize pool of $9,661,200 is the largest in poker history.
In approximately one week, two players will leave Bellagio as millionaires. The first-place finisher will take home $2,484,605 and the runner-up will have to settle for a $1,252,640 consolation prize.
Tournament Director Jack McClelland started things off in much the same fashion as he did yesterday, paying tribute to poker legend Chip Reese with a moment of silence. He wished Reese luck "with the big game in the sky," and then the familiar sound of riffling chips hit the air.
As players took their seats and the scenery began to take shape, one table in particular had the railbirds gawking with their cameras ready. The players seated at table 47 to start the day included:
Seat 3 -- Hevad "Rainkhan" Khan
Seat 5 -- Steve Buckner
Seat 6 -- Ted Forrest
Seat 7 -- Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby
Seat 8 -- Barry Greenstein
Seat 10 -- Mike Matusow
Excitement quickly turned into disappointment, however, as Greenstein and Buckner hit the rail early to take away a bit of star power.
Yesterday, Jonathan Little survived to keep his hopes alive for Card Player's Player of the Year (POY) race. J.C. Tran started the day as the only other contender able to overtake David "The Dragon" Pham. Unfortunately for Tran, he was eliminated early in the day from a tough table that included Michael Mizrachi, Peter "#1PEN" Neff, and Vivek "psyduck" Rajkumar. Little needs to finish in the top two spots of this tournament to claim the top spot on the POY leader board, otherwise Pham will win his second POY award.
Joe Sebok has an unwelcome reputation for his ability to jump out in front of a tournament, seizing the chip lead, and then failing to survive the day. Just like he has done in the past, Sebok built up his stack early to move to the top of the leader board. At one point in the third level, when he was flirting with the 100,000-chip mark, Sebok jokingly contemplated quitting early so that he could return tomorrow with an above-average stack. Sebok ultimately decided to stay, and he finished with 125,025 in chips. Perhaps he is destined for another seventh-place finish.
With just a few hours left in play, John Phan went on a tear to finish the day among the chip leaders when he eliminated two players in one hand. On a flop of K
Q
J
, seat 2 made it 2,500 to go, and seat 4 made the call. Phan raised to 8,000, and seat 2 reraised all in for 13,900 total. Seat 4 then reraised to 21,900 total, and Phan decided to put him to an all-in decision. Seat 4 eventually called, and the players revealed their cards. Seat 2 showed K Q
for top two pair, seat 4 showed 10 9 for the bottom straight, but Phan turned over A 10 for the Broadway straight. The turn and river came 2 6, giving Phan the massive pot and vaulting him to more than 120,000 in chips. Phan got a bit too aggressive with just a few hands to play and ultimately ended the day with 95,825.
Phil Ivey managed to keep himself out of the spotlight for most of the day, but when it was discovered that he had crossed the 200,000-chip mark, he could no longer fly undetected under the radar. Ivey quietly took out a slew of unknown players to finish the day with 233,025 and the chip lead.
The two starting fields will combine tomorrow, and the remaining 445 players will return at noon PT and play an additional five levels. Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, pro blogs, photos, and videos of all your favorite players.
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