Andrew Nguyen opened for 275 in late position and got the blinds to come along. The flop came , the blinds checked, Nguyen bet 575 and only the big blind called. The turn came , the big blind checked and Nguyen bet 975. The big blind called after thinking it over for a short moment. The river came and the big blind took action for the first time and bet 2,600.
Nguyen stacked out a call and shuffled some chips to think, he decided to call and tabled pocket nines for a rivered set. But the third spade gave his opponent a flush holding and nearly a straight flush.
Nguyen is still comfortable though with about 25,000.
It's quite a hike to the outer tables, which are located away from the tournament area by the poker room; nonetheless, we ventured out to see how those half a dozen tables are faring. While there, we saw a pot develop that had 5,500 in the middle and a board reading . The big blind had checked to a player in middle position and he had bet 2,000.
Action was on Matthew Chang and he took his time before tossing in a call, which prompted the big blind to get out of the way. The MP player then rolled over for top pair with top kicker. Chang just shook his head and tossed his cards to the muck, dropping to 15,000 in the process.
Last year's defending champ, Jonathan Poche, is not in today's field. We checked with the tournament director who confirmed that he is not currently registered for Day 1a. There's still plenty of time to register, plus another starting flight later this evening, so we haven't given up hope of a title defense yet.
On a board reading and about 4,500 in the pot, an unknown opponent in the small blind bet 2,400 and Kenny Milam made the call. The small blind rolled over for a straight, prompting Milam to muck his hand.
"I've been rivered three times already," Milam said as he dropped to 14,000.
Last year's Main Event garnered 382 players and after one level we've already surpassed that mark. The board reads 390 entrants at the moment so we hope you bet on the over.
Earlier at the Harrah's New Orleans stop, Alex Foxen managed to capture a gold ring by winning the six-max event. He is in action today but off to a bad start. We recently stumbled by his table to see a board reading . An unknown played in Seat 3 had bet 4,000 only to have Foxen raise to 10K. The unknown player then moved all in and Foxen snap-called with . Unfortunately for him, it was no good as his opponent rolled over for a straight.
Foxen was clearly displeased, but the good news he was still left with 8,500.
We'd barely gotten through the tournament area to get a list of players when we saw Mark "Pegasus" Smith leaving the table. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Straight over straight."
We asked if he would be playing the second flight, he hasn't yet this year, and said, "Aw, maybe. I don't know."
We're hoping to see him back to get a final tuneup before action kicks off at the Rio in a few short days.
Andy Hwang, winner of Event #1. Picture courtesy of WSOP.com.
There have been a slew of preliminary events here in New Orleans prior to today's Main Event. One of these events was Event #1 $355 No-Limit Hold’em, which attracted 945 players and became the largest poker tournament ever held in New Orleans by surpassing the previous record of 833 players set on May 18, 2005.
After four days of intense play, a stacked final table was set that saw Yung “Andy” Hwang, Charles “Woody” Moore, and Josh Evans make it all the way to three-handed play. Moore has proven himself time and again on the circuit, having won last year’s WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Southern Indiana Main Event and making multiple final tables this year, but he came up short of his second gold ring. The good news is that, in addition to his $23,853 payday, Moore’s third-place finish earned him enough points to qualify for the National Championship for the second year in a row.
That left Hwang and Evans to do battle heads up, which lasted about 45 minutes. In the final hand, Evans moved all in with only to run into Hwang’s . The board ran out an uneventful , and Evans was dispatched in second place for $32,317 with enough points qualify him for a seat in the National Championship
Meanwhile, Hwang collected the $52,249 first-place prize and his first WSOP Circuit gold ring. What’s more, the Houstonian earned enough points to join Evans and Moore near the top of the National Leaderboard and essentially locked up a spot in the National Championship.
Here's a look at the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans events completed thus far:
WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans Ring Event #1 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Aaron Massey
Kenny Milam
Mark "Pegasus" Smith
Sam Barnhart
Abraham Araya
Chris Conrad
David Clark
John Dolan
Tripp Kirk
AJ Jejelowo
Charles Moore
Kat Bowen
Preston Durden
Matthew Hankins
, the blinds checked, Nguyen bet 575 and only the big blind called. The turn came 
, the big blind checked and Nguyen bet 975. The big blind called after thinking it over for a short moment. The river came 
and the big blind took action for the first time and bet 2,600.
and nearly a straight flush.
for top pair with top kicker. Chang just shook his head and tossed his cards to the muck, dropping to 15,000 in the process.
. An unknown played in Seat 3 had bet 4,000 only to have Foxen raise to 10K. The unknown player then moved all in and Foxen snap-called with 
for a straight.
. The board ran out an uneventful 
