Day 1 of the 2007 World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harvey's Lake Tahoe saw 142 players take to the felt, including some of the biggest names in tournament poker. Joining the field were 2000 World Champion Chris Ferguson, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Kathy Liebert, J.C. Tran, Kirk Morrison and other top pros. All of them had their attention focused on one thing – the WSOP Circuit Ring and the $203,649 first place prize money.
To win the big prize, the players first had to survive Day 1, which is never easy at a major poker event. And with a field that included 'The Stunning One' Bill Edler, Scott Clements and Ciaran O'Leary, all of whom are 2007 WSOP bracelet winners, the challenge was even greater. J.J. Liu was an early elimination, when she ran her pocket sixes into an opponent's pocket queens, and she was followed to the rail soon after by Bill Edler when the Stunning One flopped two pair and got all his money in against an opponent's top pair. The river paired his opponent's kicker, and Edler was done before the dinner break.
Ciaran O'Leary was eliminated when Frank Lee rivered a straight to crack his Kings shortly before the dinner break after all the money went in on the turn of J-7-2-9, and Lee called O'Leary's all in move with 7-8. The 10 on the river sent O'Leary to the rail. Tom Schneider came to Lake Tahoe looking for back to back final tables at WSOP Circuit events, but it wasn't to be when he got his short stack all in with A-6, found a caller with A-Q and was eliminated just before the dinner break.
J.C. Tran was a dominant force in the early rounds, picking off opponents' bluffs with ease, but his luck changed drastically after dinner. Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson started Tran's downhill slide when on a board of
he called Tran's sizable turn bet. The river brought the 
and Ferguson checked to Tran, who checked behind. Ferguson tabled pocket Jacks, good enough to take down the pot. A few hands later an opponent doubled through Tran with pocket Queens against Tran's A-K. Shortly after that, Tran was done for good. In a pot that Tran raised preflop, he check-raised his opponent on a flop of 
. When his opponent re-raised, Tran quickly went all in and tabled 
for the flopped flush. Tran was drawing a wee bit thin when his opponent revealed 
for the nut flush. No miracle runner-runner straight flush for Tran, and he went from chip leader to railbird in a fairly short span.
Kathy Liebert nursed her short stack along for most of the evening before she got all her chips in preflop with
. The flop of K-J-9 gave Michael Beisner top and bottom pair with his 
, and Liebert was eliminated. Beisner then sent Scott Clements to the rail with quads, after flopping a full house with pocket tens on a board of 
. Clements was drawing thin with 
, and the 
on the river gave Beisner the pot and sent Clements to the rail.
As the day drew to a close, Aaron Kanter and Chris Ferguson moved slowly toward the top of the leaderboard, but it was Keith Vanderbeek that finished the day with the big stack. As the play on Day 1 drew to a close, Vanderbeek got his opponent all in preflop with pocket Jacks against Vanderbeek's Queens, and the board of
gave Vanderbeek a set and the chip lead as Day 1 ended at Harvey's Lake Tahoe. The chip counts looked like this as the players headed for bed in Tahoe:
Kevin Vanderbeek 88,000
Aaron Kanter 77,000
Vic Campana 76,500
Dustin Fox 75,100
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson 63,300
Matthew Beisner 61,800
Dennis A. Lane 60,000
NA 56,300
Sinh Nguyen 46,700
Drew Farrar 45,600
Frank Lee 42,400
Nasser Hamedani 42,300
Gabriel Testa 42,000
Mark Simmons 40,500
Mark Bonsack 39,500
Michael Banducci 38,800
Gary Tighe 38,100
Mike Cooper 37,500
Travis Erdman 33,800
Marty Wong 32,900
Merwick J. Black 31,900
Mike Kinney 30,600
Hans 'Tuna' Lund 30,500
Ken Churchill 29,100
Jeff Blenkarn 27,800
Toan Nguyen 22,400
Shawn Van Asdale 22,300
Vince Shaw 21,400
John Thomas 20,200
Eric Tang 19,800
Mark "Pegasus" Smith 18,800
Jerry Sauers 18,600
Rick Ribble, Jr. 17,400
David Parkus 12,800
David Chau 12,200
Tom Maser 12,000
George Saca 11,400
Marc Mestrovich 11,200
Rudy Sisson 9,800
Join PokerNews at noon local time for Day 2 of the Harvey's Lake Tahoe WSOP Circuit Event!
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