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WPT -- Bellagio Festa Al Lago Main Event Day 1

Mike Matusow Leads After First Day of Play

by Julio Rodriguez  |  Published: Oct 21, 2009  |  

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Phil LaakThere are usually a few story lines you can count on following the conclusion of a day 1 at a major poker tournament. The low blinds and deep starting stacks tend to produce little drama on the felt, but you can surely rely on the field numbers themselves to give you some information on the prize pool.

Instead, tournament director Jack McClelland’s decision to extend registration to the end of level 8 (about 5 p.m. Thursday) was quite the hit with the players.

Curiously, a good portion of the 244 who appeared on day 1 failed to take advantage of the new rule, opting instead to show up on time for the noon start, if not early. It’s doubtful the field will reach last year’s numbers of 368, but it has already surpassed expectations based on the numbers seen at the preliminary events.

Jennifer TillyPhil Laak had a great start to his tournament, quickly moving up the leader board. On the last level of the evening, his girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, joined him by taking down a huge hand of her own.

On a flop of KDiamond Suit QDiamond Suit 9Spade Suit, Allen Carter checked, and Tilly bet 3,100. Another player moved all in on the short stack, and Carter moved in, as well. Tilly made the call, showing 9Diamond Suit 8Diamond Suit for a pair and a flush draw. Carter showed pocket nines for a set, and the other player showed ADiamond Suit KSpade Suit for top pair.

The turn and river came 5Diamond Suit and 6Heart Suit, and Tilly made her flush to eliminate Carter and put her stack among the leaders. She finished the day with 139,450, good for 15th place, while Laak finished with 185,850 and now sits in sixth place.

Another notable still in the hunt is Barry Shulman, fresh off of his win in the World Series of Poker Europe main event. He has 65,875, which is slightly below the average of 75,000.

Notables who failed to survive the day included Daniel Negreanu, both Mizrachi brothers, David Ulliott, Joe Sebok, David Benyamine, and Alec Torelli.

The chip leader heading into day 2 is none other than Mike Matusow, who had a late run to end his night and finish on top.

The surviving 196 players will return tomorrow and join the new registrants to form the remaining field and give us a better idea of what they are competing for.

Here’s a look at the top 10 overnight chip leaders.

1 Mike Matusow 224,200
2 Mark Seif 222,425
3 Jason Somerville 213,350
4 Joseph Elpayaa 195,500
5 Jason Lavalee 187,325
6 Phil Laak 185,850
7 Dutch Boyd 176,075
8 David Rheem 172,175
9 Robert Tepper 163,500
10 Jonathan Little 162,575

And here are the rest of the official end-of-day chip counts:

Player Chip Count
11 Richard Sciuto 159,200
12 Jonas Entin 156,000
13 Chau Giang 152,450
14 David Peat 146,000
15 Jennifer Tilly 139,450
16 Eugene Katchalov 136,625
17 Poorya Nazari 135,525
18 Jason Lester 132,150
19 David 127,950
20 Kevin Boudreau 127,900
21 Andrew Cohen 127,900
22 Augie Foxx 125,075
23 Markus Gonsalves 124,000
24 Lee Markholt 122,000
25 Jordan Smith 119,275
26 Cary Falk 119,075
27 Richard Schwartz 117,625
28 Brandon Cantu 117,000
29 Larry Berg 115,650
30 Justin Bonomo 115,600
31 Michael Woo 114,900
32 Matt Woodward 113,200
33 David Peters 112,725
34 Jerry Humphrey 112,700
35 Tony Grappo 111,000
36 James Carroll 110,000
37 Jeff Blenkarn 107,875
38 Corwin Cole 107,025
39 Steven McKoy 106,425
40 Scott Dorin 105,950
41 Mike Leah 104,675
42 Cornel Andrew Cimpan 103,175
43 Wil Wilkinson 102,350
44 Nick Schulman 100,000
45 Joshua Brikis 99,500
46 Marco Johnson 98,150
47 John Pappas 96,550
48 Eli Elezra 95,000
49 Lisa Hamilton 94,250
50 Todd Terry 94,250
51 Scott Clements 93,825
52 Tom McCormick 93,250
53 Steve Weinstein 92,550
54 Dan O’Brien 90,175
55 Vivek Rajkumar 89,400
56 David Chiu 87,775
57 Justin Young 86,500
58 Zach Hyman 86,000
59 Chad Batista 84,000
60 Phil Ivey 83,250
61 Erik Cajelais 82,975
62 Haralabos Voulgaris 79,200
63 William Kopp Jr 79,075
64 Jason Mercier 78,025
65 Sabyl Cohen-Landrum 76,500
66 Pat Walsh 76,300
67 Erik Seidel 75,300
68 Carter King 73,500
69 Chris Bjorin 73,300
70 Cary Katz 73,175
71 Aaron Been 72,325
72 Isaac Baron 72,250
73 Dee Luong 71,550
74 Tommy Vedes 69,850
75 Prahlad Friedman 68,550
76 Zach Clark 68,000
77 Evan McNiff 67,525
78 Barry Shulman 65,875
79 Paul Wasicka 65,625
80 Abe Mosseri 64,200
81 Daniel Shak 64,150
82 JJ Liu 63,550
83 Shawn Cunix 63,325
84 Barry Greenstein 62,500
85 Hoyt Corkins 62,300
86 Jimmy Tran 61,850
87 James Van Alstyne 61,350
88 Neil Ho 61,150
89 Russell Rosenblum 60,300
90 Kathy Liebert 60,000
91 Jonathan Tare 58,875
92 Matthew Stout 58,700
93 Daniel Alaei 58,475
94 Steve Brecher 56,125
95 Shawn Buchanan 55,675
96 Ozzy Sheikh 55,650
97 Olav Prinz Von Sachsen 55,500
98 Josh Arieh 55,000
99 Steve O’Dwyer 54,475
100 Danny Wong 54,000
101 Yevgeniy Timoshenko 53,050
102 Matt Glantz 52,550
103 Emeline Boich 51,600
104 James Mackey 51,250
105 Adam Geyer 51,150
106 Glen Chorny 50,600
107 Bobby Suer 50,425
108 Gavin Smith 49,575
109 Matt Graham 49,525
110 Wayne Boich 49,125
111 Mikael Thuritz 48,375
112 Carlos Mortensen 48,000
113 Allen Cunningham 47,975
114 Ted Lawson 47,000
115 Ralph Perry 45,925
116 Alan Smurfit 45,525
117 Beth Shak 42,850
118 Cliff D. Josephy 42,250
119 Mike Sowers 41,500
120 Kido Pham 41,000
121 Paul Lieu 40,150
122 Olivier Busquet 39,375
123 Christian Harder 35,525
124 Men Nguyen 35,450
125 David Singer 35,150
126 Champie Douglas 34,875
127 Jennifer Harman 32,650
128 Hunter Frey 32,150
129 Brian Rast 30,150
130 David Pham 29,525
131 John Phan 25,150
132 Toto Leonidas 22,800
133 David Grey 21,525
134 Hafiz Khan 21,200
135 David Oppenheim 14,150
136 Tom Schneider 11,475
137 Sam Stein 11,250
138 Jeff Madsen 10,525
139 Jonathan Aguiar 10,200
 
 
Tags: Festa Al Lago,   WPT,   World Poker Tour,   Bellagio,   Phil Laak,   Jennifer Tilly
 
 
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