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!
We didn't catch any hands that did the damage, but we noticed as Phil Hellmuth was racking his chips to get moved that he was already down to just 10,000. He has just been moved to a table with Erick Lindgren, Tom Schneider, Alessio Isaia, and Michael Mizrachi, so it won't be getting any easier for Mr. Hellmuth.
Prize pool information from this tournament has been officially released. With 101 entrants the top 14 players will receive money. A min-cash in this event is worth $19.272 while first place will be pocketing $294,321.
When we arrived at the table, we saw that last year's champion John Juanda was heads up with another player at the table. There was about 3,000 in the middle, and Juanda's opponent tossed out a pink T5,000 chip. When Juanda confirmed that the bet actually was the full 5,000, he asked "5,000! Why so much?" After a few other moments of thinking, he said "well you picked a good time to overbet the pot" and tossed in the call.
His opponent rolled over , and Juanda flashed before mucking his hand. Despite that hit, Juanda is off to a great start, sitting on 45,000 from his starting stack of 30,000.
Phil Hellmuth opened to 1,600 from the cutoff and received a call from the player in the small blind. Erick Lindgren looked down at his cards from the big blind and moved all in for about 19,000. Both Hellmuth and the other player folded.
With how Hellmuth's day began we expected some sort of blow up, but instead Hellmuth seemed rather jovial after the hand.
"By the way," Hellmuth said to Lindgren. "I saw your baby today. If that's not the cutest baby ever."
Lindgren thanked Hellmuth for the compliment and certainly was thankful for the chips as well. Lindgren is sitting on about 22,500 right now.
An early position player opened to 1,200 and received calls from Tom Schneider in the small blind and Phil Hellmuth in the big. All three players drew one card and Schneider checked.
Hellmuth bet out 2,800 and the original raiser preflop called. Schneider studied his hand before also calling this bet.
"Ten-eight-six-four-deuce," said Hellmuth aloud. The original raiser tabled a ten-nine and Hellmuth had the best hand so far.
However, Schneider flipped up and his ten-seven was able to scoop the pot. After the hand all Hellmuth could say was "Wow".
, and Juanda flashed 
