Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship
Day 1 Started
2010 World Series of Poker
Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship
Day: 1
Lowball at High Stakes
Avoid aces. Pass on pairs. Turn away trips, shun straights, and fend off flushes. This is lowball, where worst is best. And everyone is gunning for Number One.
Welcome to Event No. 19, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball Championship (No-Limit). Often described as an especially "pure" form of poker, 2-7 draw -- a.k.a. Kansas City lowball -- combines the gamesmanship of draw poker with the strategy of no-limit betting.
Last year Nick Schulman bested a field of 96 entrants -- including a formidable final table of Ville Wahlbeck, Steve Sung, John Juanda, Archie Karas, Vince Musso, and David Benyamine -- to take down the $279,751 first prize. The year before the event was played as a $5,000 rebuy event, with Mike "the Mouth" Matusow topping a group of 85 to claim his third WSOP bracelet.
We expect a similarly small but stacked group today, an intimate gathering of poker's elite vying for one of the Series' more coveted bracelets. Back around 5 p.m. local time for the start of Day 1!
Getting Close
Players are gathering -- and a lot of familiar faces among them. Looks like we'll have a small field as well, with only nine or ten tables' worth of players here at the start. Stay tuned for the start of tonight's $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/75
Ante: 25
Shuffle Up and Deal
The first hands are being dealt for Event No. 19. While not a "rebuy" tourney as such, players will begin today with starting stacks of 7,500 chips plus three additional "add-on" chips, each also worth 7,500. They'll be able to use those add-ons at any point during the first four one-hour levels, and if they haven't done so by then, they'll automatically receive them.
Thus each technically is given 30,000 chips here with which to play, but with an option to withhold putting all of those into play until so desired. That's a slight change from last year, when they started with 10,000 and had two 10,000 "add-ons" to use during through the end of the first three levels.
No Soft Spots
As expected, we're looking at a small but stacked field today.
Among those in their seats for our first hands are John D'Agostino, Nikolay Evdakov, Shawn Sheikhan, Dario Minieri, Erick Lindgren, Chad Brown, Billy Baxter, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Erik Seidel, Todd Brunson, Daniel Alaei, Scott Seiver, Todd Brunson, Jeffrey Lisandro, John Monnette, Jon Turner, Tom Schneider, and Vladimir Schmelev.
I'll Take Those Right Now, Thank You
It looks as though most players are holding onto their pink "add-on" chips here at the start of play, but at least three have gone ahead and made their stacks 30,000 at the start of the first level of play -- Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey, and Mike Wattel.
All In Already
Erik Seidel raised to 300 and Nikolay Evdakov made the call from the button Erick Lindgren was in the big blind and just shipped his entire stack into the middle for about 6,000. Seidel folded and Evdakov made the call.
Lindgren stood pat and Evdakov drew one card. Lindgren then showed a 
and Evdakov a paired hand with the 
. Lindgren won the pot and doubled to about 12,000. Evdakov tossed in one of his red add-on chips and reloaded to 7,500.
The Stars Are Out
Also here are David Williams, Robert and Michael Mizrachi, Nick and Michael Binger, David Grey, Huckleberry Seed, Brandon Adams, Carlos Mortensen, Jean-Robert Bellande, Andy Black, and Doyle Brunson.
We're seeing fans start to populate the rail here, too, to get a look at this star-studded field.
Players are currently seated around ten tables, with most full at seven-handed.
Welcome in Team PokerStars
Team PokerStars is pretty heavily represented today in Event No. 19 despite the big $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event that's still running across the room. Representing Team USA are Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown. George Danzer is sporting the Germany badge while Anton Allemann has on the Switzerland colors. Both Dario Minieri from Team Italy and George Lind from Team Online are also here, less than 24 hours after they finished in the Stud Hi-Lo Championship last night. Both of them made the money in that event and will be looking for the same in this one.