Day 1 of Event 48: $3,000 Limit Hold’em began with 247 entrants, and after eight levels of play, Sam Barnhart is your chip leader with 58,900 chips. Following closely behind him are a handful of players, including Michael Parizon (46,800), Micah Raskin (44,000), and Chad Brown (41,100).
Plenty of notable players came and went today, including Mike Sowers, Shawn Buchanan, Isaac Haxton, Scott Seiver, Don Zewin, and Richard Brodie. Phil Ivey registered, despite playing in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, and when he arrived during Level 7, he quickly stacked off as well.
Jonathan Duhamel accumulated a lot of chips towards the end of the night, bagging up 25,700 at the end of the night. The 2010 WSOP Main Event champion busted Tyler Bonkowski – who won this event last year – and won a few pots off of fellow Canadian and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. Both players will return tomorrow, looking to position themselves for a bracelet.
Play resumes tomorrow at 2 p.m. local time, where the plan is to play ten levels. Come back then for up-to-the-minute updates from this and every event at the 2012 WSOP!
Ronnie Bardah doubles on one of the last hands of the night.
Robert Ferdinand, also known as "Bobby the Bus," raised in early position, and Ronnie Bardah three-bet from the small blind. Ferdinand called. The flop came , and Bardah led out. Ferdinand called.
The turn was the , and Bardah bet all in for just 100. Ferdinand called.
Moments ago, over on Table 365, we heard Ali Eslami singing. When we arrived, we discovered that his eyes were fixed on Maria Ho, who just recently joined the table.
"I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?"
"Make it stop!" Todd Brunson shouted from an adjacent table.
"It's your turn," Eslami told Ho.
There was brief pause, then Ho continued the song. The two went back and forth, and we were very surprised to see that they both knew the lyrics to the Aladdin classic "A Whole New World" - until we saw that they both Googled lyrics on their respective iPads.
"Is this some kind of sick side bet?" someone at the table asked.
The pair completed the song, and received a brief round of applause from the surrounding tables. Ho was smiling from ear to ear.
"You're such a shy little bird," Eslami joked.
Ho could only giggle.
This was definitely a first for us, and if we have to put our Simon Cowell hat on, we'll say that Ho clearly outperformed Eslami.
When we arrived at the table, Don Zewin was all in, and three players had him at risk, including Daniel Idema and Ali Eslami. The flop came down , and Eslami bet when the action checked to him. Idema and the fourth player mucked, and the hands were opened.
Eslami:
Zewin:
The turn and river came , respectively, and Zewin was eliminated. The dealer was getting pushed after the hand, and told the new dealer to, "Knock out the five seat."
Each table is equipped with a ChipTic tablet, so the dealer wanted his coworker to bust Zewin from the system. The problem is, Zewin occupied the four seat, while Vladimir Shchmelev, a late registrant, was sitting in the five seat. The entire table got a kick out of this minor mistake, except for Shchmelev, because he didn't quite understand what had happened.
Eslami proceeded to explain it to him, and Shchmelev pointed to himself, chuckled and said, "Me?"
"Da," Eslami returned - which is Russian for "yes."
That's when Shchmelev joined in on the laughter, and the new dealer correctly busted Zewin from the counts.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Bardah led out. Ferdinand called.
, and Bardah bet all in for just 100. Ferdinand called.
, and Bardah doubled.
, and Eslami bet when the action checked to him. Idema and the fourth player mucked, and the hands were opened.
, 
respectively, and Zewin was eliminated. The dealer was getting pushed after the hand, and told the new dealer to, "Knock out the five seat."
