Monday's sole new event at the 2008 WSOP gets underway at noon, and it's sure to be a fun one. On tap is Event #31, $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-handed, with plenty of aggressive play sure to be the order of the day. Look for major collisions right from the outset as players look to accumulate chips early on.
Last year's winner in this event was Hoyt Corkins; the "Alabama Cowboy" outlasted an 837-player field to capture the $515,065 winner's share of the purse.
After spending the last few days in the Brasilia Room, we're now back in the Amazon Room, braced and ready for some hot six-handed action. From past experiences of covering this event, we should witness more stars than an entire series of Hollywood Squares as over 700 (at time or writing) eager beavers look to echo Hoyt Corkins', and Jeff Madsen's before him, success of last year.
Like the start of a Formula 1 race, this should be a fast, frantic, fun-filled affair with plenty of bumps along the way, so make sure you tune in as the action unfolds.
It looks as though a good number of today's players have opted to arrive fashionably late -- which means that there are a few tables which are currently playing heads up or three-handed. This could be a very, very quick affair.
Humberto Brenes
Shaun Deeb
Noah Boeken
Scott Clements
Jamie Pickering
Andy Black
Bill Chen
Max Pescatori
Toto Leonidas
Lee Watkinson
Kevin Saul
Hevad Khan
Burt Boutin
Jordan Morgan
Jared Okun
Chris "Genius28" Lee
Chad Brown
Our first confirmed exit is that of space-age-be-sunglassed Dutch PLO wunderkind Rolf Slotboom. He seems to have raised an unknown player's 800 opening bet on a flop to 2,100 and then gone all in on the turn and getting himself called. Slotboom was holding , but his opponent was holding -- he hit a flush on the river, and Slotboom was no more.
Also among our early casualties is Mimi Tran. She found herself short and pushed with pocket deuces, but was called by a gentleman holding -- four hearts on the board later, and the rest of the day's her own.