We came to the table with a flop and "Miami" John Cernuto went all in for his final 500 holding and was called by the same hand . Fortunately for Cernuto, the fourth spade came on the turn and he was able to secure the double up.
Marcel Luske may have a reputation as one of the best-dressed men in poker, but he can't boast that title today. Without a doubt, the best-dressed man in the tournament today is a colorful Vegas character known as The Duke of Fremont. With his vintage-style fedora, crisp suit, and golden jewelry, The Duke stands out among any field of poker players.
The Duke scored a recent bustout, as a short-stacked player moved all in preflop for his last 475. The Duke was the only caller, and his was ahead of his opponent's . The board ran out , and the river was an unnecessary to give the Duke a set. After the elimination, he was up to 5,500.
According to Phil Hellmuth, he isn't the only one playing poker today. His parents are playing in the Senior's Event and his son is playing satellites. We are still trying to get a location for the Hellmuth's parents and once we get it we will let you know.
We heard an especially loud cheer erupt from the Brasilia Room's Red section, and headed that way in hopes of finding a memorable hand.
Instead, we found Mark Dunbar excitedly stacking his new chips, and during a dealer change we caught up with the Minnesota native to find out what had caused all the commotion.
Expecting to hear a story involving quads overcoming a set, or perhaps a one-outer on the river, instead we found out that Dunbar had simply won a small pot by forcing his opponent to fold.
"It was the first win of the day," said Dunbar. "I was just happy that I'm not going home without winning a pot."
Although his tablemates jokingly called for the floor to assess a penalty for excessive celebration, Dunbar's outburst was taken in stride by his fellow seniors, each of whom is just as excited to be playing here on poker's premier stage. With a victory in a 2010 Heartland Poker Tour event to his credit, to the tune of $182,100, we expect Dunbar to be dragging more pots his way as this Day 1 progresses.
Paul "X-22" Magriel is playing today. Magriel is a championship backgammon player and created the "M Principle" which uses the ratio of stack size to antes and blinds to help establish a player's strategy in certain stages of a tournament.
He has been known to shout "Quack Quack" when betting but we didn't hear it during the following hand:
The board read and Magriel led from the big blind for 625 and Dewey Jones raised from middle position to 1,350 which Magriel called. Magriel checked the and eventually folded after Jones went all in.
Among the sea of seniors spread around the Rio here today, there are a number of decorated professionals plying their trade.
We saw a pair of former Main Event winners each take down a pot using standard postflop aggression.
First, Robert Varkonyi opened to 400 from under the gun, receiving calls from two other players. On the flop, the 2002 WSOP Main Event Champion led out with a bet and his willingness to continue earned him the pot.
It was Tom McEvoy's turn next, and the winner of the 1983 WSOP Main Event showed that he still has some moves. McEvoy opened for 450 in early position, and after the big blind called the flop fell . Both players tapped the table, and the dropped on the turn, prompting McEvoy to fire a bet of 450 into the pot.
His opponent quickly called, as he did McEvoy's bet of 400 on the river. The player rolled over for top pair/top kicker, but McEvoy revealed the for two pair on the turn, using Varkonyi's favorite hand from his 2002 run to win a decent pot midway through the first day of play.