Steve Verrett moved all in for his last 18,800 action watched as the field folded all the way to the big blind, who made the call.
Showdown
Verrett: 
Big Blind: 
Verrett's face was full of disappointment after learning he had run into a superior hand. Much to his dismay, he could not get lucky as the board ran out 
. Verrett had deep runs on both Day 1a and 1b, but could not quite make it to Day 2.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
With the end of the night drawing close the pace of bustouts has slowed to a crawl. Play has become tighter as players realize they are less than an hour away from bagging and tagging and getting a good night's sleep before Day 2 tomorrow.
An older gentleman in the hijack opened for 4,500 and found calls from the button and small blind. Former chip leader Eric Bair was in the big blind and decided to exercise his option with a raise to 15,000, which only the button called.
After the flop came down 
, Bair quickly fired out four orange T5,000 chips and two yellow T1,000 chips for a bet of 22,000. The button, who had about 70,000 back, thought for about ten seconds before relinquishing his hand. With that, Bair is back up to 170K.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
170,000
55,000
|
55,000 |
Level: 15
Blinds: 1,200/2,400
Ante: 400
A middle position player opened for 4,500, the player on the button called and Dylan Thomassie moved all in from the small blind. The original raiser re-checked his cards and folded with a sigh. The player on the button took a few moments longer to fold and Thomassie took the pot.
"If you just three-bet there I could have shoved on you," the original raiser said. "You couldn't call with big slick there."
Thomassie flashed a mischievous grin as he stacked the pot, leaving the others to wonder if he actually had a hand.
Every once in awhile we overlook someone in the field and they don't grab our attention until they have a big stack in front of them. That's exactly what just happened with Mike Scarborough, who is our chip leader with 350,000. As soon as we heard the name, it immediately rung a bell.
You may recall Scarborough from TV when he final tabled the World Poker Tour 2011 Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Not only that, he went on to win it for $273,644 after defeating a final table that included Ali Eslami, Tom Marchese, William Reynolds, and Erik Seidel, with Scarborough defeating the last name on that list in heads-up play. Needless to say, we have a contender on our hands.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
350,000 |
The tournament staff just urged the players to sell all their black chips to one player at each table as they will be raced off prior to the end of the night.
With ten minutes left in the level each table will play three more hands before bagging and tagging for the evening.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
324,500
84,500
|
84,500 |
|
255,000
15,000
|
15,000 |
|
|
245,500 | |
|
|
243,500 | |
|
|
216,500 | |
|
|
189,500
19,500
|
19,500 |
|
|
185,000 | |
|
118,000
67,000
|
67,000 |
|
||
|
108,000
76,200
|
76,200 |
|
|
91,000
99,000
|
99,000 |
|
91,000
53,000
|
53,000 |
|
79,500 | |
|
60,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
50,000 | |
|
41,000
6,000
|
6,000 |
|
|
||
|
30,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
|
26,000
64,000
|
64,000 |
The World Series of Poker Circuit continued on Saturday with Day 1b of the Hammond Main Event. On Friday, the Horseshoe Hammond housed a record 912 entrants for Day 1a, already surpassing the 2010 Main Event’s field of 872 players. That meant the 703 Day-1b entrants was just icing on the cake, making the total field 1,615 and creating a $2,349,825 prize pool, $393,584 of which was reserved for first place. The man who finished Day 1b with the best chance of capturing that prize is Mike Scarborough, who bagged up 324,500.
Scarborough is no stranger to poker and actually made a televised final table at the World Poker Tour 2011 Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Not only that, he went on to win the tournament for $273,644 after defeating a final table that included Ali Eslami, Tom Marchese, William Reynolds, and Erik Seidel, with Scarborough defeating the last name on that list in heads-up play.
Unfortunately, not everyone had as good a day as Scarborough. Day 1b was filled with numerous re-entries, but many found their luck hadn’t changed since Day 1a. Some players who played both flights and failed to survive include Allen Kessler, Kathy Liebert, Chris Tryba, Micah Raskin, Kyle Cartwright, Steve Verrett, Tim Vance, and last year’s winner, Kurt Jewell.
One man who did have a good day was former online pro Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon, who was eliminated on Day 1a on just the third hand after his pocket aces were cracked by pocket kings. Re-entering the event proved a wise decision as Kroon ended up finishing with an average stack of 108,000.
Other notables who survived the Day 1b minefield and will return on Sunday include “Captain” Tom Franklin (41,000), Eddie Blumenthal (79,500), Eric Bair (189,500), Jeff Fielder (216,500), Nadya Magnus (91,000), and Jacob Bazley (255,000).
Those players will join Paul Bianchi, who ended Day 1a as the chip leader with a staggering 358,000; as well as, notables from Day 1a like Eric Crain, Dwyte Pilgrim, Chad Brown, Josh Brikis, Mohsin Charania and Kenny Nguyen.
The 158 Day 1b survivors will join the 184 players Day 1a survivors on Sunday at 2 p.m. as the final 342 work their way past the money bubble and toward the final table.
You can follow all the action from Hammond as our Live Reporting Team brings you all the hands, action, and eliminations on the way to crowning the latest WSOP-Circuit Main Event champion.
