The second of two starting days in the seventh annual World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship played out on Sunday. When the smoke cleared, just 337 players had entered, a drop of 38% from last year’s tally of 545.
Attendance at the WPT’s Foxwoods tournament, which took place earlier this month, was also down significantly. During this year’s running of the Connecticut tournament, 259 players turned out, representing a 25% slide from Season VI. In the end, Vadim Trincher stole the show, capturing the WPT title along with a $731,000 payday. Now, he leads the WPT Championship field 2,500 miles west at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In fact, he is the only player with over 300,000 chips, leading the 301 remaining runners. Trincher’s opposition at Table 54 today includes online poker pros Phil “USCphildo” Collins and Brent “bhanks11” Hanks as well as Carlos Mortensen.
Here are the top ten chip stacks entering Day 2, which plays out on Monday:
1. Vadim Trincher – 309,725
2. Johnny Chan – 291,675
3. Burt Boutin – 281,000
4. Shaun Deeb – 269,900
5. Danny Fuhs – 254,200
6. Brian Powell – 254,075
7. Ryhnie Campbell – 239,600
8. Steve Billirakis – 232,450
9. Justin Young – 231,425
10. Bruno Fitoussi – 230,650
Full Tilt Poker pro Allen Cunningham suffered a loss in a 172,000 chip pot late in the day, sending his stack diving to just 22,000. The pot was 72,000 on a board of K-4-3-3-9 with three spades. Cunningham checked, Francois Safieddine led out for 50,000, and the five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet holder called only to see that he was beaten by the absolute nuts, pocket threes. Cunningham did not survive Day 1B as a result and will look to claim his sixth bracelet when the 2009 WSOP starts on May 27th.
Each winner of a WPT tournament during the season receives a buy-in to the Championship, which represents the final event of Season VII. This season’s champions who turned out for Day 1B on Sunday included Mike Watson (Bellagio Cup), Glen Witmer (North American Poker Championship), Allen “AawwNutz” Carter (Southern Poker Championship), Freddy Deeb (Celebrity Invitational), and Steve Brecher, who took down the Bay 101 Shooting Star event last month in San Jose. All but Witmer survived Day 1B. Others who fell by the wayside on Sunday included WPT investor Lyle Berman, Clonie Gowen, and Team Ladbrokes pro Jon Kalmar.
Dan Heimiller, a WSOP bracelet holder who finished third in the Season VII Borgata Poker Open for $387,000, will hold the 34th largest stack when play resumes. He got off to a healthy start on Sunday by cracking former North American Poker Championship winner Scott “BigRiskky” Clements’ pocket aces with 6-7 of diamonds after flopping both flush and straight draws; the latter finally hit. The hand sent Heimiller to nearly 200,000 in chips, which is nearly the same amount as he’ll start Day 2 with. Clements, contrastingly, did not survive Day 1B.
Notable names remaining in the top 50 at the Bellagio include:
13. Matt “mattg1983” Graham – 222,775
16. J.C. Tran – 218,300
17. Shane “shaniac” Schlager – 215,150
18. David Benyamine – 211,975
19. Freddy Deeb – 210,425
20. Andy Bloch – 208,800
23. Mark Seif – 206,775
25. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier – 206,275
31. Dan Heimiller – 188,350
36. David Singer – 176,075
39. Scott Montgomery – 170,000
45. Sam Farha – 163,475
49. Brandon Cantu – 157,600
Play kicks off today at Noon local time for Day 2. The tournament will crown a champion on Saturday; its victor will find their bankroll boosted by $2.1 million. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from one of the world’s most prestigious live events.
