Back in the Mix: Day 2 Awaits
If you are a poker fan who enjoys variety, you've found the right place. Welcome back to Day 2 of Event 50: $2,500 10-Game Mix (Six-Handed), the most varied event on the WSOP schedule that requires players to rotate through 10 different poker variants — no-limit hold'em, razz, limit hold'em, Badugi, seven-card stud, 2-7 no-limit single draw, Omaha hi-low, pot-limit Omaha, 2-7 fixed-limit triple draw, and seven-card stud hi-low.
Yesterday's Day 1 saw 372 players sit down to play all 10 games against one another, and by night's end less than half of them — 146 — still had chips. Of those Howard Smith had collected the most of the coveted round discs during the eight one-hour levels of play, ending the evening having grown his starting stack of 7,500 up to 61,625.
Others returning to big stacks to start play today include Bruno Fitoussi, currently in second position. Fitoussi is in search of his first WSOP bracelet although the Frenchman has several deep finishes in mixed game tournaments to his credit, including a runner-up in the 2007 $50K H.O.R.S.E. championship and an eight in last year's $50K Poker Players Championship (an 8-game event). Meanwhile, Trai Dang, Christopher George, Marcel Luske, Scotty Nguyen also have more than twice the average at present.
There's still a long way to go, however, as the challenge of handling a table full of opponents and constantly changing games continues for this stack field. Play resumes at 2 p.m. local time, so come back here then for continuing coverage as we find out together who will capture the next World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Meanwhile, to catch you up on all of the action both yesterday and today, here's Sarah Grant with the June 28th update: