It seems like every year when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event begins, we and all the other poker news outlets start out our first article about it with something melodramatic, something poetic about the drama and fanfare of the legendary poker tournament. And that introductory paragraph usually ends with something like, “That’s right, the WSOP Main Event is here.”
This year, we’re going to skip all that and just let you know that on Monday, the first of four Day 1’s of the 2010 WSOP Main Event kicked off, beginning an almost two week grind until the new members of the November Nine are determined. Before the action started, the plan was to play four 120-minute levels with a 20-minute break after the first and third and a 90-minute dinner break after level two. There were some complaints, though, that this would make dinner early for even senior citizens, and tournament officials decided to make a change to the schedule. Shortly before play began, it was decided that four and a half levels would be run and the dinner break would come after level three, which makes for both a better dinner time and allows for more players to be eliminated, reducing the risk of overcrowding on Day 2.
The final tally of runners on Day 1A was 1,125, almost exactly the same as last year, when 1,116 people took to the felts in the first flight of the first day of the WSOP. When the dust cleared Monday night, 819 players remained and now have the luxury (and larger hotel bill) of waiting until Friday’s Day 2A to join players from Day 1C. Players from Day 1B and Day 1D will combine in Day 2B on Saturday. This is a change from last year, when Days 1A and 1B players merged and Days 1C and 1D joined up for their Day 2 flights. The adjustment was made because traditionally, the final two Day 1’s get many more players than the first two, creating wildly uneven Day 2’s. That problem should be mitigated further by the WSOP’s new rule that only allowed players to choose a starting day up to a certain point, after which they were automatically assigned a day in order to even things out as much as possible. This rule was applied primarily to avoid the debacle that occurred last year, when Day 1D sold out, causing a couple hundred players to be turned away when they tried to register the morning of the tournament.
Although that controversy looks to be resolved, this is the World Series of Poker, so there needs to be something that rubs players the wrong way. The one thing that came up Monday was that the tables started ten-handed, which makes for some overcrowding around each oval. The odd part was that the Pavilion, which was the “overflow” room, only had 18 tables running, making players wonder why WSOP officials couldn’t have just taken one player away from each table and started more tables in the Pavilion, as there was tons of room. As the day went on, though, tables were reduced to nine-handed, so the grumblings died down.
The 766 players standing have all reported their chip counts, and it seems the chip leader is Corwin Cole with 228,200 chips, almost 200,000 more than his 30,000 chip starting stack. Dwyen Ringbauer follows at a distance with 191,125, while 2010 WSOP Players Champion, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, continues his strong Series, sitting in third place with 142,650 chips. Rounding out the top five are Felix Bleiker (136,300) and Heinz Kamutzki (135,750). Also near the top of the leader board are 2009 WSOP Europe champ Barry Shulman (113,325) and 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker (107,425). It came to our attention that the reported chip leader, James Mitchell, has an inaccurate chip count.
Other notable poker names still alive include Vitaly Lunkin, Maria Ho, Dwyte Pilgrim, Lacey Jones, Scott Seiver, Praz Bansi, David Grey, Vince Van Patten, Peter Feldman, Mel Judah, Dewey Tomko, Thor Hansen, Matt Matros, Mike Gracz, Juha Helppi, and Dutch Boyd, Tiffany Michelle, and Erik Seidel.
2004 WSOP Main Event champ and outspoken poker advocate, Greg Raymer, was eliminated just over an hour after he gave the “Shuffle up and deal” announcement. Also hitting the rail were Chino Rheem, Victor Ramdin, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, T.J. Cloutier, Billy Baxter, Isaac Haxton, Beth Shak, Mike Caro, Andy Black, and Nick Schulman, to name a few.
A few non-poker celebrities tested their skills as well. Actor/comedian Ray Romano was back for another WSOP, as was fellow actor/comedian David Alan Grier. NBA star Shawn Marion gave it a go, as did music mogul Rene Angelil, who is known to be a pretty good player in his own right. Of those men, only David Alan Grier made it to the second day.
Day 1B will kick off Tuesday at noon as another huge batch of players set off on their dream of poker riches.
