Just about an hour ago, we reported that Jeff "ICuRaRook" Sluzinski was the chip leader of the tournament sitting on around 80,000. Well, we just walked past his table, and saw that his stack had been dwindled down to a few stacks of the green T25 and black T100 chips, worth about 5,000 total. He looked at us, simply shook his head, and said "kings vs aces." With the blinds just raising to 300-600, Sluzinski will need to make some moves soon to survive the day.
Chad Viall is happy recipient of the latest pot. He found himself all in preflop against two other opponents, that held and respectively. Viall held pocket jacks and they needed to hold for him to stay alive and triple up.
The board ran and Viall stayed alive. The player holding was an outspoken elderly gentleman that had been talkative throughout the day. After losing the hand he was going on about how Viall and the third player should have played the hand.
David "ODB" Baker was entertained enough to announced to the table that the elderly gentleman was going to be the 2012 WSOP Main Event champ.
Alex Massman quickly amassed a giant stack of over 100,000 over the past hour, and when we walked to his table, we saw him in yet another big pot. The board was at the turn, reading . With about 9,000 in the pot, Massman's opponent checked, and Massman bet out 4,500. His opponent check raised to around 9,500, and Massman tossed in the call. The river brought the , and Massman's opponent bet out 8,000. Massman called, and mucked when his opponent showed , for a turned straight and rivered nut flush. Despite losing over 20,000 in the pot, Massman is still sitting on 103,000.
Tom Braband was on the button and opened for 1,300. Allen Cunningham called from the big blind and the flop came . Cunningham check-called 1,500 to see the turn come . Both players checked and the river came .
Cunningham took the lead and bet out 3,000 and Braband insta-raised to 15,000 - which was more than enough to put Cunningham all in. Cunningham called and waited to see Braband table before mucking his cards, collecting his belongings and exiting the tournament area.
Steve Brecher got into a preflop raising war with the player in the big blind. Ultimately, Brecher five-bet shoved all in for just over 26,000. His opponent tanked for a short while, unwilling to give up his hand easily.
Before folding his opponent showed the and mucked his hand. Brecher nodded and collected the sizable pot.
We came to "Miami" John Cernuto's table with him in the middle of a big hand that was on the river. The board read out , and Cernuto was heads up with another opponent with about 10,500 in the pot. Cernuto's opponent led out for 5,175, and Cernuto went into the tank. He cut out his chips several times, and after about 90 seconds of thinking, he tossed in the call. Cernuto was not happy when his opponent turned over , and he mucked his hand. Cernuto is knocked down to around 15,000 after the hand.
Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Bicycle Casino has come to a close and almost half the starting field has been eliminated. At the end of play 150 players remain of the 299 that entered and Brandon Crawford is the chipleader with 115,000.
It was not an easy day for many of the notable players that began the day. Bryan Devonshire was eliminated on the first hand he played when he made a king-high straight and his opponent made Broadway. Joining Devonshire on the rail are Allen Cunningham, Jerry Yang, Jeff Madsen, Tuan Le, Aaron Massey, Owais Ahmed, Kelly Kim, Tuan Le and Ray Henson. We expect to see most of those players during the evening flight.
It wasn't all bad news for notables; moving on to Day 2 are "Miami" John Cernuto (21,000), David "ODB" Baker (28,000), Nick Rampone (17,000), Thor Hansen (31,000) and Steve Brecher (37,000).
Day 1b is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and we'll continue to cover all the action. Day 2 will have cards in the air at 12 p.m. PST and be sure to follow all the WSOPC action live on Pokernews.com
WSOP TD Jack Effel is making announcements concerning the National Championship, the 2012 WSOP schedule and today's schedule. Cards will be in the air soon.
and 
respectively. Viall held pocket jacks and they needed to hold for him to stay alive and triple up.
and Viall stayed alive. The player holding 
, and Massman's opponent bet out 8,000. Massman called, and mucked when his opponent showed 
, for a turned straight and rivered nut flush. Despite losing over 20,000 in the pot, Massman is still sitting on 103,000.
. Cunningham check-called 1,500 to see the turn come 
.
before mucking his cards, collecting his belongings and exiting the tournament area.
, and Cernuto was heads up with another opponent with about 10,500 in the pot. Cernuto's opponent led out for 5,175, and Cernuto went into the tank. He cut out his chips several times, and after about 90 seconds of thinking, he tossed in the call. Cernuto was not happy when his opponent turned over 
, and he mucked his hand. Cernuto is knocked down to around 15,000 after the hand.
