NBA star Paul Pierce has opted to forgo that last few minutes of play today and jet out of here early. With 15 minutes left on the clock for the night (the clock would be paused with 10 minutes left in the level to play an equal amount of hands at each table), Pierce took off with just under 61,000 left in his stack. He'll miss a few hands, plus lose some blinds and antes, but a near-double starting stack heading into Day 2 was something he seemed pleased about.
Michael Nelson has made it to the the Amazon Room, and the hilarity continues.
Robert Schmidt profited the most of the situation at hand, as he managed to double up through this man who was unable to locate his own table for about 30 minutes after the dinner break.
In a multi-way pot, the flop showed and Schmidt bet 1,400, after which his opponent moved all in immediately. The other players quickly folded and Schmidt called off for a total of 9,725.
Schmidt:
Nelson:
"Yes!" Schmidt's opponent cheered as if his hand was unbeatable. The turn was the and the man continued, "Boom!"
Schmidt was still in the lead and doubled up when the river brought the .
"Yep!" Nelson yelled in excitement once more, while the dealer took the chips from his stack needed to pay off Schmidt.
The dealers started dealing the next hand and the player, out of nowhere, lit a cigarette.
"You're not allowed to smoke in here," the dealer politely said.
"Oh, sorry," Nelson said, as he put out the cigarette in the palm of his hand.
The players at the table and around the table could not hold in their laughter. As long as this player's in the tournament, it will create more and more of these situations. Todd Brunson was at his previous table and he tweeted the following about it:
After the 90-minute dinner break, Sean Winter returned to the Purple Section of the Amazon Room five minutes into Level 4. Upon arriving to his table, he was surprised to find that a very inebriated man was sitting in his assigned seat.
A few members of the WSOP staff ventured over to the table to help the gentleman out, but he didn't want to leave the table. He was certain that Winter was sitting in his seat. After doing some research, the floor discovered that the player's name was Michael Nelson, and his original table was no longer in play.
Gulp.
With the help of the staff, Nelson stumbled out of the Purple Section so that their scavenger hunt wouldn't disturb the other players. Lead Tournament Supervisor Charlie Ciresi started to ask Nelson questions.
"Have you ever seen this room?" he asked Nelson.
"Yes!" he belted. "I'm sitting RIGHT OVER THERE!!!"
His index finger waved in the direction of Table 444 as he mumbled something about his opponents being afraid of him. Without any clues present, Ciresi and his fellow staff members appeared stumped. That's when ESPN's Andrew Feldman received a hot tip from Matthew Haugen:
Ciresi stared at Feldman's phone, reading the tweet intently. He turned his attention from the mobile device to Feldman, who shrugged.
"OK," Ciresi said.
He informed Nelson that they were going to move him to the Pavilion Room, and he nodded, hiking up his baggy shorts and sticking an unlit cigarette in his mouth. As he tried to double around and exit the Amazon Room, Nelson started to fall, but thankfully, one of our reporters was there to catch him.
"I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE I AM!" Nelson shouted as he trudged down the hallways of the Rio, his unlit cigarette dancing on his lips.
After entering the Pavilion Room, Ciresi turned to Nelson and asked him a familiar question.
"Have you seen this room?"
"YEP!" Nelson blurted.
Pulling his pants up every 90 seconds or so, Nelson slowly made his way to the middle of the Yellow Section in the Amazon Room. When he arrived at Table 309, the eight players at the table were all grinning.
"He would come back with the head of security," Maurice Hawkins commented.
Nelson took his seat just in time to act out of turn in a raised pot, throwing out a three-bet before Hawkins made his decision. Hawkins opted to call the raise, which meant that Nelson's bet stood, and the action folded back to the original raiser who called the three-bet. Hawkins put in a reraise, making it 6,000 to go, and both Nelson and the original raiser folded.
Hawkins showed two aces.
Ciresi, who stood by the entire time to make sure that the handoff to the floor person in the Yellow Section went smoothly, stepped in to give Nelson a one-hand penalty. That's when the table broke.
Even Ciresi had to laugh - Nelson was headed back to the Amazon Room.
With Ciresi, a second floor person, and a security guard in tow, Nelson stumbled all the way out of the Pavilion Room with a bag of chips in one hand, and his shorts in another.
"By the way, Mr. Nelson," the second floor person told him. "We're going to have to cut you off."
"Good," Nelson mumbled.
Finally, after a total of 30 minutes, Nelson found his new home at Table 378 Seat 1, where the shenanigans continued...
Gus Hansen had tweeted a few hours earlier that he was on his way to play the Main Event. He's now here and is sitting a few seats to the left of Michael Mizrachi in the back of the Gold section in the Amazon Room.
Matt Salsberg came out firing on the first hand after dinner break, opening the action with a raise to 775. Only the big blind called. The flop came and Salsberg would make a bet of 500 after his lone opponent checked to him. His foe calld and the two both checked the turn and river.
Salsberg's opponent turned over for tens and fours and Salbserg mucked. The Hollywood writer and professional poker player still sits with a comfortable stack of 43,250 and warned everyone at his table via Twitter earlier exactly what he is:
Phil Collins, November Niner from the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, has been eliminated from play by none other than Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué.