$5,150 Circuit Championship Event Day 1 | 2009 WSOP Circuit - Rincon

$5,150 Circuit Championship Event

Day 1 Completed

03-31-2009 02:09 UTC-7

Bag and Tag

That's it. A long day of twelve hours of play has finally come to an end here at Harrah's Rincon. 106 players started this $5,150 championship event; 16 remain at the end of Day 1. They will return at 1pm tomorrow to play down to a final table of nine players -- the only ones who will see any money.

It was a day of ups and mostly downs for notable players. Matt Stout, Eric Lynch, Jason Young, Michael Binger, Bryan Devonshire, David Daneshgar and Mickey Mills all hit the rail during the day. At the end of the day, Esther "E-Tay" Taylor appeared to be the overnight chip leader.

Just being the overnight chip leader doesn't guarantee anything, however. She will have to continue to work tomorrow if she hopes to make the final table and take down the tournament.

We'll be back at 1pm local time. See you then!

Tags: Esther Taylor

03-31-2009 01:47 UTC-7

Twenty Minutes to Go

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We're down to the last twenty minutes of the day. Sixteen players remain, split across two tables. If you had asked us at the beginning of the day, we would have said 15 players would remain at the end of twelve levels. That's looking like an excellent over/under at this point.

03-31-2009 01:44 UTC-7

Loren Egide Eliminated in 17th Place

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With just 8,000 chips left, Loren Egide moved all in under the gun. Next door, Esther Taylor reraised to 15,000, isolating herself against the at-risk player. With the rest of the table ducking out, the cards were turned over.

Showdown:
Egide: {Q-Spades}

Taylor:

The board frowned on Egide, coming {3-Hearts}

. Failing to catch any help, Egide has been sent to the rail. Our early-day chip leader jumped out to a flying start out of the gate, but things took a turn for the worse as the day wore on. Now, just a few places before the money, our one-time chip leader is out the door, proving once more that it's not how you start, but how you finish that makes all the difference.

Tags: Esther Taylor Loren Egide

03-31-2009 01:30 UTC-7

Ray McCabe Eliminated in 18th Place

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We pick up a heads-up pot on the flop with the board showing {8-Spades}

. Action is on Rick Reavis, and he opts to move all in for about 40,000. Ray McCabe made the call, putting himself all in in the process as Reavis had him slightly covered.

Showdown:
Reavis: {K-Clubs}

McCabe:

The turn and river were useless to McCabe, coming {6-Clubs}

and

respectively. He has been sent packing, sending all of his chips over to Reavis, who sits now right at the 100,000 mark.

Tags: Ray McCabe Rick Reavis

03-31-2009 01:26 UTC-7

Getting Down There

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With the last elimination, we are down to our final 18 players. The third table has been broken, and the remaining players are now combined into our final two tables.

Level: 12

Blinds: 1,500/3,000

Ante: 400

03-31-2009 01:02 UTC-7

Billirakis Busto; Another Leader Emerges

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First into the pot preflop, Steve Billirakis opened with a raise to 5,200. From the small blind, Charles Williams reraised to 21,000. The action folded back around to Billirakis, and he went into the tank for a few minutes. Williams was standing behind his chair at this point, and Billirakis was shooting him an occasional glance in between confused facial expressions. After a long soak in the think tank, Billirakis announced, "All in." Nobody heard him at first, as the table all perked up with a collective, "Hmm?" Billirakis repeated, "I'm all in."

Before the words were out of his mouth the second time, Williams said, "I call." He slipped his cards out from under his protector, revealing {A-Hearts}

. Billirakis already knew he had made a mistake, and the news was as bad as it could be for the man holding {8-Spades}

.

The dealer ran out what would be the final set of community cards of his tournament: {6-Hearts}

. Williams' overpair improves to the big full house, dealing a final huge blow to the young pro.

After dragging in the biggest pot of the tournament, Charles Williams has now taken the pole position, leading the pack with a massive 284,000 chips.

Tags: Charles Williams Steve Billirakis

03-31-2009 00:51 UTC-7

Deeb Over and...

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One of the players at Shaun Deeb's table said that he had a "rough hour". Given that he just busted after having 145,000 chips thirty minutes ago, we'd say that's an understatement. Deeb moved all in for about 45,000 preflop with {K-Hearts}

and was called by Josh Prager, who tabled {Q-Clubs}

. There was no joy for Deeb on a board of {4-Diamonds}

. He's out.

Tags: Shaun Deeb

03-31-2009 00:49 UTC-7

Poker is Easy

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Poker is easy when you're Pogos Simityan. He saw two raises in front of him (including an all-in raise of 45,000) when Simityan looked down at the preflop nuts, {A-Spades}

. He quickly moved all in himself, folding the original raiser, Charles Williams. That left Simityan up against the {8-Hearts}

of Scott Lyle. Lyle flopped a gutshot draw, {10-Diamonds}