WSOP Updates – Event #30, $2,500 NLHE Six-Handed — Corkins Leads Short-Handed Pack

Monday saw the start of an anticipated, fast-paced tourney, the Six-handed $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Event (#30) with plenty of stars on hand, including Shannon Shorr, Hoyt Corkins, John D'Agostino, Erik Seidel, Isabelle Mercier, Greg Raymer, Shannon Elizabeth, John Juanda, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Black, Barry Greenstein, Chris Ferguson, Victor Ramdin, Phil Ivey, and Tony G all took their seats at the day's start. The field contained 847 entrants, with 78 making the money and $515,065 the prize for first.

Several interesting matchups marked early play. Black, Juanda, and Rene Angelil battled at one table, while Jani Sointula, Liz Lieu, and Hoyt Corkins saw cards at another. The toughest draw of the day, however, might have been a table that offered two recent WSOP Main Event champs in Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, plus Jason Strasser and Sherkan Farnood.

The bustouts began only four minutes into the action. Hitting the rail early were Jesse Jones, Tilly, Black, Ferguson, Elizabeth, Lynette Chan, Chip Jett, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Mercier, Gavin Smith, Eric Froehlich, Vanessa Rousso, Amir Vahedi, Bill Gazes, and Alex Jacob.

While many names players enter multiple, conflicting events at the WSOP, Eugene Todd took multi-tabling to another level. While playing in Event #30, Todd left his stack and headed over to the Bellagio, where he was involved in one of that casino's tournaments. After busting at Bellagio, Todd returned to the Rio in hopes of seeing better results. Unfortunately for Todd, he busted out here as well.

Another highlight was Joe Tehan's double elimination of Phil Ivey and Matt Brady in the same hand. Tehan rivered a K-high flush to knock out both Ivey and Brady and take a commanding lead in the event with 64,000 in chips. Tehan rolled to a huge early lead before other players surged later in the day, but is still in third place as of night's end.

The third big story of the day was the return of Vinny Vinh. After disappearing from an earlier event and having his chips blinded off, Vinh got back to his old ways in Monday's event and remains in the hunt for Day Two.

Leading the way to Day Two is Hoyt Corkins with 270,000 in chips. 42 players are still alive, well inside the money positions. Here's the overnight leader board:

Hoyt Corkins — 270,800
Yakov Hirsch — 252,600
Joe Tehan — 233,500
Steve Wong — 233,300
William Lin — 178,400
Alan Sass — 174,900
Rep Porter — 170,500
Russell Barnes — 146,200
Ryan Fair — 145,000
Rasmus Carstensen — 137,000

Other notables still alive include Shaun Deeb, Mimi Tran, Steve Billirakis, Terrence Chan and Erik Seidel, who secured his 46th career WSOP cash here. Check back with Pokernews.com's 'Live Reporting' of Event #30, $2,500 No Limit Hold 'Em Six-Handed. Day Two action begins at 2pm PDT.