The doors are open to the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino as the 44th Annual World Series of Poker kicked off action on Wednesday. Two events held their opening day of play, with one event exceeding expectations and a strong field of professionals turning out for the second.
Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees Event
The traditional kickoff to the WSOP, the $500 Casino Employees Event, is one of a few tournaments on the WSOP schedule that is a restricted field. As the tournament title suggests, only casino employees are eligible to enter the tournament and, within an hour of the opening bell, the numbers for the tournament exceeded expectations. 860 players were registered at that point, surpassing last year’s 732 runners, and would eventually end up at 898 (after late registration) to build a prize pool of $404,100.
Although the tournament is for casino employees, there were a few notable names who took part because of their casino affiliations. Bernard Lee was one of those players, but he would take a quick trip out of the Rio after a clash with Mike Anderson. The chips went in pre-flop, with Anderson holding pocket Queens and Lee pocket Jacks, and it looked good for Lee when the flop came down J-10-9. That quickly changed when a King came on the turn, improving Anderson to a straight and, after the river failed to pair the board, Lee was out of the tournament.
As the clock approached midnight, the money bubble popped with a double elimination of Carlos Loving and Craig Kaufman, who split the 90th place minimum payday ($909). The pace of eliminations over the next two hours kept at a frantic pace so that, by the end of the night, only 55 players were remaining with the Top Ten as such:
1. Michael Trivett, 133,900
2. Sean Small, 103,700
3. Chad Holloway, 99,400
4. Wyatt Gibson, 96,900
5. Kevin Weathers, 91,300
6. Hieu Le, 87,000
7. Troy Wilcoxon, 86,700
8. John Harris, 84,400
9. Robert Jones, 74,700
10. Tyrone Smith, 72,000
The Casino Employees Event will wrap up action on Thursday, when the champion will be crowned and the first place prize of $84,915 (and the first bracelet of the 2013 WSOP) will be awarded.
Event #2 – $5,000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em
Around 5PM, the first “official” tournament of the 2013 WSOP kicked off and in grand style. The $5000 Eight Handed No Limit Hold’em event didn’t disappoint the railbirds in attendance as both seasoned professionals squared off against newcomers in one of the bigger buy in tournaments of the 2013 WSOP schedule.
One of the newcomers on the felt was a man who, outside of the poker tables, might not need an introduction. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps was a part of the festivities on Wednesday and he handled himself quite admirably. He will come back for today’s Day Two action but will have some work to do with his 20K chip stack.
Phelps did better than many of the pros who stepped up on Wednesday. Such names as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Calvin Anderson, Marvin Rettenmaier, Jason Mercier, former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel and recently crowned World Poker Tour World Champion David “Chino” Rheem will have to wait until another day (and another tournament) for their shot at glory, while these are the players in the Top Ten:
1. Tom Marchese, 153,975
2. Scott Baumstein, 111,100
3. David ‘Doc’ Sands, 110,825
4. Stephen Bokor, 95,325
5. Darryll Fish, 93,000
6. Jamie Armstrong, 87,850
7. Bryan Piccioli, 85,900
8. Takashi Ogura, 81,650
9. Antonio Esfandiari, 80,650
10. John Riordan, 78,275
Out of the 481 players who started the tournament, 194 will come back for Day Two action on Thursday. The 481 runners built a prize pool of $2.26 million and first place will take down a nice $553,906 addition to their bankroll.
Starting Today – Event #3 – $1000 No Limit Hold’em
Thursday marks the start of one of the first $1000 No Limit events on this year’s WSOP schedule, which will allow players who enter the 11AM start time and bust a chance to get back in for the second flight that begins at 5PM. The small buy in makes the tournaments (and there is more than one) some of the most popular events on the schedule. Expect this year to be the same, although some players may be holding back their entry from Event #3 in preparation for the “Millionaire Maker” event, which begins on Saturday.
Already the Rio is bustling with the multitudes of players who come to this oasis in the desert, Las Vegas, with aspirations of achieving poker’s greatest honor, the WSOP bracelet. It’s going to be a long seven week ride and it is already off to a roaring start.
