Jonathan Little never gained any momentum in the tournament today as he hast busted from the event. For those unfamiliar with Little, he has written a popular poker strategy book which PokerNews' Kristy Arnett recently interviewed him about.
JonathanLittle Jonathan LittleI never got anywhere near off the ground in the $1500. I also got it in really bad 3 times. Not a good showing. Cash games now.June 20 2012
Here is how a few of the notable names in the Amazon Room are doing right now. As you can see, each of these players has managed to see their chips increase well over the starting stack.
John Monnette is going to be the man to catch on the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard, but will need to do some work if he wants to add any point to his tally in this event.
We recently arrived at Monnette's table with him opening the pot to 250 from early position. The player directly on his left made the call and then it was on the player on the button. He raised it up to 1,350 and the action was back on Monnette. After just a few moments, Monnette shoved his stack all-in and the player next to him got out of the way. Back on the button and he called all-in.
Monnette:
Opponent:
By the time the board had run out , Monnette was looking good to almost double-up, but the on the river had other ideas as Monnette took a big hit to his stack. Readers may recall that just two days ago Monnette finished 2nd in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship, seeing his record at the 2012 WSOP include a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Here is how a few players seated in the Pavilion Room are doing in these early stages of the day. You may not be familiar with some of the names, so let us give you a quick snapshot of who some of these players are.
Scott Clements has more than $5 million in tournament winnings on his record, including 2 gold bracelets. They both came in Omaha events, with that game his specialty as he widely considered one of the best Omaha players in the world. PokerNews' Chad Hollowawy recently interviewed Clements about how he turned $4,400 into two World Poker Tour wins.
Shawn Buchanan is considered one of the best poker players in the world. Period. Buchanan has come close to winning gold bracelets on several occasions, but fell short each time, and as such is widely regarded as being in the "best players without a bracelet" club. Buchanan again came close to a bracelet just last week when he finished 6th place in the $2,500 2-7 Lowball event.
John Racener is one of the latest players to be spotted in the field. Here is on Twitter telling us how he would like a few more starting chips.
racener John RacenerPlaying the 1500 nlh event as we speak. Wish we could get a lil more starting chips but I'll have to make due with theseJune 20 2012
For those who aren't familiar with Racener, you might recognize his name from the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. Racener was part of the November Nine that year and ended up finishing in 2nd place to take home a whopping $5,545,955 in prize money.
Dennis Phillips has had a great start to the day, seeing his stack rise to around 13,000 during these early stages of the day.
We were recently at Phillips' table with a board spread along the felt and Phillips involved in the hand with one opponent. There was already 5,000 in the pot at this stage and Phillips opted to check to his opponent on the river. The player sent a bet of 1,825 tumbling onto the table and Phillips went into the tank.
After quite some time Phillips gave a sort of shrug and said, "well okay," as he made the call. Phillips' opponent immediately mucked his hand face down and Phillips gave another shrug as he turned over his and raked in the pot.
Just prior to the end of the break, a World Series of Poker gold bracelet has been awarded to Max Steinberg for his victory in Event 33: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. The players have taken their seats after standing for the US national anthem and the cards are back in the air.