WSOP Updates – Event #38, $1,500 NLHE — Banducci Tops Massive First-Day Field

June 24 2007, Michael Friedman

An enormous field of 2,780 runners took to the felt for Saturday's 1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event #38, every one eyeing World Series of Poker immortality. With the event officially sold out and all available tables filled, the field was impressive. Despite the upcoming $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, many big names vied for the first-place cash of $673,628, including Kenna James, Scott Clements, David Plastik, Vanessa Selbst, Kathy Liebert, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Jennifer Tilly, Amnon Filippi, Lee Watkinson, Isaac Haxton, Mikael Thuritz, J.C. Tran, Eugene Todd, Burt Boutin, John Murphy, Joe Sebok, Davidson Matthew, and Michael Binger. Many were in the attached Poker Pavilion, including Mary Jones, Joe Hachem, David 'The Dragon' Pham, Rolf Slotboom, Mimi Tran, Jimmy Tran, Ben Kang, and John Gale.

The Day One casualty list was long and included many of the biggest names. Among those departing were Shannon Elizabeth, Filippi, Matthew, Antonio Esfandiari, Mark Seif, Dutch Boyd, Thomas Wahlroos, Amir Vahedi, Hachem, and the three 'Phils,' Laak, Gordon, and Hellmuth.

The massive field still managed to play all the way down 171 players on Day One, well inside the money. Marcel Luske and Tom Schreiber climbed the leader board, as did several online and younger players, including Michael Banducci, Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, Ryan Daut, Sorel Mizzi, and Alex Jacob. Banducci ended the day atop the board with 184,600 in chips, with the overnight top ten as follows:

Michael Banducci 184,600
Timothy Dolan 184,300
Mitchell Hecht 178,600
Mark Utterbank 160,700
Joe Jaijar 124,400
Jason Kallivokas 120,300
Jeff Kimber 120,200
Marcel Luske 106,800
Thomas Schreiber 105,900
Julian LeFevre 102,000

Also high on the board are Chris Bjorin, Men Nguyen, Kathy Liebert, Anna Wroblewski, Burt Boutin and Chris Ferguson. Check in with Pokernews.com's 'Live Reporting' Event #38, $1,500 No Limit Hold 'Em, as Day Two action resumes at 2pm PDT.

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