2012 World Series of Poker

Event 44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Rocco Palumbo
Winning Hand
a9
Prize
$464,464
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,000
Prize Pool
$2,654,100
Entries
2,949
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
10,000

Event 44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Day 1 Completed

Tony Welds Leads Day 1 of Event #44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Amnon Fillipi close to chip lead
Amnon Fillipi close to chip lead

The 44th event of the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) continued it's late trend of ever-increasing fields when 2,949 entries souls took to the felt. That figure eclipsed last years total of 2,890 entrants, an event that saw Kenneth Griffin take home his first ever WSOP bracelet in his first ever live cash.

We will have to wait for another two days to see who our next 'Kenneth Griffin' will be, but in the meantime Tony Welds leads the way. Welds bagged and tagged 131,900 chips and leads the final 297 players as we close the books on Day 1 and look forward to Day 2 in a few hours time.

When the day began - eleven long levels ago - the field was shrinking quicker than little girls called Alice when they drink out of bottles with the motif "DRINK ME" emblazoned on them. A whole raft of talent left the competition. From the ladies section we lost Kathy Liebert, Liv Boeree and Erika Moutinho and from the gentleman's section Barry Shulman Tony Cousineau, Jason Senti and Terrence Chan were shown the door.

The halls of the Rio were echoing with bad beat stories but none funnier than Govert Metaal. He was eliminated very early and told us that if we thought that exit was fast we hadn't seen anything yet. In the previous day Metaal played in the $1,500 and was eliminated so quickly he caught the same taxi home that had brought him to the event because it hadn't even moved up the line!

After the dinner break and it was a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner who topped the charts. Only days ago, Blair Hinkle, had finished 4th in Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em earning $192,734 and he received a gift just after dinner. After five-betting with {K-Clubs} {K-Hearts} his opponent tank-called with {A-} {2-Hearts}. The board ran out devoid of any aces and Hinkle was the first player to surpass the 60k mark mark.

"It must be the hat," said Ryan Julius referring to the white fisherman's hat seated on top of the Hinkle bonce.

We lost John Racener, Christian de Leon and Mathew Frankland at one end and Jake Schindler popped up with 70,000 at the other. Schindler had been seated next to Patrik Antonius's wife Maya for most of the day and he didn't have a clue who she was. Then during one of their conversations Mrs Antonius told Schindler that her husband was playing in the $50k and then revealed it was Antonius.

"Antonius? He's a huge fish," joked Schindler.

The tail end of the tournament was all about the bubble with the entire last level consumed with hand for hand play with Erik Seidel and Maya Antonius two of the notables to avoid elimination. But the bubble did burst and the play stopped dead. The battle at the top was close right to the bitter end with only 1,000 chips separating Tony Welds and Amnon Filippi when the bags were finally checked.

Day 2 starts at 1:00PM in the Amazon room and PokerNews will bring you all of the action.

Player Chips Progress
Tony Welds
Tony Welds
131,900 9,900
Amnon Filippi us
Amnon Filippi
WSOP 1X Winner
130,900 -36,100
Julian Parmann us
Julian Parmann
101,400 1,400
Mazin Khoury us
Mazin Khoury
100,900 6,900
Mikhail Lakhitov ru
Mikhail Lakhitov
WSOP 1X Winner
98,100 18,100
Jude Ainsworth ie
Jude Ainsworth
96,600 600
Kevin Elia us
Kevin Elia
94,200 14,200
Blair Hinkle us
Blair Hinkle
WSOP 1X Winner
90,200 17,200
Keven Stammen us
Keven Stammen
WSOP 1X Winner
77,000 -3,000

Tags: Tony Welds

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Player Chips Progress
Tony Welds
Tony Welds
131,900 -11,100
Amnon Filippi us
Amnon Filippi
WSOP 1X Winner
130,900 123,300
Julian Parmann us
Julian Parmann
101,400 31,400
Mazin Khoury us
Mazin Khoury
100,900 32,900
Mikhail Lakhitov ru
Mikhail Lakhitov
WSOP 1X Winner
98,100 -6,900
Jude Ainsworth ie
Jude Ainsworth
96,600 93,600
Kevin Elia us
Kevin Elia
94,200 17,200
Blair Hinkle us
Blair Hinkle
WSOP 1X Winner
90,700 28,700
Shane Weber us
Shane Weber
88,700
Gonzalo Ramirez us
Gonzalo Ramirez
80,600
Carsten Luxig de
Carsten Luxig
79,400
Inge Forsmo no
Inge Forsmo
77,400
Keven Stammen us
Keven Stammen
WSOP 1X Winner
77,000 74,300
Jacob Schindler us
Jacob Schindler
WSOP 1X Winner
76,800
Jeremy Halaska us
Jeremy Halaska
76,600
Shawn Van Asdale us
Shawn Van Asdale
72,800
Joseph Vollero us
Joseph Vollero
70,900
Tolga Ural us
Tolga Ural
70,600
Todd Keikoan us
Todd Keikoan
67,400
Francisco Azares ve
Francisco Azares
66,600
William  Jr Vogel
William Jr Vogel
64,000
Fatih Dayik de
Fatih Dayik
63,600
Jonathan Little us
Jonathan Little
63,500 53,500
Sheldon Summers us
Sheldon Summers
62,700
Justin Young us
Justin Young
60,600

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Maya Antonius Escapes The Bubble

Maya Antonius
Maya Antonius

We are now hand for hand on the bubble and we had five simultaneous all-in showdowns. The one table we were at was Table #5 and an all-in and call involving Maya Antonius. She was all-in from the small blind for 16,200 and a player in mid-position had her covered. Antonius held {Q-Clubs} {Q-Spades} and her opponent held {A-Spades} {K-Diamonds}. The board ran out {J-Diamonds} {3-Clubs} {9-Clubs} {7-Hearts} {5-Diamonds} and Antonius doubled up as did the other four players in the other hands!

Player Chips Progress
Maya Antonius
Maya Antonius
36,000 18,600

Tags: Maya Antonius

The Bubbles Approaches

With 301 players left and 297 players getting paid it is safe to say we are on the bubble. At this moment in time the two chip leaders are Tony Welds and Amnon Fillipi.

Welds has avoided our gaze for most of the day, but we did just see him make a nice call to earn himself 14,000 river chips on a board of {10-Clubs} {4-Diamonds} {A-Diamonds} {7-Clubs} {Q-Hearts} holding {A-Spades} {5-Spades} to take himself into the chip lead...just.

Player Chips Progress
Tony Welds
Tony Welds
143,000
Amnon Filippi us
Amnon Filippi
WSOP 1X Winner
137,000 129,400

Tags: Amnon FillipiTony Welds

Level: 11

Blinds: 500/1,000

Ante: 100

Maya Antonius Doubles Up; O'Reilly Leaves

Maya Antonius has just doubled up to 17,400 after getting it in on a {10-} {x-} {x-} flop holding {Q-} {10-} versus the {A-} {J-} of her opponent.

In other news Jaspal Brar has eliminated Scott O'Reilly to move up to 55,000. Pocket queens for Brar and pocket jacks for O'Reilly in a pre flop cooler.

Player Chips Progress
Jaspal Brar ca
Jaspal Brar
WSOP 1X Winner
55,000
Maya Antonius
Maya Antonius
17,400 6,800
Scott O'Reilly
Scott O'Reilly
Busted

Tags: Jaspal BrarMaya AntoniusScott O'Reilly