We arrived at the table to find the player under the gun open to 150, before getting called by David “ODB” Bakes on the button, as well as Allen Kessler on the big blind. The flop came down , and the action was checked around to Bakes, who threw in 225. Kessler then raised it up to 525, which was enough to take down the pot.
Just moments after mentioning that Jan Heitmann was in the field, we passed by his table and he was gone. After inquiring to some of the players at his table we discovered that Heitmann has indeed busted from the tournament here in the second level of the day.
It looks as if Paul Wasicka is looking to build a stack early here on day one, or he's trying to get home early.
Preflop Wasicka raised to 150 and action folded to the player in the small blind who made a reraise to 400. After that Wasicka moved all in for 1,775.
The player in the small blind asked for a count, but eventually reached for her hand and mucked it. Wasicka raked up the decent sized pot without a showdown here on day one.
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:
Jan Heitmann has taken his seat here in the Gold section of the Brasilia Room. The PokerStars Team Pro finished 26th in last year's WSOP Main Event, and will be hoping to make another deep run in this event.
He has been halved though, as he's been spotted with 1,500 in chips.
There are a bunch of tables set up in the Pavilion Room, which will slowly start breaking into the Brasilia Room during the day. With our focus mainly staying here, we thought we’d fill you in on who’s there for the time being.
Amongst the crowd are WSOP bracelet winner Andy Frankenberger, 2013 ANZPT Sydney champion Dinesh Alt, 2013 APPT Cebu champion Jae Kyung Sim, as well as notables Allan Le, Jonathan Little and 2012 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jesse Sylvia.
Also seated are the always lovely Maya Geller, Jennifer Tilly, Maria Ho, Vanessa Selbst and Maridu Mayrinck.
The buzz inside the walls of the Rio extends beyond just the tournaments on the 2013 World Series of Poker schedule. Online poker in Nevada is a very, very hot topic right now, and WSOP.com is making a lot of noise.
While the site has yet to launch, you can head to the Lambada Room of the Rio or look for one of the beautiful and friendly WSOP.com ladies walking the hallways to sign up for a free, personal WSOP.com online poker account. This is a great way to get a jump on the site's registration, and plenty of people have already taken this opportunity.
What's more is that the WSOP will be hosting daily raffles for everyone that has taken the time to register for WSOP.com at the Rio. What can you win? Plenty of fantastic prizes including 36 WSOP seats!
Players 21 years of age and older who sign up for a WSOP.com account will automatically be entered into the “36-Seat Giveaway” where a randomly-selected winner will win a seat into the next day’s first WSOP gold bracelet event. One of the events eligible in this promotion is the $111,111 One Drop High Roller No-Limit Hold’em tournament that is expected to feature a $10,000,000 prize pool and allow you to play poker with the biggest names in the game. In total, $182,333 in WSOP seats, including a seat to the WSOP Main Event, are being given away during this one-of-a-kind WSOP.com promotion.
In addition to the 36-Seat Giveaway, a “Hot Seat” promotion will allow any player who signs up for a WSOP.com online account and wears their WSOP.com patch on their chest at the table while playing an event to be randomly selected to receive 500 bonus dollars deposited directly into their WSOP.com online account once the site has received all regulatory approvals and launches.
With 62 WSOP gold bracelet events and three winners promised for the Main Event, this promotion includes $32,000 worth of value to those participating.
Gavin Smith was seated right in front of our live reporting desk until just a minute ago when someone walked up to his table and claimed his seat, stating that his registration card had that table and seat number on it.
"I've already been moved once!" Smith said to the incoming player.
"Don't worry, this happens all the time," the player said to Smith.
"You need to move," someone at the table said to Smith.
"No. YOU need to move," he joked back.
Eventually the floor staff was called over to have the situation worked out and Smith was moved to table #15 here in the gold section of the Brasilia Room.
, and the action was checked around to Bakes, who threw in 225. Kessler then raised it up to 525, which was enough to take down the pot.
