Event 60: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) Day 1 | 2012 World Series of Poker

07-06-2012 03:17 UTC-6

Day 1 in The Books: Konstantin Puchkov Poised to Make History

tayke2

Level 8 : 400/800, 200 ante

And that’ll do it for tonight! 101 of the best players in the world ponied up the $10,000 entry fee for this event, and 54 of them survived the night. At most tournaments, we are lucky to find two or three famous faces at the same table. Well at this tournament, it was rare to see two or three faces that we DIDN’T recognize. It truly was a star studded field and at the end of the night your chip leader is none other than Konstantin Puchkov who bagged 133,400. Puchkov is looking to make WSOP history, as a cash in this event would be a record breaking 11th for him on the series. Not far behind are Hertzel Zalewki (107,700) and Hasan Habib (104,700).

The big story of the night was the return of the 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, who made his first appearance at the Rio all summer. Chan cashed in this event last year, finishing 12th, but he will not be able to top that this year, as he was eliminated just before the end of the night.

Some of the players who joined Chan out the door included Phil Hellmuth, Brandon Cantu, Chad Brown, Shaun Deeb, Josh Brikis, Bryn Kenney, and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.

It was a great day for former champions of this event. Last year’s winner John Juanda is looking to defend his title, and he will come into tomorrow with 63,000 chips. David “Bakes” Baker won this event two years ago, and he has 37,900 chips. In 2009, Nick Schulman took down the event, and he is also still alive with 65,000. Before 2009, this event played out as a $5,000 with rebuys, and the champions of that in 2008 and 2007, Mike Matusow (33,400) and Erik Seidel (91,200), will also return tomorrow looking for another bracelet!

In addition to those players, there is a near endless list of big names who are moving on to tomorrow. Just a few include Daniel Negreanu (94,200), Jason Mercier (89,000), Michael Binger (86,300), Tom Schneider (82,900), Ali Eslami (75,800), and Phil Galfond (41,200), amongst several others.

The 54 remaining players have bagged and tagged their chips, and they will come back tomorrow at 2 pm. They will play ten levels, or until they reach the final seven players, whichever comes first. Be sure to tune in tomorrow, as it should be an exciting end to the preliminary events here at the 2012 WSOP! For now, good night from Las Vegas!

07-06-2012 01:33 UTC-6

Juanda Cripples Chan

tayke2

Johnny Chan raised from under the gun to 1,600, and Brett Richey made the call. John Juanda, who was next to act, raised it up to 7,800, and it folded back to Chan. He tossed in the call, which represented over half his stack, and Richey got out of the way.

Chan drew one card, while Juanda stood pat. Chan checked it over to Juanda, who fired out 10,000, which would have put Chan all in. Chan peeked down at his cards, and tossed them into the muck, leaving himself just 4,500. Meanwhile, Juanda is setting himself up for a repeat run at this event, as he is up to 62,000.

Player	Chips	Progress
John Juanda	62,000	17,000
Johnny Chan	4,500	-25,500

07-05-2012 23:08 UTC-6

And There's One More Player Here

tayke2

Level 5 : 200/400, 100 ante

We just gave you the star studded list of players who recently arrived (Todd Brunson has since walked in), but there was one player we left off that list. That is none other then the 10-time bracelet winner, the incomparable, Johnny Chan. This is Chan's first event at this year's WSOP, and he picked a good one to come in for. Chan finished 12th in this event last year, and he will be looking to top that this year. With Phil Hellmuth earning bracelet #12 earlier this series, Chan has some serious catching up to do if he wants to reach that level. We will keep one eye on Chan the entire time he's here!

Tags: Johnny Chan

07-05-2012 17:10 UTC-6

Final Open Event of 2012 WSOP About to Kick Off

Josh_Cahlik

Welcome to our coverage of Event 60: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit)! This exciting lowball variant of five card draw is the final open event offered at the 2012 World Series of Poker. Last year this event drew a small but stacked field of 126 players and John Juanda was able to take home his fifth WSOP bracelet from his first place finish.

This event drew a lot of attention last year as it was widely thought that Phil Hellmuth would take down his 12th bracelet in this event. Going into heads up play with about a 3 to 1 chip lead, Hellmuth's stack was slowly whittled down by John Juanda and Hellmuth was forced to settle for his first second place finish of the 2011 WSOP.

While Hellmuth and Juada were headlining last year's final table, there were also several big names present including Nick Schulman, Hasan Habib, Joe Cassidy, Steve Sung, and the 2010 champion of this event David "Bakes" Baker. We're expecting a field stacked with professionals once again this year.

Play will kick off at 5:00 PM in the Amazon room and players will play a full eight levels this evening. Stay tuned as we present you with all of the latest updates as this stacked field of players engage in a battle of what most would call one of the purest forms of poker.