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Event 1 - Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em
Day 1 Completed
2009 World Series of Poker
Event 1 - Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
Event Info
2009 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
$500
Total Entries
866
Level
19
Blinds
8,000 / 16,000
Ante
2,000
Players Left 1 / 866
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Amidst the sea of relative unknowns, there were a few notable faces who stuck out from the crowd. Pat Poels came and went quickly, exiting within the first 90 minutes of play. Legendary Tournament Director Jack McClelland would do a bit better, but he too would bow out just after the dinner break. Marsha Waggoner and Kyle Morris were among the others who failed to reach the money.
After a late charge, Cesar Chavez will take the overnight chip lead, bagging up 107,700 chips. It appears that there is only one other player above the century mark; Casey Kuhn was at 101,300 just before play ended. These two men have set themselves ahead of the field, but there is a big group chasing them. About two dozen players will start Day 2 in the 80,000-chip range.
That wraps up Day 1 from the World Series of Poker. Only 48 more to go. Until tomorrow, goodnight from Las Vegas!
against his opponent's 
. The board ran out 
and with that, play ends for day 1.
Tournament Director Steve Frezer is doing his part to incite action. "Okay players," came the voice over the P.A. system. "Remember, this is No-limit Hold'em. You can move all in at any time!"
A nervous chuckle made its way across the room.
Now it was Cohen's turn in the tank. He eyed up his own stack and labored for a minute over the decision. Shooting a glance across the table, he mumbled, "I don't think I'm good enough to lay this down," contemplating a big decision for a huge chunk of chips. Finally, after much deliberation, he flicked his cards back into the muck, choosing to save his hard-earned chips for a more promising spot.
Based on his own account, Morris was holding pocket fives, and he was tangled up in a battle with Ramy Zakaria. The flop brought a welcomed set for Morris but it gave Zakaria a flush draw in the process. The two men got it all in, with Morris being the shorter of the two stacks.
Unfortunately for him, Zakaria hit his flush on the turn, and Morris was unable to pair the board for salvation. With that, he's headed toward the exit in 83rd place.
The remaining 82 players are now squarely on the bubble. There will be just one more unhappy exit before we reach the money.
spread in the middle of the table. Action was on Ramy Zakaria, and he led out into the table with a bet of 5,000. Next door, Osmel Castro stacked out re-raising chips, pushing out what appeared to be 18,000 of them. The other two players quickly ducked out, but Zakaria reached for more checks. He slid out two big multicolor towers, enough to cover Castro, who had just about 10,000 behind his initial raise."Man, why you gotta do this to me?" lamented Castro, looking at the clock and seeing that we are just two players from the money. Finally, seeing no other choice, Castro made the call, putting his tournament life on the line just inches from the money.
Showdown
Zakaria:
Castro:
Zakaria was behind, but he was a slight favorite to win the hand with his open-ended straight flush draw! The turn card actually took away two of his outs though, as the
made Castro aces up. Still needing to dodge a myriad of bad cards, Castro somehow willed the off the deck on the river, a safe rag.With that massive pot, Osmel Castro has vaulted up the scoreboard, going from having one foot out the door to a top five stack in one fell swoop. He's sitting on close to 80,000 now.
and Casey Kuhn had bet 1,800. After a little thought, his opponent raised to 7,300. Kuhn seemed unfazed, re-raising to 18,000. His opponent immediately went all in for 28,000 and Kuhn sighed, "You must have flopped the flush", before making the call.Indeed, his opponent tabled
and had Kuhn's 
drawing thin. That all changed when the 
landed on the turn to make a full house for Kuhn. His opponent quietly stood up and headed to the rail as the meaningless fell on the river.After the hand, one player at the table noted that the eliminated player had not played a hand in two hours.
With the win, Kuhn has chipped back up to 90,000.
Andrew Cohen (who was fighting for the early chip lead with Ramy Zakaria) has now taken the overall chip lead in the room. Still, with 91,000, he's not as far ahead of everyone as he might like to be. There are about a dozen players clustered right behind him near the 70,000-chip mark as nobody can quite pull away from the pack.
Heads up then, the flop came out
. Without hesitation, Williams moved all in for his remaining 21,600 chips. His opponent furrowed his brow and shot a glance over at Williams. Catching his eye, Williams quietly said, "I think we have the same type of hand." That seemed to do it, as his opponent took one last look at his hole cards, flashed them to Williams, and passed them back to the dealer face-down. It's not clear what two cards he showed, but Williams turned over 
, and his opponent nodded knowingly.Jon "Lips" Williams is up to 44,000.
