2009 World Series of Poker

Event 57 - $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em
Day: 1a
Event Info

2009 World Series of Poker

Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Entries
6,494
Players Left
9
Next Payout
Place 9
$1,263,602
Level Info
Level
33
Blinds
120,000 / 240,000
Ante
30,000

Now Featuring: Doom

For the majority of the satelliters and part-time players, the chance to play at a Main Event featured table is an opportunity to get some face time on TV and pick up a few sponsorship dollars by slamming patches on every free square inch of T-shirt real estate. But today, there's a price to be paid for drawing the main table.

Eli Elezra was in Seat 6 to start the day, and the action was seven-handed with two empty chairs for the first orbit. The seat to the left of Elezra was soon filled by Dutch pro Lex Veldhuis, tipping the table toward seats six and seven. Just a few minutes later though, Allen Cunningham would climb into seat one, re-balancing things a bit.

It's no easy chore over there under the bright lights as the featured table may well be the most treacherous in the room.

On the other side of the stage, Sammy Farha has joined Greg Mueller at the secondary featured table.

Familiar Faces in the Blue Section

Pro Contingent: Katja Thater, John Duthie, Roland De Wolfe, Andy Black, Vitaly Lunkin, Ludovic Lacay, Sorel Mizzi, Steven Van Zadelhoff, Ted Lawson, Jon "Pearljammer" Turner, Wooka Kim, Jennifer Tilly, Luke Staudenmaier.

Pro Athlete Contingent: Orel Hershiser

Amateur Contingent: Lots of dudes in PokerStars swag

An Odd Couple

Nelly slipped into the red section a few minutes late and took a seat right next to Jason Alexander.

We're not sure how "George" will react to having the rapper at his side, but it should make for some interesting table talk.

Tony G. Gives Up on the River

Tony G. raised to 225 from under-the-gun and got two callers. An opponent in late position then reraised to 1,200. Tony made the call and the other two players folded.

Tony and his opponent both checked down a board of {5-Hearts}{4-Diamonds}{J-Clubs}{K-Diamonds}, and Tony checked again at the {4-Spades} on the river. When his opponent bet 2,000, Tony mucked and his opponent took the pot without showing his cards.

Moorman Clipped

With around 1,900 in the pot on a board reading {Q-Spades}{A-Hearts}{K-Hearts}{4-Spades}, Chris Moorman led out with a bet of 1,400.

His only opponent in the hand quickly raised to 3,300, and found a call from Moorman, only to see him check the {6-Clubs} on the river.

Now faced with a 6,100-chip bet on the turn, Moorman mulled it over for nearly two minutes before laying his hand down.

"I had it, boys," commented Moorman's opponent as he tabled {J-Diamonds}{10-Spades} for the flopped Broadway straight. Moorman slipped to 25,100 in chips.

Shak Starts Off Strong

Beth Shak is in the Orange Section today, playing at a table near the rail. Shak was one of three players who paid 250 chips to take a flop of {3-Clubs} {J-Diamonds} {6-Spades}. She check-called the late-position player's bet of 500 chips and was heads-up to the {10-Diamonds} turn. When that card hit, Shak led into her opponent for 1,000. He made the call.

The river fell {9-Clubs}. Shak made another sizable bet of 1,500 chips. Her opponent folded.

Tiny Danzer

We join a three-handed pot in progress on a tough Table 155. On a flop of {10-Hearts} {10-Clubs} {7-Diamonds}, Jamie Robbins and George Danzer checked, and Thayer Rasmussen put out a bet of 700. Robbins called, and Danzer elected to put in a check-raise to 2,500. Rasmussen ducked out but Robbins called once again.

The turn card came the {J-Clubs}, and this time Robbins was the check-raiser. Danzer put out another 4,000 chips, drawing a raise to 9,000, which he called.

The river card came the {5-Diamonds}, and Robbins kept the heat on with a bet of 11,000. Danzer went into the tank, looking uncomfortable in his chair. He finally called, and Robbins tabled {10-Diamonds} {J-Diamonds} for the full house.

After dropping that pot, Danzer is down to 7,800 and has a long uphill climb ahead of him today.

Tags: George DanzerJamie RobbinsThayer Rasmussen

Notable Players

Some of the notable players located in the red section of the Amazon Room include:

Gavin Smith
Tony G.
Jerry Yang
Isaac Haxton
Jason Alexander
C.K. Hua
Shawn Keller
Sandra Naujoks

Orange Crush

In addition to a Jack Link's Beef Jerky Sasquatch character who is moving between the tables scratching his head, here's who we've spotted so far in the Orange section of the Amazon Room:

Jason Mercier
Erik Cajelais
Beth Shak
Ivo Donev
Raymond Rahme
Bryan Colin
Dewey Tomko
Jeff Williams
Phil Laak
Jason Potter
Anthony Nardi
Peter Hedlund
Nikolay Evdakov
John Phan
Dan O'Brien

You might remember that last year, Laak played all of Day 1 in a full-on prosthetic mask, concealing his identity and appearing to the world to be a much older man. Laak was not able to pull off a similar stunt this year. The 2009 edition of the WSOP Tournament Rules includes a new Rule 44, aka the "Phil Laak Rule". It states in relevant part:

Players may not cover or conceal their facial identity. Tournament officials must be able to distinguish the identity of each player at all times and may instruct players to remove any material that inhibits their identification or is a distraction to other players or tournament officials.