As we were walking through the tournament area, a player called out to us. We spun around and addressed him. This particular player is a very successful tournament player with more than $3 million and a couple major titles under his belt. Still, he's not immune to the Fear of Ivey.
"Hey," he said when we got close enough to whisper. "Do you know if Ivey has a stack?"
"Yeah, he does. He's got about sixteen," we answered.
"Damn!" answered the player, truly unhappy with the news. Perhaps he's got a little action on the side, but either way, it's always a wise idea to keep an eye on Ivey.
It looks like Michael Mizrachi and Zimnan Ziyard are the two biggest stacks in the room. Here's how they and a few of the other stacked notables look right now.
Tom Dwan played in 54 of 58 bracelets events he was eligible for (no Seniors, Casino Employees or Ladies event).
Not only did Kirill Rabtsov earn the most cashes at the 2011 WSOP, he had one of the highest cash percentage rates among players in 2011 at 30.43%.
Even before the 2011 WSOP Main Event, Ben Lamb had already amassed $1.3 million in tournament earnings. His third place finish in the Main earned him an additional $4,021,138 for a total of $5,352,970.
Pius Heinz, by virtue of his Main Event win plus his one other WSOP cash, won $8,798,924 at the 2011 WSOP, the most of any individual.
Only Phil Hellmuth and Chris Moorman on the Top 10 money earners list did not win a WSOP gold bracelet—but both had runner-up finishes.
We picked up a three-way pot as an unknown player (Player 1) called the bring-in with the showing. Katie Baxter raised with the , Andrey Zaichenko called with the , and Player 1 called with his eight up.
Baxter bet her lead on fourth street, then called three streets of bets from Zaichenko. Player 1 called him down, too, and the cards were on their backs.
Player 1: /
Baxter: /
Zaichenko: /
Zaichenko announced his "Aces up," first, and that cued Baxter to show her superior set of queens. Neither of them could beat Player 1's flush, though, and they both quickly mucked their cards and sent their chips across the felt.
Baxter has dipped back under starting stack with that slide.
During the last break Phil Hellmuth sought out a midnight snack. He's currently at the table chowing down on a personal pan pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. What's he washing it down with you ask? That'd be a 20 oz. bottle of Aquafina.
Shawn Buchanan appeared to be all in from the get go, be it from the ante or a raise we're not sure. What we do know is that Patrick Schulze and an unknown player in Seat 1 were also in the hand and creating some action.
Buchanan: / /
Schulze: / /
Seat 1: (x-x) /
Schulze bet every step of the way until Seat 1 folded on sixth street, which meant Buchanan needed help on seventh. Unfortunately for him, it was not to be and he was eliminated at the hands of the WSOP Circuit Harrah's Rincon H.O.R.S.E. champion.