Duhamel Leads Day 1 of The $50,000 Poker Players' Championship
The first five levels of one of the most prestigious events offered at the World Series of Poker are officially in the books. This was the eighth time this event has been offered on the WSOP schedule and it remains a very vocal favorite of the top professional players who participate. With this unique tournament, players are offered the chance to participate in an eight-game mix with very deep stacks in order to get maximum play. After bagging and tagging at the end of the evening, it was none other than 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel to emerge as the biggest stack in the room with 401,300 from the 150,000 starting stack.
Duhamel began his path to the big stack fairly early on in the day when he clashed with Vanessa Selbst in a pot-limit Omaha hand. Both players turned a straight and after getting all of the chips in Selbst quickly found out that Duhamel's was higher. She missed her re-draw outs and Duhamel ended up finishing the hand with a winning full house. This hand crippled Selbst and saw Duhamel vault into one of the top chip positions, which was a status that he never relented as the day progressed. Selbst, on the other hand, was not as fortunate and found herself without chips before the day concluded.
Bagging up the second biggest stack was Jared Bleznick, with two-time WSOP bracelet winner Jason Mercier sitting in third position to end the day. Pot-limit Omaha was also kind to Mercier fairly early on in the day, as a confrontation with Ralph Perry allowed Mercier to gain a very powerful double. The two got it all in after Mercier had flopped top two pair and he was able to hold against Perry's pocket aces. Perry busted soon after but Mercier thrived and finished the day with 340,600.
Last year the first day of play saw just one elimination but this year was a different story. Joining Selbst and Perry on the rail were 10-time WSOP champion Johnny Chan who fell at the hands of Barry Greenstein and Matt Glantz who was eliminated by Calvin Anderson.
Other big stacks returning for Day 2 include Justin Smith (336,600), Brian Rast (319,900), George Lind (294,400), Anderson (290,500), Greg Mueller (261,500), and Mike Leah (248,000). A small sample size of other notable players include Doyle Brunson (232,000) who is playing his first WSOP event of the year, Phil Hellmuth (206,300), Joe Cassidy (198,400) David Bach (198,800), Erick Lindgren (176,000), Daniel Negreanu (127,900), and Scott Seiver (119,400).
Play resumes on Monday at 2:00 p.m. PDT. Be sure to check back here on PokerNews for all of the latest updates from the tournament floor. Until tomorrow!
in the middle. Chan was the player at risk, and he held the 
for a set of eights. Greenstein had the 
for top set and the most chips.
, which was no miracle for Chan, and he was eliminated. That's now three eliminations on the day, whereas last year only David Singer was eliminated on Day 1.
. After a series of raises, Matt Glantz was all in and at risk against Calvin Anderson.
and the 
finished off the board causing Glantz to miss everything and eliminate him from play. He moved his chips across the table, graciously said "good game," and left the tournament area. Anderson dragged in the pot and now sits on about 220,000.
. With about 23,000 already in the middle, Johnson checked over to Mizrachi who fired out 15,000. Johnson tossed out calling chips and the 
struck the river.
hit the felt. Selbst checked and Duhamel fired 14,500. Selbst thought for about 45 seconds before moving out a raise to 68,700. Duhamel did not waste much time before quietly announcing that he was all in.
and Duhamel ended the hand with a winning sevens full of fives. Selbst was forced to ship a vast majority of her stack over to Duhamel and now sits on just 44,000 in chips. Duhamel, however, has soared to one of the top stacks in the room with about 290,000 in chips.
flop and there was already a big pot developed with Perry having fired a bet into it. Mercier had raised all in with his entire stack, and after tanking quite some time Perry decided to call, thus building a total pot of more than 300,000.
for top two pair while Perry had 
for aces. The turn was the 
, and Mercier had suddenly scored a big double as they near the end of Level 2. Meanwhile, Perry will be going to the dinner break with less than 30,000.
