[user25067]
And away we go!
It's the largest buy-in no-limit hold'em event the WSOP has ever hosted and as we speak, several hundred of the world's best players are gathering outside the Amazon Room in anticipation. Prop bets on the number of players (Barry Greenstein has the over on 220), last-longers, and last-minute percentage swaps are going on out in the hallway as the floor staff prepares the "orange" quadrant for the onslaught of poker pros.
For their forty-dime buy-in, players will receive 120,000 in chips to start, with 200-400 blinds and a 50 ante. Levels will last 60 minutes each. We're scheduled to shuffle up and deal at 12:00 PDT.
Keep it here at PokerNews for wall-to-wall coverage of this special 40th anniversary event.
Shamus
Jack Effel, Jeffrey Pollack and Peter Eastgate
As players continued to find their seats, WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel made some opening announcements regarding rules and procedures, including explaining the new penalty tracking system. He then handed the mic to WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, who introduced 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, who then kicked things off with the traditional announcement to dealers to "Shuffle up and deal!"
We're underway! Names of the many notables in today's field coming up.
Shamus
As anticipated, nearly every table in today's $40K event is loaded with the world's top no-limit hold'em players.
Tom "durrrr" Dwan hasn't shown up yet over at Table #70, but when he takes his seat he'll have Phil Ivey on his left, and David "The Dragon" Pham a couple of seats over. Not too far away at Table #60, Shaun Deeb, Gavin Smith, and Eli Elezra are seated together. And at Table #58 are Brian Townsend, Greg Mueller, Doyle Brunson, and Shannon Shorr.
Click on the Chip Counts tab for names of some of today's entrants.
Shamus
Antonio Esfandiari has just sat down over at Table #81. Perhaps anticipating the lack of comfort he will likely be facing with Justin Bonomo, David Chiu, and others at his table, Esfandiari has chosen to wear what appear to be hotel-provided slippers to today's event.
[user111541]
Seat 1: Chris Moorman
Seat 2: Daniel Stern
Seat 3: Gavin Griffin
Seat 4: Andy Bloch (not yet present)
Seat 5: Brian Rast
Seat 6: Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Seat 7: Luke Staudenmaier
Seat 8: J.C. Tran
Both Rast and Timoshenko made a final table at the WPT Championship last month. Rast bubbled the televised portion of the final table in 7th place while Timoshenko went on to take down the title.
[user25067]
For all of you with prop bets on the number of players in the $40K, we currently have 184 players in the field. Registration will remain open for the first two levels.
Shamus
Tony G and Erik Cajelais
With the board showing , Tony G just got it all in with versus Erik Cajelais' . The turn was the , further improving Tony G's hand. And the river was the , giving Tony G the large pot.
Tony G is quickly up to 248,000, while Cajelais falls to 3,800.
[user25067]
We realize that in a field this stacked, every table qualifies as a "Table of Death" but here are some of the more deadly matchups we've spotted:
Table 58: Huck Seed, Shannon Shorr, Nicolas Levi, Brian Townsend, Doyle Brunson, Greg "FBT" Mueller
Table 60: Jonathan Little, Shaun Deeb, Eli Elezra, Neil Channing, Gavin Smith
Table 64: James "mig.com" Mackey, Vanessa Rousso, John Juanda, Ivan Demidov, Johnny Chan
Table 70: Phil Ivey, Scott Seiver, David Pham, Scott Montgomery
Table 72: Kathy Liebert, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Dan Shak, David Benefield, Cory Zeidman
Table 83: Andy Black, Humberto Brenes, Barry Greenstein, Peter Eastgate, Johannes Strassmann
Table 90: Phil Laak, Erick Lindgren, Ted Forrest, Vivek Rajkumar, Chad Batista
[user111541]
Phil Laak
After a flop of Phil Laak announces to the entire tournament floor that he is all in. Camera crews rush over to see Laak turn over for middle set against the pocket kings of James Calderaro. The turn and river are blanks and Laak doubles up to 245,000. Calderaro drops all the way down to 7,900.
![[user25067]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, Tony G just got it all in with 
versus Erik Cajelais' 
. The turn was the 
, further improving Tony G's hand. And the river was the 
, giving Tony G the large pot.
Phil Laak announces to the entire tournament floor that he is all in. Camera crews rush over to see Laak turn over 