The late arrivals are currently being seated along the far row, with Bill Chen and Daniel Negreanu among them.
Negreanu was just now calling out to Chen, with Chen answering back how "he tends to lose the most money with number twos" — that is, the second-best hand in deuce-to-seven, .
"That's because you overplay them," cracked Negreanu with a grin. "How about stop being a victim and taking responsibility… number two is not number one!"
For the sake of reference, here are the best hands in deuce-to-seven lowball:
2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson joins the PokerNews Podcast to talk about the controversial tweet he released on Tuesday regarding private public cash games at Aria, and respond to criticism regarding the language of the tweet. Merson also discusses Macau, the potential return of online poker to New Jersey, and his friend Tony "End Boss" Gregg's win in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller.
Players continue to arrive as the first hands of the day are dealt. For the record, George Lind was the first to take his seat, arriving a full 10 minutes before the call to "shuffle up and deal." Also here at the start is Billy Baxter, owner of seven WSOP bracelets — all in lowball events.
Welcome to Event #59: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, one of the last preliminary bracelet events on the 2013 WSOP schedule. We'll be seeing no flops in this one, but rather lots of discards and draws, pat and broken hands, and small and big bets as we discover together over the next three days who will be the next WSOP bracelet winner.
Last year's tourney ended with a dramatic and lengthy heads-up battle that saw the lead change more than a dozen times between Ohel and runner-up Benjamin Lazer following the bustout of David "ODB" Baker in third. At one point Lazer had built a stack of about 1.6 million while Ohel was down to just over 100,000, but the latter managed to claw all of the way back to earn his first career bracelet.
Whether or not this year's version of "the deuce" produces similar drama remains to be seen. We do, however, expect a similarly-sized tournament with many of poker's elite likely taking a shot at the last draw event on the schedule. Play begins at 5 p.m. local time, with the schedule calling for eight one-hour levels to play out tonight. Be sure to return here to PokerNews then for start-to-finish coverage of Event #59.
As we await today's initial deals and draws, here's Kristy Arnett with an update of all that's happening currently WSOP-wise at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino: