Day 1b Finishes Strong
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Last year, the Horseshoe Southern Indiana hosted 289 poker players all shooting for a near six-figure prize up top. Charles “Woody” Moore came away with the title and the money, but even he will be jealous of this year’s winner, who will have had to outlast 309 entrants over the course of two Day 1 starting fields. With just 164 players remaining, they are all chasing Brian Yeager who amassed 143,900 chips with Harold Dennis not far behind having bagged 112,800 chips. While we didn’t see our Defending Champion Moore, Kevin Calenzo was present to try and improve on his 2nd place finish from last year. So far, so good for Calenzo as he will resume play tomorrow with 36,600 in chips.
In a 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit twist, each of the Main Event’s at this year’s stops will include two Day 1 heats and with that, the opportunity to buy-in twice. From glancing around the room, at least ten or so players, including Kevin Saul and Chad Batista, forked over a full $3,200 after failing to advance in the afternoon session. Both notables took advantage of the new setup by moving on to Day 2 despite having busted earlier in the afternoon. Saul ended with 55,900 chips while Batista bagged up 18,600.
They will not be the only notables in tomorrow’s Day 2 field. Bernard Lee looked like he was going to join Saul and Batista in the evening session after a slow start during Day 1a. However, a late surge, thanks in large part to a set-over-set double up, allowed him to bag a healthy 44,700. 2011 WSOP bracelet-winner Aaron Steury advanced with 41,000 while Mark “Pegasus” Smith will have his work cut out for him tomorrow having finished with just 24,500.
A player we will have no choice but to keep our eye on is last year’s 18th place finisher Miguel “Zeek” Borrero. Not only did he deliver on a promise of revenge by knocking out Kenny Nguyen, but he talked another opponent into calling off his stack drawing very thin.
Day 2 will begin at 1300 EDT (1700 GMT) and is sure to be full of excitement as we are scheduled to play through the money bubble and on to the final table. With 164 players remaining, many of whom have had scores of tournament success in the past, there is no where else you will want to be tomorrow than catching all the action on the best source for live poker updates, PokerNews.com.