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We have two new tables in play to begin this level.
One of them contains Andy Bloch, Liz Lieu, Robert Mizrachi, and Anh Van Nguyen.
At the other, we find Dan Heimiller, Eli Elezra, and John Monnette.
We know Mike Matusow is around here somewhere, we just don't know where he's sitting yet as he's yet to join his table. He's still running around tidying up some prop bets.
Level: 2
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 0
There's really nothing notable going on with the action right now, so we're hunting for anything else exciting going on in the room.
Ummm, let's see. Shaun Deeb is getting a massage right now, that's a little bit interesting. Oh, and Greg Mueller is eating a delicious looking fruit plate right now, complete with blackberries. You know, they didn't used to put blackberries on the fruit plates here. So, that's kind of an interesting new development.
Ooh, here we go. There's a bit of noise coming from the far end of the room where a group of late registrants are waiting for the next level to start so they can get seated and play some poker themselves. The group includes Mike Matusow and Robert Mizrachi, and, as so often happens during these stretches of monotony and boredom, the prop bets have begun.
We just overheard a five-way prop bet in the works regarding the total number of players in our field. The big board shows 137 right now, and our group of five is picking numbers in the 170s. They've each picked two numbers, and the lucky man who binks the correct number will win everyone's loot. Here's what they have, if you're scoring at home:
Mike Matusow: 171 and 178
David Benyamine: 168 and 170
Michael Mizrachi: 172 and 174
Robert Mizrachi: 173 and 179
Chad Brown: 176 and 180
Apparently everyone has the "under" on last year's field of 185. We'll see how that pans out when registration closes in just over an hour.
"Oh, I'm such an idiot!" Vanessa Rousso just blurted out. She looked frazzled. There was a floor man standing behind her with a bit of a grumpy look on his face, and another player staring her down as well.
It was a simple mistake; Rousso took the wrong seat when she joined the event. She was quickly relocated to her correct residence one table away, making room for the player who wanted to sit down in the chair she had been formerly occupying.
Rousso is now on a table with Marc Naalden, Alex Kravchenko, and Brian Meinders, who finished as the runner up in the last limit hold'em event at this WSOP, Event #23.
Granted there are still a few heavy-hitters yet to take their seats (or even buy in) but right now the award for "worst spot in the house" goes to Table 305, occupied by Matt Hawrilenko, Lex Veldhuis, Terrence Chan, Justin Bonomo, and Richard "Quiet Lion" Brodie.
The docket of notables in our field is a long one, and they're fairly well scattered throughout the field. We won't burden you with a laundry list here; you can check out the "Chip counts" tab for a list of players we're tracking today.
We'd also expect a "Table of Death" with all the late registrants to appear sometime at the end of this level or the next.
Shaun Deeb is seated at a table right near our media desk, and that should make for a very entertaining day indeed.
"Hey, I'm chip leader right now!" Deeb just said, catching our attention. "Can you update me?"
Deeb is in the eight seat of his table, and he's surrounded by Russians with Nikolay Evdakov on his right and Vitaly Lunkin on his left. Deeb has dragged the first two pots of the afternoon to take the presumed chip lead with 32,400 chips.
Defending champion Greg Mueller has just joined the table as well, and he's caused a bit of a disruption upon his entrance. Mueller noticed that the blinds had already passed through his stack, but he was under the impression that he was supposed to be given a full stack of 30,000 as he sat down at the table. The floor man settled the issue quickly, and they're back to playing poker over there.
"So, you just got totally owned by me," Deeb said helpfully to Mueller, hinting at those dead blinds that were in the last two pots he dragged.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Tournament Director Kevin is on the microphone right now giving the players the rundown of the rules and regulations.
We're starting with 30,000 in tournament chips, playing sixty-minute levels, and we'll take a dinner break halfway through this eight-level day.
The cards should be in the air in just seconds.
It's getting close to time for the daily 5:00 event to start here in the Amazon Room, and today's late event is a good one. The $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship, Event #29, is just less than an hour away from kicking off over here in the Blue section, and are we ever ready for it!
Last year's event saw a gang of 185 players take the felt on the starting day, a small but talented field. Daniel Alaei was in the hunt for his second $10,000 bracelet, but he came up just a few spots shy, adding a 4th-place finish to his impressive 2009 stat sheet. At the end of three days, it came down to two Canadians, Pat Pezzin and Greg Mueller battling for the top prize. Mueller bested his countryman to claim the gold jewelry, the first of two limit bracelets he would collect over an 11-day stretch.
We expect another stacked field this year, and we wouldn't be surprised to see more than 200 runners take the felt this time around. The staff is certainly optimistic; they're preparing 20 nine-handed tables to start us out with another seven waiting on standby for the late registrants. The dealers are just picking up their chips and cards right now, and they'll be busy divvying out the stacks and suiting their decks for the next little while. Then we'll have players, and before you know it, this thing will be off and running.
We're set for a 5:00 p.m. start time, just about 40 minutes from now. So while you're here, have a peek at the other events our Live Reporting teams are covering, and get yourself back here in time for the start.
We'll be back with the shuffle up and deal shortly.
