We came by Ari Engel's table and he was involved in a small pot. Engel called a raise of 400 from a player in early middle position. From the big blind a player reraised to 1,400 and both players folded.
While seemingly inconsequential the pot led us to see what a big stack Engel was sporting. It was nearly 20,000 chips. Just a few seats over Dominik Nitsche was also supporting a monster stack for this level. He had even more than Engel with 22,500. The two are bound to collide at some point in the day as it doesn't look as if their table will break for a while.
When we came to Katie Dozier and Andy Frankenberger's table, Dozier was already gone while Frankenberger was all in and at risk for his tournament life against two other players.
Frankenberger:
Player 1:
Player 2:
The flop came down giving Frankenberger a bunch of new outs. "I need an eight. I need an eight!" he said to the dealer as the turn was being dealt. It wasn't an eight though, it was the . The river was the , completing the board, awarding the pot to the player with .
Frankenberger got up from his table and headed for the rail.
The floor staff has just announced the final numbers for this tournament. There are 2,100 total entrants creating a prize pool of $1,890,000. A total of 216 players will be paid with the champion receiving $345,037 for his time, and the 216th place finisher receiving $1,927 for his efforts.
We missed some of the preflop action but a player at the table was kind enough to let us know that Chino Rheem opened and a player two seats to his left jammed all in over the top. Rheem called and the two players headed to a preflop showdown.
Rheem:
Preflop Shover:
The board ran out and before the river was dealt, the player who shoved all in stood up and yelled, "Ten! One Time!" Unfortunately for him it didn't came as the fell on the river to double up Rheem.
"There we go!" Rheem said. "That makes up for some of the chips that I gave to you with ace jack," he said talking to another player at the table.
After a raise of 375 and two callers preflop Kenny Nguyen moved all in for his final 1,150 chips from the cutoff. The original raiser folded, but the first caller made the call again. The third caller folded and the two men went to show down.
Nguyen:
Caller:
The flop came down and Nguyen got up from the table to collect his things. The turn was an and he wished everyone at the table luck as he was already drawing dead. The river was a and that was it as Nguyen was eliminated from the tournament.
"If I see that flop I go broke anyways," Nguyen said. "I can't fold ace queen in that spot."
Our PokerNews.com blogger Jesse Caps is out of the tournament here on day one. Here's what he told us happened:
A player opened under the gun with a raise to 250. Action folded around to Capps in the big blind who made it 650, which the under-the-gun player called.
The board came down rainbow and Capps led out with a bet of 850 and his opponent quickly put him all in. Capps made the call with . His opponent turned over for a flopped two pair. The board bricked out for Capps and that was all she wrote for our blogger here in this tournament.
We passed by Randy "Nanonoko" Lew's table just after break ended and noticed that he was no long seated there, nor did he have any chips in his spot. Here's what he had to say about the ordeal via Twitter:
While one PokerNews.com blogger, Frank De op Woerd is running deep in Event #40: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, another of our PokerNews.com bloggers is playing in our Event #42: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
Jesse Capps is sitting just a bit above starting stack right now as he hopes to make it deep here on day one, just as De op Woerd did yesterday. We'll keep tabs on Capps' progress as we make our way through the day.
Jonathan Little is no longer in the field and we weren't able to catch the bust out since he was in the Pavilion room, but thanks to the help of some noisy blue birds we were able to get a glimpse of what happened to send him home:
Just two days ago Michael Gathy took down Event #34: $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold'em for his second World Series of Poker bracelet. That was Gathy's second win in a $1,000 no-limit hold'em event. In the event Gathy took home $278,613 for his victory and we expect to see similar numbers today. Today could be the day for someone new to start their legacy.
Players will begin with 3,000 chips and the blinds at 25/25. Entrants will play out 10 levels today and we're sure to see lots of action. Everyone will be looking to build up monster stacks here on day one as they prepare for the three day endeavor they are embarking on.
This event marks the sixth open $1,000 no-limit event of the series, but will not be the last. One more $1,000 no-limit event will be played next week as well as the Little One for One Drop which has a $1,111 buy in.
We'll be here all day long with updates from familiar faces. We'll aslo be updating on who's got the biggest stacks coming out of day one so make sure you stay tuned to PokerNews.com all day long.