First Break of the Day: Past Champs, Bronze Busts & Grinder Builds a Big Stack
We're just one level into Day 1c, but already it's shaping up to be a heck of a day. The gigantic field, which is currently spread out across the Amazon, Brasilia and Pavilion Rooms, are chalk full of big-name pros including former Main Event champs Huck Seed (1996), Carlos Mortensen (2001), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Joe Hachem (2005), Jamie Gold (2006) and Jonathan Duhamel (2009). We also expect 1989 WSOP Main Event champ Phil Hellmuth to make his patented late entrance later today. Whether or not he has an over-the-top arrival planned remains to be seen.
The day also saw the WSOP honor Chris Moneymaker, who played yesterday. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his historic win, the WSOP unveiled a bronzed bust of the 2003 champ, which was greeted by a nice round of applause before play got underway.
Despite the blinds being small in Level 1, we did have a few eliminations in the first level. Todd Taylor earned the distinction of the "First to Fall" on Day 1c, while British player Ben Dobson followed him out the door a short time later.
On the flip side, three-time bracelet winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, who is known to play very aggressively, jumped out to an early chip lead by amassing a stack of 85,000. That's nearly three times the starting stack! Needless to say, Mizrachi is off to a good start and looks to make a run at another WSOP Main Event final table after finishing fifth in the 2010 Main Event for $2,332,992.
We'll be back in 25 minutes, so stay tuned.