Today wasn't the day of Liv Boeree. She was no longer in her seat and we asked her former opponents what happened.
On a board Boeree got her chips into the pot with , but that was no good against her opponent's . The river was a and the 2010 European Poker Tour San Remo winner was eliminated.
Boeree has two cashes at this year's WSOP so far, but she won't add another in this event. Tomorrow there is a $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event in which we'll probably see her back in action!
A quick jaunt around the Silver Section reveals a few stories to sell and here they are.
Jude Ainsworth is flying high with around 12,800 chips. Our enquiries reveal that he managed to stack someone very early, after his pocket aces had a fatal scrap against the pocket jacks of his opponent on a 9-high board.
Tony Cousineau has cashed fifty-one times in World Series of Poker (WSOP) events - including one in this years tournament - but he will not be making it number fifty-two during Event #44. Rumor has it that Cousineau's demise came in a three-bet pot with the board was reading . Cousineau found himself all-in holding and his opponent was holding for the baby flush.
Two more players who are out in the early stages of Event #44 are Barry Shulman and Kevin Mathers. Shulman was eliminated at the hands of Enrique Garza. Garza told us that he was holding , Shulman was holding and when the flop came down containing an ace - that was the end of that. Kevin Mathers has also gone. We asked countless people on the table how he met his maker, but it appears the Mathers exit was not a memorable one. Back to work Kevmath, the poker world needs you in your rightful place!
New faces in the Silver Section belong to Erik Seidel, Melanie Weisner & the 'lucky' Alex Dovzhenko. Dovzhenko had a fantastic World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), in the Autumn, when he secured a 4th place finish in a €1,500 event and an 11th place finish in the Main Event. We just caught Dovzhenko raking in a pot against an eliminated player, who said Dovzhenko was, "so lucky dude." When we last left Dovzhenko he was laughing his head off, and muttering the words lucky under his breath. Lucky or not the Ukrainian grinder has 12,000.
We have just raced around the red section and do you know what we saw? Well let us tell you.
We cannot find the Spanish duo of Carlos Mortensen and Leo Margets. We believe Margets was eliminated in a flip - v - but cannot find out whether Mortensen was eliminated or moved. For now we are going to assume he is busto, until we spot otherwise.
Another red-section player who is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye is Erika Moutinho. Moutinho reached notoriety when she finished in 29th place in last years World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event where she cashed for $242,636 (just one place behind her fiance David 'Doc' Sands). Moutinho has just been eliminated versus in a pre flop battle.
Contrasting fortunes for Jameson Painter and Joseph Cheong. Painter arrived on time and then departed not long after, whilst Cheong arrived late and has just doubled up. Painter was out versus in another of the notorious $1k flips and Cheong doubled up versus .
With seven-hundred players remaining in the field we have some news to report from the Silver Section of the Brasilia Room. The man leading the way is James Wall. We caught him moving up to 55,000 after eliminating an opponent in a pre flop debate. Wall held and the player eliminated held on a board of .
Not too far behind Wall is Amnon Filippi on 47,000. Filippi has Melanie Weisner (32,000) and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Pascal LeFrancois (22,000) on his left shoulder so we can expect some fireworks.
On the elimination front we have lost Bram Cops after he pushed with ace-nine suited and got called three way by pocket eights and king queen. His suited ace did not find a matching partner and he was out. Joining Cops on the bench are Faraz Jaka, David Peters, Gabriel Nassif and Michael Telker.
With five-hundred and sixty players remaining Blair Hinkle has just been handed a gift to take him to the top of the chip counts. The ink is not yet dry on the paycheck that Blair Hinkle received for his 4th place finish in Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, and he is at it again. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder won $192,734 for that finish, and although there is a long way to go, he is sitting pretty at the top once more.
The player in the hijack seat raised to 800, Hinkle three-bet to 2,200 out of the big blind, the hijack four-bet to 6,200 and Hinkle moved all-in. The player in the hijack removed his ear plugs and if he wasn't thinking seriously about this hand before, he was now. A few minutes passed without any movement from Hinkle and any sign of a decision from his opponent. Eventually the clock was called and the hijack decided it was time to play.
"OK…I call," said the hijack.
Hinkle, who was wearing a white fisherman's hat, turned over and the hijack sheepishly turned over . The jaw of Ryan Julius (who was watching the hand) just dropped in a, "why doesn't that ever happen to me?" type of look.
The board ran out , the hijack left and the rest of the table started laughing.
"It must be the hat," said Julius.
In the very next hand the action folded around to Hinkle who raised in the small blind and the big blind folded.
"Did you see that? He had kings again," said Julius.
We are halfway through Level 9 and there are four-hundred and seventy players remaining. Here is a quick recap of the shenanigans in the Gold Section.
Peter Walsworth was one of our early chip leaders and now he is one of our post dinner fatalities. The last time we checked on him he was sat on a stack of around 39,000 (double the average). Paul Berende told us that he bluffed most of them to the player seated to his right, before losing the rest in a rather unfair heads-up match with versus the of Berende.
Christian de Leon has also been eliminated in the cruelest of fashions. Jaspal Brar opened from the button, De Leon moved all-in for around 5,000 and Brar called. De Leon held and Brar . The flop was and the rest is all water under the bridge.
Our final, notable, casualty in the Gold section is former November Niner John Racener. Mathew Frankland was kind enough to talk us through the Racener exit. Frankland opened, David Stephen called before Racener three-bet, Frankland folded and Stephen called. The action checked through on a board of , Stephen bet 2,500, Racener raised, Stephen moved all-in and Racener called. Stephen turned over for the nuts and Racener mucked what Frankland believes was pocket tens.
The players moving at the right end of the counts include Adam Heger, Tucker Hummel, Mazin Khoury, Robert Jin and Adam Kornuth.
Post Note: Mathew Frankland has just come and taken his phone out of the charge with a face like a slapped fish, courtesy of losing a 30k flip.
The trio of Amnon Filippi, Melanie Weisner and Pascal LeFrancois have been split up with the only remaining player in his original seat being the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner LeFrancois. Weisner has been eliminated after losing a string of pots culminating in a negative flip - v . Filippo is not out though, instead he has been moved, and he needed a wheelbarrow to help him with his chips - 175,000 at the last count! He must have been running well on his new table because he just showed down pocket queens after forcing to Kevin Elia to lay down a hand prompting a player to shout, "man how can you run so hot?"
A whole host of other notable names have bitten the dust along with Weisner. Padraig Parkinson has been eliminated after running into of all hands. An ace on the river sending the Irishman out of the Brasilia Room. Mohsin Charania has been eliminated after running into pre flop, and we have also lost David Williams, Florian Langman and Pierre Neuville.
Joining Filippi at the top end of the charts are WSOP bracelet holder Mikhail Lakhitov (105,000), Kevin Elia (77,000), Jude Ainsworth (74,000), Julian Parmann (70,000) & Stanislaw Kretz (63,000).
There are 333 players left with fifteen minutes remaining of Level 10. The average stack is now 26,568.
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 and her opponent held . The board ran out and Antonius doubled up as did the other four players in the other hands!
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 his opponent tank-called with . 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.