Let's rewind the clock to 2006, the year of Jamie Gold and largest World Series of Poker Main in history. It was also the year a 21-year old kid from Santa Monica, CA turned up to the series to take a shot.
He was an unknown at time but a few weeks later everyone in the poker world knew all about Jeff Madsen. Two bracelets ($2,000 No Limit Hold'em & $5,000 Short Handed No Limit Hold'em) and two third-place finishes saw him storm to the player of the year title. He was the youngest bracelet winner at the time and is still the youngest to win two bracelets at the same series.
Madsen's at a our "Table of death" today, and this is already his third cash of the summer. Madsen turns 27 today and it's a very happy birthday to you from everyone at PokerNews.
We were very fortunate that a lot of marquee players won their tables yesterday. For today that means there are a lot of tough tables around. Out of all the table we consider 405 to be the table of death.
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Erik Seidel looking for bracelet number 9
Welcome back to Event #14 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Shootout. 1,138 players came out yesterday for their chance at bracelet glory. Every player started out at a 9 or 10 handed table, each table then worked like its own private sitngo, until one person bested all the players at his table. Today those 120 winners come back to do it all over again, only this time they are all guaranteed to walk away with at least $5,295.
This is Phil Ivey's first cash this year, and looks to be in great shape for another bracelet. Other players joining us today will be the 8 time bracelet winner Erik Seidel. Main Event Champions Carlos Mortensen and Joe Cada looked to add to their jewelery box as well as they join us for the day. David Sands, Gavin Smith, Lauren Kling, and Jason Koon also are all here to make this a stiff competition. By no means is this going to be an easy event for anyone.
All players are coming in today with about the same stacks. A handful of players were nine-handed yesterday while for the most part everyone else was ten-handed. Each player starts today with the chips they finished with yesterday. We will play down until we have a winner per table, and are expected to play no more than 10 levels. Stay tuned here for all the coverage
