The 'kiddie corps' of Internet-based poker players had a big-time breakthrough on Day 3 of the 2007 World Series of Poker®. Steve 'MrSmokey1' Billirakis came from well behind at the final table to best veteran Greg 'FBT' Mueller and claim the bracelet and winner's money in Event #1 $5,000 World Championship Mixed Limit/NL Hold 'Em.
Just 21 years and 10 days old, Billirakis snagged the title of the youngest-ever bracelet winner away from Jeff Madsen, a few days older when he won the first of his two bracelets in 2006. Does Billirakis have a second bracelet to win at this year's WSOP? Only time will tell. The World Series, though, is off to a fine start. This first final table of the 2007 WSOP will make its way onto the ESPN broadcast schedule in July and featured other big names in addition to Mueller, and now, Billirakis; Steve Paul-Ambrose, Kirk Morrison and Jon 'Pearljammer' also made the big-money positions. Our Event #1 'Live Reporting' entries captured the best of the action.
It was far from the only important poker news at the WSOP. Event #3, $1,500 No Limit Hold 'Em, played down to the final table. Another young gun in the process of cementing his poker reputation was the big news here --- 2006 U.S. Poker Championship victor Alex Jacob punished his opponents throughout the day, and by the time action wrapped up Jacob had topped 3,000,000 in chips, with only one other player over the million-chip plateau. Can Jacob join the roster of WSOP bracelet winners? We'll have up-to-the-minute reports throughout the day, available at our Event #5 Final Table 'Live Reporting' page.
Event #4, $1,500 Pot Limit Hold 'Em, and Event #5, $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8 or Better, both began their opening day of play. It wasn't at all unusual to see pros such as Erick Lindgren bust out of one event and then rush to a seat in the next. Event #4 saw several big names settle in for the long haul as well, with Jean-Robert Bellande and Gavin Smith among the big names chasing Rob 'Playfast' Gerstenzang, who sits atop the leader board with 156,500 chips. Event #5, which mixes Omaha-8 and Stud-8 in an intriguing format, also jumped from the gate. John Monnette holds the Day One lead over Tom Schneider, with Mel Judah, Anthony Reategui, Cyndy Violette, Mike Matusow and Andrew Black also all inside the Event #5 top ten in chips.
But wait, there's more. Besides all of the above events continuing play, two more are scheduled to get underway today. Starting at noon PT is Event #6, $1,500 Limit Hold 'Em, and at 5pm PT Event #7, $5,000 PLO w/rebuys, begins.
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