2008 World Series of Poker

Event 13 - $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info

2008 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
$666,777
Event Info
Buy-in
$2,500
Entries
1,390
Level Info
Level
24
Blinds
25,000 / 50,000
Ante
5,000

Event 13 - $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Day 1 Completed

Day 1 Official Chip Counts Released

Eli Elezra captured the opening-day lead
Eli Elezra captured the opening-day lead
Overnight, the WSOP staff has compiled and tabulated the player-recorded chip counts for the first day of Event #13, $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Eli Elezra holds the lead over a torrid Theo Tran, who will on Sunday attempt to qualify for his third final table of this year's series. Here's the overnight top ten:

Eli Elezra 147,500
Theo Tran 134,900
Greg Sellgren 130,000
Dean Bui 127,600
Napoleon Ta 127,200
Asger Boye 119,000
Marty Wong 113,700
Pedro Rios 113,500
Mathias Kuerschner 107,400
Jake Solis 106,800

The second ten includes Lee Watkinson and Vanessa Selbst, and several more "name" players remain high on the board. 137 players remain alive, and the field should reach the 99-player money bubble early in the day's action.

Check in at 2pm PDT for the restart of this fast-paced event.

Tags: Eli ElezraTheo Tran

That's a Wrap!

Play here at Event #13 has finally come to a close here in the Amazon room. 1,390 players started the event today and after ten levels of play we're down to just 141 remaining. The money is reached at 99 players, and we expect to reach that pretty swiftly after starting back up tomorrow afternoon.

Theo Tran and Eli Elezra are both going into Day 2 with commanding chip leads. Each looks to be sitting with roughly 130,000 in chips and as they are doing a redraw for tomorrow's seats, it will be interesting to see if these two players will face off sometime soon.

Make sure to tune in tomorrow at 2pm PDT for our continued live coverage of Event #13 as we follow play until the final table of nine is reached. How soon will the money be hit? How long will the night go? Make sure to tune in and find out!

Freeman Still Equals Good Luck

Earlier we reported that Jonathan McGowan was rubbing Scott Freeman for good luck before moving all in in a hand. Several hours later, McGowan and Freeman ended up doing battle when both players got all their chips in the middle preflop. Freeman held A-5 while McGowan held A-Q. Luck continued to be on McGowan's side as the hand held up, though this time he opted not to take part in the now-traditional rubbing of Scott Freeman's shoulder.

However weird it may be, it certainly seems true that Scott Freeman has become McGowan's personal good luck charm.

Prop Department to Table #11

Scattered throughout the Amazon Room are big inflatable Milwaukee's Best Light cans. If you've seen the commercials they show those cans plummeting out of the sky and crushing some guy who wasn't acting like, well, a guy. Well, the inflatable cans have little inflatable legs sticking out from underneath them...you get the picture? Good.

Anyway, Kenna James ripped one of the velcroed legs off the can near his table and he's playing with it sitting next to his chips. Why, pray tell? "Because I'm kicking ass!" James said. And it's true--not so long ago he was sitting with just a few thousand chips and now he's over 50,000. No word about whether the Rio staff will let James take the leg home with him.

...he's wearing the boot like a tail now, the toe end sticking out. We may need an intervention at Table #11.

Tags: Kenna James

Phil Serenades Eli

Phil Hellmuth, who just busted from the $10,000 Stud Championship event, made his way over into the remaining field here to say hello to his buddy Eli Elezra.

Upon seeing Eli's chip stack, Phil replied, "Eli! You're doin' it, buddy!" And then proceeded to sing Guns 'N Roses' "Patience" to Eli. Lee Watkinson, without missing a beat, chimed in "He's got a lot of that, he's laid down about one hand an hour since we got back from dinner."

Tags: Eli Elezra

There's No Doubt, She's a Lady

Liz Lieu
Liz Lieu
Tomorrow is the Ladies' No-Limit World Championship and a player asked Liz Lieu if she was playing. She said no, and when the player asked, "Why not? You're one of the best-known female players in the world," Liz smiled and said, "Well, I'm going to be playing this event all day tomorrow and make the final table, so I won't have time."

Tags: Liz Lieu

When Ya Gotta Go...

We started the day today with tables in the Red, Orange, and Blue sections of the Amazon room. For those unfamiliar with the layout, that's a little more than one half of the room, or around 140 tables.

Several hours later, all of the remaining tables are now in the blue section, which isn't very big. Admittedly, it is also the furthest corner away from all exits leading to food, restrooms, and cash games.

Why is this relevant, you ask? We just learned that one of the remaining players in the field of 160 took a cup from his table and walked to the back corner of the room, purportedly planning to use it as a makeshift restroom.

Kindly, he instructed our reporters to "look away" were they to see him headed that way again.

T.J. Cloutier Has Been Eliminated

T.J. Cloutier was crippled in an earlier hand and when he moved his last 2,700 into the pot he was called by the player in the big blind, who revealed {A-Hearts} {9-Spades}. T.J. saw the hand and was disappointed that the nine in his hand wasn't live, and when the dealer told him to turn over his hand Cloutier said, "I was going to show 'em, don't be so nervy." He rolled his eyes and said, "Turn up your cards, jeez!"

T.J. had {Q-Spades} {9-Hearts}, didn't hit his queen, and was eliminated.

Tags: T.J. Cloutier

T.J. Short-Stacked

T.J. Cloutier, who had tripled up during the first three hands of the day today, just took a large hit to his chip stack. T.J. and another player managed to get all their chips in the middle preflop with T.J. holding K-Q while his opponent held pocket kings. His opponents kings held up and after the hand T.J. is down to just 4,100 in chips.

Tags: T.J. Cloutier