It's official -- 187 players have survived Day 1 action in Event 36, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. All 187 players have already made it into the money, led by Owen 'ocrowe' Crowe at 170,000 in chips. The overnight top ten:
Owen Crowe 170,000
Danny Wong 114,500
Leonid Yanovski 106,500
Jim Mackowiak 103,400
RW Best 103,200
Richard Deeb 99,600
Duncan Bell 99,300
Chris Klodnicki 99,200
Bryan Paris 94,900
Cody Slaubaugh 92,700
Just before the bubble, as J.C. Tran was doubling up on virtually every hand, he tried bullying Jennafer Liebig with a big raise and the bubble just a few spots away. She shoved in the last of her chips and chased Tran out of the pot. She showed A-K and said, "I'm not scared of you."
She just doubled up again with A-Q vs. Q-10 on a queen-high flop and she'll go into play tomorrow with around a 40,000 stack.
Now that we're in the money all the short stacks are racing to double up or go home. "C'mon man, I don't wanna come back tomorrow for two minutes," one player said as he pushed a half-dozen assorted chips into the middle. He didn't get his wish--he doubled up and now sits with two, maybe even three big blinds.
About ten minutes ago, it was brought to our attention that there was a player who had left the tournament awhile ago due to an emergency. His chips had been blinded off for awhile now, and ten minutes ago they were down to 300.
With antes being 100 per player, anticipation was high that this player would not last very much longer. What was slightly unexpected was that he would end up being our bubble boy.
Under the rules here, any player not in his seat and all in is an instant muck. Sure enough, this player's chips were all in, the cards were dealt, and he hadn't returned to the Amazon room.
As his chips were scooped up by the player who won the hand, our Tournament Director announced, "Congratulations!" over the loud speaker and was met with a triumphant cheer from the remaining 198 players.
Fifteen minutes ago J.C. Tran sat with just 7,000 in front of him. But J.C. Tran is not one to meekly fold into the money. He doubled up to 14,000, doubled up again to around 27,000, then won another big pot to boost his stack all the way to 41,000. At this geometric rate Tran would have every chip in the universe in about two hours, but fortunately we're hand for hand and Tran's amassing will be slowed.
Issac Haxton moved in under the gun for his last 16,900 and was called by the player in the big blind. Haxton then learned that his were way behind his opponent's . The flop came , the turn was the , and just when it looked like Haxton's night would come to an end the spiked on the river to give him the pot. He's now up to 36,000.
We're down to 207 players and we've almost reached the money, but the players at Table 2 are in a party mood already. They called for a cocktail server and everyone ordered Coronas, with a few players asking for shots of Patron. It's not the tensest table as the money bubble approaches.