WSOP -- Day 1 of the $40K Anniversary TournamentBruno Fitoussi Leads Remaining 89 Players |
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The 40th-annual World Series of Poker kicked off the first open event of the year in big fashion with the largest no-limit hold’em tournament ever hosted in the United States, featuring a $40,000 buy in. After the somewhat disappointing turnout for the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship in April, many skeptics were predicting a disaster for the WSOP.
Instead, 201 players showed up for the high-stakes affair, generating a total prize pool of $7,718,400, just a few hundred thousand shy of Bellagio’s $8,196,500 tournament. The winner of the 40th-anniversary tournament will walk away with a $1,891,012 payday. Check out the full payouts here.
Needless to say, the field at the Rio was absolutely stacked with the world’s best players, at one point forming a table that included the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Bertrand Grospellier, David Pham, Steve Billirakis, Scott Seiver, Alan Sass, and Brett Richey.
Despite the 120,000 in starting chips and hour-long levels, many familiar faces found themselves on the rail just a few rounds into the tournament. Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Tom Dwan, Jim Bechtel, Jonathan Little, and Steve Gross were all eliminated within the first three hours, among others.
Notables were being eliminated at a rapid pace, but not without benefiting many throughout the room. It’s not a surprise to see Antonio Esfandiari at the top of the leader board early in a tournament, and this time around he got there at Annie Duke’s expense.
On a flop of 10
Q
3, Antonio Esfandiari bet out, and Annie Duke called. The turn brought the 8
, and Esfandiari bet out again, getting called. The river was the 4, and Esfandiari put Duke all in for about 70,000. Duke thought for about two minutes before calling. Esfandiari turned over 3 3
, and Duke mucked A Q. The hand put Esfandiari well over the 400,000-mark, but he had trouble holding onto his chips late in the day, finishing with just under 300,000.
After showing up fashionably late, Phil Hellmuth proceeded to pick up a few healthy pots heading into the dinner break. Once the players returned, Hellmuth was caught making a move on a board reading 6 5 4 K Q. Alan Sass made the call with K 9, and Hellmuth frustratedly mucked his busted draw, leaving himself with a stack of just a dozen big blinds. He hung on for a couple more levels, but busted to Phil Ivey about an hour before play ended when his A-J failed to catch up against Ivey’s A-K.
2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker had a solid day and finished up with 805,000 in chips, good enough for second place. Leading the way is Bruno Fitoussi with 812,500.
After ten levels of play, day 1 came to end with just 89 players remaining. Those fortunate enough to survive will return Friday at 2 p.m. to play down to the money.
Here are the top 10 chip leaders:
1. Bruno Fitoussi – 812,500
2. Chris Moneymaker – 805,000
3. Emil Patel – 615,000
4. Lex Veldhuis – 606,500
5. Justin Bonomo – 570,000
6. Michael DeMichele – 550,000
7. Kyle Wilson – 520,000
8. Brian Townsend – 512,000
9. Alan Sass – 440,000
10. Matt Marafioti – 415,000
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