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Event #55: $50,000 Poker Player's Championship
Day 1 Completed
2011 World Series of Poker
Event #55: $50,000 Poker Player's Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
2011 World Series of Poker
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Buy-in
$50,000
Prize Pool
$6,144,000
Total Entries
128
Level
27
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
30,000
Players Left 1 / 128
Filter
Level 5
Day 1 of the 2011 Poker Player's Championship is history, and after five levels of play, Doug Booth is the chip leader with 324,600 chips, and Greg "FBT" Mueller is right behind him with 322,700.
Numbers have been up at the World Series of Poker this year, and this event did not disappoint. A total of 128 players - a 10 percent increase from last year - ponied up $50,000 generating a prizepool of $6,144,000. The winner will receive $1,720,328 to go along with a shiny new bracelet and the illustrious David "Chip" Reese Memorial Trophy.
Only five of the entrants busted during Day 1. Arturo Diaz was our first victim, and was eliminated by Phil Galfond during a hand of pot-limit Omaha. Galfond had a set of queens, Diaz a set of tens, and Galfond held when the river bricked. Phil Laak was the second to bust. He got his stack in against David "ODB" Baker during deuce-to-seven triple draw. They both held 
, Baker paired his deuce, and Laak paired his seven, eliminating him from the tournament.
Andrew Pantling, Jani Sointula, and Eli Elezra were the other two to bust on Day 1.
For a second it looked like Daniel Negreanu was also going to hit the rail. Kid Poker sunk as low as 23,000, but battled all the way back to 65,100 chips. During his comeback, he made the nuts in a deuce-to-seven hand against Robert Williamson III who drew the second nuts on the first draw. Negreanu is very excited to still be alive, tweeting, "So h[a]ppy to still be in it. Hope to run hot from here on out!"
Surprisingly, only two former champions participated in this year's event. David Bach and Michael Mizrachi were in attendance, while Freddy Deeb and Scotty Nguyen were notably absent. Bach did very well, bagging 249,500 chips, while Mizrachi struggled and only has 8,200 chips.
While Booth and Mueller lead, there are plenty of players biting their heels including Yan Chen (317,200), David Chiu (317,000), Alexey Makarov (266,000), Jason Lester (245,200), and Steve Sung (243,800).
Play will resume tomorrow at 3 p.m. PDT, where we will play five, one hundred-minute levels. Join us then for all of your up-to-the-minute updates.
Goodnight from the Rio!
Level 5
No-Limit Hold'em
Sorel Mizzi raised to 2,500 in the cutoff and Gus Hansen called from the big blind.
The flop fell 
and Hansen checked. Mizzi bet 3,700, but watched Hansen pop it to 11,100. We didn't hear the amount of the exact raise to come, but Mizzi threw in a 25K chip. Hansen, though, made it 33,300 to go. Not to be outdone, Mizzi made it 45,000 to play and Hansen finally surrendered the pot.
Mizzi - Up to about 190,000
Gus - Down to about 170,000
Level 5
The clock is frozen at "10:00," and each table will play six more hands before they bag-and-tag.
Pot-Limit Omaha
We don’t quite know what happened but all we saw was the 
board and Shaun Deeb with the winning 
hand for trips over David Chiu who’s hand was already gone. Deeb’s stack was counted down and he had 77,400 total which was taken from Chiu’s stack.
Level 5
Robert Williamson III was on the button and raised. Daniel Negreanu was in the small blind and three-bet. George Lind was in the big blind and four-bet. Not to be outdone, Williamson capped it and both players called.
Negreanu drew two, Lind and Williamson both drew one. Negreanu had checked dark and Lind checked as well. Williamson bet, Negreanu called and Lind check-raised. Williamson made it three bets which Negreanu and Lind both called.
On the second draw, Negreanu took just one while Lind and Williamson stood pat. Negreanu checked dark again and Lind checked as well. Williamson bet out and Negreanu raised. Lind folded and Williamson called.
On the final draw both players stood pat and Negreanu bet. Williamson seemed aware that he was probably beat but made the call. He tabled 
but it was no good. Negreanu had 
to ship the pot.
Negreanu begins a comeback march with 78,000 while Williamson falls to 155,000.
No-Limit Hold'em
Gabe Kaplan checked to Guillaume Rivet with the board reading 
. Rivet bet 4,100, Kaplan raised to 11,200, and Rivet called.
The turn was the , and Kaplan led for 22,000. Rivet called.
Both players checked when the 
fell on the river, and Rivet opened up 
for top two. Kaplan mucked, and Rivet raked in the pot.
Level 5
No-Limit Hold'em
We picked up the action on a 
flop where Matt Glantz called what appeared to be a check-raise from Chris Klodnicki. The 
hit the turn and Klodnicki checked. Glantz bet 8,500, but was met with a Klodnicki raise to 29,000. Again Glantz called, leading to the river card. Klodnicki bet 25,000, but Glantz re-raised all in.
Klodnicki sighed before giving it up, dropping to about 80,000. Glantz, meanwhile, upped his stack to about 200,000.
