The second half of Monday's tourney-start daily double at the WSOP is Event #18, $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys. It's lowball Kansas City style, with a smallish field of lowball specialists and great all-around players expected to turn out.
Last year Erik Seidel topped a 78-player field (which also chipped in 226 rebuys), to collect the winner's bracelet and $538,835 in prize money.
The players are starting to congregate in the tournament area and a few have started taking their seats. An announcement was just made over the P.A. which confirmed that this event will be starting on time in just under five minutes. Stay with us...
As to be expected with a $5,000 rebuy event in a game that most people don't know how to play, today's event drew a very small, very pro-heavy field. Every table has a big name, and some have more than one. As an example, the players at Orange #11 are, in this order: Greg Raymer, Mike Matusow, Roland de Wolfe, Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, Lee Watkinson and Tom Schneider.
From under the gun, Eli Elezra raised to 700. Andy Black called from the button. Elezra drew two cards to Black's one. Both players checked after the draw.
"Kings," said Elezra, a note of wistfulness in his voice. He tossed his hand into the muck without even seeing Black's hand. Black, however, flashed two deuces and grinned before raking the pot.
It would probably be easier to list the players in this event that AREN'T household names...but what fun would that be? Here's who's been spotted so far:
Jennifer Harman, Eli Elezra, Johnny Chan, Michael Binger, Freddy Deeb, Phil Galfond, Robert Mizrachi, Layne Flack, Daniel Alaei, Chau Giang, Doyle Brunson, David Grey, Billy Baxter, Nick Schulman, Mike Wattel, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren, Shawn Sheikhan, John Hennigan, Carlos Mortensen, Allen Cunningham and Jeffrey Lisandro are peppered throughout today's field.
Mike Matusow is seated at Orange #11, giving him a perfect view of Orange #12 and young internet pros Phil Galfond and Tom "durrrr" Dwan.
"Oh my god!" Matusow shouted, pointing at Orange #12. "How do I get to that table? Phil, how much 2-7 have you played in your entire life? About five minutes?"
Galfond grinned and answered, "Probably about three hours."
The start of this event was not without a minor mishap. Scotty Nguyen apparently started his day sitting in the wrong seat. When the rightful owner of the seat showed up, there was an issue with him taking the stack over. It seems that since he (the rightful owner of the seat) was a late registration, he should not have been blinded off in the hands in the hands he missed. However his stack (commanded by Nguyen at the time) was indeed blinded off as Scotty played the hands. Complex as it is, the issue has apparently been resolved and all is well in the land of 2-7.
Phil Ivey is prepared to spend a pretty penny in today's event. He already rebought once (as soon as he had paid his first ante), and he has $80,000 in Bellagio chips on the table behind his stack, waiting to be used for additional $5,000 rebuys.