With late registration over here on the second of the two Day 1s in Event 59, we can report some final numbers regarding the field size, prize pool, and payout schedule.
A total of 4,620 players entered this one, together creating a total prize pool of $4,158,000. The top 468 finishers will be dividing up the loot, with a cool $654,797 awaiting the winner — not bad for a $1K investment.
A player in middle position raised to 475 and got two callers from the blinds, including J.C. Tran sitting in the small blind and Tony Dunst sitting in the big blind.
The flop came , and all three checked. The turn was the , and this time Tran fired a bet of 650, getting a fold from Dunst but a call from the original raiser.
The river was the , bringing a fourth spade and second deuce. Tran acted quickly, betting 1,650 this time, and without much hesitation his opponent tossed his cards.
A player in the hijack seat opened to 450 and was called by another player in the small blind. Andy Frankenberger then shoved all in for a bit over 4,000 from the big blind and both his opponents threw their hands away.
Frankenberger lost a few chips since last we checked, however, as he is currently sitting on 5,700. But he's faring better than Antonio Esfandiari, who recently lost the last of his short stack to leave us prior to the dinner break.
The Pavilion Room has finally emptied along with the Tan Section of the Amazon Room. The Orange Section of the Amazon Room still holds plenty of tables. We're thinking it might be a long shot to have all the Amazon Room players moved to Brasilia by the dinner break.
After a player opened for 425 from the cutoff seat, Tony Dunst reraised all in with his short stack from the blinds and was called. Dunst had and his opponent , and when the board came , Dunst had a set of sevens and double up to survive.
We caught up with the action on a flop, where Brett Jungblut was in a heads-up pot.
Jungblut's opponent in the small blind checked, prompting a 675 bet from Jungblut in early position. His opponent then raised to 1,350. Jungblut took his time, but eventually decided to call.
The turn brought the and the player in the small blind led out for 950. Jungblut responded by going all in for 5,175 total. His opponent called all in for about 4,300 and hands were revealed.
Jungblut: for a set of nines.
Opponent: for an overpair.
The river kept Jungblut in the lead and he sent his opponent the rail.
Players at Antonio Esfandiari's table are quizzing him about his experience winning the biggest ever prize in a WSOP event, Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop.
One commented on how Esfandiari had begun the event at an especially difficult table, one including Vivek Rajkumar, Tom Marchese, Nick Schulman, Ben Lamb, Brandon Steven, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel.
"It was not an easy table," said Esfandiari, adding a grin to underscore the understatement.
As the conversation progressed, Scott Simpson was pushing his short stack all in from the blinds following a flop and getting a caller. Simpson is from Texas, and Esfandiari offered him some encouragement.
"There you go," said Esfandiari, adding "Texas doesn't mess around!" Simpson smiled. "They named the game after us," Simpson responded, tabling his to show he had trips. A fourth jack came on the river he scooped the small pot to survive.
Meanwhile, Andy Frankenberger was leaning over from the next table, asking Esfandiari if the One Drop event counted toward the WSOP POY race.
"I don't even know," said Esfandiari. A quick check confirmed that it did count, and in fact with the win Esfandiari had bounced into fourth place, ahead of Frankenberger (now in sixth).
"Aw man, you're ahead of me," said Frankenberger as he leaned back forward in his chair, going back to work on trying to catch back up to Esfandiari.