2012 World Series of Poker

On Friday, 309 players turned up for the 2012 World Series of Poker Event #18 $2,500 Seven Card Razz and created a prize pool of $702,975. After eight levels of play, approximately136 players remained with Tommy Vedes and his stack of 44,600 best positioned to make a run at the $182,793 first-place prize.

The numbers were down a bit from last year’s field of 363 players, but the field was no less brilliant, though it was short one man. You see, last year Rep Porter emerged victorious to capture his second gold bracelet and the $210,615 first-place prize, but due to some scheduling conflicts, namely his daughter’s ballet recital, Porter opted to forgo a possible title defense. Talk about a man who has his priorities straight.

Porter’s absence meant there would be a new Razz champion, though a few players were looking to capture a razz bracelet for a second time. Jeff Lisandro, Barry Greenstein, Frank Kassela, Linda Johnson, and Ted Forrest have all won razz events in the past at the WSOP, and all were in action on Day 1. Unfortunately, Kassela was essentially blinded off as he was busy competing in Event #16 $1,500 NLHE Six-Handed (he finished in 15th place for $17,323) while Lisandro never seemed to get anything going. They were both eliminated late in the evening. Greenstein, Johnson, and Forrest have moved on to Day 2.

Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. Dozens of players hit the rail on Day 1 such as Daniel Negreanu, Dan Shak, Richard Ashby, Annie Duke, Jason Mercier, Chris Tryba, Chris Bjorin, Huck Seed, Nacho Barbero and Phil Ivey.
Of course where some failed to survive, other thrived. Jared Bleznick (13,600), Greg Raymer (18,300), Berry Johnston (21,400), Ted Forrest (25,600), Phil Hellmuth (31,500), Joe Tehan (39,500), Tom McEvoy (39,700) and Kami Chisholm (43,500) were among the players who punched their tickets to Day 2.

Notable End of Day 1 Chip Counts

Who will be the next to add their name to the list of Razz Champions?

$2,500 Seven Card Razz Champions

*Featured $1,500 buy-in.

Day 2 is set to kick off at 2 PM PST, so join us then as we’ll bring you all the latest hands, eliminations and action from Event 18: $2,500 Seven Card Razz.

Players are now bagging their chips. We're out to get counts, so stay tuned for those and a full recap of the Day 1 action.

After committing much of his stack drawing to a wheel on seventh and missing, Max Stern was left with just 1,000. Not long after he got it in on the turn and was in big trouble.

Stern: / /
Opponent: / /

Stern wished his opponents good luck and made his exit just shy of Day 2.

We didn't catch the action, but we do know that 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Huck Seed was eliminated after his 9-8-5-4-A failed to overcome his opponent's 8-5-4-3-2.

Meanwhile, Dario Alioto has also been eliminated from the tournament.

We didn't catch the hand, but we do know that Jeff Lisandro has been eliminated from the tournament. Lisandro won this event back in 2009 enroute to becoming the World Series of Poker Player of the Year, but a second title in four years is not in the cards. That means Barry Greenstein is the only former champ remaining in the field, though he is somewhat short at the moment.