With nearly all the preliminary events completed on its schedule, the $10,000 Championship Event took center stage at the 2012 World Series of Poker. The first of three Day Ones would turn out to have some surprises in store for the railbirds arranged around the Rio while the final preliminary event, the WSOP National Championship, determined its final table for play later this week.
Event #61 – $10,000 Championship Event – Day 1A
The anticipation was palpable for the players gathered around the tournament rooms at the Rio as they awaited the call for the start of play in the $10,000 Championship Event. With five two hour levels awaiting the combatants, all that was necessary to get things started was for Ellen “Gram” Deeb, the 92-year old grandmother of Shaun Deeb, to give the players the “shuffle up and deal” call. Once that was completed, the Day 1A runners were off to either fame and fortune or the ultimate despair for a poker player in being eliminated from the Main Event.
Per usual for the opening day of the WSOP Championship Event (or any big tournament, for that matter), the players were more about making it through the minefield of Day One, adhering to the rule “you can’t win a tournament on the first day, but you sure can lose it.” The pros were out in force, with Mike Sexton, Karina Jett, Greg Mueller, actors Ray Romano and Kevin Pollak and former WSOP Championship Event final tablists Andy Black and Soi Nguyen arranged around the battlefields, among a slew of others. A surprise arrival, however, stole the thunder without his normal grandiose entrance.
After five hours of play, Phil Hellmuth made an appearance on the tournament floor. After getting a tremendous amount of rest on Friday night, Hellmuth decided to break from what he had planned (playing Day 1C) and play the first Day One. Although he would make his usual late entry on the tournament floor, gone was the pomp and circumstances that Hellmuth has performed in previous years (dressed as Julius Caesar, Patton, an MMA fighter, etc.); the 12-time bracelet winner simply showed up and sat down at his seat, surprising many in the Rio.
By the time that late registration for Day 1A had ended after the fourth level, the numbers presented an odd mix of delight and uneasiness for WSOP officials. Although traditionally the opening day of the Championship Event is the smallest, 1066 players showed up for action on Day 1A; while better than the 897 that came out in 2011 for the first of four Day Ones, WSOP officials might have been looking for more since cutting down the starting days to only three this year.
Pius Heinz was at the ESPN Main Stage, befitting the defending champion, and he was able to work some magic on Day 1A. After getting down early, he would double up against an opponent in a flush versus flush situation and then would do it again when his pocket Queens held against an opponent’s A-Q when the case Queen flopped. He would finish off Day 1A still alive and holding 39,275 to take to Day 2A.
The same cannot be said for many other popular players. 2005 Championship Event winner Joe Hachem could never get anything running at the tables and was eliminated about halfway through the day, while Hellmuth would make the last level of the night before being unceremoniously dumped from the Championship Event by Michael Tureniec after Tureniec flopped a set against him. There were many other top pros to welcome them to the Railbird Club in Kathy Liebert, fellow former World Champion Jim Bechtel, Frank Kassela, David Chicotsky, Mueller and Romano.
On the other side of the equation, Eric Baldwin, Faraz Jaka, NHL goaltender Roberto Luongo, Poker Hall of Famer Sexton, Jett and Pollak will be around for Day 2A festivities beginning on Tuesday. While there is a long way to go, these are the players comprising the Top Ten at this point:
1. William John, 266,700
2. Gerardo Lubas, 165,825
3. Daniel Strelitz, 164,125
4. Dane Lomas, 157,600
5. Cary Katz, 154,850
6. Benjamin Pollak, 144,200
7. Chance Kornuth, 141,775
8. Jonathan Cuevas, 141,675
9. Jared Okun, 141,350
10. Eric Kurtzman, 136,900
Day 1B commences at noon today and Day 1C will hold its initial gathering on Monday, completing the field for the 2012 Championship Event.
WSOP National Championship – Day Two
For those that weren’t a part of the activities regarding the start of the Championship Event, the WSOP National Championship was their battleground of choice. The million dollar freeroll – expanded by the 57 WSOP Player of the Year contenders who chose to donate $10,000 to join the 100 WSOP Circuit qualifiers who got in for free – brought back 39 players on Saturday to play down to a final table.
With only 18 players getting paid anything from the $1.57 million prize pool, there were sure to be many dejected faces walking away from the tournament floor. Chris Moorman, Joseph Cheong and WSOPC qualifier Aaron Massey would be early casualties before a huge hand erupted that would set the tone for the day.
After a bet by Josh Tieman that put him all in, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier would three bet the action to 66K in an attempt to isolate, only to see Yung Hwang move all in from the big blind. Holding a big stack – but not as big as Hwang’s – Grospellier decided this was the moment to make a move up the leaderboard and put his remaining chips in to put his tournament on the line. When the cards were turned up, he was clearly not in a good place; Hwang’s pocket Kings dominated not only Grospellier’s pocket tens but also Tieman’s A-Q and, once the board ran Jack high, Hwang earned a double knockout to make his claim to the chip lead.
As Hwang continued his ascension, Amanda Musumeci would also stake her spot on the leaderboard. A WSOPC qualifier, Musumeci would knock off Dominic Gabaldon to chip her way up as the money bubble approached.
And what a bubble it would be! For almost three hours, the final nineteen players would battle until Matt Keikoan would take out Mitch Schock in 19th place ($0). With his departure, the floodgates opened: Allen Kessler would go out in eighteenth place at the hands of Hwang, Musumeci would dump Jonathan Sorscher in seventeenth and Eugene Katchalov in thirteenth and, once Sam Stein eliminated Justin Gardenhire in ninth, the final table was set.
1. Yung Hwang, 1.224 million – WSOPC qualifier
2. Matt Keikoan, 957K – WSOP POY contender
3. Sam Stein, 651K – WSOP POY contender
4. Ryan Eriquezzo, 474K – WSOPC Caesars Atlantic City champion
5. Nikolas Stone, 471K – WSOPC Harrah’s St. Louis champion
6. Huy Nguyen, 331K – WSOPC qualifier
7. Amanda Musumeci, 322K – WSOPC qualifier
8. David “ODB” Baker, 281K – WSOP POY contender
As you can tell from the list, the WSOPC All-Stars seemed to do quite well for themselves. Holding five of the eight final table seats, it is possible that one of them will take the WSOP National Championship when it plays out on Wednesday afternoon. Hwang was almost unstoppable on Saturday, but don’t count out Musumeci (an experienced pro adept at short stack play) and Keikoan, Stein and Baker might have something to say on the outcome.
