Perhaps the first ominous signs regarding attendance at the 2012 World Series of Poker appeared on Wednesday as Event #5, the $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament, took to the floor of the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino.
In 2011, this event drew in a nice field of 764 players and saw Brian Rast win the first of his two bracelets in 2011 (the other was “only” the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship) in vanquishing Allen Kessler for the title. Once the late registration for this tournament concluded on Day One, however, the field totaled 639 players, a significant drop in what is normally one of the more popular tournaments due to its low buy in. The reasons for the decline could be just that the tournament was taking place in the middle of the week but, coming on the heels of the drastic decline in the first $1500 No Limit Hold’em event (down to 2101 from a high of 3389 in 2011), it could be indicative of the financial straits of players having an impact even on the WSOP.
Regardless of the player numbers, those in attendance were there to battle it out for the top prize in poker, the WSOP bracelet, as well as a first place prize of $189,818. The field was flooded by some of the biggest names in the game, either looking to “break their duck” at the 2012 WSOP or looking to add on to small cashes earned in the first week of the WSOP. One table in particular had everyone buzzing – not because of the action, but because of how difficult it was.
On one table, former World Poker Tour Player of the Year Jonathan Little had the unfortunate task of seeing fellow pro Shannon Shorr join him on the felt. If that wasn’t enough, eventually Kessler would also come along for the ride. The cruelest shot, however, had to be the arrival of Phil Ivey into one of the vacant seats. The ante was upped even further when Faraz “The Toilet” Jaka and Gavin Smith laid their table cards in front of them, creating a “table of death” that may be the most difficult of this year’s WSOP. Not surprisingly, this table of sharks fed off each other and none of them would make Day Two play.
Even though much of the attention was being cast in this particular table’s direction, there were other top professionals who were having a good time of it through the Day One proceedings. After the first four levels of action, Daniel Negreanu finally looked to have found his groove for the WSOP, moving up to 29K in chips against his opponents. Antonio Esfandiari also was the benefactor of some good play, slowly stalking up the leaderboard as the action moved into the evening hours.
The pace of bust outs was frantic throughout the day, forcing the implementation of a new rule as the hour grew late. WSOP officials instituted a 2AM curfew for tournaments a few years ago, but there was an adaption of that rule for the 2012 schedule. If a tournament reaches the point where they are within one table of the money bubble, play will continue until the money bubble is popped. By the midnight hour, 79 players remained and, with 72 players getting paid, this rule was instituted for the first time.
Indicative of the frenzied action, it would take less than thirty minutes for the bubble to be reached. Both Gordon Vayo and Barry Wiedermann were eliminated during the hand-for-hand action on the bubble just short of the curfew and, with their eliminations, the duo split up the 72nd place money. For their day of work, both men received $1216, not exactly making any money from the $1500 buy in tournament but not losing the whole lot.
With 71 players returning at 1PM on Thursday to continue the battle, here’s how the Top Ten will line up:
1. Philipp Salewski, 113,000
2. Antonio Esfandiari, 112,600
3. Bryan Pellegrino, 106,000
4. Zach Jiganti, 102,500
5. Jonathan Aguiar, 100,900
6. Yashar Darian, 100,300
7. Gnatenko Oleksander, 98,000
8. Daniel Negreanu, 94,000
9. ????, 76,700
10. Jordan Smith, 74,800
The ninth place player, according to the official WSOP report, did not record his name on his chip bag at the end of play on Wednesday. All that is known is that he (or maybe she) is from Rio de Janiero and that he will have Aguiar on his left coming into Day Two’s play.
While this table heads off to Day Two later today, two more tournaments will step into action. The first major buy in event of the 2012 WSOP, the $5000 “Mixed Max” tournament, is slated to start at noon, while a $1500 Seven Card Stud event hits the felt at 5PM (Pacific Time).
