With a flop of showing, David Singer put out a bet of 425 under the gun. With calls from a late-position player and the button, the three players saw come on the turn. Everyone checked to the river, which produced the . Singer led out with a 2,000 bet that was called by the late-position player and was enough for the button to fold. Singer showed as the player mucked. Singer now sits with about 13,500 in front of him.
On a board of , T6 player Alex Kravchenko bet out from the big blind and had one caller come along to the river. With a falling on the end, Kravchenko fired 550 and was paid off when he showed and the other player mucked.
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Mark Seif, Layne Flack, Steve Billirakis, Sorel Mizzi, Roy Winston, Robert Mizrachi, Shane "shaniac" Schleger, Chad "lilholdem954" Batista, Jimmy Fricke, Alex Kravchenko, Michael Tomeny, Doug Lee, David Benyamine, Allen Cunningham and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier are all here, making this one of the toughest fields in WSOP Circuit history.
With a board of showing, Anna Wroblewski raised a player in the three seat who had led out with a 500 bet. The cutoff called and the river came . Anna fired with a bet of 4,500 and the player called and showed to take the pot as Anna mucked commenting, "nice hand."
The last few players are trickling in and among the late arrivals is David Singer, who promptly picked up a small pot seconds after sitting down. Also at his table is Irishman Alan Smurfit.
Gavin Smith
After somehow managing to work his starting stack of 10,000 down to 250, Gavin Smith opened the pot by moving all in with . Action was folded back around to the small blind who called the additional 200 with . The big blind mucked as the seat remains unoccupied.
The board came giving Gavin top pair, extending his tournament life for at least a little while longer.
Arguably the toughest table to start the day sees 2007 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Steve Billirakis sitting with Sabyl Cohen, Roy Winston, Robert Mizrachi, and Gavin Smith among others. This grouping should make for some exciting early action.
Most of the pre-tournament conversations have been squelched by the tournament director's "Shuffle up and deal" announcement and we're officially underway. The sound of shuffling chips now dominates the air, though we can still hear the voice of one very eccentric Men "The Master" Nguyen above the clatter.
Players are taking their seats here in the tournament section of the Caesars Palace poker room. Of note, we've spotted Men "The Master" Nguyen sizing up the competition and sipping coffee while J.C. Alvarado, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Mike Mizrachi, and Kathy Liebert are meandering around the room, waiting for the tournament to start.