Event 59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Day 1b | 2012 World Series of Poker

07-06-2012 00:25 UTC-6

Day 1b Ends With Alex Cordero Standing Tall as Chip Leader

Dan O'Hair

Level 9 : 300/600, 75 ante

Jake Cody - one of the bigger stacks going into Day 2.

After eight full levels and part of a ninth, Day 1b of Event 59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em is in the books. The day began with 2,880 players and when all the dust settled, just 471 remained with Alex Cordero as your current chip leader (100,475).

Jake Cody amassed the second-biggest Day 1b stack (77,600). Cody chipped up late in the day and scored a big pot after running aces into an opponent's {A-} {Q-} all-in preflop. Others building big stacks on Thursday included Warren Russell (68,625), Owen Crowe (67,000), Jed Friedman (58,675), and Jeremy Paglieri (58,300).

Now that both Day 1's are complete, we were able to obtain the final registrant and prizepool information. A grand total of 4,620 players entered, generating a prizepool of $4,158,000. First place will receive $654,797 — not too shabby.

Some notables who took to the felt today, but fell short and busted before the day's end include Angel Guillen, Kevin Saul, Faraz Jaka, Mickey Petersen, Dennis Phillips, J.C. Tran, Lauren Kling, Joe Cada and Andy Frankenberger — who fell victim to one of poker's most brutal coolers.

Other more fortunate players who bagged some chips and will return tomorrow for Day 2 include Cherish Andrews (38,700), Ben Yu (36,750), Nam Le (34,000), Sam Grizzle (26,425), Jeff Madsen (24,925), and Joe Serock (19,750), and Amanda Leatherman (11,075).

Play is set to resume tomorrow at 1:00 PM PST, where the Day 1a and Day 1b fields will merge and play out ten levels. Be sure to stick with us here at PokerNews as we burst the money bubble and work our way toward the final table!

Until then — goodnight from Vegas!

Tags: Alex Cordero Jake Cody

07-05-2012 18:33 UTC-6

The $18 Million Man Is the Center of Attention

Shamus

Level 5 : 100/200, 0 ante

Antonio Esfandiari is just sitting at the table today, but still has everyone's attention.

Players at Antonio Esfandiari's table are quizzing him about his experience winning the biggest ever prize in a WSOP event, Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop.

One commented on how Esfandiari had begun the event at an especially difficult table, one including Vivek Rajkumar, Tom Marchese, Nick Schulman, Ben Lamb, Brandon Steven, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel.

"It was not an easy table," said Esfandiari, adding a grin to underscore the understatement.

As the conversation progressed, Scott Simpson was pushing his short stack all in from the blinds following a {J-Clubs} {3-Spades} {J-Hearts} flop and getting a caller. Simpson is from Texas, and Esfandiari offered him some encouragement.

"There you go," said Esfandiari, adding "Texas doesn't mess around!" Simpson smiled. "They named the game after us," Simpson responded, tabling his {J-Spades} {8-Clubs} to show he had trips. A fourth jack came on the river he scooped the small pot to survive.

Meanwhile, Andy Frankenberger was leaning over from the next table, asking Esfandiari if the One Drop event counted toward the WSOP POY race.

"I don't even know," said Esfandiari. A quick check confirmed that it did count, and in fact with the win Esfandiari had bounced into fourth place, ahead of Frankenberger (now in sixth).

"Aw man, you're ahead of me," said Frankenberger as he leaned back forward in his chair, going back to work on trying to catch back up to Esfandiari.

Tags: Andy Frankenberger Antonio Esfandiari Scott Simpson

07-05-2012 17:24 UTC-6

Main Event Mustache

[user196975]

Level 4 : 75/150, 0 ante

Eric Baldwin has re-introduced his signature mustached look. He's grown it out a few other times and really sports it during baseball playoffs.

"I wasn't going to grow it in until the Main Event," Baldwin said. "But it was just too perfect with the 4th of July party."

He plans to keep the mustache throughout the Main Event. We can only hope he makes the final table and will have sport the Main Event Mustache for several more weeks.

Tags: Eric Baldwin Eric Baldwin's Mustache

07-05-2012 12:29 UTC-6

Welcome to Day 1B of Event 59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em!

Dan O'Hair

Hello and welcome back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, where players are getting prepared to compete in what may be the largest No-Limit Hold'em tournament of the World Series of Poker thus far.

Yesterday we saw 1,740 hopeful register to play on Day 1b and, when all was said and done, just 256 of those players remained. Standing tall as chip leader was 2010 WSOPE third-place finisher Ronald Lee, who managed to bag up 79,325 in chips for his efforts yesterday. Rounding out the counts are Dominik Nitsche (67,800), David Stefanski (65,400) and Ravneet Johal (60,050).

Other notable survivors of Day 1a include Leo Margets, J.J. Liu, Todd Terry, Terrence Chan and Phil Ivey, who scored a nice pot toward the end of the day after spiking a two-outer on the river against a single opponent.

Those less fortunate and unable to survive the day include Ari Engel, Brock Parker, Greg Meuller, Jonathan Little, Tommy Vedes, Bill Chen, Barry Greenstein, Olivier Busquet, David Vamplew and Phil Hellmuth.

Today we expect to see another massive field take to the felt with all-new players. In order to keep pace with Day 1a - play will begin at 12:00 PM PST and resume until there are 42 minutes left in level 9. The survivors of Day 1a and Day 1b will then merge into a single field tomorrow for Day 2. Be sure to stick with us here at PokerNews as we bring you all of the action from the felt!