2009 World Series of Poker

Event 54 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Day: 1
123
Event Info

2009 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
9♥j♣
Prize
$673,276
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$3,846,570
Entries
2,818
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000
Sort

It's Final Donkament Time!

[user80015]
[user80015]
Up for grabs . . . fits well, looks nice and is worth much more than money can buy!
Up for grabs . . . fits well, looks nice and is worth much more than money can buy!
It's the start of the week and time for Event 54 - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em to kick off!

Today is the last donkament for the series with a locked out field of 3,000 waiting patiently in the halls of the Rio.

With this being one of the final chance to snatch up WSOP gold before the Main Event a stellar field is expected to take to the felt to battle it out for $600,000-plus first prize!

Play is set to begin in thirty minutes time, so make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for every rivered straight, turned flush and flopped set live from the Rio.

Level: 1

Blinds: 25/50

Ante: 0

Who's Here

[user80015]
[user80015]
A quick scan of the Amazon Room and we find a short, but highly classed, list of notables.

Men 'The Master' Nguyen sits on top with his wife Van Nguyen two tables behind him.

Tom McEvoy, Dennis Phillips and Jeff Madsen have taken their seats along with Lauren Kling and Lily Bui.

Players are still filing in, so stay tune as the list keeps growing!

Table 23 Down!

[user80015]
[user80015]
It's not quite that packed . . . but maybe soon!
It's not quite that packed . . . but maybe soon!
Players that were allocated table 23 were shocked when they arrived at their table today . . . it wasn't in use!

There was a sign directing them to the secondary feature table near the main stage.

Unsure of the reasoning behind the movement - we will do our best to find out if it is for trial purposes in the lead up to the Main Event or that table 23 is truly down.

Nguyen Clipped Early

[user80015]
[user80015]
Men 'The Master' Nguyen
Men 'The Master' Nguyen
We wandered over to find Men 'The Master' Nguyen check-calling a 100-chip bet on the turn with the board reading {Q-Hearts}{K-Hearts}{J-Spades}{9-Hearts}.

When the river landed the {3-Spades} Nguyen checked, his opponent fired another 100 and Nguyen played the old check-raise card pushing the action to 400.

His opponent made the call as Nguyen started chatting away to his nextdoor neighbour.

"First hand and I flopped the straight . . . but I think the turn killed me"

"We chop?" Nguyen asked his opponent as he tabled his {10-Spades}{9-Diamonds}.

His opponent let his cards do the talking when he showed {4-Hearts}{3-Hearts} for a turned flush.

"Oh, I didn't even see the hearts" commenting Nguyen as he slipped to under 4,000 in chips.

They Keep Rolling In

[user80015]
[user80015]
Beth Shak in action
Beth Shak in action
Another wonder through the Amazon Room and a whole bunch of fresh faces have appeared.

Theo Tran and Shaun Deeb both find themselves on the same table, Teddy 'The Iceman' Monroe, Neil Channing, Berry Johnston, Isaac Haxton, Mark Seif, Pieter De Korver, Sorel Mizzi and Alexander Kostritsyn are all playing too.

For the ladies, Liya Gerasimova, Liv Boeree and Beth Shak are all doing their best to alter the male-dominance of this field.

In the Hinterlands

[user108095]
[user108095]
There are some more notable names scattered through the Miranda and Brasilia rooms. Spotted among the field are:

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi
Marco Traniello
Gavin Smith
Dan Heimiller
Roland de Wolfe
Devin Porter
Jason Mercier
David "The Dragon" Pham
Jennifer Tilly
Phil Laak
Rob Hollink

Third Table For Van

[user80015]
[user80015]
A busy moving Van
A busy moving Van
Only thirty minutes into the first level and Van Nguyen is on her third table.

After starting just in front of the blogging desk, she was moved to the feature table. However that has recently broke, and now she finds herself back in the blue section of the Amazon Room.

It doesn't seem like the moves have bothered her too much, and she sits with a healthy 7,400 in chips.

Still Arriving

[user80015]
[user80015]
Known for their WSOP Final Table appearances, Hevad Khan and Ivan Demidov have taken their seats along with Brooklyn's own Eugene Todd and young gun Jason Riesenberg.

Clark Hamagami and Wooka Kim have joined them as well.
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