2011 World Series of Poker

Day 1 of Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. is in the books. A field of 963 runners came out for competition in this 2011 World Series of Poker gold bracelet event and at the end of the day, under 200 players remained. Topping them all was Eli Elezra with a field-leading 92,100 in chips.

Plenty of big names came out for this event as it was the only event that kicked off today. Some of those included in the field throughout the day were Bill Chen, Tom Dwan, Jerry Buss, Ville Wahlbeck, Noah Boeken, Jeff Madsen, John Racener, Gavin Smith, Jean-Robert Bellande and David Benyamine. Unfortunately for those players, they failed to make it through the day.

Some of the players who did well on the day were Nick Kost (73,600), Renard Julien (67,600), Svetlana Gromenkova (56,800), Victor Ramdin (52,100), Antoine Amourette (51,500), Josh Schlein (50,800), Alexander Kostritsyn (49,900), Andre Akkari (42,000), Andrew Barber (40,100) and Pat Pezzin (38,500).

Play resumes tomorrow at 2:30 PM PT in the Amazon Room across the hall. The plan is to play until the final table is reached or a full ten levels of play. We're guessing the latter will be what causes the end of play for the day. Make sure to return to PokerNews for all the official live coverage from the 2011 WSOP. In the meantime, you can check out our other live reporting from the Rio.

Stud-8:

Todd Brunson and an unknown opponent were involved in a heads-up pot during the Stud Eight or Better round.

Brunson: (X)(X) -
Opponent: (X)(X) -

Brunson's opponent bumped it up on third street and the son of Texas Dolly made the call. On fourth street, both players checked and on fifth street, the unknown opponent fired a bet of 1,600 into the middle. Brunson came along and when sixth street was dealt, the action repeated, with a bet of 1,600 and a call by Brunson.

On seventh street both players checked it down and Brunson tabled the for an A2457 low. His opponent showed the for trip threes and took the high half of the pot. This chop left Brunson's stack at 13,500 chips as we near the completion of Day 1 in this $1,500 H.O.R.S.E tournament.

Hold'em:

We missed the preliminary betting but caught up with the action as Layne Flack and an opponent were involved in a heads-up pot with nearly 10,000 chips up for grabs.

Board:

Flack's opponent check-raised him on the river and after "Back to Back" Flack insta-called, his opponent responded by saying "I was hoping I could push you off."

Flack tabled the for the nut straight and started cracking up with laughter, saying "Noooo.... no way you were pushing me off of this hand buddy!" Flack's laughter diminished just a bit when his opponent tabled the for the same Broadway straight, resulting in a chopped pot. Flack had flopped the nut flush draw and was freerolling for the entire pot going into the river.

Nonetheless, Flack's grin never left his face as he graciously recounted the action to our live reporting team.

Stud-8:

Andrew Brown just made aces full of tens to eliminate one player and rake in a nice pot to move his stack to 31,000 in chips. Brown claimed it was the first time in his life that he started a hand with rolled up aces.

Stud-8:

PokerNews' own Chad Holloway's run has ended. He ran a six-five low into Ylon Schwartz's wheel in order to bust in a hand during the Stud-8 round.

Stud-8:

We caught up on the action as two PokerStars Team Pros, Pat Pezzin of Canada and Andre Akkari of Brazil, were involved in a hand along with an unknown opponent.

Pezzin: (X)(X) -
Akkari: (X)(X) -
Opponent: (X)(X) -

Akkari brought it in for 300 and both Pezzin and the unknown opponent came along. On third street, the opponent bet 600 and Pezzin raised it to 1,200, getting called in both spots. With the arrival of fourth street, Pezzin fired a bet of 1,200 and the other two players called him down.

After fifth street was distributed, Pezzin again led out for 1,200 and again he was called by Akkari and the unknown opponent. The action repeated itself on sixth street, with Pezzin betting 1,200 and getting two callers. When the players squeezed their down cards on seventh street, Pezzin fired a final barrel of 1,200 and forced Akkari to muck his hand.

The unknown opponent was harder to shake, however, and called the Canadian pro down with his for trip threes. Pezzin, who made two deep runs in H.O.R.S.E events during last year's WSOP, tabled the for a full house and dragged the large pot his way.

After placing 37th in this event last year, and 43rd in the 2010 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E event, Pezzin will no doubt be looking to improve on those finishes with an ever deeper run this time around.