Day 1b in the Books
The newest member to Team UltimateBet, Joe Sebok, didn't last long at all. Busting before the end of the first level, Sebok ran a couple of big hands into bigger ones before hitting the rail. Fellow team members Annie Duke, Billy Kopp and Liv Boeree also failed to make it through the day.
Jeff Madsen was another one of the big names in action, but joined Sebok on the rail before the end of the first level. Madsen ran a flopped set into his opponent's higher set on the turn to make his exit. Other players that will be working on their tan tomorrow rather than building their chip stacks are Layne Flack, Will "The Thrill" Failla, Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon, and Erica Shoenberg.
The action all day was slow and steady. The eliminations didn't come fast and furiouis nor were there too many large confrontations around the room. Defending champion Matt Brady knows all about the slow and steady pace of the event as he wasn't able to get much going all day long. "I'm hanging in there, I'm still alive to repeat." he said.
Team UltimateBet members Tiffany Michelle, Brandon Cantu, Shawn Rice and Michael Binger all made it through to Day 2 while only half of the Absolute Poker team, Matt Vengrin, made it. Lacey Jones was the other half of that team and busted towards the end of the day.
Matt Ross, Casey Kastle and Robbie Cunningham are all making bids to be chip leader coming out of Day 1b. Each could easily challenge Jon Favaloro from Day 1a for pole position going into Day 2. The official chip counts will be posted later on.
All 267 players will be back tomorrow at 12:00pm local time to continue their quest for the $753,330 first-place prize. Be sure to follow all the live updates from PokerNews starting then! We'll see you tomorrow.