First Hour Gone
Jul 07, '07
Cards in the Air
The cards have been in the air for only one hour and already day 1B feels different than day 1A. Day 1A was filled with nervous anticipation and tons of hype. Today feels more like a poker tournament, a convention of gamblers if you will. The day started with World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack unveiling the 2007 Main Event Champion's bracelet. This year's bracelet is made of white gold with 120 diamonds and a 1.3 karat weight. Pollack handed the microphone to the Rio's own Penn and Teller who were given the honor of announcing "Shuffle up and deal!"
Stacked Field
Although many notable names played in yesterday's field, today may have it beat. Scott Fischman, Erik Seidel, Joe Sebok, Sam Farha, Evelyn Ng, David "The Dragon" Pham, Paul Wasicka, John Juanda, "Miami" John Cernuto, Roland De Wolfe and Jennifer Harmon are just some of the big names sharing the felt in today's heat of Main Event entrants.
Champions Present
On any day one of the Main Event it is easy to walk around the Amazon room and count anywhere from five to twenty bracelet winners littered amongst the field. Eric Seidel, Scott Clements, David Williams and Jeff Lisandro are a few of the notable bracelet winners in today's field but more noteworthy may be the number of Main Event bracelet winners that are all playing today. Tom McEvoy ('83), Berry Johnston ('86), Dan Harrington ('95), Scotty Nguyen ('98) and Joe Hachem ('04) have all elected to play on day 1B of this year's Main Event.
A Family Affair?
Poker skills may or may not be hereditary, the jury is still out on that one, but there is something to be said for families that play the game. Brothers Ross and Barny Boatman are both in the field today and sitting just a few tables apart are David Williams and his mother, Shirley. Barry Shulman, his wife Allyn Jaffrey Shulman and his son Jeff Shulman are all at different tables but playing on the same day as well, while father and son Donnacha O’Dea and Eoghan O’Dea from Ireland are also in the field.
Hollywood in the House
Tournament official Nolan Dolla announced over the loud speaker that TV personality Montel Williams was amongst the 1,300 or so that started the day. It is not uncommon on day one to spot a few celebrities either playing or watching. Director and writer Nick Cassavetes is playing today as well as Norm McDonald who is playing for PokerStars.
www.pokerstars.com
Euro news
The European contingent is out in force today. Some interesting tablemates include Neil Channing and Michael Keiner, Ross Boatman and Pat O’Callaghan, Dave Shallow and Alexander Kravchenko, Al Kelleher and Max Pescatori, Rob Taylor and John Juanda, Bruno Fitoussi and Dan Harrington, Kathy Liebert and George McKeever.
Early chip movements include popular Blonde Poker journalist and birthday girl Jen Mason down to $13,050 in chips and equally popular European Poker Tour honcho John Duthie up to $34,050 in chips.
Recent bracelet winner Alan Smurfit is also playing as are Carlo Citrone, Praz Banzi, Juha Helppi, Vicky Coren, Marc Goodwin, Bruno Fitoussi, Simon Trumper, Pascal Perrault, Martin Wendt, Noah Boeken and Martin Green.
Trumper trumps opponent
Simon Trumper, from English crew Dusk Til Dawn, pulled what he described as 'an outrageous bluff' and was inordinately happy with his early play.
'I haven't made day two for five years and that has pi*sed me right off,' he told CardPlayer.com. 'I'm in the small blind with 8-6 and with three limpers i call. The flop came J-4-7 with two spades so if i hit a five i'm ahead or a spade i reckon i can represent the flush.' Cutting a long story short the limpers were weeded out when a spade came on the turn and another on the river. Trumper made it $2,500 into a pot of $4,500 on the river and the early raise dwelled.
Picking up the story Trumper said,' Just then they announced former world champion Berry Johnson was playing today so i took my hands off my cards and clapped. When the other guys saw how relaxed and casual i was he immediately mucked,' beamed an upbeat Trumper.
Notable Chip Counts
| Berry Johnston |
37,000 |
| Joe Sebok |
34,000 |
| Kirk Morrison |
33,000 |
| Tony G |
29,000 |
| Justin Bonomo |
28,200 |
| Sammy Farha |
27,000 |
| Evelyn Ng |
27,000 |
| Scotty Nguyen |
25,800 |
| J.J. Liu |
25,000 |
| Joe Hachem |
24,000 |
| Barry Shulman |
23,500 |
| Bob Bright |
23,100 |
| Erik Seidel |
23,000 |
| Paul Wasicka |
22,700 |
| Robert Mizrachi |
22,000 |
| Norm MacDonald |
22,000 |
| Isabelle Mercier |
21,500 |
| Kathy Liebert |
21,000 |
| Allyn Jaffrey Shulman |
21,000 |
| Scott Fischman |
20,500 |
| Tom McEvoy |
20,000 |
| Scott Clements |
20,000 |
| Sam Grizzle |
20,000 |
| Rett Butler |
20,000 |
| Jordan Morgan |
20,000 |
| Jeffrey Lisandro |
20,000 |
| Howard Lederer |
20,000 |
| Dan Harrington |
20,000 |
| Alexander Kravchenko |
20,000 |
| Sabyl Cohen |
19,800 |
| Jennifer Harman |
19,650 |
| Noah Boeken |
19,000 |
| Annie Duke |
18,500 |
| John Juanda |
18,300 |
| Kido Pham |
17,500 |
| 'Miami John' Cernuto |
17,000 |
| David 'The Dragon' Pham |
16,800 |
| Barny Boatman |
15,800 |
| Roland De Wolfe |
15,500 |
| Hoyt Corkins |
15,400 |
| Juha Helppi |
14,600 |
| Mark Seif |
14,500 |
| Max Pescatori |
14,000 |
| Aaron Kanter |
13,500 |
| David Singer |
13,000 |
| Davidson Matthew |
12,500 |
| Dan Shak |
11,000 |
| David Williams |
10,500 |
| Bill Chen |
10,000 |
Player Tags: Donnacha O'Dea, John Cernuto, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Allyn Shulman, David Pham, Erik Seidel, Evelyn Ng, Jeff Shulman, John Juanda, Scott Fischman, Ross Boatman, Dan Harrington, Barry Shulman, Jennifer Harman, Jeffrey Lisandro, Bruno Fitoussi, Barny Boatman, Berry Johnston, John Duthie, George McKeever, David Williams, Sam Farha, Simon Trumper, Paul Wasicka, Scott Clements, Pascal Perrault, Joe Sebok, Shirley Williams, Carlo Citrone, Roland de Wolfe, Joe Hachem, Jennifer Mason, Nick Cassavetes, Martin Wendt, Victoria Coren, Praz Bansi, Norm MacDonald, Montel Williams
