We just found Isaac Haxton taking his seat next to the right of good friend Justin Bonomo. We'll see if the two mix it up at all and if Bonomo will capitalize on his position.
While speculation abounds regarding the number of players who'll show up for the Main Event in July, the numbers for the 2011 WSOP as a whole have been up as a whole thus far, something that seems to happened each and every year.
| Year | # of Entrants |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 4,780 |
| 2001 | 5,960 |
| 2002 | 7,593 |
| 2003 | 7,572 |
| 2004 | 14,054 |
| 2005 | 32,341 |
| 2006 | 48,366 |
| 2007 | 54,288 |
| 2008 | 58,720 |
| 2009 | 60,875 |
| 2010 | 72,966 |
On the contrary, the numbers for this particular event have declined each year since 2005. There are two primary reasons for this, the first being the buy-in was raised from $5,000 to $10,000 back in 2008. Second, the field is tough and only seems to get tougher. As Todd Witteles noted in a tweet: "Only 103 players so far in this. 10k pricetag steep post-Black-Friday, especially for tough event."
Last year saw 171 runners, a number we expect to hit by the time late registration closes.
Limit Hold'em can be a bit boring to some players, especially during the first few levels. Many of the players utilize modern technology to help keep themselves entertained.
There seems to be an abundance of smartphones, tablets, MP3 players and iPads at the tables being used for everything from playing games or music to reading a book or even watching a movie.
It makes us wonder how poker players ever survived without all these electronic devices!
We've just spotted two players from last night's $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship final table. 8th place finisher Chris Tryba and runner up Steve Landfish both just took their seats. However we have yet to see any of the others from that table including winner Bertrand Grospellier.
One of the new tables that began at the start of Level 2 is Table 128, which very well may be the toughest in the room.
Seat 1- Chris Tryba
Seat 2- Rob Hollink
Seat 4- Dan Heimiller
Seat 7- Erick Lindgren
Seat 8- Jennifer Harman
The tournament staff has been kind enough to turn on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks. The players in the field seems very satisfied with this decision; in fact, a number of them seem to be paying more attention to that game than to the poker game.
The start of the new level brought with it some new tables. Sitting among them are Justin "Boosted J" Smith, George Lind, Carlos Mortensen, Erick Lindgren, Konstantin Puchkov, Dmitry Gromov, Justin Bonomo, and Rob Hollink. The last name on that list is a former champ of this event.
Hollink won this very event back in 2008 when he defeated a field of 218 players to claim his first WSOP bracelet and a $496,931 first-place prize.
We were wandering by Phil "Unabomber" Laak's table when we watched 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Carlos Mortensen make his way over to talk to his dear friend.
"What are you even doing here?" Mortensen asked. "I thought you don't play limit?"
"I don't," Laak replied, before explaining that the only reason he was playing today's event was because he's looking to earn $60,000 in tournaments this summer to qualify for the Federated Sports + Gaming professional league. Mortensen, who is obviously qualified for the league, understood completely, but still didn't pass up the opportunity to give his friend a hard time.
"Believe me, there is a PLO game at the Bellagio I'm dying to play, yet here I am," Laak sighed. Interestingly, Laak seems prepared to combat the monotony that ofter accompanies limit-hold'em tournaments. He has his iPod going, headphones in, and recently pulled out a book to read. What book you ask . . . "The Genius in All of Us" by David Shenk.
As level two begins we've now spotted all the ladies in the field. Although we expect more to show up, so far we have a total of four.
Jennifer Harman
Maya Geller
Karen Manfrede
Lisa Wagoner
Level: 2
Limits: 250/500
Ante: 0
